GtKate - Multi-Document Interface Text Editor written in C and Gtk+2.
GtKate is currently in interface design and the code is now beyond proof of concept and working toward a .01 Release. The interface takes the single-document interface of GtkWrite and incorporates it into a mulit-document interface with a GtkTreeView of open documents that can be shown/hidden. The document window can be split into separate editor view with independent statusbar of the same or different files for editing (upto a current max of 4 views shown).
The interface is currently created with a default single edit view shown. Each split will add an additional edit view of the currently focused document (by default) and the treeview can then be used to change the document shown in any split. The new edit view is added at the bottom of the right edit-window region and all splits are allocated equal space within the overall edit window. Any split may be removed (regardless of order or position) until a single view remains. The focused split is the one removed.
The initial code here and concept is to provide a menu, toolbar, hpaned region for the scrollable TreeView on left and TextView windows with statusbar on the right. The current code produces the inteface similar to the following for tweaking, e.g.
Current Development State
Most widgets are functional, but additional supporting code and additional porting from GtkWrite to GtKate is still needed. Both toolbar and document tree can be hidden/shown. The edit window can be split in up to 4 horizontal panes showing any combination of files in the four views (e.g. from showing 4 different view of a single file to displaying 4 separate file one in each view). New-File logic is complete to keep track of up to 32 "Untitled(n)" new file instances. Any number of existing files can be opened (up to the memory available) and the filenames are displayed in the treeview document tree. File-Close is operational removing a file by closing all views currently displaying the file and removing the file from the document tree. File-Save is implemented. Goto dialog is implemented, Find/Replace is implemented. Settings dialog is implemented. GtkSourceview2 syntax highlight initial implemnentation. Word completion not yet implemented, but tested and working for single instance of buffer in sourceview, but not when switching buffers within an existing view. GFileMonitor'ing has yet been implemented. You can see TODOtxt for a few additional notes. The hooks to handle checks if buffers modified and offer save/save-as when on_window_destroy or quit selected is not yet implemented (so save before you close)
Primary Hold-Up for Word-Completion Implementation
No good design decision go unpunished. We are currently fighting a limitation in GtkSourceview2 word-completion that inexplicably binds the initial buffer displayed in a textview to the completion object (owned by the textview). That makes it virtually impossible to do the efficient thing of simply associating different buffers with existing textview objects and unregistering the current buffer and registering the new with the completion object. So unless a solution is found it appears a significant rewrite will be needed to change from creating a single buffer per-file that can be shown in any textview to creating a single textview for each file that must be shown or hidden instead.
Compiling
For Linux, all that is needed is gcc/make/pkg-config and Gtk+2 and GtkSourceview2. (note some distributions package the headers and development files in separate packages, for instance Gtk+2-dev or GtkSourceview2-dev). You may want to create an out-of-source directory for building to prevent cluttering your sources with the object and executable files. Simply create a separate directory (e.g. gtkate.build) and then symlink the Makefile and gtk_* source and header files. All that is needed then is to change to the build directory and type:
$ make
For building on Windows, see the notes on obtaining the precompiled Gtk libraries and header files in the GtkWrite Readme.md. (note: there is no with=-DWGTKSOURCEVIEW2 needed with GtKate as it builds with GtkSourceview2 by default. To build with the windows susbsystem, simply include ss=-DWIN along with make, e.g.
$ make ss=-DWIN
You will need to adjust the Makefile depending on whether you are using MinGW/Msys or TDM-MinGW.
License, Image File, and Style Placement
For details on where the image files, license file, styles and .gtkrc files should be placed for both Linux and Windows -- see the GtkWrite Readme.md but adjust the directory names and image names from gtkwrite to gtkate and the license file is renamed LICENSE for this project (done by github by default).
Branch Information
Branches, the katedev branch will be the development branch for major changes leaving master in compilable state tracking more settled decisions regarding the interface and later for the full editor.