9 ms·

Micro – a command line text editor in Go

146 points by eatonphil 11y ago

tptacek 11y ago
Huh, hadn't heard of tcell: https://github.com/gdamore/tcell https://github.com/gdamore/tcell
- heavenlyhash 11y ago
  Oh thank god -- from the description of internal testing, it sounds like tcell Did It Right in avoiding absurdly global references to the tty, something that's quite painful in termbox. If it's as good as it sounds, I can't wait to change my applications over to this.
soupbowl 11y ago
Looks like a great replacement for nano.
tmcarr 11y ago
Looks pretty nifty! Are there any plans for future development or is it just a toy?
vph 11y ago
What does this do that nano doesn't?
- giancarlostoro 11y ago
  Only things I saw unless nano already does them: * Execute commands (edit: to manage the editor settings). * Support for shortcuts we're all very accustomed to in other software C+S to save, Ctrl+c to copy, Ctrl+v to paste, etc * Mouse Support Nano serves it's purpose but sometimes I need something that feels "modern" so I use TextAdept (works on the terminal as well). I might give Micro a try though.
  - zyedidia 11y ago
    In addition to those features, micro also supports colors better. You can make colorschemes for it so that syntax highlighting is consistent across filetypes, and it supports 256, and true color, while nano only supports 16 colors. Micro can also easily interface with the system clipboard (Ctrl-c, Ctrl-x, Ctrl-v).
wott 11y ago
This is not a command line interface (this term could be applied to line editors like edlin), this is a text user interface.
- kristianp 11y ago
  Agreed the hacker news title is misleading, should be "zyedidia/micro: A modern and intuitive terminal-based text editor".
ereyes01 11y ago
Nice work by the author. Honestly, though, it doesn't scratch an itch for me personally, since I'm pretty happy with https://github.com/fatih/vim-go https://github.com/fatih/vim-go ... This is like the ultimate vim plugin for Go and includes the kitchen sink, remarkably via included go tools for the most part: - More colors than a christmas tree - Autocomplete via gocode - Auto-gofmt and auto-goimports - Safe refactoring / renaming support - Follow references / callers / callees via go oracle - Show test coverage - Show godocs - golint, go vet, And I'm still not remembering like 30 other features. If you're a vim user and haven't checked out vim-go, give it a look. As someone else had pointed out, this new editor has pointed me in the direction of https://github.com/gdamore/tcell https://github.com/gdamore/tcell which looks mighty interesting indeed...
- thedz 11y ago
  This project, a simple to use console editor, doesn't really overlap in intended functionality with a go package for Vim.
  - samuel1604 11y ago
    agreed! it's all in the name, micro :)
- baldfat 11y ago
  nano is a much better comparison. When comparing the two micro seems like the better tool.
donatj 11y ago
I've been wanting to try my hand at implementing an Acme inspired editor in Go. I'm very curious to look at their work.
- uluyol 11y ago
  You might be interested in https://github.com/eaburns/T https://github.com/eaburns/T
  - donatj 11y ago
    Ooh, very interested indeed. Thank you much.
stevedonovan 11y ago
Another text-based editor from hisham.hm (author of htop2) http://hisham.hm/dit/ http://hisham.hm/dit/. I totally agree, nano is due for a replacement.
fibo 11y ago
Good idea, nano IMO should support common shortcuts. It is more complicated save and exit from nano than from vim.
litzer 11y ago
I appreciate that the source code is really well annotated!
cheez 11y ago
The implementation of checking if a buffer is dirty seems a bit... odd. It compares the saved text with the buffer text. Seems like a bool should do fine based on other operations I saw in that file. https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/blob/master/src/buffer.go#L86 https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/blob/master/src/buffer.go#...
- zyedidia 11y ago
  The reason I do the check that way is because if the user adds a character, and then deletes it, the buffer has not been modified, but if you just set a bool to true when an insert event happens, it will think the buffer has been modified. If there is a better way to do this please let me know.
  - copperx 11y ago
    What about setting the dirty bit with a boolean while you're working, but then before saving, do the diff to check if the file really needs saving?
  - cheez 11y ago
    In general, you should optimize for common use cases. In a file editor, you will be modifying the file and when you go to save it, it will be different. What do you gain by doing it this way?
hacym 11y ago
Why not call it Micrgo?????? COME ON PEOPLE.
swah 11y ago
There is also a termbox based editor that works on Windows as well: https://github.com/nsf/godit https://github.com/nsf/godit --edit- This works on Windows as well...
hobarrera 11y ago
$ micro/micro terminal entry not found

