Winc

A lighter, faster, more comfortable desktop editor.

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Overview

winc is built with Rust and its own rendering engine: it starts in 0.1 seconds and uses just 52 MB of memory with 100,000 lines open. Multiple cursors, find and replace, and side-by-side diffs are all there, and every keystroke and scroll responds instantly.

Measure	Result
Cold start to first frame	119 ms (median of 20 runs)
Resident memory with 100,000 lines open	52 MB
A 1 GB file, editable and highlighted	220 ms

Measured on macOS; results vary with hardware and system load.

Features

Area	Capabilities
Editing	Multiple cursors, find and replace, native input methods, smooth scrolling in gigabyte-sized files, and an experimental Vim mode
Syntax	Highlighting for common programming, markup, data, and configuration languages, plus lightweight go-to-definition and usages without a language server
Formatting	Whole-file formatting with external tools such as rustfmt, Prettier, Black, Ruff, and gofmt
Preview	Markdown with math and Mermaid diagrams, images, SVG, PDF (macOS and Windows), Word documents (docx), and spreadsheets (xlsx, csv), with the source one click away
Git	Side-by-side diffs with word-level highlights, staging by hunk, commit and push, a commit graph, and blame
Project	A file tree, quick open, and project search that follows .gitignore
Terminal	An integrated terminal at the bottom of the window
Remote	Experimental SSH remote: open a folder on a Linux host and edit, search, format, use Git, and open terminals there. On Windows, open folders inside WSL distributions
Interface	Sixteen built-in themes, light and dark, and a complete interface in English and Simplified Chinese
Modules	Git, the terminal, and SSH remote can each be turned off. First-time setup on the start page offers the appearance, theme, language, and modules
Updates	Signed in-app updates on all three platforms, with the release notes shown in the app after each update

Touchscreens support tapping buttons and placing the caret, double-tapping to select a word, swiping to scroll, and dragging scrollbars and panel dividers. Hold for 500 ms to open the context menu. Swipes stay in the region where they started and stop on release. Additional fingers cancel the current gesture; lift all fingers before starting another. On Windows, drag the title bar to move the window, double-tap it to maximize or restore, and drag the window edges to resize. Window dragging and edge snapping use the same native Windows behavior as mouse input.

Image and SVG previews zoom like the PDF preview: hold Ctrl (⌘ on macOS) and scroll, pinch, or press Ctrl/⌘ with +, - or 0; the point under the pointer stays in place. Scroll or drag a zoomed image to pan, and double-click to fit it again. This also works in the SVG split preview.

Platforms

Platform	Requirements	Package
macOS	macOS 11 or later, Apple silicon or Intel	Disk image
Linux	x86_64, X11 or Wayland	AppImage, deb, Arch repository
Windows	Windows 10 1809 or later, x86_64	NSIS, MSI, portable ZIP

The portable ZIP keeps settings and state in the data folder beside winc.exe; delete that folder to keep them in the user profile instead.

winc is developed and tested mainly on macOS. Download it from winc.si; all versions are on GitHub Releases.

Command Line

winc .                  # open the current folder
winc file.rs:12:5       # open a file at a line and column
winc --wait file        # wait until the tab closes, for example as the Git editor
cargo build 2>&1 | winc -   # read standard input

The Windows installers and the Linux deb and Arch packages add winc to PATH; the Windows portable ZIP leaves PATH unchanged. On macOS, choose Winc → Install winc Command… from the menu bar or run Shell Command: Install winc Command from the command palette; with the Linux AppImage, use the command palette.

On macOS the app is started by the system, so it does not inherit the environment variables of your shell. Use winc --new-instance to keep them.

Building from Source

winc builds with Rust 1.99.1; rust-toolchain.toml selects the toolchain automatically.

cargo run --release                 # build and run
cargo run --release -- <path>       # open a file or folder

For versioning, signing configuration and release workflows, see Releasing winc.

Development

cargo xtask test                    # test the crates changed since HEAD
cargo xtask test --all              # test the whole workspace
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
RUSTDOCFLAGS="-D warnings" cargo doc --workspace --no-deps
cargo xtask bench                   # measure startup, memory, and scrolling against budgets

The interface is written in Rust. Windows come from winit, and rendering is done by winc's own CPU rasterizer. On macOS, frames are written directly to an IOSurface.

The workspace is split into crates by responsibility:

Crate	Responsibility
winc-core	Text, editing, undo, and diffing, independent of the interface
winc-syntax	Lexers for syntax highlighting
winc-editor	Editor logic: documents, file tree, search, Git, and formatting
winc-vim	Vim mode without the interface: key notation, the command table, parsing, and evaluation
winc-backend	File system access for local paths and for paths on remote hosts
winc-server	The server process that runs on a remote host and serves file operations over SSH
winc-watch	Watches folders on the machine that holds them (WSL distributions, remote hosts)
winc-render	Rendering: glyphs, rasterization, and presentation
winc-preview	Previews for images, SVG, Markdown, PDF, Word documents, and spreadsheets
winc-typeset	Layout for the Markdown preview
winc-pty	Terminal emulation and the pseudo-terminal helper process
winc-config	Configuration and state files
winc-i18n	Interface strings (Fluent bundles)
winc-version	The product version, read from the VERSION file
winc-app	The application: windows, events, and views
winc	The executable's entry point, which only calls into winc-app
xtask	Development automation: tests, benchmarks, and packaging

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before you open a pull request, and open it against the dev branch. All contributors sign the Contributor License Agreement and follow the Code of Conduct. To report a vulnerability, see SECURITY.md.

Contact

• Website: winc.si
• Email: support@deeix.com
• Telegram: t.me/deeix_chat
• X: @DEEIX_AI

Links

• Rust
• DEEIX AI
• LINUX DO

License

winc is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See NOTICE.