emacs_text_field 1.0.0

A Flutter TextField widget with common Emacs key bindings.

emacs_text_field

A Flutter TextField with common Emacs key bindings for movement, killing, yanking, and chord sequences. Designed for desktop and tablet applications where keyboard-centric editing is preferred.

Features

• All standard Emacs movement commands
• Kill ring (single-entry): C-k, C-w, C-y
• Word operations: M-f, M-b, M-d, M-Backspace
• Line bullet helper: M-Enter inserts \n+
• Chord sequences: C-c d inserts today as yyyymmdd
• expands mode for use inside Expanded widgets
• minLines for fixed minimum height
• Undo (C-z, C-/) handled natively by Flutter's EditableText
• Spell check with right-click suggestions and Add to dictionary (aspell on Linux, native on Android and iOS)

Installation

Add to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  emacs_text_field: ^1.0.0

Or use a path reference during development:

dependencies:
  emacs_text_field:
    path: ../emacs_text_field

Usage

import 'package:emacs_text_field/emacs_text_field.dart';

// Basic usage (grows with content):
EmacsTextField(
  controller: _noteController,
  decoration: const InputDecoration(
    labelText: 'Notes',
    border: OutlineInputBorder(),
  ),
)

// Expanding (fills bounded parent):
Expanded(
  child: EmacsTextField(
    controller: _noteController,
    expands: true,
    decoration: const InputDecoration(
      border: OutlineInputBorder(),
      hintText: 'Details…',
    ),
  ),
)

Key Bindings

Movement

Key	Action
C-a	Beginning of line
C-e	End of line
C-f	Forward char
C-b	Backward char
C-n	Next line
C-p	Previous line
M-f	Forward word
M-b	Backward word

Editing

Key	Action
C-d	Delete char forward
M-d	Kill word forward
M-Backspace	Kill word backward
C-k	Kill to end of line
C-w	Kill selection
C-y	Yank (paste kill ring)
M-Enter	Insert \n+ (new bullet)
C-g	Cancel / deselect

Chords

Sequence	Action
C-c d	Insert today as yyyymmdd

Undo

C-z and C-/ are passed through to Flutter's native undo handler.

Spell Check

Misspelled words are underlined, and right-clicking one lists suggestions above the usual menu items. Choosing a suggestion replaces the word. On Linux, Add to dictionary saves the word to aspell's personal dictionary (e.g. ~/.aspell.en.pws), so it is accepted from then on.

Flutter has no spell checker of its own on Linux, so the field runs aspell -a in the background, using the dictionary named by LANG (e.g. en_AU). Install it with:

sudo apt install aspell aspell-en

Without aspell the field works as before, just with no underlines. A snap should stage aspell and aspell-en; the field then looks for the dictionaries under $SNAP/usr/lib/aspell. Android and iOS use the native checker, and spell check is off on the web, where Flutter cannot show it.

License

MIT — Copyright (C) 2026 Togaware Pty Ltd