tsoding / cm

Emacs' compilation-mode-like TUI application

cm

WARNING! The application is in an active development state and is not even alpha yet. Use it at your own risk. Nothing is documented, anything can be changed at any moment or stop working at all.

The goal of this application is to recreate the compilation-mode of Emacs as a standalone TUI application.

Build

Dependencies

• rust
• ncurses
• pcre2

Workflow

$ cargo build
$ ./target/debug/cm 'grep -rn String src/'

Usage

Default Shortcuts

Shortcut	Description
j or Down	Move cursor down
k or up	Move cursor up
Alt+j or Alt+Down	Move cursor to the next match
Alt+k or Alt+Up	Move cursor to the prev match

Rest default shortcuts are TBD

Application layout

TBD

Configuration file cm.conf

TBD

Self-recurring

Examples

Searching with grep

Fixing compilation errors

cm's Issues

Key mappings are not customizable

utf8 support

cm should read stdin asynchronously

no way to switch regex

introduced in #26

Line::caps should be a vector of ranges of usize

introduced in #26

Update status line during command line editing state

highlight the place where regex failed in regex_list

introduced in #72

there are no borders around the item lists

profile is not saved/loaded to/from file system

introduced in #26

the terminal redirection is too hacky

Jump to the next match

the program does not go back after exiting vim

introduced in #5

More demos are needed

This project is already in a state that it could be used by other people daily. However, it really lacks demos show how powerful it is and how it can be used.

This could be kind-of tracking issue for the lacking demos that could be added to the documentation.

• Fixing compilation errors
• Navigating big codebase
• Interactively removing files

If there is anything more that comes to your mind, please post it in comments!

Note
If you create pull request with new demo, make sure to mention this issue in PR description. It will make it easier to track the progress.

regexp is not customizable

Escape from the editing mode without changes by pressing ESC

cm does not handle input from stderr

A lot of utilities that output useful for cm information usually do that to stderr. Which leads to necessity of constantly doing 2>&1 (see https://asciinema.org/a/337846). This is very convenient.

Proposal

Replace the current workflow of

$ gcc -o main main.c 2>&1 | cm

with

$ cm gcc -o main main.c

In this case cm should start the command as its child process and collect both stdin and stderr.

Downsides

It's unclear how to do something like this

$ gcc -o main main.c | grep <pattern> | cm 

Possible solutions:

• implement our own piping support
• support both workflows in case you need to cm complex piping output

regex compilation error is not very descriptive

introduced in #66

cm does not handle Shift+TAB to scroll backwards through the panels

introduced in #42

Cursor is all over the place

captured regexp groups are not highlighted

if application crashes it does not finalize the terminal

introduced in #20

Undo profile modification operations

cm doesn't say anything if the executed command has failed

no way to add new cmd

introduced in #26

First Experience Tutorial

We can easily detect that the user is running the program for the first time by the lack of the config. In that case we can play a small simple tutorial that walks the user through the feature of the program.

Some sort of testing

no support for horizontal scrolling for regexs list

introduced in #26

.get(cursor_x..)

.unwrap_or("")

no way to add new regex

introduced in #26

Standardize formatting

cm crashes if current_regex or current_cmd from cm.conf is out-of-bound

I think we should simply clamp it to the allowed range

Some shortcuts collide with the Editing state of StringList

no way to delete a cmd

Scrolling

cm does not handle ansi escape codes received from stdin

no way to switch cmd

introduced in #26

The executed command line is not customizable

Escape in editing mode should delete the current element if we are adding a new element

introduced in #66

cm does not run the program

https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/917kcq/using_stdprocesscommand_to_open_file_in_vi/

endwin() on Enter in OutputBuffer looks like a total hack and it's unclear why it even works

introduced in #46

word wrapping for long lines

Mutually exclusive with horizontal scrolling #17

Search

cursor is not visible when the line is empty

Document config format

scroll horizontally

Mutually exclusive with word wrap #16

no way to delete a regex

Save LineList to a file

Crashes if input from stdin is empty

grep -R "nyanpasu" src/ | cargo run

Current behaviour
Program crashes with

thread 'main' panicked at 'index out of bounds: the len is 0 but the index is 0', src/ui.rs:85:10
                                                                                                 note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace

Expected behaviour
Programs exists with nice error message, like No input provided!.

no support for horizontal scrolling for cmds list

introduced in #26

.get(cursor_x..)

.unwrap_or("")

shell is not customizable

Reload profile configuration