PW4 Textadept - advanced text editor for Kindle HF

[kbarni]

Thanks to clint32 we can now use Bluetooth keyboards with the Kindle. So I decided to port a more advanced text editor to our loved device.

Textadept 11.4 (HF)
a modern, fast, minimalist, and remarkably extensible cross-platform text editor.

It has multi buffer, split view, lexer support, command palette for quick access to commands and it is completely scriptable in LUA.

Even if it's not very popular, it is a very complete and capable text editor, one of my favorites even for desktop computer. And this is a feature complete port to the Kindle!

It has a graphical interface (GTK) and a terminal interface. Both are fully functional.

Usage: extract the attached file on the kindle. Start it either from KUAL or run ./textadept.sh in the textadept11 folder with kterm.

BUG: The software keyboard is not optimal for the GTK interface. It lacks the modifier keys (Ctrl, Alt) and disappears when opening a dialog box. Use it either with a bluetooth keyboard (highly recommended for typing anyway) or use the terminal version.

Textadept has a small learning curve, so be sure to read the attached docs. The default keyboard shortcuts are in the API document.

Important note: Currently it supports HF architecture only (firmware 5.16.3+)

Source code is available here: https://github.com/kbarni/textadept-kindle
Original repo: https://github.com/orbitalquark/textadept

[mergen3107]

> Currently it supports HF architecture only (firmware 5.16.2+)


This should be 5.16.3+

[kbarni]

New version with graphical interface!

Recommended to use with an external keyboard because the soft keyboard disappears -- or use the terminal version...

[Frogm4n]

The dev that ported Gargoyle to kindlehf added a tap gesture to pop the keyboard back up. Might look into something similar.

[kbarni]

Originally Posted by Frogm4n

The dev that ported Gargoyle to kindlehf added a tap gesture to pop the keyboard back up. Might look into something similar.

That dev is me (hence my profile pic)

Yep, that's what I'll try to do tomorrow.

My problems are:
- the soft keyboard really likes to disappear in GTK apps That's a system bug, not from me...
- Need to check if I can override the taps as in Gargoyle; otherwise...
- I need to add a command to reload it every time some dialog opens
- Don't really know how to add a keyboard with modifier keys (ctrl and alt)


...Anyway, I would like to have a maximum screen surface when editing text. And a good typing experience. So, for serious writing I would prefer an external keyboard.

[Frogm4n]

D'oh! I'd remembered the thread but not who'd made it. Glad to see you're still working on interesting projects!