ze

ze - zach's extensible text editor

ze is an extensible text editor that uses GNU Guile as its extension language. It supports running guile code as pre- and post- hooks upon opening a file, opening a directory, or saving a file. It supports highlighting for C, Python, Ruby, PHP, Rust, APL, Swift, and TypeScript.

See the docs for more information.

Features

• Simple and lightweight: Minimal text editor with essential functionality
• Extensible: Uses GNU Guile for scripting and customization
• Syntax highlighting: Supports C, Python, Ruby, PHP, Rust, APL, Swift, and TypeScript
• Hooks system: Pre- and post- hooks for file operations
• Template system: Clone predefined templates for common file types
• Search functionality: Forward search with navigation
• Cross-platform: Works on macOS, Linux, and other Unix-like systems

Installation

Prerequisites

First, you must install GNU Guile (and its related libraries) on your system. You can follow the official installation instructions or by simply doing:

brew install guile

if you are using macOS.

Building from Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone git@github.com:zachwick/ze
   cd ze

2. Set up configuration:

   mkdir ~/.ze
   cp zerc.scm ~/.ze/
   cp -R templates ~/.ze/templates

3. Edit the configuration path: You must edit the path supplied to scm_c_primitive_load in the main method to match wherever your local zerc.scm configuration file is located. A common practice is to copy the example configuration file from the repo into a .ze directory in your home directory.

4. Build and install:

   make install

Usage

Basic Usage

• Start ze: ze
• Open a file: ze <filename>

Default Keybindings

Guile Scheme REPL

Key	Action	Description
Ctrl+x	Open a REPL	Opens a Guile Scheme REPL

File Operations

Key	Action	Description
Ctrl+o	Open path	Prompts the user for a path to open in ze
Ctrl+w	Write to file	Write/Save the current buffer to a file
Ctrl+t	Clone template	Prompts the user for a template to clone into the current buffer

Search

Key	Action	Description
Ctrl+s	Forward search	Prompt for a string to search forward in the document
Ctrl+n	Next match	Move to the next search match (while searching)
Ctrl+b	Previous match	Move to the previous search match (while searching)
ESC	Quit search	Quit searching and return cursor to original position
Enter	Accept match	Quit searching and leave cursor at current match

Editing

Key	Action	Description
Ctrl+i	Insert timestamp	Inserts current timestamp at cursor
Ctrl+d	Delete line	Deletes the entire line that the cursor is currently on
Ctrl+k	Delete rest of line	Deletes from cursor position to end of line
Ctrl+h	Delete character	Deletes the character at cursor position

Navigation

Key	Action	Description
Ctrl+p	Move up	Move cursor up one line
Ctrl+n	Move down	Move cursor down one line
Ctrl+f	Move forward	Move cursor one column to the right
Ctrl+b	Move backward	Move cursor one column to the left
Ctrl+v	Page down	Move cursor to beginning of next page
Ctrl+g	Page up	Move cursor to beginning of previous page

Advanced Usage

Plugin System

ze supports Guile Scheme plugins that are automatically loaded at startup.

• Location: Plugins are .scm files placed in ~/.ze/plugins. All non-hidden .scm files in that directory are loaded at startup.
• Examples: make install creates ~/.ze/plugins and copies the example plugins from the repo.
• API exposed to Scheme:
  • set-editor-status(string) — set the status line message
  • bind-key(key-spec, procedure) — bind a key to a Scheme procedure
• Key specs: Either a single character (e.g., "y") or Control chords like "C-y".
• Input handling: When a key is pressed, ze checks plugin bindings first. If a bound procedure runs, the built-in handler is skipped for that keypress.
• REPL: Press Ctrl+x to open a one-line Scheme prompt inside ze to evaluate expressions in the current environment.

Minimal examples

Bind a key and set a status message (~/.ze/plugins/hello.scm):

(display"ze: loaded plugin hello.scm") (newline)
(define (ze-hello)
(set-editor-status "Hello from ze plugin!"))
(bind-key "C-y" ze-hello)

Override a hook from a plugin (~/.ze/plugins/hooks.scm):

(define (postSaveHook contents)
(string-append "Post-save plugin says: wrote "
(number->string (string-length contents))
" bytes"))

See the Hooks section below for the list of available hooks and their return values.

Guile Hooks

ze supports various Guile hooks for customization:

Hook Function	Returns	Description
preSaveHook	string	Called prior to writing buffer to file
postSaveHook	string	Called after writing buffer to file
preDirOpenHook	string	Called prior to opening a directory in ze
postDirOpenHook	string	Called after opening a directory in ze
preFileOpenHook	string	Called prior to opening a file into a buffer
postFileOpenHook	string	Called after opening a file into a buffer

Templates

To add a new template, you must make changes in three places in ze.c and one place in your zerc.scm configuration file:

1. Define global variable in ze.c (around line 90):

   char*email_template="";

2. Add template option in editorCloneTemplate method:

   char*template=editorPrompt("Select Template: (N)otes | (R)eadme | (E)mail", NULL);

3. Add template handling in the if/else block:

   elseif (strcasecmp(template, "e") ==0) {
   editorSetStatusMessage("LoadEmailtemplate");
   templateFile=fopen(email_template, "r");
   }

4. Define template path in zerc.scm:

   (defineemail_template '"/Users/zwick/.ze/templates/email")

5. Read template in main method:

   SCMemail_template_scm;
   email_template_scm=scm_variable_ref(scm_c_lookup("email_template"));
   email_template=scm_to_locale_string(email_template_scm);

After making these changes, run make install to build and install your new version of ze.

Configuration

The main configuration file is ~/.ze/zerc.scm. This file contains:

• Template file paths
• Custom Guile functions and hooks
• Editor behavior customization

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

ze is copyright 2018, 2019, 2020 zach wick zach@zachwick.com and is licensed under the GNU GPLv3 or later. You can find a copy of the GNU GPLv3 included in the project as the file named LICENSE.txt.

Author

• zach wick - zach@zachwick.com

Acknowledgments

• Built with GNU Guile for extensibility
• Inspired by simple, efficient text editors such as kilo.