How could I contribute?

[tamadamas]

I want programming on Android.
I've been configured Termux, Zig, Gleam, Rust, dotfiles from scratch.
The only thing is Editor.

Neovim is too complex.
Helix is good. I've been using it on my laptop for good.
But I'm already have frustrated of lack of syntax highlighting and I've built their realtime and tune around several days...

Until today when I've found Flow.
And highlighting just work!
Just work, Carl!
And you know what?

Flow is much faster on doing jjjjjjj and walking around a file (I set "vim" as default).
And it's on Zig. I'm just learning Zig and really love.

But the thing is Flow and Vim modes aren't so useful in mobile with touch screen.
I'm really thinking about writing my own touch-friendly editor.

I've written my first ever website on php, html, css in early 2009 with my Nokia phone. I really like mobile devices.

So, could we add "mobile" mode? Or it can be separate application as Flow Mobile?

The idea is to bring good experience on mobile.
And I really love Zig to develop with it.
And I feel I want to contribute with Flow.

The next idea is to compile and use editor with web browser.
I really don't like VSCode domination there.
It has no touch support at all.
I can't edit file with GitHub Codeapaces for example.
I'm willing to use anything small and simple. Zig is the best for this goal.

This is Helix on video if you curious.
Space button is really powerful thing on mobile.

screen-20250318-010914.mp4

But helix is not so useful too.
So, I want to anything else.

Could we improve Flow editor with mobile development support (some mode, configuration, checks for touch support=> I guess it might be comptime check modules) or I would make my own editor.

If any of these not selling points for you, could I use your code for my dream editor instead? With the same open source license but different name.

Let's discuss though.
I want to hearing from you about your goals and plans.

[tamadamas]

The idea is to build shared library that can be used with different UI => Android, Ios, TUI, Web, GUI desktop and probably separate layers(modes) to add ability to configure editor for different platform and needs. Like I would build mobile version without Flow and Vim but with Mobile and Helix modes. Or with helix+vim together(best of two worlds) and Flow

[neurocyte]

The idea is to build shared library that can be used with different UI => Android, Ios, TUI, Web, GUI desktop and probably separate layers(modes) to add ability to configure editor for different platform and needs.

We sort of do this already for windows. On windows there are two builds of flow available. The default build, which runs in the windows console and is almost identical to the terminal builds for linux and macos, and the GUI build (built with -Dgui) which runs as a regular GUI windows application and renders via D3D with no dependency on a terminal.

I think a very similar model would make sense for a web build (rendering via WebGL or WebGUI) and an Android build (rendering via OpenGL or Vulkan).

Probably the easiest and/or most portable way to do this would be to port the windows GUI build from win32 & D3D to SDL & OpenGL.

[tamadamas]

Wow! That's impressive, I would check it

[neurocyte]

Could we improve Flow editor with mobile development support (some mode, configuration, checks for touch support=> I guess it might be comptime check modules) or I would make my own editor.

What sort of touch support are you missing? Flow already has excellent mouse support. I'd guess the issue with Android is mostly the Termux terminal application's minimal mouse support and not actually flow.

[neurocyte]

For me it would be better to add support for two/three fingers and just select with a screen than hacking with keyboard.

Flow fully supports dragging selections with the mouse. It's the termux terminal that does not support it correctly. Termux switches to it's own selection mode when you drag, which is not very useful in flow. You might want to open a feature request with termux to support mouse dragging in full screen TUI apps. This would also allow the scrollbar in flow to work properly.

[neurocyte]

I'm thinking about additional context menu with two fingers(as an idea) and useful gestures for useful actions

The menu (command palette) already opens if you touch the flow button on the bottom left.

It would perhaps be nice to be able to add configurable command buttons to the top_bar and bottom_bar so that you could add copy and paste buttons to your local config.

[tamadamas]

Yeah, probably, I'll open an issue within Termux, it might help

[aicynide]

Flow not working in termux. Getting error
FileNotFound

[neurocyte]

Flow not working in termux. Getting error FileNotFound

@aicynide This is fixed in the latest nightly build.