Textadept
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Textadept Manual
Contents
- Introduction
- Installation
- User Interface
- Working with Files
- File Navigation
- Adept Editing
- Modules
- Preferences
- Themes
- Advanced
- Scripting
- Compiling
- Help
- Appendix
Introduction
Overview
Textadept is a fast, minimalist, and remarkably extensible cross-platform text editor for programmers. Written in a combination of C and Lua and relentlessly optimized for speed and minimalism over the years, Textadept is an ideal editor for programmers who want endless extensibility without sacrificing speed or succumbing to code bloat and featuritis.
Fast
Textadept is fast. It starts up instantly and has a very responsive user interface. Even though the editor consists primarily of Lua, Lua is one of the fastest scripting languages available. With the optional LuaJIT version, Textadept runs faster than ever before.
Minimalist
Textadept is minimalist. Not only does its appearance exhibit this, but the editor’s C core pledges to never exceed 2000 lines of code and its Lua extension code avoids going beyond 4000 lines. After more than 8 years of development, Textadept contains roughly the same amount of code since its inception while evolving into a vastly superior editor.
Remarkably Extensible
Textadept is remarkably extensible. Designed to be that way from the very beginning, the editor’s features came later. Most of Textadept’s internals use Lua, from syntax highlighting to opening and saving files to searching and replacing and more. Textadept gives you complete control over the entire application using Lua. Everything from moving the caret to changing menus and key commands on-the-fly to handling core events is possible. Its potential is vast.
Manual Notation
This manual represents directories and file paths like this: /path/to/dir/ and /path/to/file. (Windows machines use ‘/’ and ‘\’ interchangeably as directory separators.) Paths that do not begin with ‘/’ or “C:\”, are relative to the location of Textadept. ~/ denotes the user’s home directory. On Windows machines this is the value of the “USERHOME” environment variable, typically C:\Users\username\ or C:\Documents and Settings\username\. On Linux/BSD and Mac OSX machines it is the value of “$HOME”, typically /home/username/ and /Users/username/, respectively.
The manual expresses key bindings like this: Ctrl+N
. They are not case
sensitive. Ctrl+N
stands for pressing the “N” key while only holding down the
“Control” modifier key, and not the “Shift” modifier key. Ctrl+Shift+N
stands
for pressing the “N” key while holding down both the “Control” and “Shift”
modifiers. The same notation applies to key chains like Ctrl+N, N
and
Ctrl+N, Shift+N
. The first key chain represents pressing “Control” and “N”
followed immediately by “N” with no modifiers. (The comma serves only for
readability.) The second represents pressing “Control” and “N” followed
immediately by “Shift” and “N”.
When mentioning key bindings, the manual often shows the Mac OSX and curses
equivalents in parenthesis. It may be tempting to assume that some Windows/Linux
keys map to Mac OSX’s (e.g. Ctrl
to ⌘
) or curses' (e.g. Ctrl
to ^
), but
this is not always the case. In order to minimize confusion, view key
equivalents as separate entities, not as translations of one another. It is also
worth pointing out that for curses, the prefix M-
represents the Alt (or Meta)
modifier key.
Installation
Requirements
In its bid for minimalism, Textadept also depends on very little to run. The GUI version needs only GTK+, a cross-platform GUI toolkit, version 2.24 or later (circa early-2011) on Linux and BSD systems. The application already bundles a GTK+ runtime into the Windows and Mac OSX packages. The terminal, or curses, version of Textadept only depends on a curses implementation like ncurses on Linux, Mac OSX, and BSD systems. The Windows binary includes a precompiled version of pdcurses. Textadept also incorporates its own copy of Lua on all platforms.
Requirements for Linux and BSD
Most Linux and BSD systems already have GTK+ installed. If not, your package manager probably makes it available. Otherwise, compile and install GTK+from the GTK+ website.
The GUI versions of Textadept require GLib version 2.28 or later (circa mid-2011) in order to support single-instance functionality.
Most Linux and BSD systems already have a curses implementation like ncurses installed. If not, look for one in your package manager, or compile and install ncurses from the ncurses website. Ensure it is the wide-character version of ncurses, which handles multibyte characters. Debian-based distributions like Ubuntu typically call the package “libncursesw5”.
Requirements for Mac OSX
No requirements other than Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard) or higher with an Intel CPU.
Requirements for Windows
Windows XP or greater.
Download
Download Textadept from the project’s download page by selecting the appropriate package for your platform. For the Windows and Mac OSX packages, the bundled GTK+ runtime accounts for more than ¾ of the download and unpackaged application sizes. Textadept itself is much smaller.
You also have the option of downloading an official set of language modules from the download page. Textadept itself includes C and Lua language modules by default.
If necessary, you can obtain PGP signatures from the download page along
with a public key in order to verify download integrity. For example on Linux,
after importing the public key via gpg --import foicica.pgp
and downloading
the appropriate signature, run gpg --verify [signature]
.
Installation
Installing Textadept is simple and easy. You do not need administrator privileges.
Installing on Linux and BSD
Unpack the archive anywhere.
If you downloaded the set of language modules, unpack it where you unpacked the Textadept archive. The modules are located in the /path/to/textadept_x.x/modules/ directory.
Installing on Mac OSX
Unpack the archive and move Textadept.app to your user or system Applications/ directory like any other Mac OSX application. The package contains an optional ta script for launching Textadept from the command line that you can put in a directory in your “$PATH” (e.g. /usr/local/bin/).
If you downloaded the set of language modules, unpack it, right-click Textadept.app, select “Show Package Contents”, navigate to Contents/Resources/modules/, and move the unpacked modules there.
Installing on Windows
Unpack the archive anywhere.
If you downloaded the set of language modules, unpack it where you unpacked the Textadept archive. The modules are located in the textadept_x.x\modules\ directory.
Running
Running on Linux and BSD
Run Textadept by running /path/to/textadept_x.x/textadept from the terminal. You can also create a symbolic link to the executable in a directory in your “$PATH” (e.g. /usr/local/bin/) or make a GNOME, KDE, XFCE, etc. button or menu launcher.
The package also contains a textadeptjit executable for running Textadept with LuaJIT. Due to potential compatibility issues, use the textadept executable wherever possible.
The textadept-curses and textadeptjit-curses executables are the terminal versions of Textadept. Run them as you would run the textadept and textadeptjit executables, but from a terminal instead.
Runtime Problems
Providing a single binary that runs on all Linux platforms proves challenging, since the versions of software installed vary widely from distribution to distribution. Because the Linux version of Textadept uses the versions of GTK+ and ncurses installed on your system, an error like:
error while loading shared libraries: <lib>: cannot open shared object
file: No such file or directory
may occur when trying to run the program. The solution is actually quite painless even though it requires recompiling Textadept.
Running on Mac OSX
Run Textadept by double-clicking Textadept.app. You can also pin it to your dock.
Textadept.app also contains an executable for running Textadept with
LuaJIT. Enable it by setting a “TEXTADEPTJIT”
environment variable or by typing
export TEXTADEPTJIT=1
in the terminal. Due to potential
compatibility issues, use the non-LuaJIT executable wherever
possible.
Mac OSX Environment Variables
By default, Mac OSX GUI apps like Textadept do not see shell environment variables like “$PATH”. Consequently, any modules that utilize programs contained in “$PATH” (e.g. the progams in /usr/local/bin/) will not find those programs. The solution is to create a ~/.textadept/osx_env.sh file that exports all of the environment variables you need Textadept to see. For example:
export PATH=$PATH
Running on Windows
Run Textadept by double-clicking textadept.exe. You can also create shortcuts to the executable in your Start Menu, Quick Launch toolbar, Desktop, etc.
The package also contains a textadeptjit.exe executable for running Textadept with LuaJIT. Due to potential compatibility issues, use the textadept.exe executable wherever possible.
Portable Textadept
You can create a portable version of Textadept by creating a shortcut to the
textadept.exe executable with the additional command line arguments
-u userdata
. ~/.textadept/ will now point to userdata/ in the directory
where textadept.exe is located.
~/.textadept
Textadept stores all of your preferences and user-data in your ~/.textadept/ directory. If this directory does not exist, Textadept creates it on startup. This manual gives more information on this folder later.
Single Instance
Textadept is a single-instance application. This means that after starting
Textadept, running textadept file.ext
on Linux or BSD (ta file.ext
on Mac
OSX) from the command line or opening a file with Textadept from a file manager
(e.g. Windows) opens file.ext in the original Textadept instance. Passing a
-f
or --force
switch to Textadept overrides this behavior and opens the file
in a new instance: textadept -f file.ext
(ta -f file.ext
); on Windows, you
can create a separate shortcut to textadept.exe that passes the switch.
Without the force switch, the original Textadept instance opens files,
regardless of the number of instances open.
The terminal versions of Textadept do not support single instance.
User Interface
Textadept’s user interface is sleek and simple. It consists of a menu and tab bar (GUI version only), editor view, and statusbar. There is also a find & replace pane and a command entry, but Textadept initially hides them both. This manual briefly describes these features below, but provides more details later.
Menu
The completely customizable menu provides access to all of Textadept’s features. Only the GUI version implements it, though. The terminal version furnishes the command selection dialog instead. Textadept is very keyboard-driven and assigns key shortcuts to most menu items. Your key preferences can change these shortcuts and will reflect in the menu. Here is a complete list of default key bindings.
Tab Bar
The tab bar displays all of Textadept’s open buffers, although it’s only visible when two or more buffers are open. While only the GUI version supports tabs, Textadept’s buffer browser is always available and far more powerful.
Editor View
Most of your time spent with Textadept is in the editor view. Both the GUI version and the terminal version feature unlimited vertical and horizontal view splitting. Lua also has complete control over all views.
Find & Replace Pane
This compact pane is a great way to slice and dice through your document or a directory of files. The pane is available only when you need it and quickly gets out of your way when you do not, minimizing distractions.
Command Entry
The versatile command entry has many different roles. Primarily it is the place to execute Lua commands and interact with Textadept’s internal Lua state. In other contexts it finds text incrementally and executes shell commands. Lua extensions allow it to do even more. Like the find & replace pane, the command entry pops in and out as you wish.
Statusbar
The statusbar actually consists of two statusbars. The one on the left-hand side displays temporary status messages while the one on the right-hand side persistently shows the current buffer status.
Working with Files
Buffers
Despite the fact that Textadept can display multiple buffers with a tab bar, the
buffer browser is usually a faster way to switch between buffers or quickly
assess which files are open. Press Ctrl+B
(⌘B
on Mac OSX | M-B
or M-S-B
in curses) to display this browser.
The buffer browser displays a list of currently open buffers. By default, the
most recent buffers are towards the bottom of the list. The browser can be
configured to list the most recently viewed buffers first.
Typing part of any filename filters the list. Spaces are wildcards. The arrow
keys move the selection up and down. Pressing Enter
, selecting OK
, or
double-clicking a buffer in the list switches to the selected buffer.
Textadept shows the name of the active buffer in its titlebar. Pressing
Ctrl+Tab
(^⇥
on Mac OSX | M-N
in curses) cycles to the next buffer and
Ctrl+Shift+Tab
(^⇧⇥
| M-P
) cycles to the previous one.
Typical Buffer Settings
Individual files have three configurable settings: line endings, indentation, and encoding. Line endings are the characters that separate lines. Indentation consists of an indentation character and an indentation size. File encoding specifies how to display text characters. Textadept shows these settings in the buffer status statusbar.
Buffer Line Endings
Textadept determines which default line endings, commonly known as end-of-line (EOL) markers, to use based on the current platform. On Windows it is CRLF (“\r\n”). On all other platforms it is LF (‘\n’). Textadept first tries to auto-detect the EOL mode of opened files before falling back on the platform default. The “Buffer -> EOL Mode” menu manually changes line endings and, unlike indentation settings, automatically converts all existing EOLs.
