# Example "freewheeling" app that can be modified without being restarted
[](https://0dependencies.dev)
Running this repo in isolation won't be very helpful. If you haven't yet,
first check out [the driver app](https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/driver.love).
This repo is a template you can copy to create your own live apps that juggle
text editor widgets. The editors support copy/paste, search, infinite undo,
etc. You can't modify editor functionality live (yet?).
[Some reference documentation on how to create your own apps.](reference.md)
This repo is an example of a [Freewheeling App](http://akkartik.name/freewheeling),
designed above all to be easy to run, easy to modify and easy to share.
## Getting started
Install [LÖVE](https://love2d.org). It's just a 5MB download, open-source and
extremely well-behaved.
[Run the app using LÖVE.](https://love2d.org/wiki/Getting_Started#Running_Games)
## Hacking
To modify it live without restarting the app each time, download [the driver
app](https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/driver.love). Here's an example session
using a fork of this repo:
If the app being modified by the driver lives in a .love file, your changes
will go into the [save directory](https://love2d.org/wiki/love.filesystem.getSaveDirectory).
If it lives in a directory (like this repo), your changes will go straight
into the same directory.
## Keyboard shortcuts
Up to you! But within the included editor widget if you use it:
* `ctrl+f` to find patterns within a file
* `ctrl+c` to copy, `ctrl+x` to cut, `ctrl+v` to paste
* `ctrl+z` to undo, `ctrl+y` to redo
* `ctrl+=` to zoom in, `ctrl+-` to zoom out, `ctrl+0` to reset zoom
* `alt+right`/`alt+left` to jump to the next/previous word, respectively
* mouse drag or `shift` + movement to select text, `ctrl+a` to select all
Exclusively tested so far with a US keyboard layout. If
you use a different layout, please let me know if things worked, or if you
found anything amiss: http://akkartik.name/contact
## Known issues
* This approach puts one top-level definition per file, and so obscures the
order in which definitions are loaded. In particular, initializing a global
table to contain other global definitions will fail if you originally
authored the other global definitions after the table.
I never initialize global tables with other definitions. That kind of thing
happens in `on.initialize` (akin to `love.load`; see reference.md) or
`on.code_change`.
* Don't start the driver app while multiple freewheeling apps are running. If
you have a driver app running with one app, shut it down before you switch
apps.
* No support yet for Unicode graphemes spanning multiple codepoints.
* No support yet for right-to-left languages.
* Can't scroll while selecting text with mouse.
* No scrollbars yet. That stuff is hard.
## Mirrors and Forks
This repo is a fork of [lines.love](http://akkartik.name/lines.html), an
editor for plain text where you can also seamlessly insert line drawings.
Its immediate upstream is [text.love](https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/text.love),
a version without support for line drawings. Updates to it can be downloaded
from the following mirrors:
* https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/template-live-editor
* https://tildegit.org/akkartik/template-live-editor
* https://git.merveilles.town/akkartik/template-live-editor
* https://nest.pijul.com/akkartik/template-live-editor (using the Pijul version control system)
Further forks are encouraged. If you show me your fork, I'll link to it here.
* https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/carousel.love - a lightweight environment for
writing small, throwaway programs on computer or phone.
* https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/luaML.love - a "browser" for a Lua-based
markup language, loosely analogous to HTML except it's all Lua.
* https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/bf.love - a toy environment for working with
[BF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck) programs.
* https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/broadsheet.love - a multi-column paginator that
uses all available width while remaining readable.
* https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/crosstable.love - for all-play-all tournaments.
## Feedback
[Most appreciated.](http://akkartik.name/contact) Messages, PRs, patches,
forks, it's all good.