turbo-python

A Turbo C-style editor for Python, written in Go.

Built on turbo-core, the library every Turbo editor shares. What is in this repository is the command, the profile that says this editor is for Python, and the Python scanner — about seven hundred lines. Everything else lives in the library.

A full-screen terminal IDE with the Borland furniture — a menu bar with hot keys, movable windows that cast shadows, modal dialogs, a clickable status bar — and the things a Python editor needs today: syntax colouring that carries triple-quoted strings across lines and tells a constant from a class, loadable colour themes, completion and diagnostics from pylsp, shell windows, per-project settings, a project tree, snippets, and the uv toolchain a menu away.

 File  Edit  Search  Run  Code  Options  Window  Snippets  Python  Help
╔═[x]═════════════════════════════ shapes.py ═══════════════════════════════1═[■]╗
║ 1 """A demo module."""                                                        ▲║
║ 2 from abc import ABC, abstractmethod                                         ▓║
║ 3                                                                             ░║
║ 4                                                                             ░║
║ 5 class Shape(ABC):                                                           ░║
║ 6     @abstractmethod                                                         ░║
║ 7     def area(self) -> float: ...                                            ░║
║ 8                                                                             ░║
║ 9 MAX_SIDES = 0x1f_ff                                                         ▼║
║◄▓░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░►║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
 F1 Describe  F2 Save  F3 Open  F6 Window  F7 Next  F10 Menu       1:1  LSP: ready

Getting started

make install

That builds the editor, puts it where your shell looks for commands, and reports what it found — the Go version it built with, where the binary went, whether that directory is on your PATH, and whether pylsp is installed. Then, from any Python project:

turbo-python main.py

To build without installing, make build leaves the binary in bin/turbo-python. From the module proxy instead of a checkout: go install rickub.com/turbo-editors/turbo-python@latest.

For completion and diagnostics, install the Python language server as well — the editor works without it, and says so on the status bar:

pipx install "python-lsp-server[all]"

The [all] is not optional if you want the gutter to show anything: the linters that produce diagnostics are extras, and without them the server has nothing to report.

The tutorial walks through a first session in about ten minutes.

Features

• Every build knows what it is — turbo-python -version and Help ▸ About name the version, the commit and the build date, stamped in by the linker from git describe rather than read from a constant somebody forgot to bump
• Turbo Vision interface — menu bar with Alt-letter hot keys, overlapping movable and resizable windows, modal dialogs, mouse support throughout
• Syntax colouring for nine languages — Python by a hand-written scanner that carries triple-quoted strings and line continuations exactly, knows all six string prefixes, and separates SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE constants from CapWords classes; plus TOML, YAML, Markdown, JavaScript, HTML, XML, Dockerfiles and shell scripts from turbo-core
• Themes in TOML, eleven embedded — Borland navy, dark grey, paper white, espresso, Catppuccin Frappé and Latte, cobalt, Darcula and IntelliJ Light, and a hueless monochrome in both polarities — and any number of your own, with inheritance between files and between style keys. Every shipped theme is held to its contrast by tests
• Per-project settings in .turbo-python/settings.toml — pin a theme, turn on automatic saving — created from a menu item, never by itself, and re-read on every save so a change takes effect without a restart
• Completion, hover, go-to-definition, references and diagnostics from pylsp, entirely optional. The server is looked for in the active virtual environment, ~/.local/bin, pyenv's shims and macOS' per-version script directories as well as on PATH
• Terminal windows — F8 opens a real shell in a window, with its own VT/ANSI emulator, scrollback and job control (Linux, macOS and Windows)
• Project tree — F9 shows the project's files in a window; walk it with the arrows and press Enter to open one
• Snippets — a Snippets menu built from .turbo-python/snippets.toml, grouped into submenus and filtered by the file you are in; the chosen text is inserted at the cursor, re-indented to match — which in Python is a correctness matter and not a nicety
• The uv toolchain a menu away — Alt-P runs uv venv, uv sync, ruff format, ruff check, pytest and your script from .turbo-python/tools.toml, each showing its output where the tool asked: a popup that fills in as it goes, a terminal window, or an editing window to search. Files the command rewrote are re-read for you, and a tool naming a menu of its own gets that menu on the bar
• Editing with word movement, block indent, a shared clipboard, and undo that merges a run of typing into one step
• Faithful files — line endings and the trailing newline are preserved, and saving is atomic
• Automatic saving, off by default, writing a short while after you stop typing

Commands

Command	What it does
make install	Build and install onto your PATH
make build	Compile into bin/turbo-python
make test	Run the whole test suite
make check	fmt, vet, then the tests — what a commit should pass
make run FILE=x.py	Build and start the editor on a file
make help	List every target

turbo-python [-theme name] [-no-lsp] [file...]
turbo-python -list-themes

Documentation

Full documentation in English and French, organised by the Diátaxis method:

Tutorial	Your first file in Turbo Python
How-to	install · run the tests · enable completion · write a theme · move around a file · ask about code · use a terminal · configure a project · browse a project · use snippets · run uv commands · make a release
Reference	command line · keyboard · menus · theme format · terminal windows · project settings · project tree · languages · snippets · Python tools · the version number
Explanation	architecture · design decisions · colouring and completion · terminal windows · project settings · project tree · snippets · Python tools

The library's packages each carry their own README.md beside the code, in turbo-core.

Where the code is

main.go	flags, the terminal, the wiring
internal/pythonlang	the profile, the Python scanner, the three starter files
everything else	turbo-core

The dependency graph is drawn in docs/diagrams/packages.drawio, checked against go list by diagram_test.go.

Design in one line

Two dependencies — tcell/v2 and BurntSushi/toml — and everything else from the standard library, including the scanner toolkit and the Language Server Protocol client. Both come through turbo-core; this repository adds none of its own. The design decisions page explains why.

Requirements

Go 1.26 or later to build it — the editor is written in Go even though it is an editor for Python. A terminal with mouse reporting, which is all of them. pylsp is optional.

Licence

See LICENSE.