ced - candle's Editor
There is a disturbing lack of simple GUI text editors available on Linux natively. The world of TUI editors is flourishing, but regular people don't 'yank to system register' when they want to move text from one file to another. In the world of GUI text editors you have a few options, all with their own caveats:
gedit -> Good for the GNOME Desktop, but uses GTK-4.0 so it stands out anywhere else.
Kate -> If you're not on KDE already, it comes with tons of overhead (52 packages on Arch Linux for an application to write text).
Emacs -> Requires a degree in understanding its documentation.
(c)andle's (Ed)itor aims to be a single hopefully small binary for that one purpose.
Features
- Sane text editing with standard keybindings (
Ctrl+A,Ctrl+C, etc.). - Choose between opening fresh every time, like Notepad, or maintaining a consistent state like Notepad++.
- Separate UI zoom that doesn't affect font size (
Ctrl+Shift++/-). - Ricers rejoice, your
pywalcolors will be used! - Weirdly smooth typing experience.
Build and Install
Requirements
git, rust/rustup/cargo
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S git rust
Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install git rust
Install
git clone https://code.lampnet.io/candle/ced
cd ced && cargo build --release
sudo mv target/release/ced /usr/local/bin/
sudo install -Dm644 ced.desktop /usr/share/applications/ced.desktop
ced should now appear as 'Text Editor' in your application launcher. You can remove the cloned directory at this point.
Configuration
ced will look for, and create if needed, a configuration file at: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ced/config.toml.
Here is an example config.toml:
state_cache = true
auto_hide_toolbar = false
show_line_numbers = false
word_wrap = false
theme = "System"
line_side = false
font_family = "Monospace"
font_size = 16.0
syntax_highlighting = true
Options
| Option | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
state_cache |
false |
If true, open files will have their unsaved changes cached and will be automatically opened when starting a new session. |
auto_hide_toolbar |
false |
If true, the menu bar at the top will be hidden. Move your mouse to the top of the window to reveal it. |
hide_tab_bar |
'true' | If false, a separate tab bar will be drawn below the toolbar. |
show_line_numbers |
false |
If true, line numbers will be displayed on the side specified by line_side. |
syntax_highlighting |
false |
If true, text will be highlighted based on detected language. |
line_side |
false |
If false, line numbers are on the left. If true, they are on the right. |
word_wrap |
false |
If true, lines will wrap when they reach the edge of the window. |
font_family |
"Proportional" |
The font family used for the editor text. |
font_size |
14.0 |
8.0-32.0 The font size for text editing. |
theme |
"System" |
The color scheme for the application. Options: "System" (attempts to use colors from $XDG_CACHE_HOME/wal/colors if present, otherwise uses system's light/dark mode preference), "Light", or "Dark" (manually specify a theme). |
Future Plans
In order of importance.
| Feature | Info |
|---|---|
| LSP: | Looking at allowing you to use/attach your own tools for this. |
| Choose Font | More than just Monospace/Proportional. |
| Vim Mode: | It's in-escapable. |
| CLI Mode: | 💀 |
| IDE MODE: | 🤡 |
I use Helix, btw.