Writing my own text editor, and daily-driving it

todsacerdoti 56 points 10 comments March 11, 2026
blog.jsbarretto.com · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (6 comments)

codazoda

I use my own text editor too. Nobody else seems to get value from it. I’m still surprised by the value we get from home grown solutions.

willrshansen

This feels like two steps up from a highly customized vim config. But I want one step up. I want to be able to piece together an editor from modular task specific executables. Different programs for file searching, input mapping, buffer modification and display, etc. Probably similar to how LSPs are already separated from most editors. One step less hardcore than writing a whole editor. Anyone know of any existing projects along these lines?

abktowa

Should make my own text editor. Would make for an interesting project at least.

mudkipdev

I would recommend using the ropey crate for easy performance gains. A string buffer is quick to implement but you will hit a wall as soon as you need to edit large files.

whynotmaybe

Fond memory of when I wrote an editor in the 90's because we didn't want to use "ms edit" for COBOL and asm files. Syntax coloring, fast buffering and even a screen saver. You could even call the compiler directly from it. All this running on a pentium 120 and it felt a thousands times faster than today's vscode. But vscode can edit multiple files at the same time...

mllev15

Josh Barretto is the genius behind the Super Mario 64 GBA port. I would gladly use his editor.

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