kaa - console text editor.
Project description
Kaa is a small and easy CUI text editor for console/terminal emulator environments.
Overview
Kaa is an easy yet powerful text editor for console user interface, providing numerous features like
Macro recording.
Undo/Redo.
Multiple windows/frames.
Syntax highlighting.
Grep.
Python console.
Python debugger.
Open source software(MIT).
More to come!
See http://kaaedit.github.io for more screen shots.
Kaa is easy!
Kaa is very easy to learn in spite of its rich functionality. Only thing you need to remember is “To display menu, hit F1 key or alt+’m’ key”. Most of basic features could be accessed from fancy menus by hitting underlined character in the menu items. You can use kaa as easy as you are with Notepad on MS-Windows.
Customizable
Kaa is written in Python. So, you can easily customize many aspects of kaa through simple Python scripts.
Cross platform
Kaa is a CUI editor that runs on most of modern UN*X flavor operating systems like Linux or Mac OS X. Kaa requires Unicode friendly environment both platform running kaa and terminal emulator/console to interact with kaa.
Cygwin environment on Windows platform is not supported at this time, but will be tested after they provide Python 3.3 package.
Setup
Requirements
To run kaa, you need following component:
Python 3.3 or later
Development files for Python 3.3. For recent Debian/Ubuntu, you can install required libraries by
$ sudo apt-get install python3-dev
If your Python installation is not system-supplied package but built by yourself, please ensure you have installed ncurses library with wide character support before you built Python. Consult documentation of your platform for details. For recent Debian/Ubuntu, you can install required libraries by
$ sudo apt-get install libncursesw5 libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev
After theses packages are installed, rebuild Python installation to take effect.
Kaa can use system clipboard. To use clipboard on Unix platform, xsel command should be installed. For Ubuntu Linux, following command installs xsel command.
$ sudo apt-get install xselUTF-8 locales
(optional) Cython
Installation
Use easy_install3 or pip3 to install kaa from PyPI
$ sudo easy_install3 -U kaaedit
Terminal setting
Keyboard setting
Kaa uses alt key for keyboard shortcut like alt+k. On most of recent Windows or Linux terminal, alt key works out of box. But on Mac OS X, Terminal app should be configured:
Select Preferences menu.
Open the Settings tab.
Open the keyboard tab.
Check Use option as meta key.
Or, if you use iTerm2 on Mac, you should configure:
Select Preferences menu.
Open the Profiles tab.
Open the Keys tab.
Check Left option Key acts as: +Esc. and Right option Key acts as: +Esc. button.
If you use Gnome terminal and wishes to access menu by F1 key, you should configure:
Select Edit | Keyboard shortcuts menu.
Scroll to the Help/Contents shortcut and change key from F1 to some another key.
Color setting
Kaa looks better with 256 color mode of terminal emulator. With Terminal.app you can set 256 color mode:
Select Preferences menu.
Open the Settings tab.
Select xterm-256color for “Declare terminal as” field.
For iTerm2, you can:
Select Preferences menu.
Open the Profiles tab.
Open the Terminal tab.
Select xterm-256color for “Report terminal type” field.
Otherwise, you should manually update terminal setting. e.g., If you use bash, add following line to ~/.bashrc file:
$ export TERM=xterm-256colorFor detail, see http://www.pixelbeat.org/docs/terminal_colours/#256 to enable 256 color on your terminal.
Command line options
kaa [-h] [--version] [--no-init] [--init-script INIT_SCRIPT]
[--palette PALETTE] [--term TERM] [file [file ...]]
- -h, --help
show this help message and exit
- --version
show version info and exit
- --no-init
skip loading initialization script
- --init-script INIT_SCRIPT
execute file as initialization script instead of default initialization file
- --palette PALETTE
color palette. available values: dark, light.
- --term TERM, -t TERM
specify terminal type
- --command command, -x command
spefify kaa command id to execute at start-up e.g: kaa -x python.console / kaa -x tools.grep
Usage
Using kaa is intuitive. Typing alphabet keys will update file as you expected. Functional keys like arrow or delete keys also works.