Buffer Indentation
Normally, a language module or
your preferences dictate a buffer’s indentation settings. By
default, indentation is 2 spaces. Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T
(^⇧T
on Mac OSX
| M-T
or M-S-T
in curses) manually toggles between using tabs and spaces,
although this only affects future indentation. Existing indentation remains
unchanged. Ctrl+Alt+I
(^I
| M-I
) performs the conversion. (If the buffer
uses tabs, all indenting spaces convert to tabs. If the buffer uses spaces, all
indenting tabs convert to spaces.) Similarly, the “Buffer -> Indentation” menu
manually sets indentation size.
Buffer Encodings
Textadept has the ability to decode files encoded in many different encodings,
but by default it only attempts to decode UTF-8, ASCII, ISO-8859-1, and UTF-16.
If you work with files with encodings Textadept does not recognize, add those
encodings to io.encodings
in your preferences.
UTF-8 is the recommended file encoding because of its wide support by other text editors and operating systems. The “Buffer -> Encoding” menu changes the file encoding and performs the conversion. Textadept saves new files as UTF-8 by default, but does not alter the encoding of existing ones.
Recent Files
Pressing Ctrl+Alt+O
(^⌘O
on Mac OSX | M-^O
in curses) brings up a dialog
that behaves like the buffer browser, but displays a list of recently opened
files to reopen.
Sessions
By default, Textadept saves its state upon quitting in order to restore it the
next time the editor starts up. Passing the -n
or --nosession
switch to
Textadept on startup disables this feature. The “File -> Save Session…” and
“File -> Load Session…” menus manually save and open sessions while the -s
and --session
switches load a session on startup. The switches accept the path
of a session file or the name of a session in ~/.textadept/. Session files
store information such as open buffers, current split views, caret and scroll
positions in each buffer, Textadept’s window size, recently opened files, and
bookmarks. Tampering with session files may have unintended consequences.
Quick Open
A quicker, though slightly more limited alternative to the standard file
selection dialog is Quick Open. It too behaves like the buffer browser, but
displays a list of files to open, including files in sub-directories. Pressing
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+O
(^⌘⇧O
on Mac OSX | M-S-O
in curses) quickly opens the
current file’s directory, Ctrl+U
(⌘U
| ^U
) quickly opens ~/.textadept/,
and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P
(^⌘⇧P
| M-^P
) quickly opens the current project
(which must be under version control). Quick Open is pretty limited from the
“Tools -> Quick Open” menu, but more versatile in scripts.
Views
Split Views
Textadept allows you to split the editor window an unlimited number of times
both horizontally and vertically. Ctrl+Alt+S
or Ctrl+Alt+H
splits
horizontally into top and bottom views and Ctrl+Alt+V
splits vertically (^S
and ^V
, respectively on Mac OSX | M-^V, S
and M-^V, V
in curses) into
side-by-side views. Clicking and dragging on the splitter bar with the mouse or
pressing Ctrl+Alt++
and Ctrl+Alt+-
(^+
and ^-
| M-^V, +
and M-^V, -
)
resizes the split. Textadept supports viewing a single buffer in two or more
views.
Pressing Ctrl+Alt+N
(^⌥⇥
on Mac OSX | M-^V, N
in curses) jumps to the next
view and Ctrl+Alt+P
(^⌥⇧⇥
| M-^V, P
) jumps the previous one. However,
depending on the split sequence, the order when cycling between views may not be
linear.
In order to unsplit a view, enter the view to keep open and press Ctrl+Alt+W
(^W
on Mac OSX | M-^V, W
in curses). In order to unsplit all views, use
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+W
(^⇧W
| M-^V, S-W
).
Note: Textadept curses uses the M-^V
key prefix for split views.
View Settings
Individual views have many configurable settings. Among the more useful settings are viewing line endings, handling long lines, viewing indentation guides, and viewing whitespace. These options change how to display buffers in the current view. Changing a setting in one view does not immediately change that setting in any other split view. You must switch to that other view first.
View Line Endings
Normally, EOL characters (“\r” and “\n”) are invisible. Pressing
Ctrl+Alt+Enter
(^↩
on Mac OSX | none in curses) toggles their visibility.
View Long Lines
By default, lines with more characters than the view can show do not wrap into
view. Ctrl+Alt+\
(^\
on Mac OSX | none in curses) toggles line wrapping.
View Indentation Guides
Views show small guiding lines based on indentation level by default.
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I
(^⇧I
on Mac OSX | N/A in curses) toggles the visibility of
these guides.
Textadept curses does not support indentation guides.
View Whitespace
Normally, whitespace characters, tabs and spaces, are invisible. Pressing
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S
(^⇧S
on Mac OSX | none in curses) toggles their visibility.
Visible spaces show up as dots and visible tabs show up as arrows.
Zoom
In order to temporarily increase or decrease the font size in a view, press
Ctrl+=
(⌘=
on Mac OSX | N/A in curses) and Ctrl+-
(⌘-
| N/A)
respectively. Ctrl+0
(⌘0
| N/A) resets the zoom.
Textadept curses does not support zooming.
File Navigation
Basic Movements
Textadept implements the customary key bindings for navigating text fields on
the current platform. The arrow keys move the caret in a particular direction,
Ctrl+Left
and Ctrl+Right
(^⇠
and ^⇢
on Mac OSX | ^Left
and ^Right
in
curses) move by words, PgUp
and PgDn
(⇞
and ⇟
| PgUp
and PgDn
) move
by pages, etc. Mac OSX and curses also handle some Bash-style bindings like
^B
, ^F
, ^P
, ^N
, ^A
, and ^E
. The “Movement” section of the
key bindings list lists all movement bindings.
Brace Match
By default, Textadept highlights the matching brace characters under the caret:
‘(’, ‘)’, ‘[’, ‘]’, ‘{’, and ‘}’. Pressing Ctrl+M
(^M
on Mac OSX | M-M
in
curses) moves the caret to the matching brace.
Bookmarks
Textadept supports the bookmarking of buffer lines in order to jump back to them
later. Ctrl+F2
(⌘F2
on Mac OSX | F1
in curses) toggles a bookmark on the
current line, F2
jumps to the next bookmarked line, Shift+F2
(⇧F2
| F3
)
jumps to the previously bookmarked line, Alt+F2
(⌥F2
| F4
) jumps to the
bookmark selected from a list, and Ctrl+Shift+F2
(⌘⇧F2
| F6
) clears all
bookmarks in the current buffer.
Goto Line
In order to jump to a specific line in a file, press Ctrl+J
(⌘J
on Mac OSX |
^J
in curses), specify the line number in the prompt, and press Enter
(↩
|
Enter
) or click Ok
.
Adept Editing
Basic Editing
Textadept features many common, basic editing features: inserting text, undo/redo, manipulating the clipboard, deleting characters and words, duplicating lines, joining lines, and transposing characters. The top-level “Edit” menu contains these actions and lists their associated key bindings. This manual discusses more elaborate editing features below.
Autopaired Characters
Usually, brace (‘(’, ‘[’, ‘{’) and quote (‘'’, ‘"’) characters go
together in pairs. Textadept automatically inserts the complement character of
any user-typed opening brace or quote character and allows the user to
subsequently type over it. Similarly, the editor deletes the complement when
you press Bksp
(⌫
on Mac OSX | Bksp
in curses) over the typed one. The
module preferences section details how to configure or
disable these features.
Word Completion
Textadept provides buffer-based word completion. Start typing a word and press
Ctrl+Enter
(^Esc
on Mac OSX | M-Enter
in curses) to display a list of
suggested completions based on words in the current buffer. Continuing to type
changes the suggestion. Press Enter
(↩
| Enter
) to complete the selected
word.
Virtual Space Mode
Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+V
(^⇧V
in Mac OSX | none in curses) enables and
disables Virtual space (freehand) mode. When virtual space is enabled, the caret
may move into the space past the ends of lines.
Overwrite Mode
Enable and disable overwrite mode with the Insert
key. When enabled, typing
overwrites existing characters in the buffer rather than inserting the typed
characters. In the GUI version of Textadept, the caret also changes to an
underline in overwrite mode.
Selections
Textadept includes many ways of creating and working with selections. Creating
basic selections entails holding down the “Shift” modifier key and then pressing
the arrow keys, clicking and dragging the mouse cursor over a range of text, or
pressing Ctrl+A
(⌘A
| M-A
) to select all text. Creating more advanced
selections like multiple and rectangular selections requires slightly more
effort, but has powerful uses.
Multiple Selection
Holding down the “Control” modifier key and then clicking and dragging the mouse cursor over ranges of text creates multiple selections. Holding “Control” and then clicking without dragging places an additional caret at the clicked position. Textadept mirrors any typed text at each selection.
Rectangular Selection
Rectangular selections are a more structured form of multiple selections. A
rectangular selection spanning multiple lines allows typing on each line.
Holding Alt+Shift
(⌥⇧
on Mac OSX | M-S-
in curses) and then pressing the
arrow keys creates a rectangular selection. Holding the Alt
modifier key and
then clicking and dragging the mouse cursor also creates a rectangular
selection.
Note: In some Linux environments, the window manager consumes Alt+Shift+Arrow
combinations, so Textadept’s keys may need reconfiguring. Similarly, the window
manager may also consume Alt+Mouse
in order to move windows. In that case, a
normal text selection may be changed into a rectangular selection by tapping the
Alt
modifier key.
Select to Matching Brace
Placing the caret over a brace character (‘(’, ‘)’, ‘[’, ‘]’, ‘{’, or ‘}’) and
pressing Ctrl+Shift+M
(^⇧M
on Mac OSX| M-S-M
in curses) extends the
selection to the brace character’s matching brace.
Entity Selection
Textadept allows the selection of many different entities from the caret. For
example, Ctrl+"
(^"
on Mac OSX | M-"
in curses) selects all characters in
a double-quoted range. Typing it again selects the double-quotes too. The
“Edit -> Select In…” menu lists all selectable entities with their key
bindings.
Marks
In curses, since some terminals do not recognize certain key combinations like
Shift+Arrow
for making selections, marks can create selections. Create a mark
at the current caret position with ^^
. Then use regular movement keys like the
arrows, page up/down, and home/end to extend the selection in one direction.
Pressing ^]
swaps the current caret position with the original mark position
in order to extend the selection in the opposite direction. Typing text,
deleting text, or running a command that does either, removes the mark and
restores ordinary navigation. Pressing ^^
again also stops selecting text.
Only Textadept curses supports marks.
Transforms
Enclose Entities
As a complement to selecting entities, Textadept allows the enclosure of text in
entities. The “Edit -> Selection -> Enclose In…” menu lists all enclosing
entities with their key bindings. Each action encloses either the currently
selected text or the word to the left of the caret. For example, pressing
Alt+<
(^<
on Mac OSX | M->
in curses) at the end of a word encloses it in
XML tags.
Change Case
Pressing Ctrl+Alt+U
or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+U
(^U
or ^⇧U
on Mac OSX | M-^U
or M-^L
in curses) converts selected text to upper case letters or lower case
letters, respectively.
Change Indent Level
Increase the amount of indentation for a selected set of lines by pressing Tab
(⇥
on Mac OSX | Tab
in curses). Shift+Tab
(⇧⇥
| S-Tab
) decreases it.
You do not have to select whole lines. Selecting any part of a line renders the
entire line eligible for indenting/dedenting. Using these key sequences when no
selection is present does not have the same effect.
Move Lines
Move selected lines up and down with the Ctrl+Shift+Up
and Ctrl+Shift+Down
(^⇧⇡
and ^⇧⇣
on Mac OSX | S-^Up
and S-^Down
in curses) keys,
respectively. Like with changing indent level, selecting any part of a line
renders the entire line eligible for moving.