146 points by eatonphil 11y ago

tptacek 11y ago

Huh, hadn't heard of tcell: https://github.com/gdamore/tcell https://github.com/gdamore/tcell

heavenlyhash 11y ago
Oh thank god -- from the description of internal testing, it sounds like tcell Did It Right in avoiding absurdly global references to the tty, something that's quite painful in termbox. If it's as good as it sounds, I can't wait to change my applications over to this.

soupbowl 11y ago

Looks like a great replacement for nano.

tmcarr 11y ago

Looks pretty nifty! Are there any plans for future development or is it just a toy?

vph 11y ago

What does this do that nano doesn't?

giancarlostoro 11y ago
Only things I saw unless nano already does them: * Execute commands (edit: to manage the editor settings). * Support for shortcuts we're all very accustomed to in other software C+S to save, Ctrl+c to copy, Ctrl+v to paste, etc * Mouse Support Nano serves it's purpose but sometimes I need something that feels "modern" so I use TextAdept (works on the terminal as well). I might give Micro a try though.
- zyedidia 11y ago
  In addition to those features, micro also supports colors better. You can make colorschemes for it so that syntax highlighting is consistent across filetypes, and it supports 256, and true color, while nano only supports 16 colors. Micro can also easily interface with the system clipboard (Ctrl-c, Ctrl-x, Ctrl-v).

wott 11y ago

This is not a command line interface (this term could be applied to line editors like edlin), this is a text user interface.

kristianp 11y ago
Agreed the hacker news title is misleading, should be "zyedidia/micro: A modern and intuitive terminal-based text editor".

ereyes01 11y ago

Nice work by the author. Honestly, though, it doesn't scratch an itch for me personally, since I'm pretty happy with https://github.com/fatih/vim-go https://github.com/fatih/vim-go ... This is like the ultimate vim plugin for Go and includes the kitchen sink, remarkably via included go tools for the most part: - More colors than a christmas tree - Autocomplete via gocode - Auto-gofmt and auto-goimports - Safe refactoring / renaming support - Follow references / callers / callees via go oracle - Show test coverage - Show godocs - golint, go vet, And I'm still not remembering like 30 other features. If you're a vim user and haven't checked out vim-go, give it a look. As someone else had pointed out, this new editor has pointed me in the direction of https://github.com/gdamore/tcell https://github.com/gdamore/tcell which looks mighty interesting indeed...

thedz 11y ago
This project, a simple to use console editor, doesn't really overlap in intended functionality with a go package for Vim.
- samuel1604 11y ago
  agreed! it's all in the name, micro :)
baldfat 11y ago
nano is a much better comparison. When comparing the two micro seems like the better tool.

donatj 11y ago

I've been wanting to try my hand at implementing an Acme inspired editor in Go. I'm very curious to look at their work.

uluyol 11y ago
You might be interested in https://github.com/eaburns/T https://github.com/eaburns/T
- donatj 11y ago
  Ooh, very interested indeed. Thank you much.

stevedonovan 11y ago

Another text-based editor from hisham.hm (author of htop2) http://hisham.hm/dit/ http://hisham.hm/dit/. I totally agree, nano is due for a replacement.

fibo 11y ago

Good idea, nano IMO should support common shortcuts. It is more complicated save and exit from nano than from vim.

litzer 11y ago

I appreciate that the source code is really well annotated!

cheez 11y ago

The implementation of checking if a buffer is dirty seems a bit... odd. It compares the saved text with the buffer text. Seems like a bool should do fine based on other operations I saw in that file. https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/blob/master/src/buffer.go#L86 https://github.com/zyedidia/micro/blob/master/src/buffer.go#...

zyedidia 11y ago
The reason I do the check that way is because if the user adds a character, and then deletes it, the buffer has not been modified, but if you just set a bool to true when an insert event happens, it will think the buffer has been modified. If there is a better way to do this please let me know.
- copperx 11y ago
  What about setting the dirty bit with a boolean while you're working, but then before saving, do the diff to check if the file really needs saving?
- cheez 11y ago
  In general, you should optimize for common use cases. In a file editor, you will be modifying the file and when you go to save it, it will be different. What do you gain by doing it this way?

hacym 11y ago

Why not call it Micrgo?????? COME ON PEOPLE.

swah 11y ago

There is also a termbox based editor that works on Windows as well: https://github.com/nsf/godit https://github.com/nsf/godit --edit- This works on Windows as well...

hobarrera 11y ago

$ micro/micro terminal entry not found