https://github.com/jpsca/texteditor
Open your editor from Python. Like webbrowser, but for the text editor.
https://github.com/jpsca/texteditor
editor python
Last synced: 5 months ago
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Open your editor from Python. Like webbrowser, but for the text editor.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/jpsca/texteditor
- Owner: jpsca
- License: mit
- Created: 2019-01-31T17:58:57.000Z (over 7 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2025-10-01T15:33:11.000Z (9 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-11-21T21:06:17.680Z (7 months ago)
- Topics: editor, python
- Language: Python
- Homepage:
- Size: 47.9 KB
- Stars: 9
- Watchers: 1
- Forks: 0
- Open Issues: 0
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: MIT-LICENSE
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README
# TextEditor
Programmatically open the system's editor from your Python program (like [webbrowser](https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/webbrowser.html) but for text editors).
Unlike other libraries, *TextEditor* makes an effort to find the text editor the users really prefer, specially for those that doesn't know what the `EDITOR` environment variable is.
## Temporal file
```python
import texteditor
text = texteditor.open("This is the starting content")
```
Opens a temporary file with some content to edit, and returns the new content when
the user closes the editor.
## Existing (or new) file
```python
text = texteditor.open(filename="README.md")
# Warning: By doing the following, you will overwrite the existing content:
# text = texteditor.open(
# text="This will replace the file content",
# filename="README.md"
# )
```
You can also edit an existing text file or one you want to create.
## Installation
Using `pip` of course!
```
python -m pip install texteditor
```
## Usage
*texteditor*.**open**(text=None, filename=None, extension="txt", encoding=None)
Opens `filename` or a new temporary file in the default editor.
- *text*:
The starting content for the edited file. This will also be used instead of the
original contents of `filename` if one is also defined.
- *filename*:
Edit this file instead of a new temporary one.
- *extension*:
When editing a new temporary file, this will help the editor recognize the
intended filetype, so syntax highlighting and custom settings for that
filetype can be used. Examples: `txt`, `md`, `ini`.
Ignored if `filename` is used.
- *encoding*:
To encode the content and decode the result, `texteditor.open()` uses the default
encoding for the platform, but you can use an `encoding` argument to specify
any text encoding supported by Python.
## How it Works
`texteditor.open()` first looks for the `EDITOR` environment variable. If set, it uses
the value as-is, including any command-line argument, without fallbacks.
If no `EDITOR` is set, it tries to guess.
To do so, the function search through a *very short* list of the most popular editors, and use the first one that founds.
On MacOS, as fallback, it calls the system default for *editing* that file extension.
You might notice that *vim* and *Emacs* are not in the short list of editors, that's because:
1. If you are using either of them, you know what the `EDITOR` variable is, and you probably has set it already.
2. If you aren't using it, finding yourself in their UI for the first time is going to be super confusing.
In fact "How to exit vim" is a common Stack Overflow question. Having to google how to set an EDITOR variable is a less scary alternative.