Chime

An editor for macOS

Download the latest release on the website.

Goals:

develop modular, open source components
be an editor people enjoy using
support cool extensions

Features:

completions
command line tool
document/project-scoped search
editorconfig
extensions
file navigator
syntax highlighting (driven by tree-sitter and LSP)
structure highlighting
semantic symbol information
textual/symbolic quick open
UI theming

Project State

The code in this repo should be considered non-functional right now. If you want to use Chime, you can download the currently released version.

Chime used to be commercial, but is now free. It built up some pretty significant cruft over time. In particular, the core UI application architecture is just in a bad state. It is also quite complex to build. So, I've opted to re-implement that core and pull in parts as appropriate. I'll be putting an emphasis on extracting components into packages as I go. A fitting rebirth, I would say.

Contributing

It is always a good idea to discuss before taking on a significant task. That said, I have a strong bias towards enthusiasm. If you are excited about doing something, I'll do my best to get out of your way.

The project is internally documented with DocC. The docs contains details about getting started, structure, and internal systems/behaviors. A Discord server is also available for live help, but GitHub issues/discussions is preferred.

There are a few areas that would make for excellent targets though, if you really feel so inclined.

The text search system is bad and I'd love to build something better
The view-based extension system could really use some more attention
I'd like to finish migrating the preferences to SwiftUI
Support for the Debug Adapter Protocol
The autocomplete result window isn't very pretty

By participating in this project you agree to abide by the Contributor Code of Conduct.

Building

Note: requires Xcode 15 and macOS 14

clone the repo
git submodule update --init --recursive
cp User.xcconfig.template User.xcconfig
update User.xcconfig with your personal information
build/run with Xcode

Why the submodules you ask? Chime embeds many of its extensions inside the application itself for ease of installation. However, because of limitations in how you can influence the linking process with SPM, I cannot figure out how to use SPM and also link against the included ChimeKit.framework.

Guidelines

SwiftUI where possible, AppKit where useful
using packages is a wonderful way to support open source software
supporting older versions of macOS is nice, not critical

Conventions

tabs for indentation
configuration in xcconfig files
project resources are sorted alphabetically
imports are sorted by alphabetically, but partitioned to system/non-system

Significant Issues

Chime is a reasonably complex project. It's bound to run into bugs in Apple frameworks, Xcode, and other systems that present a real problem to its development. This is a list of the most serious issues, which have a major impact on either the user or developer experience.

FB12094161: System Settings extension approval system does not appear to work
FB11716027: EXAppExtensionBrowserViewController duplicate apps
FB11748287: Static metadata for extension available in AppExtensionIdentity
FB13384096: Package with non-Swift target fails to build unless explicitly linked
Add macOS 14 (Sonoma) Runner Image

McNight / Chime