status

starting to become usable, but still has plenty bugs and may crash.

intro

vixen is a vi-like editor for inferno.  it should be immediately
usable if you know vi (vixen also implements some functionality
found in vim).  useful if you don't want to learn acme (yet), or
simply prefer vi.  vixen does try to blend in with inferno, e.g.
by providing support for plumbing.

see the manual page for more information.

install

change the "mkconfig" if you do not have $ROOT set.  now "mk install"
to compile and install the files.

when building from within inferno, insert SYSHOST=Inferno and ROOT=
in the mk invocations to override the values in the mkconfig.

latest version

the latest version can be found at:

    http://www.ueber.net/code/r/vixen

licence & author

all files are in the public domain.  this code has been written by
mechiel lukkien, reachable at mechiel@ueber.net.

plumbing

the plumber can be configured to pass paths (optionally followed
by a colon and ex address, e.g. a line number) to vixen.  actually
to a helper program called vixenplumb that starts a new vixen if
necessary, and forwards the plumb request otherwise.  place the
following in your $home/lib/plumbing file:

# existing files, possibly tagged by line number, go to vixen
kind is text
data matches '([.a-zA-Z0-9_/\-]+[a-zA-Z0-9_/\-])(:[0-9]+)?'
data isfile     $1
plumb to edit
plumb start /dis/vixenplumb.dis $file$2

# new text go to vixen, associated with a directory
kind is newtext
plumb to edit
plumb start /dis/vixenplumb.dis $file

you will also need to modify the plumber (appl/cmd/plumber.b) to
accept message kind "newtext" and treat it like message kind "text".

for now, it seems to be necessary to start vixenplumb manually before starting any vixen and before plumbing.

todo

• ^g should display percentage of cursor in file.
• after typing on a line, hitting esc, then moving to next line puts cursor at wrong position.
• 'r' on first char of line skips to next char, should stay.
• b3 on text that has no plumb destination should be searched for as if '*' had been pressed on it
• 'Tx' on first line, without x on that line loops
• "mk install" by default for 'gb'
• column position is wrong after many operations, eg 'dw'.
• for newtext, try to make the end of the new text visible too.
• redo after an insertion has an annoying delay
• on join, collapse leading whitespace of lines into separate (space or nothing)?
• :s on (visual) selection spanning multiple lines, treats !g as "change only once in buffer", it should "one change _per line_".
• 'b' at the end of " x := <-somechan" moves to before the '-', it should move to before 's'.
• at startup, set width&height in characters and lines, not in pixels.
• think of a good strategy to abort commands, especially in combination with macro execution.
• make scrolling with ^e and ^y less slow.
• only change cursor as side effect of scrolling window for ^u ^d ^b ^f.
• fix annoying scrolling with ^e for last line.
• treat tab as 8 spaces when moving cursor vertically. makes cursor appear to move less horizontally when switching between lines with and without tabs.
• column snap could be done for virtual column positions too, e.g. end of line
• beep should be more visible, or audible
• undo should undo a whole @<reg> execution. test what the behaviour of '.' in a macro is. and if there is a difference with 'q<reg>' recorded macro's. original vi says: "The undo command reverses an entire macro call as a unit, if it made any changes." but that does not say if there is something different for recorded macro's...
• fix '*' and '#', they should search for whole words. so before & after should be begin/end or non-text (whitespace or interpunction)
• ':e[!] filename' command
• :n and :p for next & prev files, allowing multiple args on the command line? first need :e, then it should be easy.
• registers and marks 0-9
• ^i ^o for cycling through history of marks?
• put into Change or Mod whether change is from insert/replace or command or ex. perhaps also keep marks `.^ updated with undo/redo? and other marks. and whether buffer is dirty.
• text objects as movements in commands. eg 'daw' for delete 'aw', where 'aw' is one word. similarly: 'is' inner sentence, not including whitespace. also text objects while in visual mode to expand selection?
• ':[range]g[!]/pattern[/]' set cursor to line matching pattern. if ! is specified, go to line that does not match pattern.
• allow absence of last / in pattern on a line? and support line offset after it. eg /term/+1
• to support inclusive commands, we could introduce a movement modifier that moves to next position?
• better b3 algorithm for finding the text to plumb?
• counts with insert commands? eg 3itest<esc> should insert test three times

• variant of 'gb': parse error messages and load "file:pattern" as marks, this is handy for fixing and editing (because marks are kept in same spot regardless of changing text before it). would also require setting a string with a mark, to display the error message in the status bar when jumping to it.
• more sanity checks?
• look at strange tk misdrawing when replacing characters. it can be seen when replacing one char.
• make less slow, eg don't calculate Pos(ition) for Cursors by walking through the entire buffer.
• more efficient/scalable handling of buffers (Buf, Cursor). eg split Buf in parts of 2k chars max, or at line boundary?
• 'U' command to undo all changes to current line of cursor?
• tags & tag stacks?
• commands that operate on many lines could be made to generate multiple small modifications. now they delete+insert from first changed position to last.
• allow interrupting execution of commands?
• interpret keys Insert & Del as something? e.g. toggle insert & replace mode for Insert, x or X or interrupt for Del?
• use marks [ and ] for start & end of last insert? or last change?
• syntax highlighting
• ^v prefix for taking char after literal?
• chording?
• execute on button2?
• setting for disabling text wrapping?
• allow multiple ex commands on one line, separated by pipe (|)?