Highlighting is tree-sitter, semantics are LSP, regular expressions are RE2, git is libgit2. What is ours is something else: the core architecture that keeps those proven components fast on very large files and extensible through plugins.
architecture
The core is small and entirely independent of the GUI. That is why its behaviour is predictable: the interface can change while the guarantees about speed and file safety stay.
| Technology | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Persistent Piece Table | The buffer is a tree of pieces rather than one array. Editing anywhere in the file is fast, even at the start of a several-hundred-megabyte file. The same approach is used by VS Code and Word. |
| Memory-mapped opening | Files from 100 MB are mapped into memory: pages are faulted in on access. Opening is instant and costs almost no RAM. |
| Background line indexing | Jumping to a line and the cursor position are instant on large files, and the interface never stalls on counting. |
| Snapshot model (undo/redo) | A practically unlimited and cheap undo history; rollback is instant. |
| Atomic saving | A crash or a power cut during a write will not leave a torn file: the disk holds either the whole old version or the whole new one. |
| Explicit large-file modes | Instead of sudden slowdowns, the editor predictably disables heavy features and states it in the status bar. |
| C ABI plugins | Extensions stay compatible across compiler builds and can be written in something other than C++ — C or Rust, for example. |
| Qt 6 | A native interface, themes and window transparency: vibrancy on macOS, Mica and Acrylic on Windows 11. |
comparing approaches
This is about architectural approaches, not about other editors being bad. Every class of tool has its strengths — what matters is knowing what you pay for.
vs web-stack editors
The core does not depend on the GUI, and the bet on mmap plus explicit modes pays off exactly where web editors are weak: very large files. The flip side is a smaller extension ecosystem.
vs code-only editors
CSV, Markdown, EPUB, FB2, RTF and PDF are understood as formats, not as text. Rich text can be created and exported, not just read.
vs classic notepads
Atomic saving, near-free undo, tree-sitter and LSP, git, themes and window transparency, cross-platform builds.
principle
We do not call planned work done. Everything described under “Features” works in 0.4.x; everything else lives on the roadmap page, with no dates and no prices. If something is in neither place, it does not exist.