Text is a substrate for pretty much all digital information; it's the most flexible medium for computing and communication, as it's the core standard behind pretty much all source files and content.
I want to make a good text editor and programming environment! Here are some interesting ones I've seen.
Work
Xi
is a flexible editor with a modular approach to construction; if you
implement Xi's protocol, you can use any user interface that calls back
to Xi on the backend. However, it's plagued with latency issues.
xi-editor retrospective | Raph Levienβs
blog.
Left
A simple, minimal writing tool without the distractions
Yi
A modular collection of packages for creating your own text editor in
Haskell.
Leo
Python-based personal information manager
Writing Tools
Hemingway Editor
A text editor that gives you feedback on your work and words, using
common conventions, "hard to read" metrics, etc. to help you improve
your writing as much and as interactively as possible.
GitHub - ianstormtaylor/slate: A completely customizable framework for buildiβ¦
A rich, JS-first text editor library that's super ergonomic to use.
Poemage
mostly a reading tool. Maps out poem topologies of files while reading
or composing!
Home | Penrose
Visualize math notation with bubbles by using succinct math phrasing.
Unker Non-Linear Writing System
Some thoughts on what a nonlinear writing system can, should, and might
look like.
CryptPad: Zero Knowledge, Collaborative Real Time Editing
This is sick! How does this work?
Software Environments
- https://github.com/LightTable/LightTable β incredibly powerful editor
- Pharo :: A Smalltalk editor that's an 'IDE and OS rolled into one' with killer runtime code inspection.
- Squeak :: A fascinating smalltalk editor!
- glisp :: An incredible layout environment for structured design and editing. this site seems to autogenerate documentation, taking color cues from the environment to do so! The source is https://github.com/baku89/glisp.
- hazel
- Code Bubbles Project: Rethinking the User Interface Paradigm of Integrated Deβ¦
- https://nodes.io/
- natto - write JavaScript on a 2D canvas
- Glitch: The friendly community where everyone builds the web
- Replit: the collaborative browser based IDE - Replit
- mmm.page β Dead Simple, Drag & Drop Websites
- Observable - Explore, analyze, and explain data. As a team.
- Potluck: Dynamic documents as personal software.
Blog-based
txt.fyi Telegraph txti - Fast web pages for everybody Write.as β A place for focused writing. http://ix.io/: command-line pastebin rwtxt: space for reading or writing text comment parade: anonymous backquotes and other such comments.
Interactive Documents
Unclear how this is distinct from some of those 2D node editors with interactive components.
Programming Editors
the ACME text editor
default for plan-9. interesting mobile system incorporating mouse usage
and chording! it's different from traditional text editors and worth
trying. research!rsc: A Tour of Acme
might reveal some cool secrets to incorporate in more traditional text
editors.
Pedagogic
The ideal editor is petagogic - with a learning curve that can be explored without having to ever leave the ecosystem - but these are developed solely for teaching in mind.
- maria: a clojurescript envvironment for beginners. try it out!
- DrScheme :: Sriram krishnamurthi's work on developing editors for education to help students learn without overwhelming them - at the same time helping them 'unlearn' bad habits from utilities like visual studio and intellij.
- olive: nonlinear video editor
Fun Ideas
- Abandon source files for a database of functions, or nodes with connections, or some other abstraction with visual input
- Indenting on the Z axis, increasing font size as you continue
- https://bypaulshen.com/posts/exploring-codebases: what's the best way to navigate a codebase? this is one of the most important parts of the software development experience, yet it's one that largely is not focused on.
- Textreme :: A text editor that looks and feels just like a game.
- [What would a text editor look like without a keyboard?](https://twitter.com/azlenelza/status/1331623011049500678 )
- https://mobile.twitter.com/wcrichton/status/1309288667609874432
Thinkpieces
- public document at doc.anagora.org/text-editors
- video call at meet.jit.si/text-editors