Find & Replace
Ctrl+F
(⌘F
on Mac OSX | M-F
or M-S-F
in curses) brings up the Find &
Replace pane. It has the usual find and replace with “Match Case”, “Whole Word”,
and “Regex” options, along with find/replace history
Note the Ctrl+G
, Ctrl+Shift+G
, Ctrl+Alt+R
, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R
key bindings
for find next, find previous, replace, and replace all (⌘G
, ⌘⇧G
, ^R
, and
^⇧R
, respectively on Mac OSX | M-G
, M-S-G
, M-R
, M-S-R
in curses) only
work after hiding the Find & Replace pane. For at least the English locale in
the GUI version, use the button mnemonics: Alt+N
, Alt+P
, Alt+R
, and
Alt+A
(⌘N
, ⌘P
, ⌘R
, ⌘A
| N/A) after bringing up the pane.
In the curses version, Tab
and S-Tab
toggles between the find next, find
previous, replace, and replace all buttons; Up
and Down
arrows switch
between the find and replace text fields; ^P
and ^N
cycles through history;
and F1-F4
toggles find options.
Pressing Esc
(Esc
| Esc
) hides the pane after you finish with it.
Replace in Selection
By default, “Replace All” replaces all text in the buffer. Selecting a continuous block of text and then “Replace All” replaces all text in the selection.
Find in Files
Ctrl+Shift+F
brings up Find in Files (⌘⇧F
on Mac OSX | none in curses) and
prompts for a directory to search. A new buffer lists the search results.
Double-clicking a search result jumps to it in the file, as do the the
Ctrl+Alt+G
and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G
(^⌘G
and ^⌘⇧G
| none) key bindings for
cycling through results. Textadept does not support replacing in files directly.
You must “Find in Files” first, and then “Replace All” for each file containing
a result. The “Match Case”, “Whole Word”, and “Regex” flags still apply.
Warning: currently, the find API provides the only means to specify a file-type filter. While the default filter excludes many common binary files and version control folders from searches, Find in Files could still scan unrecognized binary files or large, unwanted sub-directories. Searches also block Textadept from receiving additional input, making the interface temporarily unresponsive. By default, every 10 seconds or so, Textadept will prompt you to continue a “Find in Files” search, allowing you to cancel one that is taking too long. You can change this timeout in your preferences.
Incremental Find
Start an incremental search by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F
(^⌘F
on Mac OSX | M-^F
in curses). Incremental search searches the buffer as you type, but only
recognizes the “Match Case” find option. Enter
cycles through subsequent
matches and Ctrl+R
(⌘R
| ^R
) cycles through matches in reverse. Pressing
Esc
(Esc
| Esc
) stops the search.
Source Code Editing
Being a programmer’s editor, Textadept excels at editing source code. It understands the syntax and structure of more than 90 different programming languages and recognizes hundreds of file types. Textadept uses this knowledge to make viewing and editing code faster and easier. It can also compile and run simple source files.
Lexers
Upon opening a file, Textadept attempts to identify the programming language
associated with it and assign a “lexer” to highlight syntactic elements of the
code. Pressing Ctrl+Shift+L
(⌘⇧L
on Mac OSX | M-S-L
in curses) and
selecting a lexer from the list manually sets the lexer instead. Your
file type preferences customize how Textadept recognizes files.
On rare occasions while you edit, lexers may lose track of their context and
highlight syntax incorrectly. Pressing F5
triggers a full redraw.
Code Folding
Some lexers support “code folding”, the act of temporarily hiding blocks of code
in order to make viewing easier. Markers in the margin to the left of the code
denote fold points. Clicking on one toggles the folding for that block of code.
Pressing Ctrl+*
(⌘*
on Mac OSX | M-*
in curses) also toggles the fold
point on the current line.
Word Highlight
In order to highlight all occurrences of a given word, such as a variable name,
place the caret over the word and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H
(⌘⇧H
on Mac OSX |
N/A in curses). This feature also works for plain text.
Autocompletion and Documentation
Textadept has the capability to autocomplete symbols for programming languages
and display API documentation. Pressing Ctrl+Space
(⌥Esc
on Mac OSX |
^Space
in curses) completes the current symbol and Ctrl+H
(^H
| M-H
or
M-S-H
) shows any known documentation on the current symbol. Note: In order for
these features to work, the language you are working with must have an
autocompleter and API file(s), respectively.
Language modules usually define these. Most of the
official Textadept language modules support autocompletion and
documentation.
Snippets
Snippets are essentially pieces of text inserted into source code or plain text.
However, snippets are not bound to static text. They can be dynamic templates
which contain placeholders for further user input, can mirror or transform those
user inputs, and can execute arbitrary code. Snippets are useful for rapidly
constructing blocks of code such as control structures, method calls, and
function declarations. Press Ctrl+K
(⌥⇥
on Mac OSX | M-K
in curses) for a
list of available snippets. A snippet consists of a trigger word and snippet
text. Instead of manually selecting a snippet to insert, type its trigger word
followed by the Tab
(⇥
| Tab
) key. Subsequent presses of Tab
(⇥
|
Tab
) cause the caret to enter placeholders in sequential order, Shift+Tab
(⇧⇥
| S-Tab
) goes back to the previous placeholder, and Esc
cancels the
current snippet. Textadept supports nested snippets, snippets inserted from
within another snippet. Language modules usually define their own set of
snippets, but your snippet preferences can define some
too.
Toggle Comments
Pressing Ctrl+/
(⌘/
on Mac OSX | M-/
in curses) comments or uncomments the
code on the selected lines. Selecting any part of a line renders the entire line
eligible for commenting or uncommenting.
Compile, Run, and Build
Textadept knows most of the commands that compile and/or run code in source
files. It can also sometimes detect your project’s build file and run that.
Pressing Ctrl+Shift+R
(⌘⇧R
on Mac OSX | M-^R
in curses) executes the
command for compiling code in the current file, Ctrl+R
(⌘R
| ^R
) executes
the command for running code, and Ctrl+Shift+B
(⌘⇧B
on Mac OSX | M-^B
in
curses) executes the command for building a project. Ctrl+Shift+X
(⌘⇧X
|
M-^X
) stops the currently running process. A new buffer shows the output from
the command and marks any recognized warnings and errors. Pressing Ctrl+Alt+E
(^⌘E
| M-X
) attempts to jump to the source of the next recognized warning or
error and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E
(^⌘⇧E
| M-S-X
) attempts to jump to the previous
one. Double-clicking on warnings and errors also jumps to their sources. If
Textadept does not know the correct commands for compiling and/or running your
language’s source code, if it does not know how to build your project, or if it
does not detect warning or error messages properly, you can make changes in your
preferences.
Modules
Modules are small packages of Lua code that provide functionality for Textadept. Textadept can load modules when the application starts up, or it can load modules on-demand in response to a particular event. Most of Textadept’s functionality comes from modules loaded on startup. An example is the textadept module which implements most of Textadept’s functionality (find & replace, key bindings, menus, snippets, etc.) Using custom modules you can add additional features and functionality to Textadept.
Modules follow the Lua package model: a module is either a single Lua file or a group of Lua files in a directory that has an init.lua file as the module’s entry point. For more information on modules, please see the Lua documentation. (Note that while that resource is a bit outdated, it is still largely relevant when it comes to Lua modules.) Textadept also ships with a few modules in its modules/ directory for reference.
With one exception, Textadept will not automatically load a given module. You must explicitly tell Textadept what modules to load and when to do so. The loading modules section describes how to load modules on startup and how to load them on-demand in response to events.
Language Modules
The only kind of modules Textadept will load automatically are called language modules. Despite this distinction, they are still just plain Lua modules – the only thing special about them is that a language module’s name matches the language’s lexer in Textadept’s lexers/ directory. (For example, the Lua language module has the name “lua”, and the C language module has the name “ansi_c”.)
A language module is designed to provide extra functionality for a single programming language (in addition to the source code editing features discussed previously), and Textadept only loads such a module when it opens an applicable source file for the first time. (Thereafter the module remains loaded in memory.)
While the scope of a language module is not defined, many language modules specify custom indentation rules (e.g. 4 spaces per indent in Python per PEP 8), code autocompletion routines, snippets, and custom commands. See the language module API documentation for more ideas on what features language modules can provide.
Getting Modules
Textadept has a set of officially supported language modules available as a separate download from the Textadept downloads page. The source code for those modules is hosted here.
For now, the wiki hosts third-party, user-created modules.
Installing Modules
Install a module by placing it in your ~/.textadept/modules/ directory. Even if you have write permissions in Textadept’s installed location, placing all custom or user-created modules in ~/.textadept/modules/ prevents the possibility of overwriting them when you update Textadept. Also, modules in that directory override any modules in Textadept’s modules/ directory. This means that if, for example, you have your own lua module, Textadept will load that one instead of its own when a Lua source file is opened.
Developing Modules
As mentioned previously, modules can be a single Lua file or a group of files in a directory headed by an init.lua file. The name of a module is based on its filename or directory name, not its contents.
Here are some basic guidelines for developing modules and some things to keep in mind:
- For modules that define functions or fields, return a table of those functions
and fields (which should be defined local to the module), rather than defining
them globally. (This is standard Lua practice.) That way the construct
foo = require('foo')
behaves as expected. - Try not to define global variables. Loaded modules, even language modules, persist in Textadept’s Lua state; Textadept never unloads them. You do not want to pollute the global namespace or cause unintended conflicts with other modules.
- Be aware of the programming languages Textadept supports and do not use any module names that match the name of a lexer in the lexers/ directory unless you are creating a language module.
- Additional documentation on creating language modules can be found in the the language module API documentation.
Preferences
Textadept provides a wealth of customization options and extension points. The two main extension points are when Textadept starts up and when Textadept loads a file for editing. By now, this manual assumes you are at least familiar with the basics of Lua, but you do not have to know a lot of the language in order to configure Textadept.
User Init
Textadept executes a ~/.textadept/init.lua, your user-init file, on startup. If this file does not exist, Textadept creates it for you. This file allows you to write arbitrary Lua code that instructs Textadept what to do when the application starts. This includes (but is not limited to) changing editor preferences, changing the settings of existing modules, loading new modules, modifying key bindings, adding snippets, editing file associations, adding menu items, and changing the theme. This manual discusses these specific customizations, minus theming, in the sections below. Theming is covered in a later section.
Editor Preferences
Editor preferences are stored in a buffer
object. Normally, each buffer
can have its own individual preferences, but on startup, any preferences set
apply to all subsequent buffers. For example, in order to override a setting
like Textadept’s default indentation setting of 2 spaces per indent, add the
following to your ~/.textadept/init.lua:
buffer.use_tabs = true buffer.tab_width = 4
(If you want to define per-language editor preferences, use the technique shown in the Language Preferences section below.)
Textadept’s own init.lua contains the application’s default editor settings
(like 2 space indentation). This file is a good “quick reference” for
configurable editor settings. It also has many commented out settings that
you can copy to your ~/.textadept/init.lua and uncomment in order to turn on
(or change the value of before turning on). You can view a settings’s
documentation by pressing Ctrl+H
(^H
on Mac OSX | M-H
or M-S-H
in
curses) or by reading the buffer API documentation.
Module Preferences
Many of Textadept’s default modules come with configurable settings that can be changed from your ~/.textadept/init.lua (which is executed after those modules are loaded). Each module’s API documentation lists any configurable settings it has. For example, in order to always hide the tab bar, shorten the “Find in Files” timeout prompt, disable character autopairing with typeover, strip trailing whitespace on save, and use C99-style line comments in C code, add the following to ~/.textadept/init.lua:
ui.tabs = false
ui.find.find_in_files_timeout = 5
textadept.editing.auto_pairs = nil
textadept.editing.typeover_chars = nil
textadept.editing.strip_trailing_spaces = true
textadept.editing.comment_string.ansi_c = '//'
As another example, if Textadept’s compile and run commands for a particular language are not working for you, you can use ~/.textadept/init.lua to reconfigure them:
textadept.run.run_commands.lua = 'lua5.3 "%f"'
textadept.run.run_commands.python = 'python3 "%f"'
Note: you can also place these settings in an appropriate language module.
