# te

A from-scratch text editor that aims to stay fast, hackable, and practical for day-to-day coding.

![te preview](preview.jpg)

## What this project is

`te` is a native desktop editor written as a single C++ executable (SDL3 + OpenGL + custom editor core).
It is built around a straightforward single-threaded architecture, with coroutines used for asynchronous workflows (searching, UI flows, process jobs) so behavior stays easy to reason about and debug.

The codebase includes its own:

- text buffer + undo/redo engine
- window/view layout system
- command system + keybinding parser
- fuzzy selection UI
- process execution and output streaming
- built-in font fallback (baked into the binary)

## Highlights

- VS Code-style keybindings and command palette (`Ctrl+Shift+P`)
- Multi-cursor editing (keyboard and mouse workflows)
- Fuzzy-open patterns for commands, files, and open buffers
- Project-wide search (`Ctrl+Shift+F`) and replace-all workflow
- Shell integration directly from editor input:
  - `:Command` to run editor commands
  - `:Set ...` to configure options and keybindings
  - `!cmd` / `!!cmd` to execute shell commands
  - `py:...` to execute Python snippets via discovered Python interpreter
- Build panel integration (`Ctrl+B`, `Alt+B`, etc.) with configurable build commands
- Config-driven behavior (font, colors, project commands, keymaps, paths)

## Build

### Linux

Requirements:

- `clang`
- `cmake`
- `libbacktrace`
- SDL3 (the build script can clone and install SDL when missing)

Build commands:

```bash
./build.sh           # debug build (default)
./build.sh release   # optimized build
./build.sh slow      # extra asserts/instrumentation path
```

Run:

```bash
./build/te
./build/te path/to/file.cpp
```

### Windows

Use the **x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for Visual Studio**.

Requirements:

- Visual Studio C++ toolchain (`cl`, `msbuild`)
- `cmake`

Build commands:

```bat
build.bat
build.bat release
build.bat slow
```

Run:

```bat
build\te.exe
build\te.exe path\to\file.cpp
```

## First steps in the editor

- `Ctrl+N`: new buffer
- `Ctrl+O`: open current file's folder / directory navigation view
- `Ctrl+P`: fuzzy list of open buffers
- `Ctrl+Shift+P`: all commands
- `Ctrl+Q` or `F12`: open thing under caret (path / link / command)
- `Ctrl+F`, `F3`, `Shift+F3`: in-buffer search flow
- `Ctrl+Shift+F`: interactive search across open project buffers
- `Alt+Shift+Up/Down`: add cursors vertically
- `Ctrl+B`: run Build1 command (configurable)

## Configuration

On startup, `te` loads a config file from SDL's app preference directory (`config.te`).
You can also pass additional `.te` files as CLI arguments.

Useful examples:

```text
:Set FontSize 16
:Set PathToFont '/path/to/font.ttf'
:Set Build1OnUnix 'sh build.sh release'
:Set Build1OnWindows 'build.bat release'
:Set TextColor ff202020
:Set BackgroundColor fffdf6e3
```

## Notes on architecture

- Single-threaded main loop (event/update/render)
- Coroutines for async editor tasks instead of multi-threaded complexity
- "Plugin" modules are integrated in the source tree and compiled in
- Focus on predictable behavior and low-latency interaction