🧬 Zepto Editor

Zepto is a quantum-sized, dependency-free text editor for the terminal.
It fits in a few kilobytes, yet supports modern editing features like:

• Undo/Redo
• Standard Copy/Paste
• Text Selection
• Syntax Highlighting
• Line Numbers
• Raw terminal mode for ultra-light input handling

MIT licensed, simple, fast, and perfect for minimal environments or system rescue shells.

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🧠 Philosophy

Zepto was designed to be as small and portable as possible while still providing features you'd expect from a modern terminal-based editor.
No external libraries, no ncurses, no third-party build systems — just ANSI escape codes and raw TTY input.

see the wiki for details

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🔧 Features

• No dependencies: uses raw ANSI escape codes and termios
• Raw terminal mode: captures keypresses instantly, including combinations like Ctrl/Alt/F-keys
• Undo/Redo: based on compact history stacks
• Clipboard: supports Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V
• Syntax highlighting: built into the binary for supported languages
• Compact: built binary under 30 KB
• Mouse support: SGR mode supported. mouse wheel to scroll source and click to locate cursor
• Portable: works on any POSIX terminal

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📦 Files

• zt.c – main source file
• build – small shell script to compile the editor
• install – shell script to install the editor binary

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🧾 Syntax Highlighting

Syntax highlighting is compiled directly into zt.

No external config files are required at runtime: Zepto detects supported file types from the filename extension and, for shell dotfiles, from common filenames such as .bashrc, .zshrc, and config.fish.

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🎨 Terminal Graphics

Zepto draws everything using raw ANSI escape codes:

• \033[H — move cursor to top-left
• \033[<row>;<col>H — move cursor to a specific position
• \033[K — clear to end of line
• \033[7m / \033[0m — invert video (used for selections)
• \033[?25l / \033[?25h — hide/show cursor
• \033[41m / \033[107m — set background color (red, white, etc.)

This allows Zepto to run without ncurses, making it ideal for static builds, embedded systems, or recovery environments.

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⚙️ Compilation

To compile Zepto and produce the zt binary, run:

./build

This will generate the zt executable.

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🧱 Installation

To install Zepto system-wide:

./install

This copies zt into /usr/local/bin.

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🖱️ Usage

zt filename.c

Controls:

• Esc — exit without saving

• F2 or Ctrl+2 — save

• F10 — save and exit

• F7 or Ctrl+7 — search

• Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y — undo / redo

• Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V — copy / cut / paste

• Shift + Arrows — text selection

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🪪 License

MIT License — see LICENSE file for details.

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💡 Tip

Ideal for rescue shells, retro systems, and minimal distros.
Zepto proves you don’t need megabytes of code to have modern editing pow