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edward

★ 37 Open GitHub ↗

An extensible POSIX-compatible implementation of the ed(1) text editor

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## About

This is a POSIX-compatible implementation of the standard Unix text
editor [`ed(1)`][ed posix]. The implementation is written entirely in
[R7RS][r7rs] [CHICKEN Scheme][chicken] and provides a Scheme library
interface for extending the editor with custom commands.

## Status

I am presently not aware of any POSIX.1-2024 conformance issues. The
library interface, for extending `edward` with custom commands, is
usable but still very experimental and subject to change. Refer to
the `TODO.md` file for more information.

## Design

This implementation relies on [parser combinators][parser combinators]
as well as [hygienic Scheme macros][hygienic macros] to ease the
implementation of ed commands. Each ed command is defined using a macro
(i.e. similar to how one would normally define procedures in Scheme) and
parsed through provided parser combinators. In a sense, thus employing
[language-oriented programming][language-oriented programming] to
implement ed commands and thereby making this ed implementation very
hackable and easy to extend. The implementation is also split into a
CHICKEN program and various library components which allows defining
custom commands (refer to the library interface documentation below).

## Installation

The program can be installed either using [GNU make][gnu make] or
[chicken-install][chicken egg-install]. Both installation methods
presuppose that CHICKEN 6 is installed.

### GNU make

Installation via GNU make does not require any CHICKEN configuration
and should work out-of-the-box. As such, it is especially useful for
packaging purposes. In order to build edward using GNU make run the
following commands:

$ make

To install edward to system-wide directories run the following command:

$ make install

The GNU make installation method only installs the edward binary. It
does not install the library interface. If you want to interact with
the edward library you need to install edward via chicken-install.

### chicken-install

Contrary to installation via GNU make, this installation method requires
a properly configured CHICKEN toolchain. If CHICKEN has been configured
correctly, run the following command to install both the library and the
program component:

$ chicken-install

The edward binary will be added to a directory in your `$PATH`,
furthermore the edward library will be available in your CHICKEN library
path. More usage information for the edward library is provided below.

## Tests

This repository contains both unit tests and integration tests. The
latter require a reference implementation of a POSIX.1-2024 compatible
ed implementation. Currently, [GNU ed >= 1.22.3][gnu ed] is used for this
purpose.

Both unit and integration tests can be run using:

$ make check

Optionally, [tmux][tmux web] can be installed to also execute tests for
edward's end-of-file handling in an interactive environment.

## Usage

For interactive usage I can highly recommend using this software in
conjunction with a [readline][GNU readline] frontend such as
[rlwrap][rlwrap github]. This enables readline-like keybindings (e.g.
Ctrl+A, Ctrl+W, …) as well as input history support.

Detailed usage instructions for the `ed(1)` text editor can be found in
the [POSIX documentation][ed posix]. Additionally, a nice introduction
to the editor is provided in the book *The Unix Programming Environment*
by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike (Appendix 1: Editor Summary). In
general, since ed is an old editor which hasn't changed much in the past
centuries, many historic documents explaining its usage are still
applicable today. Most notably, volume 2A of the seventh edition of the
[UNIX Programmer's Manual][unix v7vol2a] contains two documents which
provide a beginner-friendly introduction to the editor: *A Tutorial
Introduction to the UNIX Text Editor* and *Advanced Editing on UNIX*
both written by Brian W. Kernighan.

## Library Interface

Apart from an `ed(1)` implementation, `edward` also provides a library
interface for extending the editor with custom commands. While the
implementation provided here focuses solely on POSIX compatibility,
extension to the POSIX standard can be supplied separately using the
library interface. The `edward` library can be used by creating a custom
CHICKEN Scheme program which imports the edward libraries, defines
custom commands through provided hygienic macros, and executes
`(edward-main)` to start the editor. For example, an `edward` variant
which provides a pipe command for passing a range of lines through
a filter can be implemented as follows:

(import (scheme base)
	        (chicken process)
	        (srfi 14)
	
