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skkeyeandClaude Opus 5.5 09f8b048d6 Drag cards out into columns, and columns among and into columns
The user wants to drag a card out between columns to make a new column,
and to drag columns to reorder them or put them inside other columns.

Their pick for where: the row of titles, the gaps between columns and
the space past the last one are among the columns. Something dragged
there becomes a column, before the column under the mouse on its left
half and after it on its right half, after the one to the left in a gap.
Anywhere else it goes into the column under the mouse by the card rules,
so a column dragged down into another one becomes a card, its own cards
its block. A column's title no longer means "its first card"; the top
half of its first card does that. The root's column stays first and
can't be dragged (the user's pick): it says so.

The board holds still around a drag. Besides the kept widths, the room a
dragged column took stays empty while it isn't a column (Drag.room):
without it, the columns to its right slid left under the mouse each
time it stopped being one, and the card landed a column too far.
Dropping it back in that room makes it that column again.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <[email protected]>
2026-10-02 14:17:04 -04:00

137 lines
7.9 KiB
Markdown

# cumulus
Brainstorm in the terminal: ideas as nodes on a 2D canvas, connected, folded
and color-coded, across as many documents as you like. Vim keys first; the
mouse works too. Runs on Windows and Linux.
> **Status:** v1.1 is built: everything on [DESIGN.md](DESIGN.md)'s v1 and
> v1.1 lists. What comes later is listed there too.
## Build and run
You need Rust ([rustup.rs](https://rustup.rs)). The exact version is pinned in
`rust-toolchain.toml`, and rustup installs it by itself the first time.
```sh
cargo build --release
```
The program is `target/release/cumulus` (`cumulus.exe` on Windows): copy it to
a folder on your `PATH`.
- **Windows**: nothing else to install. The `.exe` carries its own C runtime
and runs on any Windows 10 or 11.
- **Linux** (Void, Fedora…): build the same way. You can also build a static
Linux binary from Windows with `cargo linux`: it lands in
`target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/cumulus` and runs on any
distribution.
## Starting it
```sh
cumulus # ./ideas.cum, or ~/ideas.cum (made the first time)
cumulus garden.cum # that document (a new one if it isn't there yet)
cumulus notes/ # that folder's ideas.cum
cumulus new "Garden plans" # makes ./garden-plans.cum (cumulus new: ./ideas.cum)
cumulus --paths # where cumulus keeps its settings and data
```
Documents are plain text files (`.cum`) that live wherever you like. cumulus
saves a second after each change, reloads a file another program changed
(`u` undoes that), and keeps a copy of each document a day in its data folder.
A document open in another cumulus opens read-only. Each one reopens where you
left it.
A file's name follows its root's title: give the root a new title and the
file is renamed (`ideas.cum` keeps its name), and the portals leading to it
follow. Portals link documents: a portal shows its document's title, color
and size, Enter goes through it, and each document knows the portals that
lead to it (`« 2` on its root, `gu` goes up to them).
## Settings, keys and themes
`:config` lists the three config files: `config.toml` (the settings),
`keys.toml` (your keys) and the theme's file. Enter opens one in your editor
(the `editor` setting, or `$VISUAL` / `$EDITOR`, or notepad / vi); the first
time, it's written with every option at its default behind a `#`, explained.
Take a `#` away, save, and cumulus applies it at once. Each file only needs
what it changes, and a mistake only skips its own line (the status bar says
what's wrong).
- `:set name=value` changes a setting until cumulus quits (`:set name?` shows
it, Tab lists them).
- `:theme name` switches to `themes/name.toml`, laid over the built-in theme:
a theme can say just `accent = "magenta"`.
- The built-in theme has named styles (`<Space>s`), also put on by tags:
`#question` (yellow, dashed), `#important` (red, thick), `#done` (faded).
- `clipboard = "unnamedplus"` makes plain `y`, `d` and `p` use the system
clipboard, as the vim setting of that name does.
## Keys
The plan for the everyday keys (all of them are in DESIGN.md):
