Building Your Own Text Editor: The Journey from Frustration to Your Perfect Tool

The quest for the perfect text editor is a common developer dilemma. Many find themselves constantly tweaking popular editors like Neovim with plugins, yet still feeling a gap between what they have and what they truly desire. This shared frustration often sparks the thought: "how hard could it be to write one myself?"

The Allure and the Challenge of Custom Editors

The idea of a bespoke editor tailored precisely to one's workflow is incredibly appealing. It promises ultimate control and a truly frictionless coding experience. However, those who have embarked on this journey often uncover a hidden layer of complexity. What seems like a trivial feature, such as auto-indenting, can quickly become fiddly, especially when dealing with mixed tabs and spaces or different language syntaxes. One participant noted that while they started with a barebones editor and made progress, they realized many "simple things" are far from it.

Success Stories and Practical Advice

Despite the challenges, a dedicated few have not only written their own editors but have also used and maintained them daily for decades. These success stories offer valuable insights:

Start Smart: Instead of building entirely from scratch, consider finding a very barebones editor to use as a starting point. This provides a foundation and allows you to focus on customization rather than fundamental infrastructure.
Data Structures Matter: The choice of central data structure is crucial. One long-term custom editor user suggested that if they were to rebuild their editor, they might opt for a "rope" instead of a simple "line array" for better performance and flexibility, though their current setup works well enough.
Maintenance Considerations: Building a terminal-based program can significantly reduce the maintenance burden compared to a graphical user interface, making a custom editor a more sustainable long-term project.
Integrate Custom Tools: For true personalization, some have even integrated their own homebrew scripting languages into their custom editors, enabling unique workflows.

Resources and Inspiration

For those considering this path, "The Craft of Text Editing" by Craig A. Finseth comes highly recommended as a comprehensive resource. Additionally, real-world examples of user-built editors like "Ozette" (a terminal program) and "Porcupine" (built with Tkinter) demonstrate the diverse approaches and successful outcomes possible. While some may ultimately return to "good enough" established editors, the journey of creating a personal tool can be incredibly rewarding and lead to a tool used for decades.