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xi-editor / xi-editor

A modern editor with a backend written in Rust.
https://xi-editor.io
Apache License 2.0
19.82k stars 698 forks source link

Editing files remotely #38

Open dborzov opened 8 years ago

dborzov commented 8 years ago

One big advantage of terminal-based editors (like vim and emacs) over UI-based ones is that it is really easy to edit files remotely via ssh connections.

With xi-editor's server/client architecture, do you think there can be a pattern for xi-editor that allows for easy remote file editing? Maybe via SSH connection with x-editor core running on the remote machine and the client running locally? What is your stance on this?

Dushistov commented 8 years ago

Why not just use sshfs to mount remote fs as local, why special support in editor?

raphlinus commented 8 years ago

Obviously running over stdin/stdout makes this a possibility. I'm concerned that latency will make it a poor experience. It would be possible to do mosh-like speculative editing on the front end side (for basic typing and backspace, say), but this would add complexity.

Basically, if there seems to be significant demand, I'm open to it.

leavengood commented 8 years ago

There is nothing stopping someone from making a curses or other text-based front-end for Xi. In fact I'm sure someone will. Then you kind of have the same situation as vim and Gvim or command-line Emacs versus GUI Emacs.

the-kenny commented 8 years ago

Note that emacs can edit remote files from a local instance via tramp. It's possible to work with remote files as if they were local files. This is quite similar to sshfs, but much easier to use (no need to explicitly mount remote files, you can just enter the path (and even complete and list it).