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https://github.com/johnsonjh/g

g: A portable general purpose programmable text editor with calculator and macro facility.
https://github.com/johnsonjh/g

calculator curses dos editor g-editor gcos honeywell-6000 macro ms-dos os2 text-editor text-processing

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g: A portable general purpose programmable text editor with calculator and macro facility.

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README 

          
# G



**_`G`_** is a portable general purpose programmable

text editor with calculator and macro facility.



## Table of Contents



- [Overview](#overview)

- [Features](#features)

- [Compilation](#compilation)

  - [Modern](#modern)

  - [Legacy](#legacy)

- [Roadmap](#roadmap)

- [Binaries](#binaries)



## Overview



- **_`G`_** is a general purpose programmable text editor with a

  [long history](https://github.com/johnsonjh/g/blob/master/HISTORY.md),

  originally written in the **B** programming language for **GCOS‑3/TSS**,

  running on GE/Honeywell 6000-series mainframe systems.



## Features



- **_`G`_** combines features from many sources. For example, the macro

  language was derived from the **ICL** **George** mainframe editors,

  regular expressions (_among other things_) come from **UNIX** **vi**,

  the screen editor keystrokes are similar to **WordStar**, and the

  mathematical syntax is inspired by the **C** programming language.



- The macro language is _Turing complete_, offering loops, conditionals,

  and arithmetic. Complete **_`G`_** macro programs or individual commands

  can be executed from the command line, from an edit buffer or file, or

  from the _home_ area at the top of the screen (_interactively_, so that

  the effects can be seen). In many cases, **_`G`_** macros can do the work

  of traditional _UNIX_ text processing tools such as `sed`, `awk`, `cut`,

  and `fmt`.



- **_`G`_** can operate as either a line editor or as a visual screen

  editor, similar to `ex`/`vi` on _UNIX_ systems.



- The **_`G`_** language uses a conceptually simple two-file transcription

  (_copy_/_edit_) paradigm, which is transparent for the casual screen

  editor user.



- **_`G`_** is designed to be as efficient as possible, to be highly

  portable, and to enable manipulation of large files. **_`G`_** has a very

  fast startup time and utilizes little memory compared to other applications -

  approximately **130 KiB** for the standard build, **112 KiB** for the _Tiny_

  build, and **32 KiB** for the _line-mode_ editor (_measured using the_

  **Massif** _heap profiler on an AMD64 system running GNU/Linux_).



- **_`G`_** provides a more flexible way of viewing files than commands

  like `TYPE`, `pg`, or `more`.



- Although **_`G`_** is not intended to be a fully featured word processor,

  it does have text and paragraph formatting abilities and can easily be

  used to produce simple documents.



## Compilation



### Modern



- **_`G`_** can be built for **DOS**, **Windows**, **OS/2**, **Haiku**, and

  many **UNIX** systems. **IBM AIX**, **PASE for IBM i**, **Darwin**,

  **FreeBSD**, **NetBSD**, **OpenBSD**, **Solaris**, **illumos**, and

  **Linux** are regularly tested and fully supported.



- A **Curses** library is required on **UNIX** systems. **AT&T System V**

  **Curses**, **XPG4**/**XSI** **Extended Curses**, **PdCurses**,

  **PdCursesMod**, **NetBSD** **Curses**, and **NCurses** are known to work.



- A **C** compiler is required. _Oracle_ **Developer Studio**, _LLVM_

  **Clang**, _AMD_ **AOCC**, _GNU_ **GCC**, _IBM_ **XLC**, _IBM_ **OpenXL**,

  _Intel_ **ICX**, _Intel_ **ICC**, **DJGPP**, **Microsoft C**, **MSVC**,

  _SGI_ **MIPSpro**, **Watcom C/C++**, **OpenWatcom V2**, **Borland C**, and

  **PCC** are currently known to work.



- The included `GNUmakefile` can be used if **GNU** **Make** (version 3.81

  or later) is available. **GNU** **Make** is helpful, but is not required

  to build **_`G`_**.



#### Building



- Most users of _UNIX_-like operating systems can build **_`G`_** by simply

  invoking **GNU** **Make** (usually available as `gmake` or `make`) without

  any additional options or configuration. The conventional `make` targets

  are available, e.g. `clean`, `strip`, etc.

