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156 lines
6.2 KiB
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156 lines
6.2 KiB
Plaintext
Kakoune design
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==============
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This document describes the design goals for Kakoune, including rationales.
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Interactivity
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-------------
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Unlike Vim, Kakoune does not have an underlying line-oriented editor, and
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is always expected to be used in an interactive (i.e. with the edited text
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being displayed in real time) fashion. That should not prevent Kakoune from
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being used non interactively (executing macro for example), but priority
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should be given to ease of interactive use.
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Limited scope
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-------------
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Kakoune is a code editor. It is not an IDE, not a file browser, not a word
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processor and not a window manager. It should be very efficient at editing code,
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and should, as a side effect, be very efficient at editing text in general.
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Composability
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-------------
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Being limited in scope to code edition should not isolate Kakoune from its
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environment. On the contrary, Kakoune is expected to run on a Unix-like
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system, along with a lot of text-based tools, and should make it easy to
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interact with these tools.
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For example, sorting lines should be done using the Unix sort command, not
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with an internal implementation. Kakoune should make it easy to do that,
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hence the +|+ command for pipping selected text through a filter.
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The modern Unix environment is not limited to text filters, most people use
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a graphical interface nowadays, and Kakoune should be able to take advantage
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of that, without hindering text mode support. For example Kakoune supports
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multiple clients on the same editing session, so that multiple windows can
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be used, letting the system window manager handle its responsibilities such
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as tiling or tabbing.
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Orthogonality
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-------------
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Kakoune features should be as orthogonal as possible, for example, in Vim,
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there are multiple ways for modifying the buffer: Through normal/insert
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mode, command mode, and Vim scripts. In Kakoune, modifying the buffer is the
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normal/insert mode job.
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That means there should be clear separation of concerns between modes:
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* normal mode is for manipulating the selection and the selection contents.
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* insert mode is for interactive insertion into the buffer.
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* command mode is for non-editing features (opening a file, setting
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options...).
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Orthogonality is an ideal, and should not prevent common sense pragmatism,
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the +gf+ and +ga+ commands are not strictly selection manipulation ones,
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but fit nicely with other +goto+ commands, and hence are acceptable in
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normal mode even though they could arguably be moved to command mode.
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Modes should be orthogonal, and commands in modes should be as well. For
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example, Vim uses +d+ and +x+ for very similar things: deleting text. In
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Kakoune only +d+ exists, and the design ensures that +x+ is not needed.
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Speed
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-----
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Kakoune should be fast, fast to use, as in a lot of editing in a few
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keystrokes, and fast to execute.
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* Vim is the benchmark here, most editing tasks should be doable in less
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or the same number of keys.
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* Kakoune be designed with asynchronicity in mind, launching a background
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process and using its result when available should not block the editor.
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* Kakoune should be implemented with speed in mind, a slow editor is a
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useless one.
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Simplicity
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----------
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Simplicity is nice, simplicity correlates with orthogonality and speed, and makes
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things easier to understand, bugs easier to fix, and code easier to change.
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* *No threading*: multithreading is a hard problem, and is not well suited
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to a text editor:
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- Either we want a direct result, and we need to be synchronous with
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the user, so getting a 4x speed up is meaningless, we need to have an
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algorithm which appears instantaneous the user.
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- Or we want an asynchronous result, and then the processing is best left
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to a helper command which can be reused with other Unix tools.
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* *No binary plugins*: shared object by themselves add a lot of
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complexity. Plugins add another interface to Kakoune, and goes against
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orthogonality. The +%sh{ ... }+ and socket interface should be made good
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enough for most plugin use cases.
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- It is better to write Kakoune-independent helper tools (intelligent
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code completer, source code navigation programs) that can interact with
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Kakoune through the shell than write them in a plugin.
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* *No integrated scripting language*: for the same reason as binary plugins.
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* *Limited smartness*: Kakoune should not try to be too smart, being smart
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is often unpredictable for the user, and makes things context dependent.
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When Kakoune tries to be smart, it should provide the alternative, 'non
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smart' version (+\*+ tries to detect word boundaries on the selection, but
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+alt-*+ permits to avoid this behavior).
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Unified interactive use and scripting
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-------------------------------------
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As both an effect of Orthogonality and Simplicity, normal mode is *not*
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a layer on top of a text editing language layer (normal mode keys are
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*not* bound to text editing commands), normal mode *is* the text editing
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language.
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That means there is no +delete-selected-text+ command that +d+ is bound
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to, +d+ *is* the +delete selected text+ command.
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This permits to have scripting use case and interactive use cases share
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the same text editing language. Both use normal mode to express complex
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edition.
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Besides promoting simplicity by avoiding the introduction of another
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layer, this helps ensure the interactive editing language is as expressive
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as possible as we need to make it able to handle complex use cases,
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such as indentation hooks.
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Language agnostic
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-----------------
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Kakoune should not be tailored for writing in a specific programming
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language. Support for different languages should be provided by a kak script
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file, built-in language support should be avoided.
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Self documenting
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----------------
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Kakoune should be able to document its features, live documentation along
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with an extensive suggestion/completion system provides the discoverability
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which is often lacking in non GUI tools. Documentation should as much as
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possible be integrated with the code so that it stays up to date.
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Vim compatibility
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-----------------
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Kakoune is inspired by Vim, and should try to keep its commands close to
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Vim's if there are no compelling reasons to change. However self-consistency
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is more important than Vim compatibility.
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