Show HN: Rhun, an open-source code editor written in assembly

47 pointsposted 10 hours ago
by vladcodes

26 Comments

nylonstrung

34 minutes ago

At this point I very much question that handwritten assembly can be more performant than what LLVM-based langs can produce at the highest optimization settings. Compilers are very good at optimization

Particularly when the "handwritten" code in question is vibecoded, like this is

jrapdx3

7 hours ago

I'll have to try it.

It occurs to me that in this era of RAM hardware shortage, resource-frugal applications like this one could become more prevalent.

Anyway I guess we'll see if that happens.

Edit: Downloaded, running under Windows.

Impressive. Loads fast, looks pretty polished. Highlighting for many languages included "obscure" ones that I sometimes use.

Mem used: 7.9MB (gvim 12.2MB, emacs 35.5MB, vscodium 291.1MB)

vladcodes

2 hours ago

Thank you. Windows definitely needs a slightly better autoupdate system which is coming in the next major release.

vladcodes

10 hours ago

The plan is to add as less new features as possible and keep the same performance/launch time/memory and disk footprint as it is currently.

rgbrgb

8 hours ago

can you talk about why you do this in assembly?

vladcodes

2 hours ago

There are some good numbers in comments to respond the question. Think of rhun as of anti-vscode: feature-poor, configuration-lacking, but small and fast :-)

arecsu

2 hours ago

Honestly, it runs and looks incredible (macOS). Very well done. Would love to have support for pi-agent, as is my go-to for most uses I have. Congratulations!

vivzkestrel

an hour ago

- now imagine building entire systems tailored to each OS in just assembly

- imagine the next gen browser built in only assembly with a browser engine made in assembly

- imagine photoshop, illustrator, movie maker built ground up in assembly

- imagine an entire windows 12 operating system made in pure assembly

- the performance profile of each of the above must be absolutely wild

- since i am an an absolute newbie at assembly at this point, a sincere question to the some of the more englightened ones reading this, how and where do you recommend I learn assembly? I understand its different for x86 x64 and ARM? where should I start?

gespadas

8 hours ago

People... I just tried it... It is SOOO FAST !!!

slohr

7 hours ago

absolutely blazing! and it delivers exactly what I've wanted for quick code reviews of the AI output.

haolez

6 hours ago

If you use an LLM to write assembly, it is officially your (optimizing?) compiler :)

browningstreet

7 hours ago

Assembly plus platform translation, hmmm. I don’t get it but that’s a heck of a thing to do! And yes, I’ll try it.

xorl

9 hours ago

This bring me joy :)

bbor

8 hours ago

…is it fast? Why assembly? Impressive, regardless!

“Super responsive, minimal-by-default” is kinda already met by Sublime Text, but it’s certainly not in assembly lol. And not OSS — thanks for sharing your work with the world :)

hackermanai

41 minutes ago

Typing latency is within one frame, so on par with my editor and Sublime Text etc. So, yes, it's fast.

Obv not as polished but still cool.

vladcodes

2 hours ago

It's very difficult to call Sublime minimal, but for years that was my go to as well. rhun is OSS, no telemetry, free and is lacking dozens of "normal code editor" features compared to Sublime. Which is kinda the point. nano+ with GUI.

heckintime

8 hours ago

Middle Earth reference?

pigeons

7 hours ago

I thought that was code for Thiel-backed war profiteer lol

tamimio

6 hours ago

Ok wow I am in love! Not just it’s fast, but also it automatically detected the AI session that’s actively working! Might ditch zed now!

vladcodes

2 hours ago

I'm still thinking should I make it bidirectional. Wdyt?

Levitating

7 hours ago

Website has all the hallmarks of AI slop.

ianeff

6 hours ago

The comments have all the hallmarks of generated slop.

microflash

3 hours ago

The source code also has all the hallmarks of slop.

vladcodes

2 hours ago

When someone says "hallmark," I can't stop myself from thinking of Xmas