Leo is an outline-oriented text editor, development environment and personal information manager written in Python. It provides a distinctive approach to organising source code, documents, notes and other information within hierarchical outlines.
Unlike conventional editors that treat files as the principal unit of organisation, Leo uses nodes containing headlines and body text. These nodes can be rearranged, expanded and collapsed, allowing users to approach complex material at different levels of detail.
Its most distinctive capability is cloning. A cloned node can appear in several places within an outline while referring to the same underlying content. Editing one occurrence automatically updates the others.
Leo is particularly useful for literate programming, organising large software projects, maintaining technical documentation and combining notes with executable Python scripts.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Hierarchical outliner with commands for creating, moving, promoting, demoting and organising nodes.
- Cloned nodes allow the same content to appear in multiple outline locations without duplication.
- Syntax highlighting and editing support for numerous programming languages.
- External file directives including @file, @auto and @clean connect outlines with ordinary source files.
- Python scripting interface provides programmatic access to outlines and editor commands.
- @button and @command directives make scripts accessible directly from outlines.
- Extensible plugin architecture adds commands, views and specialised functionality.
- Search and navigation facilities help locate information across large outlines.
- Personal information management features support notes, research and project organisation.
- Customisable commands, keyboard shortcuts, settings and interface themes.
- Support for creating documents and maintaining technical writing alongside source code.
- Integration with external tools and workflows, including Jupyter notebooks.
- WebSocket server facilities enable integration with external applications.
- Cross-platform support – runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: leo-editor.github.io/leo-editor
Support:
Developer: Edward K. Ream and contributors
License: MIT License
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|---|---|
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To the author, or to you the reader, In case you like Leo 🙂
There’s now a vscode extension that integrates Leo completely in VSCode, called LeoInteg, and even another one that is a complete Leo re-implementation in typescript called LeoJS, – also as an VSCode extension.
Hope you try them out!