Welcome to the 4coder code base!

4coder is a modern text editor based loosely on Emacs. The primary goal of 4coder is to maximize the power and ease of customization. 4coder also places high priority on performance and portability.

4coder customizations are written in C/C++ and compile to a .dll or .so file that can link to the core. The downside to this, by comparison to the Emacs approach of elisp, is that customizations must be recompiled and so the user needs their compiler setup separately. The advantages are that: first C/C++ allow for more performance oriented customization code, and second any user who already has or often works in C/C++ will be able to leverage their own code in their 4coder customizations.

One special feature of 4coder - and as far as I currently know this feature is unique to 4coder - is programmable buffer layout. In a basic sense this feature allows customization of line wrapping, but it also has many creative uses. "Virtual Whitespace" is a feature in 4coder, powered by programmable buffer layout, where code files are wrapped at points that minimize the disruption of the meaning of the code and automatically positions the wrapped line with an indent in the same way an auto-indenter would. Programmable buffer layout can also be used as the basis to implement code folding and elastic tabs.

4coder's customization API includes hooks for rendering and functions for drawing strings, primitive shapes, and for rendering more intricate buffer layouts. To handle user input, a UI implements an input handling loop that handles all the input sent to a view context. With this architecture a wide range of UI's can be implemented and then wrapped in a "blocking" call. For instance get_buffer_from_user is a call in the default custom layer code that contains all of the user interactions to query the user for a buffer, when the user confirms their decision the call returns the user's choice. Information and Links:

This codebase was authored by Allen Webster from 2014-2022, with help from a number of contributors:

• Casey Muratori
• "insofaras" Alex Baines
• Yuval Dolev
• Ryan Fleury

Also thanks to all those who supported the project, financially and/or through all your detailed feedback.

As of May 31st 2022, I am freezing this codebase and open sourcing it.

I DO NOT recommend learning from this codebase, especially not with an uncritical eye. It may be a useful reference for certain algorithms and architectural ideas, and it certainly contains some cautionary tales. But if you are a beginner, I encourage you to aim for more than emulating the style and structure of this codebase.

I will not be taking pull requests, or any other form of contribution in this repository. Since I am no longer maintaining this codebase, it is my intention that users who rely on 4coder will have the option to fork the codebase, fix their issues, or carry what I started in new directions according to their own vision if they would like.

The license I chose for this codebase is the very permissive MIT license. For the sake of clarity in the community of 4coder users, I ask that new forks of this codebase be given unique names.

In this readme you will find:

1. License (MIT)
2. Build Instructions
3. Notes on Major Issues

Copyright (c) 2022 Allen Webster

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

1. Create an empty folder named "4ed" to contain the codebase.
2. Clone the repository
3. Rename the folder containing the repository to "code"
4. At the same level as the "4ed" folder, clone the "4coder-non-source" repository
5. A. On windows setup the visual studio command line magic sauce so that "cl" works B. On linux setup g++ C. On mac setup clang
6. Navigate to the 4ed/code folder.
7. A. On windows run bin\build.bat B. On linux run bin\build-linux.sh C. On linux run bin\build-mac.sh

1. The build system and organization of files is extremely complicated. There is a 4ed_build.cpp that defines how builds run, and the build scripts have to build and run this C++ file. The file is pretty chaotic since it cannot rely on the codebase's usual helpers. On top of that there is a totally separate build system for the custom layer which is also a big gigantic mess of its own. It involves several stages of compilation, and a number of metaprograms.

2. The documentation system is over complicated & the documentation is incomplete. There is very little documentation for the internals or the complicated layers of helpers.

3. The lexer generator is way too complicated, and the built-in support for language features is not fully developed. The background threaded parsing is not very carefully organized and is not very flexible, so it's hard to add new languages at any level of the system.

4. There are a few layers of overcomplicated configuration parsers.

5. Mac support has not been maintained for several versions.

6. The codebase has a very weak base layer with key features that were added very late, so lots of code was written in the absence of useful features to bind things together. To make matters worse the base layer is split by the distinction of custom layer & core layer, leading to some double definitions and some incosistencies.