matte.hx

Zen mode for the Helix editor, written in Steel Scheme: a centred text column, and zoom on the focused split.

:matte clips the editor to a measure and centres it in the terminal. It can also soft wrap at that measure and hide the bufferline; both are off unless you ask for them.

:zoom maximises the focused split and puts the others back afterwards.

Demo

Install

Requires a plugin-enabled Helix build. With forge, Steel’s package manager:

forge pkg install --git https://github.com/waddie/matte.hx

Then in ~/.config/helix/init.scm:

(require "matte.hx/matte.scm")

Or, from a checkout, ./install.sh.

Commands

Configuration

Settings are functions, called from init.scm before or after the require:

(require "matte.hx/matte.scm")

(matte-width! 88)                  ; columns of text, default 88
(matte-padding! 0)                 ; rows of inset top and bottom, default 0
(matte-soft-wrap! #false)          ; soft wrap at the measure, default off
(matte-bufferline! #false)         ; hide the bufferline, default off
(matte-gutter-compensation! #true) ; centre the text, not the view

Gutter compensation is the difference between centring the text column and centring the view. The gutter sits inside the view, so without it the text reads as sitting right of centre by the width of the line numbers.

A count only reaches a command through a keybinding, so bind the two that take one:

(require "helix/keymaps.scm")
(require "matte.hx/matte.scm")

(keymap (global)
  (normal
    (space (m
            (m ":matte")
            (w ":matte_widen")
            (n ":matte_narrow")
            (z ":zoom")
            (Z ":zen"))))
  (select
    (space (m
            (m ":matte")
            (w ":mat