LE (text editor)

LE
Screenshot of LE in UTF-8 mode.
Original author	Alexander V. Lukyanov
Initial release	1997 (1997)
Stable release	1.16.8  / 5 February 2021
Written in	C++
Operating system	UNIX-like
Type	Text editor
License	GPL-3.0-or-later
Website	github.com/lavv17/le

LE is a text editor which appears something like the Norton Editor, but has many additional features:

• Rectangle select/copy/paste (block type is switchable)
• Search/replace with regular expressions
• Filtering block contents through an external program
• Linear multilevel undo/redo
• Customizable menus
• Color syntax highlighting (using regular expressions in an external file)
• Handles UTF-8 characters, based on locale settings
• Customizable keymaps for different terminal types (associating either literal strings or terminfo capability names)
• Hexadecimal editing mode
• Editing of mmap'd files or devices in replace mode
• Frame drawing mode (first seen in Lexicon)
• File selection box (inspired by Turbo C)
• Built-in postfix calculator.

It uses ncurses for display, mouse and part of the keyboard handling. The application has a built-in table of key assignments for xterm, rxvt and some less familiar terminal types.

History

According to the HISTORY file in its sources, Alexander V. Lukyanov started writing it in 1993 while using a BESTA machine. Over the next four years, he rewrote it into C++, and published it in 1997 under the GNU General Public License.

External links

• FSF abstract for LE
• GitHub