VENA — Terminal Text Editor

⚠️ EXPERIMENTAL — Version 1.x — This project is under active development. Features, APIs, and behaviors may change without notice.

A fast, lightweight terminal text editor built for Termux/Android and Linux.

GitHub · Report Bug · Request Feature

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⚠️ Experimental Notice

VENA is currently in experimental status. It is functional and usable, but:

• Behavior may change between versions
• Some features may be incomplete or unstable
• Data loss prevention is best-effort (always backup your work)
• Mobile (Termux) support is a primary target but still being refined

Use at your own risk. Feedback and bug reports are highly appreciated.

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Features

• Syntax highlighting for 32 languages: C, C++, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Zig, Nim, Lua, Ruby, Shell, PHP, Java, C#, Kotlin, Swift, HTML, CSS, JSON, YAML, TOML, Markdown, SQL, R, Perl, Dart, Makefile, and more
• Smart paste detection — differentiates keyboard input from clipboard paste without relying on bracketed paste markers (works on Termux which does not send ESC[200~)
• Dynamic resize — automatically adapts when the soft keyboard appears or disappears on Android
• Undo/Redo with coalesced history (word-level, not character-level) — dramatically lower memory usage
• Efficient memory — lines stored at exact size, not fixed 8KB buffers
• Sidebar with real-time file info, cursor position, word count, undo depth
• Auto-indent and auto-bracket pairing
• Unicode support including combining characters and CJK wide characters
• Pipe mode — cat file | vena - or vena - output.txt
• Backup on save (configurable extension)
• Config file at ~/.venarc

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Installation

Termux (Android) — Primary Target

pkg install ncurses clang make git
git clone https://github.com/VersaNexusIX/VENA.git
cd VENA
make termux

Or compile directly without make:

clang -o vena vena.c -lncursesw -lm

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt install libncurses-dev gcc make git
git clone https://github.com/VersaNexusIX/VENA.git
cd VENA
make
sudo make install

macOS

brew install ncurses
git clone https://github.com/VersaNexusIX/VENA.git
cd VENA
make

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Usage

vena file.c              # open file
vena                     # new buffer
cat file.txt | vena -    # pipe stdin into editor
vena - output.txt        # pipe stdin, save to output.txt

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Keyboard Shortcuts

File Operations

Key	Action
Ctrl+S	Save
Ctrl+A	Save As
Ctrl+Q	Save and Quit
Ctrl+W	Quit (with confirmation if unsaved)
Ctrl+E	Force Quit (no confirmation)

Editing

Key	Action
Ctrl+C	Copy selection / current line
Ctrl+X	Cut selection / current line
Ctrl+V	Paste from system clipboard
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y	Redo
Ctrl+D	Duplicate line
Ctrl+K	Delete line
Ctrl+U	Select all
Ctrl+L	Select current line
Tab	Indent selection / insert tab
Shift+Tab	Unindent
Insert	Toggle overwrite / insert mode

Navigation

Key	Action
Arrow keys	Move cursor
Ctrl+Left/Right	Jump word
Home	First non-space / column 0
End	End of line
PgUp / PgDn	Page up / down
Ctrl+Home	Beginning of file
Ctrl+End	End of file
Ctrl+G	Go to line number
Ctrl+T	Go to column number

Search & Replace

Key	Action
Ctrl+F	Find
Ctrl+N	Find next
Ctrl+R	Replace all

Line Operations

Key	Action
Alt+Up	Move line up
Alt+Down	Move line down
Ctrl+B	New line below cursor
Ctrl+P	New line above cursor
Ctrl+\	Join line with next

Function Keys

Key	Action
F1	Help screen
F2	Uppercase selection
F3	Lowercase selection
F4	Sort selected lines
F5	Remove trailing whitespace
F6	Insert current date & time
F7	Toggle line comment
F8	File statistics
F9	Delete word right
F10	Join lines
F11	Indent
F12	Unindent

Toggle

Key	Action
Ctrl+O	Toggle sidebar
Esc	Clear selection / cancel

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Configuration

VENA reads ~/.venarc on startup. A default config is created automatically on first run.

show_line=true
show_status=true
show_ruler=true
show_sidebar=true
show_eol=false
show_modified=true
highlight_current=true
syntax_highlight=true
auto_indent=true
auto_bracket=true
hard_tabs=false
tab_size=4
undo_levels=100
backup=true
backup_ext=.bak
trailing_spaces=false
confirm_quit=true

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Supported Languages

C, C++, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Zig, Nim, Lua, Ruby, Shell, PHP, Java, C#, Kotlin, Swift, HTML, CSS, JSON, YAML, TOML, Markdown, SQL, R, Perl, Dart, Makefile

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

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Made with ❤️ for the terminal · github.com/VersaNexusIX/VENA