Janus

Janus is a simple, native linux text editor. Supports UTF-8 and binary data through its fallback binary editing mode. Spiritual successor to leafpad. Intended to be as small and efficient as possible, trading features for a smaller impact on cpu.

Features

• Undo/redo
• Similar keybinds to other text editors (e.g. leafpad)
• Spanish/French/German Translations
• Printing capabilities
• Optional syntax highlighting
• Fallback binary editing
• GVFS connectivity

Building

To build and install locally run:

meson build --buildtype release
ninja -C build
meson install -C build

To uninstall it run: (if ninja has such functionality on your system)

sudo ninja -C build uninstall

To build as Flatpak run:

flatpak-builder --user --install --force-clean flatpak/ data/dev.pantheum.janus.yml

Janus depends on the following libraries for both building and running:

• GTK3
• GtkSourceView4

Installation

• Arch Linux
• Debian
• RHEL
• AppImage
• Flatpak

Screenshot

Binary modification

Unlike most other simple text editors, binary editing is supported directly as a fallback, rather than dealing with a codepage. When opened, Janus will display nondisplayable bytes as their unicode equivalent: for example 0xe3 will map to U+e3. To edit binaries, simply open them in Janus, then use Control + Shift + U to enter in new characters (From 0x01 to 0xFF). To enter a null character use U+2400. Once you save the file, Janus will convert these raw characters into hex data.

Binary mode demo