- The following options affecting compilation may be set in the shell

  environment or on the `make` command-line, for example, `make OPTION=1`:

  - `CC`: Overrides default C compiler selection, e.g. `CC=clang`

  - `LTO=1`: Enables link-time optimization

  - `LGC=1`: Enables link-time garbage collection (reducing binary size)

  - `OPTFLAGS`: Overrides default optimization flags, e.g. `OPTFLAGS=-Oz`

  - `V=1`: Enables verbose compilation messages

  - `NOSSP=1`: Disables `FORTIFY_SOURCE` and compiler stack protections

  - `STATIC=1`: Attempt statically linking all required libraries

  - `DUMA=1`: Enables support for the _DUMA_ memory debugging library

  - `DSTATIC=1`: Attempt statically linking _DUMA_ library (_needs GNU ld_)

  - `DEBUG=1`: Enables debugging code (for development or troubleshooting)

  - `LINE_G=1`: Builds only the line-mode editor (no curses library needed)

  - `TINY_G=1`: Disables features for lower memory use (default for PC DOS)

  - `FULL_G=1`: Overrides `TINY_G` default (enables a fully-featured build)

  - `CURSESLIB`: Overrides curses library selection, e.g. `-lcurses -ltinfo`

  - `COLOUR=0`: Disables colours (required for some older curses libraries)

- Some less common options may be undocumented, and some option combinations

  may not be valid.

- For practical examples and complete details, review the

  [`GNUmakefile`](/src/GNUmakefile) and [test script](/test/build.sh).



### Legacy



- Historically, **_`G`_** was available for many systems, including Amdahl

  UTS/V, AT&T System V, Berkeley (BSD) UNIX, BSDI BSD/OS, Commodore Amiga

  UNIX (AMIX), DG/UX, Honeywell GCOS/TSS, HP‑UX, IBM OS/2, ICL CDOS, ICL

  DRS/NX, JRG/Everex ESIX, Microsoft Xenix, MINIX, MWC Coherent, NCR SVR4

  MP‑RAS, Novell/SCO UnixWare, Pyramid DC/OSx, Reliant UNIX/SINIX, SCO

  OpenServer, Sequent DYNIX, SGI IRIX, SunOS 3/4, Tulip SVR3, and DEC VAX/VMS.



- Line-mode **_`G`_** is known to build on IBM z/OS UNIX (USS) using XL C.



- Read the notes in the

  [`GNUmakefile`](https://github.com/johnsonjh/g/blob/master/src/GNUmakefile)

  for information relevant to building **_`G`_** on these systems.



## Roadmap



Future plans for **_`G`_**:



- Overhauled documentation

- Improved online help viewer

- Proper Windows console support

- VGA-mode DOS port

- Dynamic resizing

- UTF-8/multibyte support

- Binaries via GitHub and GitLab releases



## Binaries



- **_`G`_** for IBM PC DOS (MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS, PTS-DOS, FreeDOS, etc.)

  - [**_`G`_** V4.7.4β for PC DOS](https://github.com/johnsonjh/g/raw/master/bin/DOS/g474_x86.exe), 16-bit 8086, Real mode, Tiny build, G-Curses

  - [**_`G`_** V4.7.4β for PC DOS](https://github.com/johnsonjh/g/raw/master/bin/DOS/g474_2bg.exe), 16-bit 8086, Real mode, Full build, G-Curses

  - [**_`G`_** V4.7.3 for PC DOS](https://github.com/johnsonjh/g/raw/master/bin/DOS/g473_386.exe), 16-bit 80386, Real mode, Fast-Curses

  - [**_`G`_** V4.7.3 for PC DOS](https://github.com/johnsonjh/g/raw/master/bin/DOS/g473_pro.exe), 32-bit 80386, Protected mode, DPMI, G-Curses

  - [**_`G`_** V4.7.3 for PC DOS](https://github.com/johnsonjh/g/raw/master/bin/DOS/g473_cws.exe), 32-bit 80386, Protected mode, DPMI, PdCursesMod

- **_`G`_** for IBM OS/2

  - [**_`G`_** V4.7.4β for OS/2](https://github.com/johnsonjh/g/raw/master/bin/OS2/g474_216.exe), 16-bit 80286, Protected mode, OS/2 console, PdCursesMod

  - [**_`G`_** V4.7.4β for OS/2](https://github.com/johnsonjh/g/raw/master/bin/OS2/g474_232.exe), 32-bit 80386, Protected mode, OS/2 console, PdCursesMod

- **_`G`_** for Microsoft Windows

  - [**_`G`_** V4.7.3 for Windows](https://github.com/johnsonjh/g/raw/master/bin/WIN32/g473_w32.exe), 32-bit i686, Win32 GUI, PdCursesMod