Finally, if Textadept does not know how to build your project (which must be under version control in order to be recognized as one), you can tell it how to do so:
textadept.run.build_commands['/path/to/project'] = 'shell command'
Tip: You can quickly view the documentation for the setting under the caret
by pressing Ctrl+H
(^H
on Mac OSX | M-H
or M-S-H
in curses). This
applies to pretty much any Lua identifier, not just settings.
Language Preferences
Normally, language modules handle per-language preferences such as
language-specific indentation settings. However, if you do not have a
language module installed for a particular programming language (and you do not
want to bother creating one for it), you can still configure Textadept on a
per-language basis by connecting to the events.LEXER_LOADED
event, which
Textadept emits every time it opens a source file. For example, in order to
ensure your Ruby code always uses 2 spaces for indentation (regardless of what
your default indentation settings are), add the following to your
~/.textadept/init.lua:
events.connect(events.LEXER_LOADED, function(lexer)
if lexer == 'ruby' then
buffer.use_tabs = false
buffer.tab_width = 2
end
end)
Perhaps you want to auto-pair and brace-match ‘<’ and ‘>’ characters, but only in HTML and XML files. In order to accomplish this, add the following:
events.connect(events.LEXER_LOADED, function(lexer)
local is_markup = lexer == 'html' or lexer == 'xml'
textadept.editing.auto_pairs[string.byte('<')] = is_markup and '>'
textadept.editing.brace_matches[string.byte('<')] = is_markup
textadept.editing.brace_matches[string.byte('>')] = is_markup
end)
Finally, suppose you have a language module that has a configurable setting that you want to change without editing the module itself. (This is good practice.) Since that module is not available at startup, but only once an applicable source file is loaded, you would use this:
events.connect(events.LEXER_LOADED, function(lexer)
if lexer == '...' then
_M[lexer].setting = 'custom setting'
end
end)
Loading Modules
Use Lua’s require()
function from your ~/.textadept/init.lua in order to
load non-language modules on startup. For example, after creating or downloading
a module called foo
, you would tell Textadept to load it like this:
foo = require('foo')
As for loading language modules, recall that Textadept automatically loads them
when opening a source file of that language, so simply installing the language
module is sufficient. Nothing needs to be added to ~/.textadept/init.lua. If
on the other hand you wanted to extend an existing language module with a
“sub-module” (i.e. just another Lua file with language-specific functionality),
create the ~/.textadept/modules/lang/ directory if it does not already
exist, place your extension script in that folder, and then require()
it from
an events.LEXER_LOADED
event. For example, if you wanted to extend Textadept’s
Lua module with an extras.lua module, add the following to
~/.textadept/init.lua:
events.connect(events.LEXER_LOADED, function(lexer)
if lexer == 'lua' then require('lua.extras') end
end)
Note that Lua’s require()
function will not run code in extras.lua more than
once.
Key Bindings
Textadept provides key bindings for a vast majority of its features. If you
would like to add, tweak, or remove key bindings, you can do so from your
~/.textadept/init.lua. For example, maybe you prefer that Ctrl+Shift+C
creates a new buffer instead of Ctrl+N
, or that the buffer list (Ctrl+B
)
shows buffers by their z-order (most recently viewed to least recently viewed)
instead of the order they were opened in:
keys.cC = buffer.new
keys.cn = nil
keys.cb = function() ui.switch_buffer(true) end
A key binding is simply a Lua function assigned to a key sequence in the global
keys
table. Key sequences are composed of an ordered combination of modifier
keys followed by either the key’s inserted character, or if no such character
exists, the string representation of the key. On Windows and Linux, modifier
keys are “Control”, “Alt”, and “Shift”, represented by c
, a
, and s
,
respectively. On Mac OSX, modifier keys are “Control”, “Alt/Option”, “Command”,
and “Shift”, represented by c
, a
, m
, and s
, respectively. On curses,
modifier keys are “Control”, “Alt”, and “Shift”, represented by c
, m
(for
Meta), and s
, respectively.
Key bindings can also be language-specific by storing them in a
keys[
lexer]
table. If you wanted to add or modify language-specific key
bindings outside of a language module, you would add something like this to
~/.textadept/init.lua:
events.connect(events.LEXER_LOADED, function(lexer)
if lexer == '...' then
if not keys[lexer] then keys[lexer] = {} end
keys[lexer].cn = function() ... end
end
end)
If you plan on redefining most key bindings (e.g. in order to mimic an editor whose bindings you are used to), copy Textadept’s modules/textadept/keys.lua (or create a new keys.lua from scratch) and put it in your ~/.textadept/modules/textadept/ directory. That way, Textadept loads your set instead of its own.
Textadept also allows you to define key modes (e.g. for Vim-style modal editing)
and key chains (e.g. Emacs C-x
prefix). Learn more about key bindings and how
to define them in the key bindings documentation.
Snippet Preferences
You may define snippets in your ~/.textadept/init.lua, just like key bindings,
via a global snippets
table:
snippets['file'] = '%<buffer.filename>'
snippets['path'] = "%<(buffer.filename or ''):match('^.+[/\\]')>"
events.connect(events.LEXER_LOADED, function(lexer)
if lexer == '...' then
if not snippets[lexer] then snippets[lexer] = {} end
snippets[lexer]['trigger'] = 'snippet text'
end
end)
You may also have a directory of snippet files where each file is its own
snippet: filenames emulate the keys in the snippets
table and file contents
are the snippet text. Adding such snippet directories looks like this:
textadept.snippets._paths[#textadept.snippets._paths + 1] = '/path/to/dir'
Learn more about snippets, snippet syntax, and snippet files in the snippets documentation.
File Types
Textadept recognizes a wide range of programming language files either by file
extension or by a Lua pattern that matches the text of the
first line. The editor does this by consulting a set of tables in
textadept.file_types
, which you can edit using your
~/.textadept/init.lua. For example:
-- Recognize .luadoc files as Lua code.
textadept.file_types.extensions.luadoc = 'lua'
-- Change .html files to be recognized as XML files.
textadept.file_types.extensions.html = 'xml'
-- Recognize a shebang line like "#!/usr/bin/zsh" as shell code.
textadept.file_types.patterns['^#!.+/zsh'] = 'bash'
Menu Options
Textadept allows you to extend its menus with your own sub-menus and menu items. Menu items are associated with Lua functions such that when a menu item is selected, its Lua function is executed. For example, in order to append a menu item to the “Tools” menu and to the right-click context menu, add the following to your ~/.textadept/init.lua:
local tools = textadept.menu.menubar[_L['_Tools']]
tools[#tools + 1] = {'Extra Tool', function() ... end}
local context_menu = textadept.menu.context_menu
context_menu[#context_menu + 1] = tools[#tools]
Learn more about menus and how to customize them in the menu documentation.
Locale Preference
Textadept attempts to auto-detect your locale settings using the “$LANG” environment variable, falling back on the English locale. In order to manually set the locale, copy the desired locale file from the core/locales/ folder to ~/.textadept/locale.conf. If Textadept does not support your language yet, please translate the English messages in core/locale.conf to your language and send the modified locale.conf file to me. I will include it in a future release.
Themes
Themes customize Textadept’s look and feel. The editor’s built-in themes are “light”, “dark”, and “term”. The GUI version uses “light” as its default and the terminal version uses “term”.
Each theme is a single Lua file. It contains color and style definitions for displaying syntactic elements like comments, strings, and keywords in programming language source files. These definitions apply universally to all programming language elements, resulting in a single, unified theme. Themes also set view-related editor properties like caret and selection colors.
Note: The only colors that the terminal version of Textadept recognizes are the standard black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white, and bold variants of those colors. Your terminal emulator’s settings determine how to display these standard colors (which may be completely different in the end).
Setting Themes
Override the default theme in your ~/.textadept/init.lua using
the buffer.set_theme()
function. For example:
buffer:set_theme(not CURSES and 'dark' or 'term')
Either restart Textadept for changes to take effect or type reset
in the
command entry.
buffer.set_theme()
can also tweak theme properties like font face and font
size without editing the theme file itself:
buffer:set_theme('light', {font = 'Monospace', fontsize = 12})
You can even tweak themes on a per-language basis. For example, in order to color Java functions black instead of the default orange, add the following to ~/.textadept/init.lua:
events.connect(events.LEXER_LOADED, function(lexer)
if lexer == 'java' then
buffer.property['style.function'] = 'fore:%(color.light_black)'
end
end)
For a full list of configurable properties, please consult the theme file you are using.
Creating Themes
Creating themes is straightforward. Simply define a set of colors and a set of styles. Just follow the example of existing themes. Place your themes in your ~/.textadept/themes/ directory so they are not overwritten whenever you upgrade Textadept. This applies to downloaded themes too.
GUI Theme
There is no way to theme GUI controls like text fields and buttons from within Textadept. Instead, use GTK+ Resource files. The “GtkWindow” name is “textadept”. For example, style all text fields with a “textadept-entry-style” like this:
widget "textadept*GtkEntry*" style "textadept-entry-style"
Getting Themes
For now, the wiki hosts third-party, user-created themes.
Advanced
Lua Command Entry
The command entry grants access to Textadept’s Lua state. Press Ctrl+E
(⌘E
on Mac OSX | M-C
in curses) to display the entry. It is useful for debugging,
inspecting, and entering commands (e.g. buffer
or view
commands). If you try
to cause instability in Textadept’s Lua state, you will probably succeed, so be
careful. The Lua API lists available commands. In addition to behaving like
Lua’s interactive prompt, the command entry provides some shortcuts for common
buffer
, view
and ui
commands. For example, instead of entering
buffer:append_text('foo')
, you can use append_text('foo')
. Also, function
call parentheses can be omitted. For example, instead of view:split()
, you can
simply use split
. Finally, these commands are runnable on startup using the
-e
and --execute
command line switches.
Pressing Ctrl+H
(^H
| M-H
or M-S-H
) shows help for the current command.
Command Entry Tab Completion
The command entry also provides tab-completion for functions, variables, tables,
etc. Press the Tab
(⇥
on Mac OSX | Tab
in curses) key to display a list of
available completions. Use the arrow keys to make a selection and press Enter
(↩
| Enter
) to insert it.
Extending the Command Entry
Executing Lua commands is just one of the many “modes” the command entry has. The command entry API documentation has more information on modes and how to create new ones. As an example, modules/textadept/keys.lua defines a new mode that works in conjunction with modules/textadept/find.lua in order to provide incremental search.
Command Selection
Pressing Ctrl+Shift+E
(⌘⇧E
on Mac OSX | M-S-C
in curses) brings up the
command selection dialog. Typing part of any command filters the list, with
spaces being wildcards. This is an easy way to run commands without navigating
the menus, using the mouse, or remembering key bindings. It is also useful for
looking up particular key bindings quickly. Note: the key bindings in the dialog
do not look like those in the menu. Textadept uses this different notation
internally. Learn more about it in the keys API documentation.
Shell Commands and Filtering Text
Sometimes using an existing shell command to manipulate text is easier than using the command entry. An example would be sorting all text in a buffer (or a selection). One way to do this from the command entry is:
ls={}; for l in get_text():gmatch('[^\n]+') do ls[#ls+1]=l end;
table.sort(ls); set_text(table.concat(ls, '\n'))
A simpler way is pressing Ctrl+|
(⌘|
on Mac OSX | ^\
in curses), entering
the shell command sort
, and pressing Enter
(↩
| Enter
).
This feature determines the standard input (stdin) for shell commands as follows:
- If text is selected and spans multiple lines, all text on the lines containing the selection is used. However, if the end of the selection is at the beginning of a line, only the EOL (end of line) characters from the previous line are included as input. The rest of the line is excluded.
- If text is selected and spans a single line, only the selected text is used.
- If no text is selected, the entire buffer is used.
The standard output (stdout) of the command replaces the input text.
