Here are some of my ideas for the next generation of Acme. Please disagree or add more.
Of course, this is all a pipe dream since I have no time to work on this, but one can dream... The purpose of this thread is to stimulate a discussion about text editing in 2025, more than anything else. 1. Keep the Acme UI, but add rows, not just columns. Potentially make each window a full multiplexor (like rio(1), not 100% sure about this). 2. Make it multi-process/multi-machine again (like Sam, but better). 3. Add a Sam-like menu on B2/B3. It should work like Sam (last used selection is default), but behave more like Octopus/Plan B (star-like expansion). This can make use of mouse gestures, no need to click twice. 4. Add support for mouse hover. 5. Add enough ANSI terminal sequences support to win(1) such that workarounds are no longer necessary for common CLI software (git(1), grep(2), etc). 6. Replace structural regular expression with something based on Tree-sitter, but with an actual usable syntax. 7. Expand the span for B3 auto-selection to include software that doesn't use `file:line:col` convention. Of course the plumber can do this, but it requires a manual B3 selection, auto-selection has to work. 8. Add support for space-based indentation. Disgusting, but necessary (I patched my acme to support this, but it still requires manual activation, should be automatic). 9. A better way of managing running processes. 10. A better way to place commands that you'd put in the tag, perhaps B2 opens a persistent window for window-specific (not global) commands. 11. Unlike in Plan 9, where paths are short (because you have namespaces), in Unix paths are long (because people have poor taste). This is annoying to deal with in Acme ATM, but I'm not sure what the right design for a solution is. 12. Multiple window support, in the sense of multiple operating system windows. 13. Some sort of minimal markup support. Perhaps with colors. Not arbitrary colors, just four or five predetermined colors that Acme programs could make use of (for example I'd like to see colors in my diffs). This should be done by a third party process writing in acme(4), acme(1) should not implement native markdown support or anything like that. 14. Elastic tab support, or some better way of dealing with tabular data. 15. A better way of dealing with resize, right now acme does really bad when moving from a big monitor to a laptop because it preserves layout. I'd like a way to globally set layout independent of Dump. Of course, keep what is already great: 16. No settings, no options, no themes, no syntax highlighting, no keyboard based interface (the mouse is king). -- Aram Hăvărneanu ------------------------------------------ 9fans: 9fans Permalink: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/T4f1a2098b1e1c854-Mdee9f979ba88c346a19c45df Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription
