README
¶
vigo
A Turbo Vision style IDE for Go, written in Go, run in a terminal.
vigo brings back the Borland Turbo Pascal 6.0 / Borland C++ 3.x look: blue desktop, double-line window borders, drop shadows, F-key shortcuts, pull-down menus, modal dialogs. Underneath it uses gopls for code intelligence and dlv for debugging. One static binary, no CGO.
+--[=]--File--Edit--Search--Run--Compile--Debug--Project--Options--Window--Help--+
| |
| ##[*]= main.go ====================================================== 1 ## |
| # package main # |
| # # |
| # import "fmt" # |
| # # |
| # func main() { # |
| # fmt.Println("hello, vigo") # |
| # } # |
| # # |
| ##======================================== 6:1 =============== INS =====## |
| |
+--F1 Help--F2 Save--F3 Open--F5 Zoom--F6 Switch--F9 Make--F10 Menu--Alt-X Exit--+
Status
Pre-alpha. The project is being bootstrapped toward v0.1 (foundation).
The full plan, version by version, is in docs/roadmap.md and in the
matching specs at ~/notes/Spec/1500/1597..1607.
| Version | Theme | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Foundation | in progress |
| 0.2 | TUI core | planned |
| 0.3 | Editor | planned |
| 0.4 | Project & toolchain | planned |
| 0.5 | gopls / LSP | planned |
| 0.6 | Delve / DAP | planned |
| 0.7 | Polish | planned |
| 1.0 | Release | planned |
Why
There is no Go port of Turbo Vision. There are good Rust and C++ ports, and there are good Go terminal UI libraries (tcell, tview, bubbletea), but nothing combines the Turbo Vision object model with Go's editor tooling. vigo is that combination, scoped narrowly to a Go IDE that fits in a terminal.
Goals:
- Reproduce the Turbo Vision look and feel honestly. Same palette, same glyphs, same keys, same modal dialogs, same drop shadows.
- Stay in pure Go. No CGO, one binary per platform, fast cold start.
- Use gopls and dlv as supervised subprocesses. Don't reimplement parsers, type checkers, or debuggers.
- Keep the UI single-threaded. Background work posts events back to the loop on a channel, never mutates view state directly.
Non-goals:
- Not a clone of VS Code, GoLand, or Neovim. Mouse is supported but the keyboard is the point.
- Not a multi-language IDE. Go is the supported target. Other languages may work via gopls's neighbours, but they are not on the roadmap.
- No bundled package manager and no AI features in 1.0. Both are reasonable plugin candidates after 1.0.
Quickstart
Once published:
go install github.com/tamnd/vigo/cmd/vigo@latest
vigo .
For now, build from source:
git clone https://github.com/tamnd/vigo
cd vigo
go run ./cmd/vigo
Press Alt-X (or F10, then File, then Exit) to quit.
Project layout
vigo/
cmd/vigo/ binary entrypoint
vio/ tcell-backed screen, palette, surface, glyphs
event/ typed events, keyboard, mouse, commands
view/ View, Group, focus, palette indirection
app/ Application, Desktop, Background, main loop
menu/ MenuBar, StatusLine
docs/ roadmap, architecture, overview
.github/ CI, release workflows
CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE MIT
README.md
Architecture
vigo is a thin layer over gdamore/tcell/v2
that implements Turbo Vision's object model in Go. The translation uses
composition with embedded *View and small interfaces (Drawable,
Eventer, Sizer) instead of class-based inheritance. Drawing happens
once per frame onto an in-memory Surface; tcell handles the diff to
the terminal. The event loop is single-threaded for UI; gopls and dlv
run as subprocesses and post results back through a channel that the
main loop reads with select.
Long version: docs/architecture.md.
References
- Borland, Turbo Vision Programmer's Guide, 1990 (Internet Archive).
- magiblot/tvision, modern C++ port.
- aovestdipaperino/turbo-vision-4-rust, Rust port.
gdamore/tcell, terminal cell library.golang.org/x/tools/gopls.go-delve/delve(dlv dap).
Contributing
Patches and issues are welcome. Discuss bigger design changes in an
issue first; the framework is small and opinionated, and a wrong move
in the foundation propagates everywhere. CONTRIBUTING.md will land
with v0.2.
License
MIT, Copyright (c) 2026 Duc-Tam Nguyen.
Directories
¶
| Path | Synopsis |
|---|---|
|
Package app wires the view tree to a backend Screen and runs the main event loop: read events, dispatch them down the tree, draw, flush.
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Package app wires the view tree to a backend Screen and runs the main event loop: read events, dispatch them down the tree, draw, flush. |
|
cmd
|
|
|
vigo
command
Command vigo launches the Vigo terminal IDE.
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Command vigo launches the Vigo terminal IDE. |
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Package event defines the typed events that flow through the vigo view tree: keyboard, mouse, commands, broadcasts, idle ticks, and resize.
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Package event defines the typed events that flow through the vigo view tree: keyboard, mouse, commands, broadcasts, idle ticks, and resize. |
|
Package menu implements vigo's top-of-screen menu bar and bottom-of-screen status line.
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Package menu implements vigo's top-of-screen menu bar and bottom-of-screen status line. |
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Package view defines vigo's base view types: View (the visual primitive) and Group (a container of views that owns event dispatch and composition).
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Package view defines vigo's base view types: View (the visual primitive) and Group (a container of views that owns event dispatch and composition). |
|
Package vio provides Vigo's terminal screen abstraction: cells, attributes, surfaces, palettes, glyph sets, and a Screen interface backed by tcell or a fake screen for tests.
|
Package vio provides Vigo's terminal screen abstraction: cells, attributes, surfaces, palettes, glyph sets, and a Screen interface backed by tcell or a fake screen for tests. |