⚡ Portable. Lightweight. Cross-Platform. — wEditor runs on any machine, requires no installation, and stays out of your way.
A free and open-source text and code editor written in C++ using the wxWidgets library. wEditor is a personal hobby project built around one idea: a fast, no-nonsense editor you can drop on any computer and just use.
Status: Beta — the editor is functional but may contain bugs and unfinished features.
Most editors today are bloated with features you never use, slow to start, or tied to a runtime like Electron or Java. wEditor is different — it's a native C++ application that launches instantly, uses minimal memory, and runs identically on Linux, Windows, and macOS. No installation required — just grab the binary and go.
- 🎨 Syntax Highlighting — readable, colorized code out of the box
- ⚡ Lightweight & Fast — tiny footprint, instant startup, no runtime needed
- 🖥️ Truly Cross-Platform — one consistent experience on Linux, Windows, and macOS
- 📦 Portable — no installation required, just run the binary anywhere
- 📄 Full File Management — New, Open, Save, and Save As support
- ↩️ Undo / Redo — confidently edit without fear of mistakes
- 💾 Autosave on Exit — never lose work accidentally (can be disabled in Preferences)
- 🔧 Preferences Panel — tweak the editor to your liking
- 📏 Line Margin — always know where you are in your file
Download pre-built application from the Releases page — no installation needed, just run it.
However, macOS places all apps downloaded from unknown developers into quarantine. To use such an app, you need to remove the quarantine attribute with this Terminal command:
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "APP PATH"
For example, here is the command for the Downloads directory:
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/wEditor.app
| Platform | Architecture |
|---|---|
| Linux (Debian 11+/Ubuntu 22.04+) | x86-64, ARM64 |
| Windows 7+ | x86-64, ARM64 (Win11) |
| macOS 12+ (Monterey and newer) | Intel(x86-64), Apple Silicon(ARM64) |
Prerequisites:
- Clang for macOS or GCC for Linux (or another C++ compiler — update the
Makefileif using a different one) - wxWidgets — build from source using the official guide
Steps:
git clone https://github.com/TheProjectDark/wEditor.git
cd wEditor
makePrerequisites:
- Install MSYS2 and open the MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit shell.
- Install the required packages:
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake mingw-w64-x86_64-wxwidgets3.2-msw
Steps:
git clone https://github.com/TheProjectDark/wEditor.git
cd wEditor
cmake -B build -G "MinGW Makefiles"
cmake --build buildThe compiled binary will be in the build/ directory.
wEditor/
├── include/weditor/ # Header files
├── src/ # Source files
├── assets/ # Pictures for readme
├── CMakeLists.txt # CMake build configuration (Windows/cross-platform)
├── Makefile # Make build configuration (Linux/macOS)
├── app.ico # Application icon
└── app.rc # Windows resource file
wEditor is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0. See LICENSE for details.
Contributions, bug reports, and suggestions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.
wEditor is a personal pet-project — thanks for your interest and patience as it continues to evolve!