Tide

A Vim-like modal text editor written in Nim using the illwill terminal library.

Installation

You can install Tide using Nim's package manager, Nimble. Run the following command:

nimble install tide 

Features

• Modal editing (Normal, Insert, Command, Diff)
• Search functionality with forward/backward navigation
• Syntax highlighting with language detection
• Minimap
• Customizable themes
• Undo/Redo support
• Line numbering (toggleable)
• Vim-style commands and navigation
• Yank/paste operations

Keybindings

Normal Mode

Navigation

• h / ← - Move cursor left
• l / → - Move cursor right
• j / ↓ - Move cursor down
• k / ↑ - Move cursor up
• 0 - Move to start of line
• $ - Move to end of line
• g - Go to first line
• G - Go to last line
• w - Move forward one word
• b - Move backward one word
• e - Move to end of word
• Home - Move to start of line
• End - Move to end of line
• PageUp - Scroll up one page
• PageDown - Scroll down one page

Editing

• i - Enter insert mode at cursor
• a - Enter insert mode after cursor
• A - Enter insert mode at end of line
• o - Open new line below and enter insert mode
• O - Open new line above and enter insert mode
• x - Delete character under cursor
• X - Delete character before cursor
• dd - Delete current line
• yy - Yank (copy) current line
• p - Paste below current line
• P - Paste above current line
• u - Undo last change

Search

• / - Enter search mode (search forward)
• ? - Enter search mode (search backward)
• n - Repeat search in the same direction
• N - Repeat search in the opposite direction

Other

• L - Toggle line numbers
• : - Enter command mode
• Esc - Cancel pending operation
• q - Quit editor

Count Prefix

Many commands support a count prefix: - 5j - Move down 5 lines - 3w - Move forward 3 words - 10k - Move up 10 lines

Search Mode

Search mode is entered by pressing / in normal mode or ? for backward search.

• Type your search pattern
• Enter - Execute search and jump to first match
• Backspace - Delete character in search buffer
• Esc - Cancel search and return to normal mode

After executing a search: - n - Find next occurrence (wraps around to beginning) - N - Find previous occurrence (wraps around to end)

The status bar will display the position of found matches (e.g., "Pattern found at 42:15").

Insert Mode

• Esc - Return to normal mode
• Enter - Insert new line
• Backspace - Delete character before cursor
• Delete - Delete character under cursor
• Arrow keys, Home, End, PageUp, PageDown - Navigate while in insert mode
• Any printable character (space through ~) - Insert character

Command Mode

Commands are entered after pressing : in normal mode.

File Operations

• :w - Write (save) file
• :q - Quit editor
• :q! - Force quit without saving
• :wq or :x - Write and quit

Diff Mode

• :diff <file1> <file2> - Open two files in diff mode

Display Options

• :set number or :set nu - Show line numbers
• :set nonumber or :set nonu - Hide line numbers

Syntax Highlighting

• :syntax on - Enable syntax highlighting (auto-detects language)
• :syntax off - Disable syntax highlighting

Minimap

• :minimap on - Enable minimap
• :minimap off - Disable minimap

Themes

• :theme <name> - Switch to specified theme
• :themes - Menu to list and select themes with preview

Others

• :pwd - Print working directory
• :version - Show Tide version information

Navigation

• Arrow keys, Home, End, PageUp, PageDown work in command mode
• Backspace - Delete character in command buffer
• Esc - Cancel and return to normal mode
• Enter - Execute command

Themes

Tide supports customizable color themes. Use :themes to list available themes and :theme <name> to switch themes.

Syntax Highlighting

Syntax highlighting is automatically detected based on the file extension when you enable it with :syntax on. Supported languages depend on your configuration.