How do I make a command line text editor?

Question

I have gotten to know my way around a few programming languages, and I'd like to try my hand at making a command-line text editor -- something that runs in the terminal, like vim/emacs/nano, but is pure text (no guis, please). Preferably, I'd like to do this in python. Where do I start? Are there any (python) libraries to do command-line applications?

if you find ongoing projects, please do let us know. I'd love to see a vim-like editor written in python and using python as scripting language... — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, Apr 08 '13 at 11:02
Have a look at [Suplemon](https://github.com/richrd/suplemon) — kangaroo, Jun 15 '18 at 21:35
@CiroSantilli新疆再教育营六四事件法轮功郝海东 [pyvim](https://github.com/prompt-toolkit/pyvim) — Giorgos Xou, Oct 23 '21 at 11:38
@GiorgosXou I think that editor might not support python scripting currently — Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com, Oct 23 '21 at 12:08

score 26 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 01 '12 at 19:48

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try python curses module , it is a command-line graphic operation library.

edited Feb 01 '12 at 19:48

M.K.

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answered Mar 27 '09 at 02:28

linjunhalida

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Kids today! When I was learning to code, we didn't have curses, we had teletypes! – S.Lott Mar 27 '09 at 11:26
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Back in my young day we had to hand-make circuit boards before we even started ;P – Christian Witts Mar 27 '09 at 11:40
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Back in my day, we used cogs and steam to reveal and conceal 1-foot square pixels on vast, bonfire-backed displays that stretched miles, and the whole thing was pointless unless you had a trained team of at least 100 gnomes. – Mr. B Mar 07 '15 at 20:37

score 10 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 01 '12 at 19:46

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Take a look at Curses Programming in Python and this as well.

edited Feb 01 '12 at 19:46

M.K.

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answered Mar 27 '09 at 02:29

Jim Blizard

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score 8 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 27 '09 at 02:48

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Another option if you want to write a TUI (Text User Interface) without having to descend to curses is Snack, which comes with Newt.

answered Mar 27 '09 at 02:48

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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score 7 · Answer 4 · edited May 28 '09 at 01:43

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Kids today! Sheesh! When I was starting out, curses was not in widespread use!

My first text editors worked on actual mechanical Teletype devices with actual paper (not a philosophical "TTY" device with a scrolling screen!)

This still works nicely as a way to edit.

Use the cmd module to implement a bunch of commands. Use the 'ex' man page for hints as to what you need. Do not read about the vi commands; avoid reading about vim.

Look at older man pages for just the "EX COMMANDS" section. For example, here: http://www.manpagez.com/man/1/ex/.

Implement the append, add, change, delete, global, insert, join, list, move, print, quit, substitute and write commands and you'll be happy.

edited May 28 '09 at 01:43

dbr

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answered Mar 27 '09 at 11:20

S.Lott

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My first interaction with a "computer" was over an acoustically coupled remote TTY. Alas, it was a mainframe at Dad's office, and I was not allowed to do anything interesting with it. – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Mar 30 '09 at 18:57
My first TTY's were hard-wired. Probably 110 BAUD. I remember when 300 BAUD was a big deal. – S.Lott Mar 30 '09 at 19:28

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 27 '09 at 02:30

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Curses type libraries and resources will get you into the textual user interfaces, and provide very nice, relatively easy to use windows, menus, editors, etc.

Then you'll want to look into code highlighting modules for python.

It's a fun process dealing with the limitations of textual interfaces, and you can learn a lot by going down this road. Good luck!

-Adam

answered Mar 27 '09 at 02:30

Adam Davis

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Thanks -- do you have any good recommendations for said code highlighting modules? I was poking around the pygments documentation, but that didn't look like it was built for real-time syntax highlighting. Can pygments do real-time syntax highlighting, or are there other modules I should check out? – So8res Mar 27 '09 at 02:53
Pygments can do real-time but may be a bit inefficient. – fread2281 Mar 09 '13 at 16:06

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 27 '09 at 02:47

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I would recommend the excellent urwid toolkit (http://excess.org/article/2009/03/urwid-0984-released) - it's much easier to use than straight curses.

answered Mar 27 '09 at 02:47

vezult

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 27 '09 at 02:29

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Well, what do you mean by a GUI? If you just want to create something that can be used on a console, look into the curses module in the Python standard library, which allows you to simulate a primitive GUI of sorts on a console.

answered Mar 27 '09 at 02:29

David Z

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dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten · Answer 8 · 2010-02-15T02:26:14.263

A not very serious suggestions: a line editor can be implemented without curses.

These things are pretty primitive, of course, and not a lot of fun to work in. But they can be implemented with very little code, and would give you a chance to fool around with various schemes for maintaining the file state in memory pretty quickly.

And they would put you in touch with the programmers of the early seventies (when they had teletypes and the first glass teletypes, but after punched cards were a bit passe...).

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 27 '09 at 03:59

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Not quite a reference to a Python library, but The Craft of Text Editing by Craig A. Finseth might be of interest you.

answered Mar 27 '09 at 03:59

sigjuice

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score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Aug 27 '20 at 20:06

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Another option without curses is Python Slang

Newt is a library written on top of Slang.

edited Aug 27 '20 at 20:06

creativecoding

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answered May 28 '09 at 01:26

Renato Aquino

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How do I make a command line text editor?

10 Answers10