Building and Using a Custom Text Editor: A Programmer's Personal Development Journey
By
todsacerdoti
Baker's choice. Dense with flavour, light on filler.
Summary
A programmer shares their journey of creating and daily-driving their own custom text editor after years of dissatisfaction with existing options. The article details their frustrations with various text editors, the specific features they wanted, and the process of building their own editor from scratch. It explores the philosophy behind text editors as personal tools and the satisfaction of using software tailored to one's own workflow.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledToy software performing a task when the stars align and the bytes hold their breath is one thing. Ingesting whatever freakish data the real world has to offer and handling it gracefully is another.
For a while I've been dissatisfied with my text editor. I settled on Howl about a decade ago; it's lightweight and efficient to use, but it falls down in a number of areas.
They've all got their own strengths, but none of them possess the fingerspitzengefühl
A programmer's text editor is their castle
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