Remote Control
Since Textadept executes arbitrary Lua code passed via the -e
and --execute
command line switches, a side-effect of single instance
functionality on the platforms that support it is that you can remotely control
the original instance. For example:
ta ~/.textadept/init.lua &
ta -e "events.emit(events.FIND, 'require')"
This will search for the first instance of the word “require” in the current file using the find & replace pane.
Scripting
Since Textadept is entirely scriptable with Lua, the editor has superb support for editing Lua code. Textadept provides syntax autocompletion and documentation for the Lua and Textadept APIs.
LuaDoc and Examples
Textadept’s API is heavily documented. The API documentation is the ultimate resource on scripting Textadept. There are of course abundant scripting examples since the editor’s internals consist primarily of Lua.
Getting Started
When it comes to scripting Textadept, what exactly does that mean? Being an
event-driven application, Textadept simply responds to input like keypresses and
mouse clicks. By responding, Textadept just executes Lua functions. For example,
pressing Ctrl+O
(⌘O
on Mac OSX | M-O
on curses) executes the
io.open_file()
function because a default keybinding in
modules/textadept/keys.lua says so (you could change this in your
preferences). Subsequently, when Textadept opens a file, a
syntax highlighting lexer is applied because io.open_file()
emitted a
events.FILE_OPENED
event that modules/textadept/file_types.lua was
listening for.
Not only can you define your own key bindings that can do pretty much anything
with Textadept (interact with and manipulate buffer contents, prompt for input
with dialogs, spawn processes, etc.), but you can also listen in on the plethora
of events Textadept emits in order to script nearly every aspect of the
editor’s behavior. Would you rather have the “Search -> Find” menu option (or
key binding) start a search with the word under the caret already in the find &
replace pane’s search box? Create a Lua function that populates
ui.find.find_entry_text
and shows the pane, and then re-assign the
“Search -> Find” menu action’s existing function to the one you just
created. Would you like to have Textadept auto-save files as you switch between
buffers? Connect the io.save_file()
function to the
events.BUFFER_BEFORE_SWITCH
event. Would you like the ability to execute
arbitrary code in order to transform replacement text while performing find &
replace? Textadept emits an events.REPLACE
event every time the “Replace”
button is clicked. You can listen for that event and perform your own
replacements. “Textadept gives you complete control over the entire application
using Lua” is not an exaggeration!
Generating Autocompletions and Documentation
Generate Lua autocompletion and documentation files for your own modules using the modules/lua/tadoc.lua LuaDoc module:
luadoc -d [output_path] --doclet _HOME/modules/lua/tadoc.lua [module(s)]
where _HOME
is the path where you installed Textadept and output_path
is
an arbitrary path to write the generated tags and api files to. You can then
use your ~/.textadept/init.lua file to load those completions and API docs for
use within Textadept when editing Lua files:
events.connect(events.LEXER_LOADED, function(lexer)
if lexer == 'lua' then
_M.lua.tags[#_M.lua.tags + 1] = '/path/to/tags'
local lua_api_files = textadept.editing.api_files.lua
lua_api_files[#lua_api_files + 1] = '/path/to/api'
end
end)
Textadept uses this script to generate its own tags and api files for its Lua API.
Generating LuaDoc
Generate Textadept-like API documentation for your own modules using the doc/markdowndoc.lua LuaDoc module (you must have Discount installed):
luadoc -d . [-t template_dir] --doclet _HOME/doc/markdowndoc [module(s)]
where _HOME
is the path where you installed Textadept and template_dir
is an
optional template directory that contains two Markdown files: .header.md and
.footer.md. (See Textadept’s doc/.header.md and doc/.footer.md for
examples.) LuaDoc creates an api/ directory in the current directory that
contains the generated API documentation HTML files.
Lua Configuration
Textadept contains its own copy of Lua 5.3 which has the same configuration (luaconf.h) as vanilla Lua with the following exceptions:
TA_LUA_PATH
andTA_LUA_CPATH
replace theLUA_PATH
andLUA_CPATH
environment variables.LUA_ROOT
is “/usr/” in Linux systems instead of “/usr/local/”.LUA_PATH
andLUA_CPATH
do not have “./?.lua” and “./?.so” in them.- No compatibility flags are set for previous versions.
LuaJIT
Even though Textadept runs with LuaJIT, LuaJIT does not fully support
Lua 5.3. Therefore, try to write your modules and scripts to be compatible with
both versions. For the most part, LuaJIT only lacks Lua 5.2’s _ENV
and Lua
5.3’s new bitwise operators and some new integer operations.
Scintilla
Textadept uses the Scintilla editing component. The buffer part of Textadept’s API emulates the Scintilla API so porting any C/C++ Scintilla calls to Lua should not be difficult.
Textadept Structure
Because Textadept consists mainly of Lua, its Lua scripts have to be stored in an organized folder structure.
The core Directory
The core/ directory contains Textadept’s core Lua modules. These modules are essential for the application to run. They provide Textadept’s Lua to C interface, event structure, file interactions, and localization.
The lexers Directory
Lexer modules analyze source code for syntax highlighting. lexers/ houses them.
The modules Directory
modules/ contains generic and language modules for editing text and source code.
The themes Directory
themes/ has built-in themes that customize the look and feel of Textadept.
The User Directory
The ~/.textadept/ folder houses your preferences, Lua modules, themes, and user-data. This folder may contain lexers/, modules/, and themes/ sub-directories.
GTK+ Directories
GTK+ uses the etc/, lib/, and share/ directories, which only appear in the Win32 and Mac OSX packages.
Compiling
Requirements
Unfortunately, the requirements for building Textadept are not quite as minimal as running it.
Requirements for Linux and BSD
First, Linux and BSD systems need either the GNU C compiler (gcc) version 4.9 or later (circa early 2014) or Clang (clang), libstdc++ 4.9 or later (circa early 2014), and GNU Make (make or gmake). BSD users additionally need to have pkg-config and libiconv installed. All of these should be available for your distribution through a package manager. For example, Ubuntu includes these tools in the “build-essential” package.
Next, the GUI version of Textadept requires the GTK+ development libraries. Again, your package manager should allow you to install them. Debian-based Linux distributions like Ubuntu typically call the package “libgtk2.0-dev”. Otherwise, compile and install GTK+ from the GTK+ website.
The optional terminal version of Textadept depends on the development library for a curses implementation like ncurses. Similarly, your package manager should provide one. Debian-based Linux distributions like Ubuntu typically call the ncurses package “libncurses5-dev”. Otherwise, compile and install ncurses from the ncurses website. Note: you need the wide-character development version of ncurses installed, which handles multibyte sequences. (Therefore, Debian users also need “libncursesw5-dev”.)
Requirements for Windows
Compiling Textadept on Windows is no longer supported. The preferred way to compile for Windows is cross-compiling from Linux. In order to do so, you need MinGW or mingw-w64 version 4.9 or later with the Windows header files. Your package manager should offer them.
Note: compiling on Windows requires a C compiler that supports the C99 standard, a C++ compiler that supports the C++11 standard, a C++ standard library that supports C++11, the GTK+ for Windows bundle version 2.24, and libiconv for Windows (the “Developer files” and “Binaries” zip files). The terminal (pdcurses) version requires my win32curses bundle instead of GTK+ and libiconv.
Requirements for Mac OSX
Compiling Textadept on Mac OSX is no longer supported. The preferred way is
cross-compiling from Linux. In order to do so, you need install an OSX cross
toolchain with GCC version 4.9 or later. You will need to run
./build_binutils.sh
before ./build_gcc.sh
. OSX SDK tarballs like
MacOSX10.5.tar.gz can be found readily on the internet.
Note that building an OSX toolchain can easily take 30 minutes or more and ultimately consume nearly 3.5GB of disk space.
Compiling
Makefile Command Summary
The following table provides a brief summary of make
or gmake
rules for
building Textadept. Subsequent sections contain more detailed descriptions,
including platform-specific rules and options.
Command | Description |
---|---|
make deps |
Downloads and builds all of Textadept’s core dependencies |
make verify-deps |
Verifies integrity of downloads (for optional security) |
make |
Builds Textadept, provided all dependencies are in place |
make install |
Installs Textadept (to /usr/local by default) |
make curses |
Builds the terminal version of Textadept |
make curses install |
Installs the terminal version of Textadept |
make uninstall |
Uninstalls Textadept (from /usr/local by default) |
make clean |
Deletes all compiled files, leaving only source files |
make clean-deps |
Deletes all unpacked dependencies, leaving only downloads |
Compiling on Linux and BSD
Note: for BSD systems, replace the make
commands below with gmake
.
For Linux and BSD systems, simply run make deps
(or make deps NIGHTLY=1
when
compiling Textadept from the latest source rather than from a tagged release) in
the src/ directory to prepare the build environment, followed by make
to
build the textadept and textadeptjit executables in the root directory. Make
a symlink from them to /usr/bin/ or elsewhere in your PATH
.
Similarly, make curses
builds textadept-curses and textadeptjit-curses.
Note: you may have to run
make CFLAGS="-I/usr/local/include" \
CXXFLAGS="-I/usr/local/include -L/usr/local/lib"
if the prefix where any dependencies are installed is /usr/local/ and your compiler flags do not include them by default.
If it matters, running make verify-deps
after make deps
will compare the
downloaded dependencies with the ones Textadept was compiled against.
Installing on Linux and BSD
Textadept is self-contained, meaning you do not have to install it, and runs
from its current location. Should you choose to install Textadept like a normal
Linux application, run make deps
(or make deps NIGHTLY=1
as noted in the
previous section) and then the usual make
and make install
or
sudo make install
commands depending on your privileges. The default prefix is
/usr/local but setting DESTDIR
(e.g.
make install DESTDIR=/prefix/to/install/to
) changes it.
Similarly, make curses
and make curses install
installs the curses version.
Cross Compiling for Windows
When cross-compiling from within Linux, first make a note of your MinGW
compiler names. You may have to either modify the CROSS
variable in the
“win32” block of src/Makefile or append something like
“CROSS=i586-mingw32msvc-” when running make
. After considering your MinGW
compiler names, run make win32-deps
or
make CROSS=i586-mingw32msvc- win32-deps
to prepare the build environment
followed by make win32
or make CROSS=i586-mingw32msvc- win32
to build
../textadept.exe and ../textadeptjit.exe. Finally, copy the dll files from
src/win32gtk/bin/ to the directory containing the Textadept executables.
Similarly for the terminal version, run make win32-curses
or its variant as
suggested above to build ../textadept-curses.exe and
../textadeptjit-curses.exe.
Please note the build process produces a lua51.dll for only textadeptjit.exe and textadeptjit-curses.exe because limitations on external Lua library loading do not allow statically linking LuaJIT to Textadept.
Cross Compiling for Mac OSX
When cross-compiling from within Linux, run make osx-deps
to prepare the build
environment followed by make osx
to build ../textadept.osx and
../textadeptjit.osx.
Similarly, make osx-curses
builds ../textadept-curses.osx and
../textadeptjit-curses.osx.
Build a new Textadept.app with make osx-app
.
Compiling on OSX (Legacy)
Textadept requires XCode as well as jhbuild (for GTK+). After building “meta-gtk-osx-bootstrap” and “meta-gtk-osx-core”, build “meta-gtk-osx-themes”. Note that the entire compiling process can easily take 30 minutes or more and ultimately consume nearly 1GB of disk space.
After using jhbuild, GTK+ is in ~/gtk/ so make a symlink from ~/gtk/inst
to src/gtkosx in Textadept. Then open src/Makefile and uncomment the
“Darwin” block. Finally, run make osx
to build ../textadept.osx and
../textadeptjit.osx.
Developer note: in order to build a GTK+ for OSX bundle, run the following from the src/ directory before zipping up gtkosx/include/ and gtkosx/lib/:
sed -i -e 's|libdir=/Users/username/gtk/inst/lib|libdir=${prefix}/lib|;' \
gtkosx/lib/pkgconfig/*.pc
where username
is your username.
