QCodeEngine-C

QCodeEngine-C is a C programming-oriented editor widget and library built on Qt 6 (QPlainTextEdit) and Tree-sitter. It provides a rich set of features tailored for building robust code editors with a strong focus on high-performance syntax highlighting, code folding, and modern editing aids.

Features

• Tree-sitter Syntax Highlighting: Fast and accurate C syntax highlighting using the robust tree-sitter-c grammar.
• Advanced Gutter System: Multi-panel gutter handling line numbers, fold arrows, and margin markers (bookmarks, breakpoints, etc.).
• Code Folding: Context-aware code folding powered by syntax tree traversal.
• Theme Support: Built-in themes plus JSON-based theme loading. Use Ctrl+T to cycle through available demo themes.
• Search and Replace: Integrated find/replace bar with match highlighting and replace workflows.
• Editor Aids: Auto-indentation, auto-bracket pairing, customizable keyword autocomplete, bracket guides, and toggleable comments (Ctrl+/).
• Navigation & Overview: Function list popup (Ctrl+Shift+O) and an optional minimap.
• Diagnostics & Stability: Syntax error detection, large-document performance modes, and growing regression test coverage.

Architecture

The project is structured into two main parts:

1. Application (Demo): A lightweight main.cpp executable demonstrating the editor widget with theme switching and a sample C document.
2. QCodeEngine_C Library: The core library containing the CodeEditor (public API) and underlying components:
   • InnerEditor: The actual text surface extending QPlainTextEdit.
   • TreeSitterHighlighter: Handles parsing text via tree-sitter and mapping syntax to styles.
   • FoldManager: Computes fold ranges dynamically based on the syntax tree nodes.
   • GutterWidget: Composed of modular left-to-right panels (MarginArea, LineNumberArea, and FoldArea).
   • AutoCompleter: Provides a custom popup-based completion system tuned for editor-style interaction.
   • MiniMapWidget: Renders a compact overview of the current document and viewport.
   • FindReplaceBar: Handles incremental search, replace, and match highlighting.

Build Instructions

Prerequisites:

• CMake 3.16 or newer
• Qt 6 (Components: Core, Gui, Widgets)
• C++17 compatible compiler

Steps to Build:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Nissmo89/QCodeEngine-C.git
cd QCodeEngine-C

# Create a build directory
mkdir build
cd build

# Configure and compile using CMake
cmake ..
cmake --build .

# Run the demo application
./QCodeEngine-C

# Run the test suite
ctest --output-on-failure

Near-Term Focus

The current work is centered on polishing the editor surface and hardening the library:

• Interaction Polish: Continue tightening autocomplete, caret movement, popup dismissal, and keyboard behavior.
• Layout Polish: Keep refining typography, line height, spacing, and viewport alignment for better readability.
• Theme UX: Improve JSON theme workflows, demo exposure, and theme discovery behavior.
• Library Hardening: Expand regression coverage around search/replace, layout, minimap behavior, and editor edge cases.
• C-aware Intelligence: Better completion ranking, snippets, and richer symbol-aware editing are the next major feature layer after polish work.