ze - zach's extensible text editor

ze is an extensible text editor that uses GNU Guile as its extension language. It supports running guile code as pre- and post- hooks upon opening a file, opening a directory, or saving a file. It supports highlighting for C, Python, Ruby, PHP, Rust, APL, Swift, and TypeScript.

See the docs for more information.

• Simple and lightweight: Minimal text editor with essential functionality
• Extensible: Uses GNU Guile for scripting and customization
• Syntax highlighting: Supports C, Python, Ruby, PHP, Rust, APL, Swift, and TypeScript
• Hooks system: Pre- and post- hooks for file operations
• Template system: Clone predefined templates for common file types
• Search functionality: Forward search with navigation
• Cross-platform: Works on macOS, Linux, and other Unix-like systems

First, you must install GNU Guile (and its related libraries) on your system. You can follow the official installation instructions or by simply doing:

brew install guile

if you are using macOS.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone git@github.com:zachwick/ze
   cd ze

2. Set up configuration:

   mkdir ~/.ze
   cp zerc.scm ~/.ze/
   cp -R templates ~/.ze/templates

3. Edit the configuration path: You must edit the path supplied to scm_c_primitive_load in the main method to match wherever your local zerc.scm configuration file is located. A common practice is to copy the example configuration file from the repo into a .ze directory in your home directory.

4. Build and install:

   make install

• Start ze: ze
• Open a file: ze <filename>

ze supports Guile Scheme plugins that are automatically loaded at startup.

• Location: Plugins are .scm files placed in ~/.ze/plugins. All non-hidden .scm files in that directory are loaded at startup.
• Examples: make install creates ~/.ze/plugins and copies the example plugins from the repo.
• API exposed to Scheme:
  • set-editor-status(string) — set the status line message
  • bind-key(key-spec, procedure) — bind a key to a Scheme procedure
• Key specs: Either a single character (e.g., "y") or Control chords like "C-y".
• Input handling: When a key is pressed, ze checks plugin bindings first. If a bound procedure runs, the built-in handler is skipped for that keypress.
• REPL: Press Ctrl+x to open a one-line Scheme prompt inside ze to evaluate expressions in the current environment.

Bind a key and set a status message (~/.ze/plugins/hello.scm):

(display "ze: loaded plugin hello.scm") (newline)

(define (ze-hello)
  (set-editor-status "Hello from ze plugin!"))

(bind-key "C-y" ze-hello)

Override a hook from a plugin (~/.ze/plugins/hooks.scm):

(define (postSaveHook contents)
  (string-append "Post-save plugin says: wrote "
                 (number->string (string-length contents))
                 " bytes"))

See the Hooks section below for the list of available hooks and their return values.

ze supports various Guile hooks for customization:

To add a new template, you must make changes in three places in ze.c and one place in your zerc.scm configuration file:

1. Define global variable in ze.c (around line 90):

   char* email_template = "";

2. Add template option in editorCloneTemplate method:

   char *template = editorPrompt("Select Template: (N)otes | (R)eadme | (E)mail", NULL);

3. Add template handling in the if/else block:

   else if (strcasecmp(template, "e") == 0) {
     editorSetStatusMessage("Load Email template");
     templateFile = fopen(email_template, "r");
   }

4. Define template path in zerc.scm:

   (define email_template '"/Users/zwick/.ze/templates/email")

5. Read template in main method:

   SCM email_template_scm;
   email_template_scm = scm_variable_ref(scm_c_lookup("email_template"));
   email_template = scm_to_locale_string(email_template_scm);

After making these changes, run make install to build and install your new version of ze.

The main configuration file is ~/.ze/zerc.scm. This file contains:

• Template file paths
• Custom Guile functions and hooks
• Editor behavior customization

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

ze is copyright 2018, 2019, 2020 zach wick zach@zachwick.com and is licensed under the GNU GPLv3 or later. You can find a copy of the GNU GPLv3 included in the project as the file named LICENSE.txt.

• zach wick - zach@zachwick.com

• Built with GNU Guile for extensibility
• Inspired by simple, efficient text editors such as kilo.