Compiling the terminal version is not so expensive and requires no additional
libraries. After uncommenting the “Darwin” block mentioned above, simply run
make osx-curses
to build ../textadept-curses.osx and
../textadeptjit-curses.osx.
Notes on LuaJIT
LuaJIT is a Just-In-Time Compiler for Lua and can boost the speed of Lua programs. LuaJIT offers no real benefit performance-wise to justify it being Textadept’s default runtime. LuaJIT’s ffi library, however, appears to be useful for interfacing with external, non-Lua, libraries.
Notes on CDK
CDK is a library of curses widgets. The terminal version of Textadept includes a slightly modified, stripped down version of this library. The changes made to CDK are in src/cdk.patch and listed as follows:
- Excluded the following source files: alphalist.c, button.c, calendar.c, cdk_compat.{c,h}, cdk_params.c, cdk_test.h, debug.c, dialog.c, {d,f}scale.{c,h}, fslider.{c,h}, gen-{scale,slider}.{c,h}, get_index.c, get_string.c, graph.c, histogram.c, marquee.c, matrix.c, menu.c, popup_dialog.c, position.c, radio.c, scale.{c,h}, slider.{c,h}, swindow.c, template.c, u{scale,slider}.{c,h}, view_{file,info}.c, and viewer.c.
- binding.c utilizes libtermkey for universal input.
- cdk.h does not
#include
“matrix.h”, “viewer.h”, and any headers labeled “Generated headers” due to their machine-dependence. It also#define
sboolean
asCDKboolean
on Windows platforms since the former is alreadytypedef
ed. - cdk_config.h no longer defines
HAVE_SETLOCALE
since Textadept handles locale settings, no longer definesHAVE_NCURSES_H
andNCURSES
since Textadept supports multiple curses implementations (not just ncurses), conditionally enablesHAVE_GRP_H
,HAVE_LSTAT
, andHAVE_PWD_H
definitions on *nix platforms since Windows does not have them, and explicitly undefinesNCURSES_OPAQUE
since newer versions of ncurses on Mac OSX define it. - cdk_util.h
#define
sBeep
asCDKBeep
on Windows platforms since Windows already defines Beep. - The
baseName
anddirName
functions in cdk.c recognize Window’s ‘\’ directory separator. - Deactivated the
deleteFileCB
function in fselect.c. - Removed some of CDK’s initial screen handling code.
- cdk.c has some basic UTF-8 handling functions and draw.c, entry.c, and itemlist.c use them for UTF-8 drawing and character handling. (Note: mentry.c cannot handle UTF-8.)
Help
Command Line Parameters
Passing -h
or --help
to Textadept shows a list of available command line
parameters.
Switch | Arguments | Description |
---|---|---|
-e , --execute |
1 | Run Lua code. |
-f , --force |
0 | Forces unique instance. |
-h , --help |
0 | Shows this. |
-n , --nosession |
0 | No session functionality. |
-s , --session |
1 | Loads session on startup. |
-u , --userhome |
1 | Sets alternate _USERHOME . |
-v , --version |
0 | Prints Textadept version and copyright |
Textadept curses does not support the help switch.
Online Help
Textadept has a mailing list and a wiki.
Appendix
Regular Expressions
Textadept’s regular expressions are based on the C++11 standard for ECMAScript. There are a number of references for this syntax on the internet including:
- ECMAScript syntax C++ reference
- Modified ECMAScript regular expression grammar
- Regular Expressions (C++)
Lua Patterns
The following is from the Lua 5.3 Reference Manual.
Character Class:
A character class is used to represent a set of characters. The following combinations are allowed in describing a character class:
x
: (where x is not one of the magic characters^%()%.[]*+-?
) represents the character x itself..
: (a dot) represents all characters.%a
: represents all letters.%c
: represents all control characters.%d
: represents all digits.%g
: represents all printable characters except space.%l
: represents all lowercase letters.%p
: represents all punctuation characters.%s
: represents all space characters.%u
: represents all uppercase letters.%w
: represents all alphanumeric characters.%x
: represents all hexadecimal digits.%
x
: (where x is any non-alphanumeric character) represents the character x. This is the standard way to escape the magic characters. Any non-alphanumeric character (including all punctuations, even the non magical) can be preceded by a ‘%
’ when used to represent itself in a pattern.[set]
: represents the class which is the union of all characters in set. A range of characters can be specified by separating the end characters of the range with a ‘-
’. All classes%
x described above can also be used as components in set. All other characters in set represent themselves. For example,[%w_]
(or[_%w]
) represents all alphanumeric characters plus the underscore,[0-7]
represents the octal digits, and[0-7%l%-]
represents the octal digits plus the lowercase letters plus the ‘-
’ character.
You can put a closing square bracket in a set by positioning it as the first character in the set. You can put an hyphen in a set by positioning it as the first or the last character in the set. (You can also use an escape for both cases.)
The interaction between ranges and classes is not defined. Therefore, patterns like[%a-z]
or[a-%%]
have no meaning.[^set]
: represents the complement of set, where set is interpreted as above.
For all classes represented by single letters (%a
, %c
, etc.), the
corresponding uppercase letter represents the complement of the class. For
instance, %S
represents all non-space characters.
The definitions of letter, space, and other character groups depend on the
current locale. In particular, the class [a-z]
may not be equivalent to %l
.
Pattern Item:
A pattern item can be
- a single character class, which matches any single character in the class;
- a single character class followed by ‘
*
’, which matches zero or more repetitions of characters in the class. These repetition items will always match the longest possible sequence; - a single character class followed by ‘
+
’, which matches one or more repetitions of characters in the class. These repetition items will always match the longest possible sequence; - a single character class followed by ‘
-
’, which also matches zero or more repetitions of characters in the class. Unlike ‘*
’, these repetition items will always match the shortest possible sequence; - a single character class followed by ‘
?
’, which matches zero or one occurrence of a character in the class. It always matches one occurrence if possible. %n
, for n between 1 and 9; such item matches a substring equal to the n-th captured string (see below);%bxy
, where x and y are two distinct characters; such item matches strings that start with x, end with y, and where the x and y are balanced. This means that, if one reads the string from left to right, counting +1 for an x and -1 for a y, the ending y is the first y where the count reaches 0. For instance, the item%b()
matches expressions with balanced parentheses.%f[set]
, a frontier pattern; such item matches an empty string at any position such that the next character belongs to set and the previous character does not belong to set. The set set is interpreted as previously described. The beginning and the end of the subject are handled as if they were the character'\0'
.
Pattern:
A pattern is a sequence of pattern items. A ‘^
’ at the beginning of a
pattern anchors the match at the beginning of the subject string. A ‘$
’ at the
end of a pattern anchors the match at the end of the subject string. At other
positions, ‘^
’ and ‘$
’ have no special meaning and represent themselves.
Captures:
A pattern can contain sub-patterns enclosed in parentheses; they describe
captures. When a match succeeds, the substrings of the subject string that
match captures are stored (captured) for future use. Captures are numbered
according to their left parentheses. For instance, in the pattern
"(a*(.)%w(%s*))"
, the part of the string matching "a*(.)%w(%s*)"
is stored
as the first capture (and therefore has number 1); the character matching “.
”
is captured with number 2, and the part matching “%s*
” has number 3.
As a special case, the empty capture ()
captures the current string position
(a number). For instance, if we apply the pattern "()aa()"
on the string
"flaaap"
, there will be two captures: 3 and 5.
Curses Compatibility
Textadept 5.5 beta introduced a curses version that is capable of running in a terminal emulator. However, it requires a font with good glyph support (like DejaVu Sans Mono or Liberation Mono), and lacks some GUI features due to the terminal’s constraints:
- No alpha values or transparency.
- No images in autocompletion lists. Instead, autocompletion lists show the
first character in the string passed to
buffer.register_image()
. - No buffered or two-phase drawing.
- Carets cannot have a period, line style, or width.
- No drag and drop.
- Edge lines may be obscured by text.
- No extra line ascent or descent.
- No fold lines above and below lines.
- No hotspot underlines on mouse hover.
- No indicators other than
INDIC_ROUNDBOX
andINDIC_STRAIGHTBOX
, although neither has translucent drawing andINDIC_ROUNDBOX
does not have rounded corners. - Some complex marker symbols are not drawn properly or at all.
- No mouse cursor types.
- Only up to 16 colors recognized, regardless of how many colors the terminal
supports. They are (in “0xBBGGRR” format): black (
0x000000
), red (0x000080
), green (0x008000
), yellow (0x008080
), blue (0x800000
), magenta (0x800080
), cyan (0x808000
), white (0xC0C0C0
), light black (0x404040
), light red (0x0000FF
), light green (0x00FF00
), light yellow (0x00FFFF
), light blue (0xFF0000
), light magenta (0xFF00FF
), light cyan (0xFFFF00
), and light white (0xFFFFFF
). Even if your terminal uses a different color map, you must use these color values. Your terminal will remap them automatically. Unrecognized colors default to white. For some terminals, you may need to set a lexer style’sbold
attribute in order to use the light color variant. - Not all key sequences recognized properly.
- No style settings like font name, font size, or italics.
- No X selection, primary or secondary, integration with the clipboard.
- No zoom.
Migration Guides
Textadept 9 to 10
API Changes
Old API | Change | New API |
---|---|---|
buffer | ||
brace_match(pos) | Changed | brace_match(pos, 0) |
lexer | ||
_foldsymbols | Replaced | add_fold_point() |
_rules | Replaced | add_rule() |
_tokenstyles | Replaced | add_style() |
embed_lexer(parent, child, …) | Renamed | parent:embed(child, …) |
_RULES[id] | Replaced | get_rule(id) |
_RULES[id] = rule | Replaced | modify_rule(id, rule) |
N/A | Added | new() |
word_match(list, wchars, icase) | Changed | word_match(words, icase) |
ui | ||
set_theme | Renamed | buffer.set_theme() |
textadept.editing | ||
match_brace | Replaced | N/A (menu function) |
N/A | Added | paste() |
N/A | Added | paste_reindents |
textadept.session | ||
default_session | Removed |
Configuration Changes
Textadept 10 no longer uses a ~/.textadept/properties.lua file. Instead, all
buffer
settings are made in ~/.textadept/init.lua, and apply to the first
and any subsequent buffers. (In Textadept 9, any buffer
settings made in
~/.textadept/init.lua only applied to the first buffer, so a
~/.textadept/properties.lua was required in order to define buffer
settings
that would affect subsequent buffers.)
Simply copying the contents of your ~/.textadept/properties.lua into ~/.textadept/init.lua should be sufficient.
Lexer Changes
Lexers are now written in a more object-oriented way. Legacy lexers are still supported, but it is recommended that you migrate them.
Key Bindings Changes
The terminal version’s key sequence for Ctrl+Space
is now 'c '
instead of
'c@'
.
Regex Changes
Textadept now uses C++11’s ECMAScript regex syntax instead of TRE.
Textadept 8 to 9
Textadept 9 introduces minor API changes (mostly renames of existing functions and fields) along with some backwards-incompatible simplifications of key commands, menu commands, and language module handling.