Key bindings
Cursor keys
left, Control+b |
Cursor left. |
right, Control+f |
Cursor right. |
up |
Cursor up. |
down |
Cursor down. |
Control+p |
Move cursor to previous physical line. |
Control+n |
Move cursor to next physical line. |
Control+left, Alt+b |
Move cursor to previous word boundary. |
Control+right, Alt+f |
Move cursor to next word boundary. |
Alt+p, Page up |
Previous page. |
Alt+n, Page down |
Next page. |
Control+a, Home |
Move cursor to top of line. |
Control+^ |
Move cursor to first letter of line. |
Control+e, End |
Move cursor to end of line. |
Alt+<, Control+Home |
Move cursor to top of file. |
Alt+>, Control+End |
Move cursor to end of file. |
Control+g |
Go to line number. |
Control+t |
Table of contents. |
Text selection
Shift+left |
Select to previous character. |
Shift+right |
Select to next character. |
Shift+up |
Select to previous line. |
Shift+down |
Select to next line. |
Shift+Home |
Select text to top of line. |
Shift+End |
Select text to end of line. |
Control+Shift+Home |
Selects text to top of file. |
Control+Shift+End |
Select text to end of file. |
Control+Space, Control+@ |
Set mark to select text region. |
Alt+# |
Set mark to select text rectangularly. |
Alt+a |
Select all text. |
Alt+c |
Select current word at first press. Subsequent press selects entire current line, and the third press selects entire text |
Text deletion
Backspace, Control+h |
Delete the character to the left. |
Delete, Control+d |
Delete the character at the cursor. |
Control+backspace, Alt+h |
Delete the word to the left. |
Control+Delete, Alt+d |
Delete the word to the right. |
Control+k |
Delete the line to the right. |
Alt+k |
Delete the current line. |
Clipboard
Control+v |
Paste from clipboard. |
Control+x |
Cut selection. |
Control+c |
Copy selection. |
Alt+v |
Paste from clipboard history. |
Undo/Redo
Control+z |
Undo last change. |
Control+y |
Redo last undo. |
Search/Replace
Control+s |
Search text. |
Alt+s |
Replace text. |
F2 |
Search prev. |
F3 |
Search next. |
Other
F6 |
Toggle macro recording on/off. |
F5 |
Run macro. |
Alt+. |
Run last executed edit command again. |
Tab |
Indent selected lines. |
Shift+Tab |
Dedent selected lines. |
Control+o |
Word completion. |
Control+u Alt+! |
Execute command and insert the output. |
Replace dialog
When regex button is checked, Replace string is also regular expression string. In this case, special characters like \t or \n are converted to tab character and newline character. Also, back-reference character will be replaced to sub-string matched group in the search string. For example, when search string is ‘(a+)(b+)’ and replace string is ‘\2\1’, matched string ‘aabb’ will be replaced to ‘bbaa’.
Grep dialog
Grep dialog has three input field. Search is a plain text or regular expression string to search. Directory is a directory to start searching. If Tree button was checked, files are searched recursively. Filenames is space separated list of file spec in shell-style wild-cards (e.g., *.txt *.py *.doc). Up arrow key displays history of each input field.
In the grep result window, use F9 and F10 key to traverse matches forward/backward.
Python console
When you hit enter key to execute multiline statements in console, new input dialog appears to edit rest of script. In the dialog, you can edit script as normal editor screen. After you finish to edit your script, hit alt+Enter key to execute the script.
To show script history window, hit alt+Enter key on the console.
Spell checker
To use spell checker, PyEnchant module should be installed.
On MAC OS-X install enchant with homebrew before installing PyEnchant.
$ brew install enchant
$ pip-3.3 install PyEnchantMake
[Tools]|Make executes make command to build your files. You can alter command and options to build. To retrieve previous command and options, hit up cursor key to display history window.
Output of make displayed on the window. You can traverse source files cause of the error forth and back with f9 and f10 key.
Python debugger
Kaa can be used as front-end of Python debugger module(bdb) running in another process. Although kaa itself requires Python 3.3 or later, you can use Python 2.6 or later in the target process.
Starting debugger
There are three ways to start debugger.
kaadbg.run module
Kaadbg package executes your Python script with Python debugger connected to debugger window of kaa. Usually, kaadbg is Python package installed as a part of kaa. To use another Python interpreter than kaa installed, you can install kaadbg separately.
$ sudo pip install -U kaadbg
Currently, kaadbg supports from Python 2.6 to Python 3.x.
To activate kaa remote debugger, select [Tools]|Python debugger server and enter port number to connect debugger(default 28110).
Next, open new terminal window and run following command in the terminal window.
$ python -m kaadbg.run my_test_stript.py arg1 args
If you need use other port than 28110, you should provide port number with -p option.
