4coder, a modern text editor based loosely on Emacs | Hacker News Reader

4coder, a modern text editor based loosely on Emacs

4coder.net

52 pointsbwidlar16 comments

I bought it, because I wanted a light-weight and fast C-specific editor. I was getting into it until I upgraded to Windows 10, and then the text rendered as illegible characters. It was not a UTF font problem, but something else with graphics. I filed a bug, and it was not fixed for a while, so I will have to go and check it out again. I have been using neovim. I have not touched emacs for about a year or so. Too many knucklebuster, non-intuitive keyboard commands. Neovim/Vim is surprisingly easy to get productive on. I watched Andrew Kelley livecode Zig in Vim, and I tried it again, and now I am in the groove! YMMV between any editor!

Try Spacemacs. Vim keybindings, logical well documented help/menus, plus emacs goodies like org-mode. It's the best of Vim and Emacs.

I tried it years ago. I had a good configuration, and then something broke, and I got frustrated. I find Vim/Neovim a lot more compact and I have been getting by with very few plugins just fine. I also like that I can hop on any system, and a plain Vim is easier for me to dive into than a plain emacs.

Most Emacs commands have a sensible pneumonic. If I recall, vim was similarly conversational in the best commands.

Mnemonic*. Pneu- means related to air.

Thanks! I don't know why I didn't spot check for this mistake. Is one I make enough that I specifically look for it most posts... (Well, most posts it is relevant. Clearly missed this one...)

All emacs commands are easy to remap in whatever intuitive way you want.

I know, but I find the Vim defaults more intuitive or just faster to get productive with. I have a bunch of years on emacs, and I was never as fast as I have become on Vim/Neovim in the past quarter or so.

Sadly the exensions are written in C++, so this is nothing nearly as dynamic as Emacs.

It's also not free, not even to try out.

There’s a free demo version (on the same page where you can buy it), although that doesn’t allow you to exercise the customization via C++ code (which is perhaps one of the most intriguing parts of the editor).

Allen Webster, the creator, was recently interviewed on the Handmade podcast. I thought it was a good discussion - touched on text editors, performance, and some interesting programming language ideas. https://handmade.network/podcast/ep/14a5407e-5f73-4c59-a422-...

Why c++? The best part of emacs is the dynamic environment.

Many of the current users, including the creator, are in gamedev. Being extensible in a language they’re already intimately familiar with is a selling point.

If targeting gamedev users, why not Lua? You can switch from Lisp to something more people are familiar with without losing the dynamic environment.

Call me when it has org-mode.

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