API Changes
Old API | Change | New API |
---|---|---|
events | ||
COMPILE_OUTPUT lexer, output | Changed | COMPILE_OUTPUT output, ext/lex |
RUN_OUTPUT lexer, output | Changed | RUN_OUTPUT output, ext/lexer |
BUILD_OUTPUT project, output | Changed | BUILD_OUTPUT output |
io | ||
snapopen(…) | Changed | quick_open(paths, filter, opts) |
snapopen_filters | Renamed | quick_open_filters |
SNAPOPEN_MAX | Renamed | quick_open_max |
lfs | ||
FILTER | Renamed | default_filter |
dir_foreach() | Changed | dir_foreach() (changed args) |
ui | ||
SILENT_PRINT | Renamed | silent_print |
goto_view(n, relative) | Changed | goto_view(view) |
ui.find | ||
FILTER | Renamed | find_in_files_filter |
find_in_files(dir) | Changed | find_in_files(dir, filter) |
N/A | Added | find_in_files_timeout |
lua | Changed | regex |
lua_pattern_label_text | Changed | regex_label_text |
view | ||
goto_buffer(n, relative) | Changed | goto_buffer(buffer) |
textadept.editing | ||
AUTOPAIR | Replaced | auto_pairs |
TYPEOVER_CHARS | Replaced | typeover_chars |
AUTOINDENT | Renamed | auto_indent |
STRIP_TRAILING_SPACES | Renamed | strip_trailing_spaces |
AUTOCOMPLETE_ALL | Renamed | autocomplete_all_words |
char_matches | Replaced | auto_pairs |
braces | Renamed | brace_matches |
goto_line(line) | Changed | line argument is 0-based |
textadept.run | ||
RUN_IN_BACKGROUND | Renamed | run_in_background |
CHECK_SYNTAX | Removed | |
GOTO_SYNTAX_ERRORS | Removed | |
cwd | Removed | |
proc | Removed | |
compile() | Changed | compile(filename) |
run() | Changed | run(filename) |
build() | Changed | build(root_directory) |
error_patterns | Changed | (changed format) |
syntax_commands | Removed | |
syntax_error_patterns | Removed | |
textadept.snippets | ||
N/A | Added | _paths |
textadept.session | ||
DEFAULT_SESSION | Renamed | default_session |
SAVE_ON_QUIT | Renamed | save_on_quit |
MAX_RECENT_FILES | Renamed | max_recent_files |
Key and Menu Command Changes
Key commands and menu commands can no longer be tables. Instead they must be Lua functions. Check your ~/.textadept/init.lua and custom modules and transform any applicable key bindings or menu items. For example:
keys.ca = {func, args} => keys.ca = function() func(args) end
{'Menu Item', {func, args}} => {'Menu Item', function() func(args) end}
Note: If func
returns true
or false
, make sure you use
function() return func(args) end
.
Textadept’s own modules/textadept/keys.lua and modules/textadept/menu.lua have been updated appropriately.
Language Module Handling Changes
Textadept 9 no longer auto-loads a post_init.lua in language modules. Instead,
it must be loaded manually from an events.LEXER_LOADED
event. For example:
events.connect(events.LEXER_LOADED, function()
if lang == 'ansi_c' then require('ansi_c.extras') end
end)
will load a ~/.textadept/modules/ansi_c/extras.lua “sub-module” for C files.
Keep in mind that Lua’s require()
function will only execute module code once.
If you have a number of post_init.lua files that you want Textadept 9 to make use of, you can put the following in your ~/.textadept/init.lua:
events.connect(events.LEXER_LOADED, function(lexer)
if lfs.attributes(_USERHOME..'/modules/'..lexer..'/post_init.lua') then
require(lexer..'/post_init')
end
end)
Find & Replace Changes
Find & replace with Lua patterns has been superceded by find & replace with Regular Expressions (regex). The Regular Expressions section above covers the regex syntax that Textadept supports.
Textadept 7 to 8
Textadept 8 upgraded its internal copy of Lua from 5.2 to 5.3. Nearly all user scripts will continue to function properly without modification – Textadept itself only needed to update some instances of numeric division to account for Lua’s new integer/float distinction.
Textadept 8 has no major API changes of note. Instead, the table below lists all API changes during the 7.x cycle. Please consult this table when upgrading from your particular version of Textadept 7.
Textadept 8 did introduce changes in language-specific keybindings and macros for compile and run commands, which are described in the sections below.
API Changes
Old API | Change | New API | Since |
---|---|---|---|
_G | |||
N/A | Added | spawn() | 7.2 |
N/A | Added | LINUX | 7.8 |
N/A | Added | BSD | 7.8 |
_M | |||
lang.context_menu | Removed | 7.8 | |
_SCINTILLA | |||
N/A | Added | next_image_type() | 7.8 |
events | |||
N/A | Added | FILE_OPENED | 7.1 |
N/A | Added | FOCUS | 7.5 |
N/A | Added | CSI | 7.8 |
N/A | Added | SUSPEND | 7.8 |
N/A | Added | RESUME | 7.8 |
FILE_SAVED_AS | Replaced | FILE_AFTER_SAVE | 7.9 |
io | |||
set_buffer_encoding() | Renamed | buffer:set_encoding() | 7.3 |
boms | Removed | 7.9 | |
lexer | |||
N/A | Added | _FOLDBYINDENTATION | 8.0 |
lfs | |||
dir_foreach(…) | Changed | dir_foreach(…, n, incl_dirs) | 7.6 |
textadept.adeptsense | Removed | ||
complete() | Replaced | editing.autocomplete() | 7.3 |
show_apidoc() | Replaced | editing.show_documentation() | 7.3 |
textadept.bookmarks | |||
toggle(on) | Changed | toggle(on, line) | 8.0 |
textadept.command_entry | |||
complete_lua() | Removed | 7.3 | |
execute_lua() | Removed | 7.3 | |
textadept.editing | |||
N/A | Added | AUTOCOMPLETE_ALL | 7.3 |
N/A | Added | autocompleters | 7.3 |
autocomplete_word() | Replaced | autocomplete(‘word’) | 7.3 |
HIGHLIGHT_BRACES | Removed | 7.3 | |
selecte_indented_block() | Removed | 7.3 | |
textadept.file_types | |||
shebangs | Replaced | patternsa | 7.9 |
textadept.menu | |||
set_menubar(menubar) | Replaced | menubar = menubar | 7.3 |
set_contextmenu(menu) | Replaced | context_menu = menu | 7.3 |
set_tabcontextmenu(menu) | Replaced | tab_context_menu = menu | 7.3 |
textadept.run | |||
N/A | Added | build() | 7.2 |
N/A | Added | build_commands | 7.2 |
N/A | Added | stop() | 7.2 |
N/A | Added | RUN_IN_BACKGROUND | 8.0 |
ui | |||
N/A | Added | tabs | 7.1 |
N/A | Added | SILENT_PRINT | 7.2 |
ui.command_entry | |||
N/A | Added | editing_keys | 7.8 |
enter_mode(mode) | Changed | enter_mode(mode, lexer, height) | 7.8 |
ui.dialogs | |||
N/A | Added | optionselect() | 7.2 |
ashebangs.lua = 'lua'
converts to patterns['^#!.+/lua'] = 'lua'
Language-specific Key Changes
Textadept 8 removed the keys.LANGUAGE_MODULE_PREFIX
key binding (which has
been Ctrl+L
for Win32 and Linux, ⌘L
on Mac OSX, and M-L
in curses), but
only in name. Textadept 8 does not make use of this key, and it is still
traditionally reserved for use by language-specific modules. You can use as such
from your language module like this:
keys.lua[not OSX and not CURSES and 'cl' or 'ml'] = {
...
}
Compile and Run Macro Changes
Textadept 8 removed the long-hand macros for compile and run commands in favor or shorthand ones (most of which have been available since 7.1).
Old Macro | New Macro |
---|---|
%(filename) | %f |
%(filename_noext) | %e |
%(filedir) | %d |
%(filepath) | %p |
Any modules and language-specific modules using the long-hand notation must be updated.
Textadept 6 to 7
Textadept 7 introduces API changes, a change in module mentality and filename encodings, and a completely new theme implementation.
API Changes
Old API | Change | New API |
---|---|---|
_G | ||
RESETTING | Removed | N/Aa |
buffer_new() | Renamed | _G.buffer.new() |
_M.textadept | Renamed | textadept |
filter_through | Removed | N/A |
filter_through.filter_through() | Renamed | editing.filter_through() |
mime_types | Renamed | file_typesb |
_M.textadept.bookmark | ||
N/A | New | goto_mark() |
N/A | New | MARK_BOOKMARK |
MARK_BOOKMARK_COLOR | Removed | N/Ac |
goto_bookmark | Replaced | goto_mark() |
goto_next | Replaced | goto_mark(true) |
goto_prev | Replaced | goto_mark(false) |
_M.textadept.editing | ||
N/A | New | INDIC_BRACEMATCH |
N/A | New | INDIC_HIGHLIGHT |
INDIC_HIGHLIGHT_BACK | Removed | N/Ad |
autocomplete_word(chars, default) | Changed | autocomplete_word(default) |
grow_selection() | Replaced | select_enclosed() |
_M.textadept.menu | ||
menubar | Removed | N/A |
contextmenu | Removed | N/A |
_M.textadept.run | ||
N/A | New | MARK_WARNING |
N/A | New | MARK_ERROR |
MARK_ERROR_BACK | Removed | N/Ac |
compile_command | Renamed | compile_commands |
run_command | Renamed | run_commands |
error_detail | Renamed | error_patternse |
_M.textadept.snapopen | Removed | N/A |
open | Changed | _G.io.snapopen()f |
_SCINTILLA.constants | ||
SC_* | Renamed | Removed “SC_” prefix. |
SC(FIND|MOD|VS|WS) | Renamed | Removed “SC” prefix. |
buffer | ||
check_global() | Removed | |
get_style_name(buffer, n) | Renamed | style_name[n] |
reload() | Renamed | io.reload_file() |
save() | Renamed | io.save_file() |
save_as() | Renamed | io.save_file_as() |
close() | Renamed | io.close_buffer() |
set_encoding() | Renamed | io.set_buffer_encoding() |
convert_eo_ls() | Renamed | buffer.convert_eols() |
dirty | Replaced | buffer.modify |
events | ||
N/A | New | INITIALIZED |
handlers | Removed | N/A |
gui | Renamed | ui |
docstatusbar_text | Renamed | bufstatusbar_text |
N/A | New | maximized |
find.goto_file_in_list() | Renamed | find.goto_file_found() |
select_theme | Removed | N/A |
N/A | New | dialogs |
filteredlist | Removed | N/A |
set_theme(name, …) | Changed | set_theme(name, table) |
io | ||
try_encodings | Renamed | encodings |
open_file(string) | Changed | open_file(string or table) |
snapopen(string, …) | Changed | snapopen(string or table, …) |
save_all() | Renamed | save_all_files() |
close_all() | Renamed | close_all_buffers() |
aarg
is nil
when resetting.
bRemoved mime_types.conf files. Interact with Lua tables directly.
cSet buffer.marker_back
in events.VIEW_NEW
.
dSet buffer.indic_fore
in events.VIEW_NEW
.
eChanged structure too.
fChanged arguments too.
Module Mentality
Prior to Textadept 7, the _M
table held all loaded modules (regardless of
whether they were generic modules or language modules) and Textadept encouraged
users to load custom modules into _M
even though Lua has no such restriction.
The _M
prefix no longer makes much sense for generic modules like
textadept
, so only language modules are automatically loaded into
_M
. Textadept 7 does not encourage any prefix for custom, generic modules;
the user is free to choose.
Filename Encodings
Prior to Textadept 7, buffer.filename
was encoded in UTF-8 and any functions
that accepted filenames (such as io.open_file()
) required the filenames to
also be encoded in UTF-8. This is no longer the case in Textadept 7.
buffer.filename
is encoded in _CHARSET
and any filenames passed to functions
should also remain encoded in _CHARSET
. No more superfluous encoding
conversions. You should only convert to and from UTF-8 when displaying or
retrieving displayed filenames from buffers and/or dialogs.
Theme Changes
You can use the following as a reference for converting your Textadept 6 themes to Textadept 7:
-- File *theme/lexer.lua* | -- File *theme.lua*
-- Textadept 6 | -- Textadept 7
local l = lexer | local buffer = buffer
local color = l.color | local prop = buffer.property
local style = l.style | local prop_int =
| buffer.property_int
|
l.colors = { |
... | ...
red = color('99', '4D', '4D'), | prop['color.red'] = 0x4D4D99
yellow = color('99', '99', '4D'), | prop['color.yellow'] = 0x4D9999
... | ...
} |
|
l.style_nothing = style{} | prop['style.nothing'] = ''
l.style_class = style{ | prop['style.class'] =
fore = l.colors.yellow | 'fore:%(color.yellow)'
} | ...
