README
¶
nved
A small terminal text editor that feels like a REPL rather than a full-screen
application. You print a range of lines by number, climb into the printed block
with the arrow keys, and edit it in place. There is no alternate screen and no
takeover of your terminal: output scrolls normally and your scrollback stays
intact, the way cat or an old line editor leaves it.
nved is a from-scratch descendant of ved, an
ed clone. Where ved replays commands against text, nved lets you move a real
cursor through committed lines and change them directly. It is deliberately
small and single-purpose — one window, one buffer — and best suited to dialing
in a specific part of a file by line number, not to scrolling through large
files.
Install
On Debian or Ubuntu, add the Excelano apt repository
once and updates flow through apt upgrade:
curl -fsSL https://excelano.com/apt/setup.sh | sudo sh
sudo apt install nved
With a Go toolchain:
go install github.com/excelano/nved@latest
Build from source
git clone https://github.com/excelano/nved
cd nved
go build -o nved .
Requires Go 1.25 or newer.
How it works
Start nved with a file name, or with no argument for an empty unnamed buffer.
At the > prompt you address lines by number:
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
N |
print line N |
N.M |
print lines N through M |
N. |
print from line N to the end |
.N |
print from the start to line N |
. |
print the whole file |
$ |
print the last line |
s [name] |
save; a name is required when unnamed (also Ctrl+S) |
x |
exit; warns once when dirty (also Ctrl+X, q, quit) |
h |
show the command and key reference (also H, ?) |
The . separator sits under the right hand on the numeric keypad, where there is
no comma; a , works in its place anywhere — the two are interchangeable.
Out-of-range numbers clamp to the nearest valid line. A range taller than the terminal prints one screenful from the top; Page-Up and Page-Down reprint the screenful above or below so you can walk through it.
The printed block sits just above the prompt. Climb into it to edit:
- Up lands on the bottom line, Left at the end of the last line, Ctrl+Home on the first line.
- Arrows move the cursor; Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right skip by words; Home / End and Ctrl+Home / Ctrl+End jump to the edges.
- Enter splits a line, Backspace and Delete join lines, typing inserts.
- Ctrl+U undoes the last edit within the session.
- Ctrl+S saves in place without leaving (your cursor stays put); Ctrl+X exits — the save and exit chords work while editing, just as at the prompt.
- Leave the editor with Esc or Ctrl+C, or by stepping off the bottom (Down) or off the end of the last line (Right) — the mirror of how you climbed in.
Long lines are word-wrapped by nved itself, with a continuation indent that lines the wrapped text up under the gutter. Edits stay inside the printed block; to edit elsewhere, print that range and climb into it.
License
MIT — see LICENSE. Authored by David Anderson, with AI assistance.
Documentation
¶
Overview ¶
Command nved is a REPL-flavored terminal text editor — "new ved".
Slice 2: the editor core. On top of slice 1's command REPL it adds climbing into the most-recently-printed block to edit it in place — cursor movement, insert, Enter-split, Backspace/Delete-join — with ANSI block redraw over the real (scrolling) terminal rather than an alternate screen.
Source Files