A no-hassle GVim-inspired GUI text editor.

Installation

Linux

Debian-based distros

Install via the latest corresponding Debian package:

curl -L -O https://github.com/lintopher0315/gadget/releases/download/v1.0.0/gadget_1.0.0_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./gadget_1.0.0_amd64.deb

Alternatively, navigate to https://github.com/lintopher0315/gadget/releases/, download the Debian package manually, and then run sudo apt install ./gadget_1.0.0_amd64.deb.

Features

• One-to-one functionality of numerous Vim commands
• 4 editor modes: Normal, Edit, Visual, and Line
  • Similar to Vim, Visual mode can be activated by clicking and dragging with the mouse
  • Allows CTRL-C and CTRL-V to/from clipboard in Visual and Line modes
• Minimalistic status bar
  • Displays unsaved and read-only files
  • Shows caret position and size of file by bytes and lines
• Smart indentation
• Color-coded file tree
  • Sorted by directories, dotfiles, then regular files by extension
  • Directories colored according to amount of files: pink if empty, red if <10, yellow if <30, green if <50, blue if <70, and purple for any higher quantity
• Tab splitting
• Syntax highlighting (only for C++ for now, work in progress)
• Soon-to-be cross-platform (also work in progress)

Usage

After installing, run the following command to open Gadget:

gadget &

Gadget will open up in Normal mode which is the main mode for running commands for moving, editing, configuring, etc. Directly typing in Normal mode will begin forming a command underneath the status bar. Pressing ESC will clear the command bar. ESC will also switch from any other mode to Normal mode.

Normal mode commands	Behavior
[num]h	move caret left [num] times
[num]j	move caret down [num] times
[num]k	move caret up [num] times
[num]l	move caret right [num] times
[num]w	jump to the start of the next word [num] times
[num]b	jump to the start of the previous word [num] times
gg	jump to the beginning of the file
G	jump to the end of the file
[num]G	jump to the beginning of line [num]
_	jump to the first non-whitespace character of the current line
0	jump to the beginning of the current line
$	jump to the end of the current line
[num]x	cut the character the caret is currently on [num] times
[num]o	append [num] empty lines below the current line
[num]O	append [num] empty lines above the current line
[num]dd	cut [num] lines
D	cut to the end of the current line
f [char]	jump to the next instance of [char] on the current line
F [char]	jump to the previous instance of [char] on the current line
t [char]	jump just before the next instance of [char] on the current line
T [char]	jump just after the previous instance of [char] on the current line
p	past the contents of the clipboard after the caret
P	past the contents of the clipboard before the caret
[num]gt	switch to the tab indicated by [num]
i	change to Edit mode
I	change to Edit mode and jump before the first non-whitespace character of the current line
a	change to Edit mode and move the caret right
A	change to Edit mode and jump to the end of the current line
v	switch to Visual mode
V	switch to Line mode
:q	quit and close the current document
:w	save the document to the file it points to
:w [file]	save the document to [file] and set it to point to [file]
:wq	save and close the document
:e [file]	open a new file, [file], in the current editor
:tabedit	create a new empty document in another tab
:tabedit [file]	create a new document in another tab pointing to [file]
:split	split the current tab horizontally
:vsplit	split the current tab vertically
:help	open the help file in a new tab

Edit mode is for writing and acts as any standard text editor. Edit mode has no commands.

Visual mode allows the performing of actions on blocks of text like copying, pasting, case-changing, etc. Once in visual mode, the anchor of the selection will begin from where the caret is positioned. All movement commands seen in Normal mode (e.g. hjkl, gg, w, etc.) can be used to extend the selection.

Visual mode commands	Behavior
x	cuts the selection
u	changes selection to lowercase
U	changes selection to uppercase
y	copies selection to the clipboard

Line mode is similar to visual mode, but differs in that it only extends the selection line-by-line. This is useful for selecting blocks of text where only the lines matter. All Visual commands will also work in Line mode as well as Normal mode movement commands.

Line mode commands	Behavior
[num]<	shifts the selected lines [num] times to the left
[num]>	shifts the selected lines [num] times to the right