pim: vim-like editor for Pico-8

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 22:35:53 UTC

pim v0.3.1

by spywhere

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pim

This is my attempt to bring vim into Pico-8. It leveraging Serial IO and debugging logs as a mean of reading / writing files.

Heads up!

This is a very early releases of the cart, some functionalities might break under certain cases
Line wrap is not implemented, so text insertion pass the limit would resulted in unexpected behaviour
- As line wrap is not implemented, so is horizontal scrolling

Reading and Writing file

pim supports reading and writing file through Serial IO and debugging logs.

Reading Files

To read a file, simply drag and drop the file onto the Pico-8 with pim running. pim will notify through the message that file is available to read.

Once file is available to read, simply using :e [filename] to read a file as [filename].p8l.

Writing Files

To write a file, simply using :w [filename] to write a file. This will always saved as [filename].p8l as pim is using printh to write the content to file.

Heads up! Be careful, pim will always overwrite the target file as Pico-8 does not provide an API for file systems.

Keymap

Currently, pim supports 2 input types, devkit and a regular keypad / controller.

To switch between input types, use the Pause menu by either physically pause Pico-8 or use :q.

DevKit Input

As there is a limitation on Pico-8 key interception, here are alternative keys for vim functionality.

C-c (Control-C) as an escape key
Tab (Tab) as a return key

For some of the normal mode operator, you can prefixed it with a count. For example, to move down 5 lines, you can use 5j.

Normal Mode

DevKit

C-c: Clear pending operator
:: Enter command line mode
v/V/c-v: Enter visual / visual line / visual block mode
i/a: Enter insert mode (at / after cursor position)
I/A: Enter insert mode (at the start / end of a line)
C-e/C-y: Scroll the buffer up / down by one line
o: Open a new line below a current line
O: Open a new line above a current line

Keypad

1st O: Enter command line mode
1st X: Enter insert mode at cursor position
2nd O: Enter visual mode
2nd X: Enter insert mode after cursor position

Insert Mode

DevKit

C-c: Exit to normal mode
Left/Down/Up/Right: Move the cursor to the left/down/up/right

Keypad

1st O: Backspace
1st X: Line feed
2nd O: Exit to normal mode
Left/Right: Move the cursor to the left/right
Up/Down: Iterate a character at cursor position up/down

Heads up! Currently, there is no way to delete a line when using keypad input.

Visual Mode

DevKit

C-c: Clear pending operator
:: Enter command line mode
v/V/c-v: Enter visual / visual line / visual block mode or exit to normal mode if mode is matched
o/O: Swap cursor and cursor's anchor point

Keypad

1st O: Exit to normal mode
2nd X: Enter command line mode

Command-line Mode

DevKit

C-c: Exit to normal mode
Left/Right: Move the cursor to the left/right
Up/Down: Iterate backward/forward through a command-line history

Keypad

1st O: Exit to normal mode
1st X: Accept a command line
Left/Right: Move the cursor to the left/right
Up/Down: Iterate a character at cursor position up/down

Motions

g_: The end of the line including a new line
h/j/k/l/Left/Down/Up/Right: Character to the left / down / up / right
0/$: Move the cursor to the first / last character of the line
gg/G: The top / bottom of the buffer
C-b/C-f: The buffer up / down by a page
C-u/C-d: The buffer up / down by half a page
w/W: The beginning of the next word / WORD

word: A word consists of a sequence of letters, digits and underscores, or a sequence of other non-blank characters, separated with white space (spaces, tabs, EOL). This can be changed with the 'iskeyword' option. An empty line is also considered to be a word.
WORD: A WORD consists of a sequence of non-blank characters, separated with white space. An empty line is also considered to be a WORD.

Options

You can set the option through command line mode by using set command.

number / nu: Show line number
relativenumber / rnu: Show relative line number
scrolloff / so: Set a scroll-off buffer limit
timeoutlen / tm: Set a timeout duration to reset the key sequence
iskeyword / isk: Set a set of characters to be considered as a part of word
history / hi: Set a command-line history limit

You can also prefixed the option name with no to disable the option.

To view the current option's value, suffixed the option name with ? to view it.

For option that accept value, you would need to pass the value (e.g. set scrolloff=3) in order to set the limit. Otherwise, it would just show the current limit.

Release notes

v0.3.1 - 07 May 2022

fix broken motion keymaps

v0.3.0 - 07 May 2022

word motions (w/W)
command-line history
keypad input support

v0.2.0 - 31 Jan 2022

set command now support setting a string value
file reading and writing through Serial IO and debugging logs
initial mouse support
internal project improvement

v0.1.0 - 30 Jan 2022

pause menu has been override with a :quit command instead
Enter/Return key can be used instead of Tab
fix broken open line (o/O)
cursor position should be more predictable
use a proper table insertion / deletion for faster performance
timeoutlen option and :quit command has been added
bang command is now handled (but not in used)
add quit help message
add A/I normal command
add motion keymap
visual / visual line / visual block mode supported

v0.0.1 - 28 Jan 2022

Initial release

spywhere [Lexaloffle Blog Feed]

pim: vim-like editor for Pico-8

pim

Reading and Writing file

Reading Files

Writing Files

Keymap

DevKit Input

Normal Mode

DevKit

Keypad

Insert Mode

DevKit

Keypad

Visual Mode

DevKit

Keypad

Command-line Mode

DevKit

Keypad

Motions

Options

Release notes