	        (edward cli)
	        (edward util)
	        (edward parse)
	        (edward ed cmd)
	        (edward ed addr)
	        (edward ed posix)
	        (edward ed editor))
	
	;; Executor for the pipe command
	(define (exec-pipe editor range cmd)
	  (let* ((proc (process cmd))
	         (lines (editor-get-lines editor range)))
	    (call-with-port
	      (process-input-port proc)
	      (lambda (port) (lines->port lines port)))
	    (let* ((in (process-output-port proc))
	           (recv (port->lines in)))
	      (close-input-port in)
	      (exec-delete editor range)
	      (exec-insert editor (car range) (car recv)))))
	
	;; Parser for the pipe command
	(define-file-cmd (pipe exec-pipe (make-range))
	  (parse-cmd-char #\|)
	  (parse-token (char-set-complement (char-set #\newline))))
	
	;; Start the editor
	(edward-main)

Save this code in `edward++.scm` and compile it as follows:

$ csc edward++.scm

Drop the resulting `edward++` binary somewhere in your `$PATH` and
invoke it as usual. Naturally, it is possible to define multiple custom
commands. Refer to `lib/ed/posix.scm` for the implementation of editor
commands mandated by the POSIX standard. Additional commands are also
available in a separate [edward-contrib][edward-contrib github]
repository.

## API Documentation

The API of the library interface is documented using Scheme source code
comments. An HTML documentation can be generated from these comments
using the [scmdoc][scmdoc github] utility. More information on that
is provided in `doc/README.md`.

The API documentation is available via: https://files.8pit.net/edward/latest/doc/

## History

The existing GNU and BSD ed implementations are both derived from an
implementation written by Andrew Moore in the early-to-mid 1990s. As
such, they still share a lot of code and are potentially subject to the
same bugs [\[1\]][ed history]. To the best of my knowledge, edward is
the first ed implementation which strives to be fully POSIX compatible
but is not derived from Andrew's original implementation.

## License

This program includes code from [chibi-scheme][chibi-scheme github]
(`lib/parse/parse.scm`) written by Alex Shinn and licensed under a
BSD-style license. Furthermore, it includes a stripped-down and slightly
modified version of the [SRFI 214][srfi 214] reference implementation
(`lib/buffer/srfi214-minimal.scm`) written by Adam Nelson under MIT.
The program itself is licensed as follows:

> This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
> under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
> Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your
> option) any later version.
>
> This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
> WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
> MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
> Public License for more details.
>
> You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
> with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

[ed posix]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/ed.html
[gnu make]: https://www.gnu.org/software/make/
[chicken]: https://call-cc.org
[chicken egg-install]: https://wiki.call-cc.org/man/5/Extensions#installing-eggs
[chicken matchable]: https://wiki.call-cc.org/eggref/5/matchable
[chicken posix-regex]: https://wiki.call-cc.org/eggref/5/posix-regex
[chicken process signal]: https://api.call-cc.org/5/doc/chicken/process/signal
[gnu ed]: https://www.gnu.org/software/ed/
[srfi]: https://srfi.schemers.org/
[srfi 204]: https://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-204/
[srfi 214]: https://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-214/
[r7rs]: https://small.r7rs.org/
[parser combinators]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parser_combinator
[GNU readline]: https://tiswww.cwru.edu/php/chet/readline/rltop.html
[rlwrap github]: https://github.com/hanslub42/rlwrap
[unix v7vol2a]: https://s3.amazonaws.com/plan9-bell-labs/7thEdMan/v7vol2a.pdf
[hygienic macros]: https://doi.org/10.1145/319838.319859
[language-oriented programming]: https://doi.org/10.1145/3127323
[ed history]: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-ed/2021-12/msg00001.html
[tmux web]: https://tmux.github.io
[scmdoc github]: https://github.com/nmeum/scmdoc
[edward-contrib github]: https://github.com/nmeum/edward-contrib
[chibi-scheme github]: https://github.com/ashinn/chibi-scheme

edward

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