| Keys | What they do |
|-------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
| `hjkl` | move to the nearest node that way |
| `gh gj gk gl` | parent, next sibling, previous sibling, first child |
| `o` `O` `a` | new sibling below / above, new child: type its title, Enter for the next one |
| `i` or Enter | edit the title (Esc: vim keys inside it, Esc again: done) |
| `dd` `x` | delete the branch / just the node (kept in a register, as in vim) |
| `yy` `p` `P` | yank the branch / paste as children, or as siblings below (`dd` then `p` moves a branch) |
| `"a` `"+` | before `y`, `d` or `p`: register `a`; `"+` is the system clipboard (nodes go there as Markdown) |
| `.` | the last change again |
| `>>` `<<` | under the node above / out a level |
| `u` `Ctrl-r` | undo / redo |
| `za` `zf` `zi` | fold, auto-fold, focus |
| `+` `-` | zoom in / out |
| `K` | the body in a card beside the node (`i` edits it there) |
| `v` `V` | select: the nodes between here and where you started (`V`: with their branches); then `d` `y` `>` `<` `M` or `<Space>c` act on all of them |
| `M` | move the branch with `hjkl` (`M` again: just the node) |
| `<Space>=` | tidy the branch: `m` a mind map, `c` an org chart, `g` a grid (`:tidy`) |
| `<Space>a` | in visual mode: line the selection up, `h` `l` `k` `j` left, right, top, bottom, `c` middles (`:align`; `:` in visual mode runs a command on the selection) |
| `C` | connect: go to another node, Enter links them (`d` removes the line, `>` puts it under that node, `<Space>` `a` `l` `c` `s` `t` style it, Esc takes it all back) |
| `/` `n` `N` | search: titles, tags and bodies, fuzzily, with the note of each match beside it / the next match / the previous one |
| `<Space>/` | search every document (open, recent, this folder, and what portals lead to); `n` `N` then go from document to document (`:search text`) |
| `Ctrl-o` `Tab` | back to where you jumped from / forward again (across documents) |
| `ma` `'a` `mA` | mark a node / go back to it / a capital mark: from any document |
| `gd` | follow a cross-link |
| `<Space>p` | a portal to another document (`:portal file`, or a new document's title) |
| `<Space>o` | this branch out, into a document of its own, with a portal in its place (`:branchout`) |
| Enter or `gf` `gu` | through a portal / up to the portals that lead here |
| `<Space>` | the action menu: `c` color, `t` tags, `b` documents, `i` inbox, `vo` outline, `vn` note, `vb` board… |
| board | `<Space>vb` or `:board`: a column per node without a parent, its children as cards, a card with children wrapping them as Scratch's loop blocks do; `j` `k` cards, `h` `l` columns, `M` then `hjkl` (or a drag) moves a card; drag a card onto the titles' row or into a gap to make it a column, and a column by its title to reorder it or put it in another column |
| `Ctrl-w v` `Ctrl-w s` | split the pane side by side / stacked (`Ctrl-w hjkl` to move between them) |
| `gt` `gT` | the next / previous document |
| `:` `?` | command line, help (search it with `/`, Enter runs the key or command) |
| `:e` `:new` `:bd` | open a document / make one / close it |
| `:export md` `:export txt` | the document (or, from visual mode, the selection) as Markdown or an outline (`:export!` writes over a file) |
| `:import file` | the nodes in a Markdown or text file, under this node |
| `:marks` `:jumps` `:registers` | what they hold: Enter goes there (or pastes) |
| `:w` `:q` `ZZ` | save / close the pane (the last one quits) / save and close |
After the first key of a sequence (`g`, `z`, `d`, `<Space>`…), a popup lists
what can follow. The right mouse button opens a menu of what you can do with
a node. Ctrl+click picks nodes one by one, and Ctrl+drag on the empty canvas
picks the ones in its rectangle. The wheel scrolls; with Shift or Alt held
(or a wheel that tilts), it scrolls sideways.
## Development
```sh
cargo test # run the tests
cargo lint # clippy, treating warnings as errors
cargo fmt # format the code
```
To try things without touching your own documents:
```sh
cargo run --example canvas # cumulus on copies of two sample documents
cargo test show_canvas -- --ignored --nocapture # print the sample at each zoom, as text
```
The end-to-end tests (`src/app/tests.rs`) type keys and click on a test
terminal, with the sample documents copied to a temporary folder, and check
the screen, the documents and the files.