The text editor landscape is experiencing a remarkable renaissance, with a surge of new Vi-like editors emerging over the past decade. This trend, highlighted by the recent introduction of 'ad' editor, reflects a growing movement to modernize traditional editing concepts while maintaining the efficiency of modal editing.
Notable Recent Vi-like Editors:
- Kakoune
- Helix
- Vis
- Ki
- Ad
Key Features Driving Innovation:
- LSP Integration
- Tree-sitter parsing
- Modal editing improvements
- Modern language support
- Enhanced keybinding systems
The LSP Revolution
The Language Server Protocol (LSP) has become a game-changer in text editor development. As community discussions reveal, LSP has removed one of the biggest barriers to entry for new editor projects by abstracting away the complexity of supporting modern programming languages. This democratization of editor development, combined with tools like tree-sitter for syntax parsing, has made creating a new editor a more feasible undertaking for developers.
My pet theory, we can thank LSP for that, as it removed the major hurdle for any new editor project: the complexity of supporting modern programming languages and practices. Being able to offload most of that complexity to a language server (and most of the rest to tree-sitter) just about makes a new editor a viable side project.
The Rust Factor
A significant portion of these new editors are being developed in Rust, suggesting a broader trend in the developer community. The emergence of editors like Helix, Ki, and now 'ad' demonstrates how Rust's safety guarantees and performance characteristics make it an attractive choice for building complex text manipulation tools.
Evolution of Vi Concepts
While these new editors draw inspiration from Vi's modal editing approach, they're not mere clones. Many are attempting to address long-standing issues with traditional Vi keybindings and concepts. For instance, Kakoune has been praised for improving Vi's binding consistency, while 'ad' aims to combine Vi's modal editing with Acme's extensibility approach.
The Keybinding Debate
An interesting point of contention in the community revolves around keybinding conventions. While traditional Vi uses mnemonics like 'y' for yank and 'p' for put, some argue for adopting more modern conventions like 'x' for cut and 'c' for copy. This debate highlights the challenge of balancing tradition with modern usability expectations.
The proliferation of these new editors represents more than just technical innovation; it reflects a community actively seeking to improve and modernize their tools while preserving the efficiency that made Vi-like editors popular in the first place. As development tools continue to evolve, we're likely to see even more creative approaches to text editing emerge.
Reference: ad :: an adaptable text editor