ste

ste is a minimal terminal text editor with a two-mode workflow inspired by modal editors, but stripped down to the smallest useful set of behavior. Configuration is done the same way dwm does it: by editing config.h and recompiling, there is no runtime configuration. The default settings live in config.def.h.

Building

Requirements:

• a C++17 compiler (g++ or clang++)
• ncurses development headers

On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install build-essential libncurses-dev

On Arch linux:

sudo pacman -S base-devel ncurses

Then:

make

If config.h does not exist, make creates it by copying config.def.h. If it already exists, it is used as is, so your changes are never overwritten. To reset to the defaults, delete config.h and run make again.

This produces a single binary, ste, in the project root.

To install it system-wide:

sudo make install

This copies the binary to /usr/local/bin/ste. To remove it:

sudo make uninstall

To change the install prefix:

sudo make install PREFIX=/usr

Usage

ste <file>

If <file> exists, it is opened. If it does not exist, ste starts with an empty buffer and creates the file the first time you save.

Modes

General

This is the mode ste starts in. The cursor is drawn as a solid block. Pressing a letter key does not insert it into the buffer; it only triggers a command if that key is bound to one. Arrow keys move the cursor.

Default bindings (see config.h):

Key	Action
q	quit ste
w	switch to write mode
s	save the file
arrows	move the cursor

Write

Entered from general mode by pressing the configured writeMode key. The cursor is drawn as a thin vertical bar to make the mode visually obvious even without looking at the status line. Every printable character you type is inserted at the cursor position. Backspace, Enter and the arrow keys work as you would expect from any plain text editor.

The only key that does not insert text in write mode is Esc, which returns to general mode.

Key	Action
Esc	switch back to general mode
any printable key	insert the character
Backspace	delete the character before the cursor
Enter	insert a new line
Tab	insert tab spaces (see config.h)
arrows	move the cursor

Status line

The bottom row of the terminal always shows the current mode, the file name, whether the buffer has unsaved changes, and the cursor position (line:col, one-indexed).

Cursor shape

ste switches the terminal cursor shape between a steady block (general mode) and a steady bar (write mode) using standard DECSCUSR escape sequences. This works in most modern terminal emulators (e.g. xterm, kitty, alacritty, foot, gnome-terminal, iTerm2). If your terminal does not support DECSCUSR, the cursor shape simply stays whatever the terminal defaults to; the mode is still visible on the status line.

License

ste is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for the full text.