Simple, extendable, test-driven commandline editor written in ruby, for Linux/Mac/Windows.

Features

• Desktop-like / intuitive interface
• TextMate Syntax and Theme support
• selecting via Shift + arrow-keys (only Linux or iTerm) or 'select mode' Ctrl+b + arrow-keys
• move line up/down (Alt+Ctrl+up/down)
• Tab -> indent / Shift+Tab -> unindent
• keeps indentation (+ paste-detection e.g. via Cmd+v)
• change (*) + writable (!) indicators
• find / go to line / delete line / search & replace
• configuration via ~/.ruco.rb in Ruby
• Full clipboard support -> Ctrl+x/c/v
• undo / redo -> Ctrl+z/y
• stays at last position when reopening a file
• opens file at line e.g. ruco foo/bar.rb:32
• supports all newline formats
• surrounds selection with quotes/braces (select abc + " --> "abc")
• shortens long file names in the middle
• (optional) remove trailing whitespace on save
• (optional) blank line before eof on save
• (optional) line numbers

Install

gem install ruco

Usage

ruco file.rb

Customize

# ~/.ruco.rb
Ruco.configure do
  # set options
  options.window_line_scroll_offset = 5 # when to scroll if getting close to top/bottom, default 1
  options.history_entries = 10          # default 100
  options.editor_remove_trailing_whitespace_on_save = true  # default false
  options.editor_blank_line_before_eof_on_save = true       # default false
  options.editor_line_numbers = true                        # default false

  # Use any Textmate 1 theme e.g. from https://github.com/filmgirl/TextMate-Themes
  # (official wiki is dead http://wiki.macromates.com/Themes/UserSubmittedThemes)
  # use a url that points directly to the theme, e.g. github 'raw' urls
  # if you use a dark background:
  options.color_theme = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/deplorableword/textmate-solarized/master/Solarized%20%28dark%29.tmTheme"
  # if you use a light background:
  # options.color_theme = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chriskempson/tomorrow-theme/refs/heads/master/textmate/Tomorrow-Night-Bright.tmTheme"

  # bind a key
  # - you can use Integers and Symbols
  # - use "ruco --debug-keys foo" to see which keys are possible
  # - have a look at [keyboard.rb](https://github.com/grosser/dispel/blob/master/lib/dispel/keyboard.rb)
  bind(:"Ctrl+e") do
    ask('foo') do |response|
      if response == 'bar'
        editor.insert('baz')
      else
        editor.move(:to, 0,0)
        editor.delete(99999)
        editor.insert('FAIL!')
      end
    end
  end

  # bind an existing action
  # puts @actions.keys

  # bind :"Ctrl+x", :quit
  # bind :"Ctrl+o", :save
  # bind :"Ctrl+k", :delete_line
  # bind :"Ctrl+a", :move_to_bol

  # create reusable actions
  # action(:first_line){ editor.move(:to_column, 0) }
  # bind :"Ctrl+u", :first_line
end

TIPS

• [Mac] arow-keys + Shift/Alt does not work in default terminal (use iTerm)
• [Tabs] Ruco does not like tabs. Existing tabs are displayed as single space and pressing tab inserts 2*space
• [RVM] alias r="rvm 3.3.0 exec ruco" and you only have to install ruco once
• [ssh vs clipboard] access your desktops clipboard by installing xauth on the server and then using ssh -X
• [Alt key] if Alt does not work try your Meta/Win/Cmd key

Architecture

Ruco is a lot of String manipulation separated in HTML style elements. The only component dealing with the commandline interface are Screen and Keyboard. Everything is simple to build and test since it returns a string or e.g. cursor position.

Writing/reading is done in a TextArea or a TextField (a TextArea with 1 line) which are placed in a Form.

The Application consists of a StatusBar, Editor, CommandBar and delegates actions to the currently active element.

To build the commandline output Editor/CommandBar return:

• view -- text that should be displayed on the screen (complete content cropped via Window)
• style_map -- a big Array with style infos, e.g. 'on line 1 chars 5 to 7 are red'
• cursor -- where to draw the cursor

TODO

• Shift+up and Alt+up emit the same keycodes in iTerm
• ctrl+right should jump to line end and then to the next line even if the line ends in a "
• only do syntax parsing for changed lines + selected lines <-> will not be redrawn anyhow
• try to use complete file coloring as removed in 26d6da4
• javascript syntax parsing is slow and often causes syntax-timeouts
• some languages are still not mapped correctly to their syntax file languages <-> syntaxes
• do not fall back to 0:0 after undoing the first change
• check writable status every x seconds (e.g. in background) -> faster while typing
• search help e.g. 'Nothing found' '#4 of 6 hits' 'no more hits, start from beginning ?'
• align soft-tabs
• highlight tabs (e.g. strange character or reverse/underline/color)
• big warning when editing a not-writable file
• find next (Alt+n)
• smart staying at column when changing line
• syntax highlighting
• raise when binding to a unsupported key
• search history via up/down arrow
• search options regex + case-sensitive
• 1.8: unicode support <-> already finished but unusable due to Curses (see encoding branch)
• add double quotes/braces when typing one + skip over quote/brace when its already typed at current position

Authors

Contributors

• AJ Palkovic
• David Sachitano

Michael Grosser
grosser.michael@gmail.com
License: MIT