190 lines
6.1 KiB
Markdown
190 lines
6.1 KiB
Markdown
# Flow Control: a programmer's text editor
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This is my Zig text editor. It is under active development, but usually stable
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and is my daily driver for most things coding related.
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https://github.com/neurocyte/flow/assets/1552770/97aae817-c209-4c08-bc65-0a0bf1f2d4c6
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# Requirements
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- A modern terminal with 24bit color and, ideally, kitty keyboard protocol support. Kitty,
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Foot and Ghostty are the only recommended terminals at this time. Most other terminals
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will work, but with reduced functionality.
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- NerdFont support. Either via terminal font fallback or a patched font.
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- Linux, MacOS, Windows, Android (Termux) or FreeBSD.
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- A UTF-8 locale
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# Download / Install
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Binary release builds are found here: [neurocyte/flow/releases](https://github.com/neurocyte/flow/releases/latest)
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Fetch and install the latest release to `/usr/local/bin` with the installation helper script:
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```shell
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curl -fsSL https://flow-control.dev/install | sh
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```
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Nightly binary builds are found here: [neurocyte/flow-nightly/releases](https://github.com/neurocyte/flow-nightly/releases/latest)
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Install latest nightly build and (optionally) specify the installation destination:
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```
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curl -fsSL https://flow-control.dev/install | sh -s -- --nightly --dest ~/.local/bin
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```
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See all avalable options for the installer script:
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```
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curl -fsSL https://flow-control.dev/install | sh -s -- --help
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```
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Or check your favorite local system package repository.
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[](https://repology.org/project/flow-control/versions)
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# Building
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Make sure your system meets the requirements listed above.
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Flow builds with zig 0.14.0 at this time. Build with:
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```shell
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zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe
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```
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Zig will by default build a binary optimized for your specific CPU. If you get illegal instruction errors add `-Dcpu=baseline` to the build command to produce a binary with generic CPU support.
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Thanks to Zig you may also cross-compile from any host to pretty much any
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target. For example:
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```shell
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zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe -Dtarget=x86_64-windows --prefix zig-out/x86_64-windows
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zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe -Dtarget=x86_64-macos-none --prefix zig-out/x86_64-macos
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zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe -Dtarget=aarch64-linux-musl --prefix zig-out/aarch64-linux
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```
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When cross-compiling zig will build a binary with generic CPU support.
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# Running Flow Control
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The binary is:
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```shell
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zig-out/bin/flow
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```
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Place it in your path for convenient access:
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```shell
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sudo cp zig-out/bin/flow /usr/local/bin
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```
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Or if you prefer, let zig install it in your home directory:
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```shell
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zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe --prefix ~/.local
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```
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Flow Control is a single statically linked binary. No further runtime files are required.
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You may install it on another system by simply copying the binary.
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```shell
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scp zig-out/bin/flow root@otherhost:/usr/local/bin
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```
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Configuration is mostly dynamically maintained with various commands in the UI.
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It is stored under the standard user configuration path. Usually `~/.config/flow`
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on Linux. %APPDATA%\Roaming\flow on Windows. Somewhere magical on MacOS
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Logs, traces and per-project most recently used file lists are stored in the
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standard user application state directory. Usually `~/.local/state/flow` on
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Linux and %APPDATA%\Roaming\flow on Windows.
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Files to load may be specifed on the command line:
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```shell
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flow fileA.zig fileB.zig
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```
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The last file will be opened and the previous files will be placed in reverse
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order at the top of the recent files list. Switch to recent files with Ctrl-e.
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Common target line specifiers are supported too:
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```shell
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flow file.txt:123
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```
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Or Vim style:
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```shell
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flow file.txt +123
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```
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Use the --language option to force the file type of a file:
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```shell
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flow --language bash ~/.bash_profile
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```
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Show supported language names with `--list-languages`.
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See `flow --help` for the full list of command line options.
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# Key bindings and commands
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Press `F2` to switch the current keybinding mode. (flow, vim, emacs, etc.)
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Press `ctrl+shift+p` or `alt+x` to show the command palette.
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Press `ctrl+F2` to see a full list of all current keybindings and commands.
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Run the `Edit keybindings` command to save the current keybinding mode to a
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file and open it for editing. Save your customized keybinds under a new name
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in the same directory to create an entirely new keybinding mode. Keybinding
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changes will take effect on restart.
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# Terminal configuration
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Kitty, Ghostty and most other terminals have default keybindings that conflict
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with common editor commands. I highly recommend rebinding them to keys that are
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not generally used anywhere else.
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For Kitty rebinding `kitty_mod` is usually enough:
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```
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kitty_mod ctrl+alt
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```
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For Ghostty each conflicting binding has to be reconfigured individually.
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# Features
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- fast TUI interface. no user interaction should take longer than one frame (6ms) (even debug builds)
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- tree sitter based syntax highlighting
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- linting (diagnostics) and code navigation (goto definition) via language server
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- multi cursor editing support
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- first class mouse support (yes, even with a scrollbar that actually works properly!) (Windows included)
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- vscode compatible keybindings (thanks to kitty keyboard protocol)
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- vim compatible keybindings (the standard vimtutor bindings, more on request)
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- user configurable keybindings
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- excellent unicode support including 2027 mode
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- hybrid rope/piece-table buffer for fast loading, saving and editing with hundreds of cursors
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- theme support (compatible with vscode themes via the flow-themes project)
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- infinite undo/redo (at least until you run out of ram)
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- find in files
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- command palette
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- stuff I've forgotten to mention...
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# Features in progress (aka, the road to 1.0)
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- completion UI/LSP support for completion
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- persistent undo/redo
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- file watcher for auto reload
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# Features planned for the future
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- multi tty support (shared editor sessions across multiple ttys)
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- multi user editing
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- multi host editing
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# Community
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Join our [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/4wvteUPphx) server or use the discussions section here on GitHub
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to meet with other Flow users!
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