... | prop['style.identifier'] =
l.style_identifier = l.style_nothing | '%(style.nothing)'
|
... | ...
|
| prop['font'] = 'Monospace'
local font, size = 'Monospace', 10 | prop['fontsize'] = 10
l.style_default = style{ | prop['style.default'] =
font = font, size = size, | 'font:%(font),'..
fore = l.colors.light_black | 'size:%(fontsize),'..
back = l.colors.white | 'fore:%(color.light_black),'..
} | 'back:%(color.white)'
... | ...
-- File *theme/view.lua* | -- Same file *theme.lua*!
|
... | ...
-- Caret and Selection Styles. | -- Caret and Selection Styles.
buffer:set_sel_fore(true, 0x333333) | buffer:set_sel_fore(true,
| prop_int['color.light_black'])
buffer:set_sel_back(true, 0x999999) | buffer:set_sel_back(true,
| prop_int['color.light_grey'])
--buffer.sel_alpha = | --buffer.sel_alpha =
--buffer.sel_eol_filled = true |
buffer.caret_fore = 0x4D4D4D | buffer.caret_fore =
| prop_int['color.grey_black']
... | ...
Notes:
- Textadept 7’s themes share its Lua state and set lexer colors and styles through named buffer properties.
- Convert colors from “RRGGBB” string format to the “0xBBGGRR” number format that Textadept’s API documentation uses consistently.
- The only property names that matter are the “style.name” ones. Other property names are arbitrary.
- Instead of using variables, which are evaluated immediately, use “%(key)” notation, which substitutes the value of property “key” at a later point in time. This means you do not have to define properties before use. You can also modify existing properties without redefining the properties that depend on them. See the creating themes section for an example.
- Set view properties related to colors directly in theme.lua now instead of
a separate view.lua. You may use color properties defined earlier. Try to
refrain from setting properties like
buffer.sel_eol_filled
which belong in a properties.lua file. - The separate buffer.lua is gone. Use properties.lua or a language module.
Theme Preference
Textadept 7 ignores the ~/.textadept/theme and ~/.textadept/theme_term files that specified your preferred Textadept 6 theme. Use ~/.textadept/init.lua to set a preferred theme instead. For example, if you had custom GUI and terminal themes:
-- File *~/.textadept/init.lua*
ui.set_theme(not CURSES and 'custom' or 'custom_term')
You may still use absolute paths for themes instead of names.
Textadept 5 to 6
Textadept 6 introduces some API changes. These changes affect themes in particular, so your themes may require upgrading.
Old API | Change | New API |
---|---|---|
buffer | ||
annotation_get_text(line) | Renamed | annotation_text[line] |
annotation_set_text(line, text) | Renamed | annotation_text[line] = text |
auto_c_get_current() | Renamed | auto_c_current |
auto_c_get_current_text() | Renamed | auto_c_current_text |
get_lexer_language() | Renamed | lexer_language |
get_property(key) | Renamed | property[key] |
get_property_expanded(key) | Renamed | property_expanded[key] |
get_tag(n) | Renamed | tag[n] |
margin_get_text(line) | Renamed | margin_text[line] |
margin_set_text(line, text) | Renamed | margin_text[line] = text |
marker_set_alpha(n, alpha) | Renamed | marker_alpha[n] = alpha |
marker_set_back(n, color) | Renamed | marker_back[n] = color |
marker_set_back_selected(n, color) | Renamed | marker_back_selected[n] = color |
marker_set_fore(n, color) | Renamed | marker_fore[n] = color |
set_fold_flags(flags) | Renamed | fold_flags = flags |
set_lexer_language(name) | Renamed | lexer_language = name |
style_get_font(n) | Renamed | style_font[n] |
gui | ||
gtkmenu() | Renamed | menu() |
_G | ||
user_dofile(file) | Renamed | dofile(_USERHOME..‘/’..file) |
_M | ||
lua.goto_required() | Removed | N/A |
php.goto_required() | Removed | N/A |
ruby.goto_required() | Removed | N/A |
_M.textadept.adeptsense | ||
complete_symbol() | Replaced | complete() |
show_documentation() | Replaced | show_apidoc() |
_M.textadept.bookmarks | ||
N/A | New | toggle() |
add() | Renamed | toggle(true) |
remove() | Renamed | toggle(false) |
_M.textadept.editing | ||
prepare_for_save() | Removed | N/A |
_M.textadept.menu | ||
rebuild_command_tables() | Replaced | set_menubar() |
_M.textadept.run | ||
execute() | Replaced | run() and compile() |
_M.textadept.session | ||
prompt_load() | Replaced | load() |
prompt_save() | Replaced | save() |
Textadept 4 to 5
Textadept 5 upgraded its copy of Lua from 5.1 to 5.2. Many old scripts are not compatible and need to be upgraded. Since incompatible scripts may cause crashes on startup, the following guide will help you migrate your scripts from Textadept 4 to Textadept 5. While this guide is not exhaustive, it covers the changes I had to make to Textadept’s internals.
API Changes
Old API | Change | New API |
---|---|---|
_G | ||
getfenv(f) | Removed | N/A. Use: debug.getupvalue(f, 1) |
loadstring() | Replaced | load() |
module() | Removed | N/A |
setfenv(f, env) | Removed | N/A. Use: debug.setupvalue(f, 1, env)a |
unpack() | Renamed | table.unpack() |
xpcall(f, msgh) | Changed | xpcall(f, msgh, …) |
_m | Renamed | _Mb |
_m.textadept.editing | ||
current_word(action) | Renamed | select_word()c |
locale | Removed | N/A |
localize(message) | Renamed | _G._L[message] |
os | ||
code = execute(cmd) | Changed | ok, status, code = execute(cmd) |
aIn some cases, use load()
with an environment instead:
setfenv(loadstring(str), env)() --> load(str, nil, 'bt', env)()
bIn Textadept, search for “_m” and replace with “_M” with the “Match Case” and “Whole Words” options checked – this is what I did when upgrading Textadept’s internals.
cTo delete, call _M.textadept.keys.utils.delete_word()
or define
your own:
local function delete_word()
_M.textadept.editing.select_word()
buffer:delete_back()
end
Module Changes
You can use the following as a reference for converting your Lua 5.1 modules to Lua 5.2:
-- File *~/.textadept/modules/foo.lua*
-- Lua 5.1 | -- Lua 5.2
|
| local M = {}
| --[[ This comment is for LuaDoc
--- | ---
-- This is the documentation | -- This is the documentation
-- for module foo. | -- for module foo.
module('foo', package.seeall) | module('foo')]]
|
--- | ---
-- Documentation for bar. | -- Documentation for bar.
-- ... | -- ...
-- | -- @name bar
function bar() | function M.bar()
... | ...
end | end
|
function baz() | function M.baz()
bar() | M.bar()
end | end
|
| return M
-- File *~/.textadept/init.lua*
-- Lua 5.1 | -- Lua 5.2
|
require 'textadept' | _M.textadept = require 'textadept'
require 'foo' | foo = require 'foo'
Notes:
- Even though Lua 5.2 deprecates Lua 5.1’s
module()
, Textadept 5 removes it. - Prefix all intern module tables and function calls with
M
. - Also, replace all instances (if any) of
_M
(a references created bymodule()
that holds the current module table) withM
. - You can use your existing LuaDoc comments by keeping the
module()
call commented out and adding@name
tags.
Theme Changes
You can use the following as a reference for converting your Lua 5.1 themes to Lua 5.2:
-- File *~/.textadept/themes/theme/lexer.lua*
-- Lua 5.1 | -- Lua 5.2
|
| local l = lexer
module('lexer', package.seeall) | local color = l.color
| local style = l.style
|
colors = { | l.colors = {
... | ...
} | }
|
style_nothing = style{} | l.style_nothing = style{...}
style_class = style{ | l.style_class = style{
fore = colors.light_yellow | fore = l.colors.light_yellow
} | }
... | ...
style_identifier = style_nothing | l.style_identifier = l.style_nothing
|
... | ...
|
style_default = style{ | l.style_default = style{
... | ...
} | }
style_line_number = { | l.style_line_number = {
fore = colors.dark_grey, | fore = l.colors.dark_grey,
back = colors.black | back = l.colors.black
} | }
... | ...
Note the l.
prefix before most identifiers.
Textadept 3 to 4
Key and Menu Changes
Textadept 4 features a brand new set of key bindings and menu structure. It also
shows simple key bindings (not keychains) in menus. In order for key bindings to
appear in menus, _m.textadept.menu
must know which commands map to which keys.
Therefore, the menu module needs to be require
d after _m.textadept.keys
.
If your ~/.textadept/init.lua calls require 'textadept'
, you do not have to
make any changes. If you load individual modules from _m.textadept
, ensure
_m.textadept.menu
loads after _m.textadept.keys
.
Mac OSX has different modifier key definitions. A new m
indicates ⌘ (command)
and a
changed from ⌘ to ⌥ (alt/option). c
remains ^ (control). Keep in mind
that ⌥ functions as a compose key for locale-dependent characters.
API Changes
Old API | Change | New API |
---|---|---|
_m.textadept.editing | ||
select_scope() | Renamed | select_style() |
SAVE_STRIPS_WS | Renamed | STRIP_WHITESPACE_ON_SAVE |
Textadept 2 to 3
Module Changes
Core Extensions
The core extention modules moved from core/ext/ to modules/textadept/. Putting
require 'textadept'
in your ~/.textadept/init.lua loads all the modules you would expect. The loading modules section has instructions on how to load specific modules.
Autoloading Keys and Snippets
Key bindings in ~/.textadept/key_commands.lua and snippets in ~/.textadept/snippets.lua no longer auto-load. Move them to your ~/.textadept/init.lua or a file loaded by ~/.textadept/init.lua.
API Changes
Textadept has a brand new Lua API. Old scripts and themes are likely not compatible and need to be upgraded.
Old API | Change | New API |
---|---|---|
_G | ||
N/A | New | _SCINTILLA |
N/A | New | events |
N/A | New | gui |
_m.textadept.lsnippets | Renamed | _m.textadept.snippets |
textadept | Removed | N/A |
_print() | Renamed | _G.gui._print() |
buffer_functions | Renamed | _G._SCINTILLA.functions |
buffer_properties | Renamed | _G._SCINTILLA.properties |
buffers | Renamed | _G._BUFFERS |
check_focused_buffer() | Renamed | _G.gui.check_focused_buffer() |
clipboard_text | Renamed | _G.gui.clipboard_text |
command_entry | Renamed | _G.gui.command_entry |
constants | Renamed | _G._SCINTILLA.constants |
context_menu | Renamed | _G.gui.context_menu |
dialog | Renamed | _G.gui.dialog() |
docstatusbar_text | Renamed | _G.gui.docstatusbar_text |
events | Renamed | _G.events |
events.add_handler() | Renamed | _G.events.connect() |
events.handle() | Renamed | _G.events.emit() |
find | Renamed | _G.gui.find |
focused_doc_pointer | Renamed | _G.gui.focused_doc_pointer |
get_split_table() | Renamed | _G.gui.get_split_table() |
goto_view() | Renamed | _G.gui.goto_view() |
gtkmenu() | Renamed | _G.gui.gtkmenu() |
iconv() | Renamed | _G.string.iconv() |
menubar | Renamed | _G.gui.menubar |
new_buffer() | Renamed | _G.new_buffer() |
print() | Renamed | _G.gui.print() |
quit() | Renamed | _G.quit() |
reset() | Renamed | _G.reset() |
session_file | Renamed | _G._SESSIONFILE |
size | Renamed | _G.gui.size |
statusbar_text | Renamed | _G.gui.statusbar_text |
switch_buffer() | Renamed | _G.gui.switch_buffer() |
title | Renamed | _G.gui.title |
user_dofile() | Renamed | _G.user_dofile() |
views | Renamed | _G._VIEWS |