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Show HN: Fresh – A new terminal editor built in Rust

sinelaw.github.io

31–40 of 158 posts

Re: Show HN: Fresh – A new terminal editor built in Rust

#31
Haven't tried it but I'm pretty sure this editor is going to be very popular very soon.

Because configuring an editor that comes with different plug-in systems in a third programming language is a lot of hassle for people who are too focused at getting the job done and don't want to be distracted with a whole another configuration framework in yet another programming language.

Re: Show HN: Fresh – A new terminal editor built in Rust

#33
Goood stuff!

One of my long-standing "would make if I had the time and perseverance" themes has been a terminal text editor that's hugely VSCode-like + compatible, so always glad to hear anyone going anywhere near that, and hence I perked up from these:

> Prioritizes standard keybindings and a minimal learning curve.

> Extensibility: Uses TypeScript (via Deno) for plugins, making it accessible to a large developer base.

Because where you are now with Fresh, you're probably really not far from supporting say `settings.json`, `launch.json`, `tasks.json`, `keybindings.json`, `.tmTheme`s and theme `.json`s, and indeed bringing up a VSCode-API-implementing "extension host" that can load up and run/host most `.vsix`es. Now, being terminal-based you'd skip over certain feature subsets such as webviews, custom (non-text) editors and the like... and might postpone Notebooks and such fancies initially, but:

Consider! 1000s of high-value, capable, tech-specific dev extensions out there, all readily supported by your just-spawned new editor. Doesn't that sound pretty exciting?

After all, there's a huge subset of VSCode fans who'd always switch in a heartbeat to a just-simply-non-Electron version (whether native or terminal) of the very same feature-scape & extensions & UI dev experience if only it was made and to max compatibility (and MS won't ever do so).

All that's missing (from screenshot glance) is the other sidebars & panels in addition to File Explorer =)

Will be putting your Fresh on my Github Watch list, but then again, I never really read the GH feed anyway.. but maybe I'll remember to check back in every quarter or so =)

Re: Show HN: Fresh – A new terminal editor built in Rust

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did it because not everybody has cargo installed. I'm using cargo-dist to create this npm package.

Is there a way to install it with cargo instead? I won't install npm on my machine just to install a Rust package

Sure, cargo install fresh-editor

Re: Show HN: Fresh – A new terminal editor built in Rust

#36
post #32

400mb executable for a terminal text editor? Modern developers have lost their mind

Is it 400mb? Could be V8 for plugins.

Thanks for reminding me. Unfortunately yes, it's because of v8 (for Deno).

For extensions, the choice was either TypeScript (and get this bloat) or go with Lua and a much smaller binary (but less popular language).

But - I just realized stripping it brings it down to 76MB so I guess that's ok! Will push a commit :)

Re: Show HN: Fresh – A new terminal editor built in Rust

#38

I just tested it and I must say congrats. I really enjoy the command palette, the open file menu and the multi cursor. It's well thought, really intuitive so far and I definitively will use it regularly (more once I setup the LSP). Keep up the good work !

Thanks and if you encounter any issues (even minor annoyances) let me know (e.g. open a github issue), I want the experience to be smooth

Re: Show HN: Fresh – A new terminal editor built in Rust

#39
post #33

Goood stuff! One of my long-standing "would make if I had the time and perseverance" themes has been a terminal text editor that's hugely VSCode-like + compatible, so always glad to hear anyone going anywhere near that, and hence I perked up from these: > Prioritizes standard keybindings and a minimal learning curve. > Extensibility: Uses TypeScript (via Deno) for plugins, making it accessible to a large developer ba…

I've been mulling over vscode extension compatibility... There is a challenge there, because the API surface is non-trivial and some of it is "web-ish". I wouldn't want people to be disappointed if 60% of the plugins they try to use don't really work properly.

Also, there are nuances like VSCode exposing APIs that force the entire file to be in-memory (which is how VSCode works), this is fine but in my editor I'm trying to get extensions to work well even if the file is huge (encouraging incremental / partial stuff).

But yes, it's a very compelling vision... and part of the reason I chose TypeScript.

Thanks for the input :)

Re: Show HN: Fresh – A new terminal editor built in Rust

#40
I love a new editor as much as the next guy but has there been any real new/novel features in text editors over last 10 years?

I feel like sublime text got most of it right and every editor since then has been a reskin of the same (just written in a different stack)

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