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Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron

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Re: Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron

#51

Post by kurouna »

dhruv3006 wrote: post #20

How do you make a electron app light weight ? What are the best practices for windows ?

That is a very fair question. When I say "lightweight," I am focusing on perceived speed and responsiveness rather than memory footprint.

Here is how I approached it in elecxzy:

Core Implementation: I implemented the core editor logic, including a custom Piece Table and Virtual Rendering, from scratch. By keeping everything outside of Electron itself as minimal and simple as possible, the editor remains very snappy.

No Extensions or Lisp: Since it doesn't have a Lisp environment or an extension system, the startup process is very straightforward. While it might not be as instant as the native Notepad, it is as fast as a simple, optimized Electron app can be.

I made a quick video comparing its startup speed with Notepad. The post is in Japanese, but you can see how quickly it launches in the video: https://x.com/elecxzy/status/2022003439757336583

For me, the goal was to ensure that the input latency and the feeling of opening the app don't hinder the "flow" of taking quick notes.

Re: Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron

#52

Post by kurouna »

PacificSpecific wrote: post #46
kurouna wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the welcome! Yes, it is exactly related to the Windows Emacs IME issues. Emacs is a product I deeply respect, but configuring it to handle Japanese input smoothly on Windows has always been a challenge for me. There were two main pain points I desperately wanted to solve for my daily workflow: 1. Prefix keys being swallowed by the IME: In Windows Emacs, if your IME is ON and you try to split the window…

I understand now and thank you for explaining the issues to me. Good luck on your project!

Thank you!

Re: Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron

#53

Post by kurouna »

noufalibrahim wrote: post #10

- Lisp Free x Emacs like - Lightweight x Electron Contradictions. Writing ones own editor is a bit of a rite of passage though. So, on that front, Congratulations!

I understand the irony! It certainly sounds like a contradiction.

As I've discussed in other threads, my goal was to extract the physical UX and muscle memory of Emacs and bring it into a modern, zero-config environment. It might be a "dry water" approach, but it's what works best for my daily workflow.

Regardless of the contradictions, the experience of building my own editor has been truly exciting. Thank you for the comment and the encouragement!

Re: Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron

#54

Post by kurouna »

wolfi1 wrote: post #32

why electron? why is it closed source?

Those are great questions.

Why Electron? To be honest, I was simply interested in exploring the technology. But as I started building, I realized that Electron (and web technologies in general) allowed me to solve complex UI/UX issues, like the Japanese IME cursor tracking on Windows, much more easily than other frameworks.

Why closed source? Currently, I am prioritizing building the features I personally want. The internal architecture is still in a state of trial and error, and the code is changing rapidly. I want to focus on refining the tool first. Once I feel more confident in the stability and quality of the codebase, I may consider making it open source in the future!

Re: Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron

#55

Post by kurouna »

throwaway27448 wrote: post #31
hypersoar wrote: post #22

I don't mean to tear down your project at all. If you want to make an editor, I think that's great. I'm actually working on a text editor of my own. But I think that you've fundamentally misunderstood the appeal of Emacs. It has little to do with the key-bindings, or even any particular part of the user interface. Many people don't even use them. Doom, a very popular Emacs distribution, enables Vim-like bindings by d…

> But I think that you've fundamentally misunderstood the appeal of Emacs. It has little to do with the key-bindings, or even any particular part of the user interface. You mean the default keybindings for readline and macos? I think you're greatly overestimating the extent to which you can speak for other emacs users. I love the default keybindings and never even thought to change them, and I very much understand be…

Thank you!!! I'm so glad you said that.

"Making typing an extension of your fingers" is exactly what I was aiming for. I personally love the default Emacs keybindings and the "muscle memory" they provide, so I wanted to create a tool that focuses purely on that physical experience.

Re: Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron

#56

Post by throwaway27448 »

xigoi wrote: post #34
throwaway27448 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I think that you've fundamentally misunderstood the appeal of Emacs. It has little to do with the key-bindings, or even any particular part of the user interface. You mean the default keybindings for readline and macos? I think you're greatly overestimating the extent to which you can speak for other emacs users. I love the default keybindings and never even thought to change them, and I very much understand be…

Vim keybindings are not optimized for typing , but for editing .

I've found that it's not any better than emacs at this and you end up spending more brainpower and time issuing commands than editing, but of course YMMV. Plus it gives you cred with people who never learned to exit vi, which I suppose counts for something.

Re: Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron

#57

Post by kurouna »

sanskritical wrote: post #40
gozzoo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll never get why people hype up Zed. Sublime Text already has all the same perks—and beats Zed at the very things it claims to improve. Sure, it might not have every advanced feature, but for “vibe coders” who don’t need a full IDE and just want to skim or tweak generated code, Sublime Text is the better choice.

Someone already mentioned the hoarderware issue, which is big for me, so I'll give my other concern. Years ago on Twitter I believe it was lcamtuf that asked "Would you pipe a text file into less?" and Dan Kaminsky (RIP) replied -- "Not now that you asked if I would, no." The obvious implication is that people largely didn't think of simple text parsing utilities as places of concern for security issues, but that is…

I truly appreciate your perspective. It’s a very sobering reminder of the responsibility that comes with building a tool that handles code and data.

To be honest, this project is currently in a phase of personal hobby, self-improvement, and self-satisfaction. I must admit that it is not yet ready for mission-critical work.

While I certainly haven't included any malicious code, there are real risks: the app could crash and lose data, or underlying libraries might have vulnerabilities that I haven't had the capacity to fully audit yet. As I’m still experimenting with the architecture alone, I’m not ready to open the source code just yet.

However, your feedback makes me realize how important the "trustworthiness" is for a professional tool. If there is a clear demand for this kind of software and many requests for it to be open-sourced, I would definitely love to consider it as the project matures.

Thank you for sharing such a serious and important viewpoint.

Re: Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron

#58

Post by kurouna »

wiseowise wrote: post #27

> Electron Prepare yourself.

I’m ready!!!

I know Electron has a reputation, but surprisingly, its startup speed isn't that different from the native Notepad. It does eat a fair amount of memory, of course—but I've tried to make it so snappy that you might forget it's Chromium-based until you check the Task Manager!

Re: Show HN: Elecxzy – A lightweight, Lisp-free Emacs-like editor in Electron

#59

Post by artemonster »

kurouna wrote: post #30
luckymate wrote: post #4

Just to be clear: you say by ‘dropping’ lisp you’re keeping it lightweight but it’s based on electron? So what does ‘lightweight’ mean in your opinion?

Thank you for the sharp question! You are absolutely right that Electron itself has a baseline memory footprint that isn't small. To give a clearer picture of what I mean by "lightweight," here is a quick startup comparison video I took a while ago: https://x.com/elecxzy/status/2022003439757336583 (Sorry for the Japanese text in the video!) Left: VS Code Middle: Windows Notepad Right: elecxzy As you can see, elecxzy…

Is this fucking chatgpt comment?
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