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howl-editor

howl-editor/howl

Howl is a lightweight, customizable general-purpose editor built on LuaJIT and GTK, extensible in Lua or MoonScript.

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What is it?

Howl is a general-purpose text editor aimed at being lightweight while remaining fully customizable. It runs on the LuaJIT runtime and uses GTK for its interface, and users can extend it in either Lua or MoonScript.

The project is known to work on Linux, and it should also run on the BSD family. The repository's master branch is currently an unreleased Gtk-4 version, so the documentation on howl.io still describes the 0.6 release. Users wanting a stable build are pointed to the 0.6 tag.

Building from source requires curl or wget, GTK 4 development files, a C compiler and pkg-config. The build is run from the src directory with make, and the resulting binary is named howl.

Key features

  • 01Built on the LuaJIT runtime for a lightweight footprint.
  • 02Uses GTK for its graphical interface.
  • 03Extensible in Lua or MoonScript.
  • 04Released under the MIT license.

Use cases

  • Developers who want a small editor they can heavily script and customize.
  • Linux or BSD users who prefer a GTK-based native editor.
  • Lua or MoonScript programmers who want to write their own editor features.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Install build requirements: curl or wget, GTK+ 4 with development files, a C compiler, and pkg-config

  2. 2

    Clone the repository or download and unpack a release

  3. 3

    Change into the src directory and build and install Howl from source

    make && sudo make install

Things to know

  • The master branch is an unreleased Gtk-4 version, and the documentation at howl.io still describes 0.6.
  • Installation is from source and requires GTK 4 development files and a C compiler.
  • The maintainer is working on it in spare time and does not promise responses to issues or pull requests.
  • The README describes it as known to work on Linux, with the BSDs likely but not confirmed.

Topics

#editor#lua#luajit#gtk#text-editor#customizable#editing#howl#howl-editor

FAQ

What is howl?
Howl is a lightweight, customizable general-purpose editor built on LuaJIT and GTK, extensible in Lua or MoonScript. Howl is a general-purpose text editor aimed at being lightweight while remaining fully customizable. It runs on the LuaJIT runtime and uses GTK for its interface, and users can extend it in either Lua or MoonScript.
Is howl free to use? What license does it have?
howl is open source under the Other license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is howl still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to howl was on Oct 16, 2026.
What can I use howl for?
Developers who want a small editor they can heavily script and customize. Linux or BSD users who prefer a GTK-based native editor. Lua or MoonScript programmers who want to write their own editor features.
How do I install howl?
Install build requirements: curl or wget, GTK+ 4 with development files, a C compiler, and pkg-config Clone the repository or download and unpack a release Change into the src directory and build and install Howl from source: make && sudo make install
Where can I get howl?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/howl-editor/howl

Summary generated by AI from the project's README. GitHub stats refresh daily.

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