Ask HN: How to learn about text editor architectures and implementations?
by s3arch on Hacker News.
I am a self taught developer. Its been more than 3 years. I know decent JavaScript, and full-stack developemnt knowledge. I recently started admiring text editors. I use vscode. I have also used VIM and EMACS. I tried reading their source code, also of atom, brackets, light table etc. Honestly I don’t understand anything. I am not able to make sense of the data flow and the architecture. I want to understand how text editors work under the hood. Also I want to understand the plugable architecture they use to extend the functionalities of the editor. Please suggest me any articles, videos, conferences, blogs, where I can pick up the concepts. I have been troubled by this lack of knowledge and unclear path to access it. Edit:
Reasons for this quest:
I am not here to create yet another text editor. But I do understand that they are one of the complex peice of software which still is under constant improvisation and developement. Also text processing is the one of the core concepts of computer science. A lot of algorithm and data structure knowledge is hidden inside it. Besides, I feel through real world projects one can learn alot about core computer science fundations.