What is the minimal (small code size, low-dependency) text editor for macOS that is extensible? I want a really simple platform that I understand for experimenting with editor decorations / live assistance.
I like CodeMirror and Monaco, but I don't want to spin up a Web browser or Electron instance every time I play with editing. And I don't want to pull in (and learn details of) giant libraries and a complicated build system.
And I like having easy access to the underlying operating system and file system and to different programming languages, external utilities, and concurrency primitives. And I use macOS, so I don't need cross-platform abstractions. And I'm experimenting with small files and small syntax, so it doesn't need to be super-efficient.
The idea is that main.m makes a Cocoa window and draws an
NSTextView, and then as much other text editor behavior as possible
should be scriptable from Lua (editor.lua) and
instantly live-reload when you save editor.lua.
There should be no configuration outside editor.lua. Instead of
a configuration system to set font size or syntax highlighting or
whatever, you should... reprogram editor.lua.
The only external dependency (beyond macOS frameworks) is the Lua interpreter.
$ git clone https://github.com/osnr/little-editor.git
$ cd little-editor
$ git submodule update --init --recursive
$ make lua
$ make
$ ./editor
Still very early. Need to support drawing arbitrary decorations and taking click/hover input.