$ python -m kaadbg.run -p 29000 my_test_stript.py arg1 args
set_trace
Like Python’s standard pdb module, you can import kaadbg package and call set_trace() to start debug session.
You should start activate kaa remote debugger by menu [Tools]|Python debugger server and enter port number to connect debugger(default 28110).
To connect kaa remote debugger, open your target script and insert following lines of code.
import kaadbg.debug
kaadbg.debug.set_trace()If you need use other port than 28110, you should provide port number to set_trace().
import kaadbg.debug
kaadbg.debug.set_trace(29000)Now you can start your target script. Kaa remote debugger will be opened when kaadbg.debug.set_trace() is hit.
Run child process
You can run your target script as child process of kaa to debug.
To start child process, select [Tools]|Python debugger in kaa menu and specify command line as follow.
python2.7 -m kaadbg.run myscript.py arg1 arg2
Command line should starts with Python interpreter you use and -m kaadbg.run. Name of target script and arguments follows.
Note that kaa doesn’t capture standard output and standard error of target process, so you cannot see outputs of the target script. Also, standard input of the target process is closed just after command started.
Breakpoints
To set/unset breakpoints, select [Code]|Toggle Breakpoint in menu in editor. By default, f8 key is bounded to this menu item.
While debugger window is opened, you can suspend the debugger window by escape key. After you finish to update breakpoints in editor window, select [Tools]|Python debugger menu again to resume debugger. To view list of current breakpoints, select breakpoints button with alt+E key.
Inspect variables
To see value of variables, select Expr on the debugger window by pressing alt+E key and enter Python expression you want to inspect like self.spam.
Customization
Kaa executes a Python script file at ~/.kaa/__kaa__.py on start up. You can write Python script to customize kaa as you like.
Sample - Show line numbers
from kaa.filetype.default import defaultmode
defaultmode.DefaultMode.SHOW_LINENO = Truedefaultmode.DefaultMode is base class of all text file types. Line number is displayed if Defaultmode.SHOW_LINENO is True. If you want to show line number of particular file types, you can update SHOW_LINENO attribute of each file type classes.
# Show line number in HTML mode
from kaa.filetype.html import htmlmode
htmlmode.HTMLMode.SHOW_LINENO = TrueSample - Customize key binding
Assign same keyboard shortcut of splitting windows command as Emacs.
from kaa.keyboard import *
from kaa.filetype.default.defaultmode import DefaultMode
DefaultMode.KEY_BINDS.append({
((ctrl, 'x'), '2'): 'editor.splithorz' # Assign C-x 2
})In this example, key sequence C-x 2 (control+x followed by 2) is assigned to ‘editor.splithorz’ command.
Sample - Change color palette
Change color palette to light.
import kaa
kaa.app.DEFAULT_PALETTE = 'light' # Use `light' palette. Default is `dark'Hacking
You can get the recent source code from github.
$ git clone https://github.com/kaaedit/kaa.gitTo run test, you need to install py.test
$ pip-3.3 install -U pytest
$ cd kaa
$ py.testThere is an experimental script to run freeze to build standalone kaa binary file. To freeze kaa, You must proceed with the following steps:
Apply following two patches to your Python 3.3 installation.
Clone kaa source code.
$ git clone https://github.com/kaaedit/kaa.gitIn source directory of kaa, cd to kaa/freezing directory.
$ cd kaa/freezingEdit PYTHON variable in build.sh for your environment.
run build.sh
$ ./build.shCheck if freezing/dist/kaa exists.
Acknowledgments
I really appreciate for your help.
Links
Version history
0.28.0 - 2013.12.31
Improve file-save-as dialog.
Interuppt Python script with ^C key while running script in Python console.
Display empty lines like vim.
Past versions
0.27.0 - 2013.12.29
New command line option: –command, -x spefify kaa command id to execute on start up.
Alt+m key now assigned as new preferred menu key instead of alt+/ because key sequence of alt+/ could be misinterpreted by other applications.
Alt+^ moves cursor to first non-blank character of the line.
0.26.1 - 2013.12.28
Fixed an error on file-save-as.
0.26.0 - 2013.12.27
New command: Alt+m moves cursor to first non-blank character of the line.
0.25.0 - 2013.12.25
Syntax highlight in Python console.
0.24.0 - 2013.12.24
Spell checker
0.23.0 - 2013.12.21
Improve Python console a lot.
Breakpoints in Python debugger now works better.
