Include Ace (or similar) as default code editor

[scribu]

We've dropped CodePress since it wasn't quite up to par in regards to browser compatibility.

How about using ​Bespin for editing plugin and theme files?

There's already a plugin that does this (on a separate admin page):

​Better File Editor

Bespin has poor support for non HTML5 browsers [1].

What about CodeMirror [2]?
Pretty active development and cross-browser support, bsd-like license [3], clean look[4].

[1] ​https://wiki.mozilla.org/Labs/Bespin/UserGuide#Requisites
[2] ​http://marijn.haverbeke.nl/codemirror/
[3] ​http://marijn.haverbeke.nl/codemirror/LICENSE
[4] ​http://marijn.haverbeke.nl/codemirror/contrib/php/index.html

I've also been looking at EditArea. ​http://sourceforge.net/projects/editarea/

I was at a panel with one of the guys behind Bespin last week and he said flat out that Bespin was created knowing that they didn't have to worry about IE based on their audience. It was a Canvas vs Flash panel at sxsw, and though it looked cool, it looked very niche in availability based on our general audience browser stats. I don't think we can use Bespin unless we are going to try and be trailblazers for Canvas/HTML5 and basically pull an early-2000s web standards trick and just say 'your browser sucks, upgrade,' which is sometimes tempting, but would be a bummer for users who don't get to install software on their machines and are stuck with pre-9 IE (schools, libraries, government agencies, etc). Injecting a Chrome frame into IE is their workaround I think.

Also found this:
​http://shjs.sourceforge.net/
here:
​http://cssdesk.com/

Replying to c00l2sv:

Also found this: ​http://shjs.sourceforge.net/

General thoughts here. By all means, we should identify and test as many projects as possible. That said, I don't think we want to repeat mistakes made with CodePress in regards to project activity. ​http://shjs.sourceforge.net/ has only one maintainer (as does EditArea and countless others) though it also hasn't had a release since 2008.

It would be naive to think that just because a project supports IE6 now, it'll always support every presumably more standards-compliant browser in the future (not to mention future standards). Aside from that, inclusion in WordPress would reveal existing bugs thanks to a larger userbase.

Finding an active (and willing) project should be as important an objective as finding one that works cross-browser.

What are the chances to fork an existing project and maintain it exclusively for WordPress (patching and bug fixing if problems arise)?

Bespin, which became SkyWriter, now has merged with and is superceded by ​Ace. Ace doesn't require canvas for its rendering engine. It is tri-licensed (MPL/GPL/LGPL).

FWIW, note that Mozilla themselves have decided not to use Ace wholesale for integration into the browser for Firefox's DevTools initiative (think native Firebug).

More info on that decision here:
​https://wiki.mozilla.org/DevTools/Features/CodeEditor#Evaluating_the_Options

The bug for their work on integrating their winner, the Orion code editor, into fx is here:
​https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=660784

Replying to c00l2sv:

What about CodeMirror [2]?
Pretty active development and cross-browser support, bsd-like license [3], clean look[4].

I've been using CodeMirror in Scripts-n-Styles and like it alot. The best feature is mixed-mode support so that script and style tags are appropriately highlighted in html which in turn is highlighted in a php file which is properly highlighted.

CodeMirror is a solid and unobtrusive editor (degrades gracefully, ie, doesn't impact without javascript) which is simple to include into the plugin/theme editor pages. For example, I've quickly integrated it into Scripts-n-Styles to see what would be involved (and because I thought it'd be useful):

​https://github.com/unFocus/Scripts-n-Styles/blob/master/js/code-editor.js
​https://github.com/unFocus/Scripts-n-Styles/blob/master/includes/class.SnS_Admin_Code_Editor.php
​https://github.com/unFocus/Scripts-n-Styles/blob/master/css/code-editor.css

The CodeMirror part of it works great (though there are bugs in the wp side of the editor). There are also quite a few other plugins that configure CodeMirror in more advanced ways, to include Search-n-Replace, Auto-complete, and more. (This also means it is somewhat tested in the wordpress environment.)

CodeMirror is open and actively developed ​https://github.com/marijnh/CodeMirror2/graphs/impact

Supports Firefox 2+, Chrome (any version), Safari 3+, Internet Explorer 6+, Opera 9+ ​http://codemirror.net/

Anyone still interested in this? I think I remember something about splitting the editors completely out of core and into a "Core Plugin" like the importer plugin. If so, any interest in that? (I'd contribute if it had blessing.)

Related: #12656

An update: Adobe decided to go with CodeMirror over ACE: ​https://github.com/adobe/brackets/wiki/Notes-on-CodeMirror essentially because of its MIT license. Their engineers are working with CodeMirror's developer, so the project has more support behind it.

On the related ticket above (a request for highlighting in the post editor) CodeMirror has a markdown mode included.

Also, In the mean-time, I'm sure ACE has evolved from the last time I checked, and they moved to a BSD license.

I can't find it now, but I know there was some recent discussion regarding possibly removing the code editors entirely from core because they are just so dangerous for most users, and now that WP 3.4+ has the theme customizer, the theme editor really isn't needed/recommended at all.

Anyway, I think this is part of the reason that when I proposed doing exactly this kind of thing with the editors, I was forced to convert my patch into a plugin. Here's the ​relevant IRC discussion, and here's the ​final plugin (which made use of ACE).

Given the above though, I think that we really should start closing up these tickets just like all other "plugin material" requests, they honestly aren't going to ever be merged in when it comes down to a finished patch in the end, based on my experience. It's definitely less than 20% of users that end up needing the editors or using them, and they encourage the horrible practice of "cowboy coding". Everyone that told me to move it to a plugin really was right, the entire editors themselves should be a plugin.

I'm not sure why the code editors have stuck around for so long; wordpress.com probably uses entirely different code for enalbing CSS editing by now.