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Fast graphical text editor over ssh

A project log for Silly software wishlist

Motivation to do some software projects by writing them down.

lion-mclionheadlion mclionhead 04/09/2021 at 20:090 Comments

Lions have done a lot of text editing on remote consoles, manely using vi because running a graphical text editor over a network X11 connection is super slow.  There should be a way to have a persistent, graphical text editor server on the local screen.  Then a text editor client could be run remotely with a real fast shortcut like "e".  It would send the contents of the file to the server for editing.  The server would send incremental updates to the client only when the user saved the file.  This would use a lot less bandwidth than sending drawing commands to the server.

There might be a way to do it with a plugin for sublime.  Writing a text editor from scratch is a big deal.  The most important aspect for lions is speed, which makes python, javascript impractical.

Editing source code on a headless raspberry pi, with a graphical editor that runs as fast as if it was on the raspberry pi's HDMI port, would be a game changer.  Maybe there's a way such a text editor could communicate over a serial port as well as a network.  The terminal emulator would have to multiplex network packets with the console.  Multiplexing network packets with a console on a serial port could be a separate game changer.   The key is setting up the network connection quickly & automatically.

Another key feature is not keeping any file handles open.  

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