cumulus/README.md

# 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 is built: everything on [DESIGN.md](DESIGN.md)'s v1 list.
> v1.1 (the board, a search across documents, tidying, export) comes next.

## 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… |
| `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.