0.22.0 - 2013.12.19
Respect encoding declaration on loading/saving file in CSS mode.
Button to send SIGINT to the debug target process.
0.21.0 - 2013.12.15
Respect encoding declaration on loading/saving file in HTML/Python mode.
Paste from OS clipboard didn’t work on Mac.
0.20.0 - 2013.12.13
Save clipboard history to disk.
Python debugger: Display status of target process.
0.19.0 - 2013.12.11
Support system clipboard.
0.18.0 - 2013.12.10
Optimizations. Kaa responds quicker than previous version.
Error highlighting JavaScript attribute in html mode was fixed.
White space characters inserted by auto-indent are automatically removed if cursor moved to another position without entering a character.
reStructuredText Mode: Non-ASCII punctuation marks were not recognized as separator of inline mark ups.
0.17.0 - 2013.12.06
reStructuredText Mode: Recognize non-ASCII punctuation as separator of inline mark ups.
Indent command: Don’t indent blank line. (Contributed by allanderek)
Separate kaadbg as new package.
0.16.0 - 2013.12.03
Defer to save history information. Kaa now works much smoother than ever on PC with slow hard disk.
0.15.1 - 2013.11.30
Removed debugging code.
0.15 - 2013.11.29
Python debugger now runs 20+ times faster than in 0.14.
Highlight Python constant.
0.14 - 2013.11.27
Experimental Python debugger.
0.13 - 2013.11.18
New file mode: C language.
New command: [Tools] | Make. Invoke make command to build and view output without leaving kaa.
Move initial selection of Table Of Contents to current cursor position.
0.12 - 2013.11.16
Show table of contents in Markdown mode. Hit Ctrl+t to display TOC.
Show table of contents reStructuredText mode. Hit Ctrl+t to display TOC.
Improve highlighting in Markdown mode.
Bugs fixed.
0.11 - 2013.11.14
Show table of contents in Python mode. Hit Ctrl+t to display TOC.
Improve highlighting in reStructured mode.
0.10 - 2013.11.11
Add ‘japanese’ encoding that detects text encoding from file.
Specify text encoding to grep file.
New commandline option: –no-init, –init-script, –palette, –term.
New color palette: dark, light.
0.9 - 2013.11.9
Markdown mode.
reStructuredText mode.
0.8 - 2013.11.7
View diff between original file and current buffer.
Grep dialog now has ‘Dir’ button to select directory.
Handle SIGTERM to restore terminal state before exit.
Prompt to reload file when file modified by other process.
0.7 - 2013.11.5
Paste from clipboard history.
Word completion list now contains text from clipboard history.
New command: New file here.
New command: Open file here.
New command: Open recently used file here.
New command: Open recently used directory here.
0.6 - 2013.11.1
Basic word completion with ctrl+o.
Display blank line if the line is selected.
Various minor changes.
0.5 - 2013.10.30
Locate position of opened file where the file located last time.
Changed history database scheme. By this change, old history will be deleted.
Changed default color setting.
Kaa didn’t run if $TERM is ‘xterm-color’.
0.4 - 2013.10.27
Rectangular selection can be started by Alt+’#’ key.
Window|Join menu caused error.
File|Save all caused error.
0.3.1 - 2013.10.25
Python console window now works with Gnome terminal.
Window|Switch file menu caused error.
^G (Goto line number) dialog shouldn’t accept ‘0’ if field is empty.
0.3.0 - 2013.10.24
Python console window.
Emacs style region selection. Now you can select region by ctrl+SPACE or ctrl+’@’key.
Changed some default keyboard binding.
A lot of bugs fixed.
0.2.0 - 2013.10.20
Comment/Uncomment region.
In replace dialog, replace-to text is now treated as regular expression text.
A lot of bugs fixed.
0.1.0 - 2013.10.14
Grep
Various improvements.
0.0.4 - 2013.10.11
New command: Close all.
New command: Recently used file/directory.
Search/Replace history.
Line number display setting at menu | File | File Info.
0.0.3 - 2013.10.9
Incremental search.
Accept directory name as command line argument.
New command: Go to line(^g).
New command: Select current word(^c).
New command: Save all files(menu | file | Save All).
Improve file open dialog.
0.0.2 - 2013.10.5
Misc commands.
Highlight parenthesis at cursor.
Support text encoding other than utf-8.
Other a lot of changes.
0.0.1 - 2013.6.16
Initial release.
Copyright
Copyright (c) 2013 Atsuo Ishimoto
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.
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