Nano Clone

A lightweight terminal-based text editor written in C, inspired by GNU nano. This minimalist editor provides essential text editing functionality with a clean, straightforward interface.

About This Project

This is a casual project I wrote to dive into some low-level programming concepts - terminal manipulation, raw mode input handling, and text buffer management. It's not a serious production-ready editor, just a fun exploration of how terminal-based text editors work under the hood.

If you have suggestions, improvements, or bug fixes, feel free to open a pull request!

Don't forget to leave a star! ⭐️

Features

• File Operations

  • Open and edit existing files
  • Save changes to disk (Ctrl+O)

• Text Editing

  • Full cursor navigation
  • Insert and delete characters
  • Multi-line text support

• Search Functionality

  • Find text within the document (Ctrl+W)
  • Case-sensitive search

• Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Ctrl+X - Exit the editor
  • Ctrl+O - Save file (write out)
  • Ctrl+W - Search for text

Requirements

• C compiler (GCC or Clang)
• CMake or Make
• Linux/macOS/Unix system

Installation & Usage

The Super Simple Way

1. Clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/SekulDev/nano_clone.git
cd nano_clone

2. Build it:

make

3. Run it:

./nano_clone your_file.txt

That's it! 🎉

Using CMake (if you prefer)

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
./nano_clone your_file.txt

Install System-Wide (Optional)

sudo make install

Now you can use it from anywhere:

nano_clone myfile.txt

Usage

Important: You must provide a filename when starting the editor!

nano_clone filename.txt

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+X	Exit the editor
Ctrl+O	Save file
Ctrl+W	Search for text
Arrow Keys	Move cursor around

Troubleshooting

Editor won't compile?

• Make sure you have GCC or Clang installed
• Try gcc --version to check

"Command not found" when running?

• Use ./nano_clone instead of just nano_clone if you didn't install it system-wide

Weird characters on screen?

• Your terminal might not support the required features
• Try a different terminal emulator

Known Limitations

• Basic text editing only (no syntax highlighting)
• No undo/redo
• No multi-file editing
• It's a learning project, not production software!

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! This is a casual project, so don't worry about making it perfect - just make it better!

License

MIT License - do whatever you want with it.

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Note: Built as a fun dive into low-level terminal programming. The code might not be perfect, but it works and it taught me a lot!