xvim

A ground-up rewrite of the Vim text editor in pure Rust, maintaining full compatibility with Vim's CLI interface while modernizing its architecture and plugin system through WebAssembly.

Project Overview

xvim aims to preserve Vim's efficiency and modal editing paradigm while enabling a more powerful, secure, and flexible extension ecosystem. By implementing the editor in Rust, xvim eliminates entire classes of bugs related to memory management and provides a more maintainable codebase.

Core Goals

1. Complete Vim Compatibility: Implement all standard Vim CLI functionality with identical behavior and command syntax
2. Pure Rust Implementation: Build the entire codebase in Rust for memory safety, performance, and maintainability
3. WASM Plugin System: Create a plugin API supporting WebAssembly modules using the latest WASI standard
4. Enhanced Plugin Capabilities: Support both traditional Vim plugin patterns and Neovim's Lua-style advanced APIs
5. Comprehensive Documentation: Provide thorough documentation of the codebase, plugin API, and usage guides

Current Status

The project is currently in the Foundation Phase, focusing on establishing the core architecture and implementing the fundamental components:

• Core architecture design
• Buffer management system
• Modal editing engine
• WASM plugin system research

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Rust toolchain (1.75+)
• Cargo package manager

Build Instructions

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/xvim.git
cd xvim

# Build in debug mode
cargo build

# Build in release mode
cargo build --release

# Run the editor
cargo run

# Run tests
cargo test

Project Structure

xvim/
├── src/                  # Core Rust source code
│   ├── buffer/           # Buffer management
│   ├── command/          # Command parsing and execution
│   ├── editor/           # Core editor functionality
│   ├── mode/             # Modal editing implementation
│   ├── plugin/           # Plugin system
│   └── ui/               # User interface
├── wasm/                 # WASM runtime and interfaces
├── api/                  # Plugin API definitions
├── tests/                # Test suite
├── docs/                 # Documentation
├── examples/             # Example plugins and configurations
└── tools/                # Development tools and scripts

Features

• Modal editing with full Vim keybinding support
• Text buffer management system
• Window/viewport management
• Configuration system compatible with .vimrc
• Command parser and executor
• WASM plugin runtime (planned)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.