GoEdit - A bare bones text editor, written in Go

For this project I will be using termbox-go, a minimalistic API for text-based user interfaces.

My objective is to create a simple terminal based text editor, like vi, with the base functionality

Index:

• Installation
• Supported commands

Installation

To start using this editor, first thing you need is to install Go -> golang's official site.

Once Go is installed, go to your terminal clone this repository.

git clone https://github.com/AlejandroSuero/GoEdit

Note: If you don't have git installed, go to -> git's official site or select at the top where it is a green button that says "Code ▼" and next "Download ZIP".

Next, go into the directory where you have it cloned.

# This will initialize the project
go init goedit

# This will download the dependencies
go mod tidy

Finally, you can build the project and start using it.

# For UNIX users
go build -o goedit editor.go
./goedit <path-to-the-file-or-leave-it-empty-for-a-welcome-message>

# For Windows users
go build -o goedit.exe editor.go
.\goedit.exe <path-to-the-file-or-leave-it-empty-for-a-welcome-message>

For now, check the commands and GoEdit those files 🫡

Supported commands

These are the commands which are currently supported.

Note: Commands are case sensitive

Normal mode commands

Command	Description
Q	Exits the editor
!Q	Forces the exit. (Useful if you don't want to write your changes)
w	Writes file
i	Enters insert mode one character before
I	Enters insert mode at the beginning of the line
a	Enters insert mode one character after
A	Enters insert mode at the end of the line
o	Inserts a new line bellow the cursor and enters insert mode
O	Inserts a new line on top of the cursor and enters insert mode
j or ArrowDown	Moves cursor down n times. Ex: If j is pressed it will move once, if 2 and then j are pressed it will move it twice. Any number is valid, and 2ArrowDown as well
k or ArrowUp	Moves cursor up n times. Ex: If k is pressed it will move once, if 2 and then k are pressed it will move twice. Any number is valid, and 2ArrowUp as well
l or ArrowRight	Moves cursor right n times. Ex: If l is pressed it will move once, if 2 and then l are pressed it will move twice. Any number is valid, and 2ArrowRight as well
h or ArrowLeft	Moves cursor left n times. Ex: If h is pressed it will move once, if 2 and then h are pressed it will move twice. Any number is valid, and 2ArrowLeft as well
PageUp	Moves the cursor half a page up
PageDown	Moves the cursor half a page down
gg	Moves the cursor to the beginning
G	Moves the cursor to then end of the file

Insert mode commands

Command	Description
<Esc> or <Ctrl>q	Exits insert mode
Basic interactions	Write any character, insert spaces, tabs, delete characters and add new lines