Acme text editor
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 26 of 56 text editors by recommenders
Plan 9 editor that people value for mouse-driven editing and running shell commands from any text, though it needs X.org and lacks mouse warping under XWayland.
Plan 9 editor that people value for mouse-driven editing and running shell commands from any text, though it needs X.org and lacks mouse warping under XWayland.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Mouse-centric editing model
“It also had the neat behavior in acme where to execute a command, you middle-click on some regular text”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop” “I can highlight the text with the mouse and write a sam command (on acme too)”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Terminals should generate the 256-color palette” “it's optimized for this style of work and doesn't shy away mice”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “Notes on Clarifying Man Pages” - Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “How I am deeply integrating Emacs”
- Comment from 13 May 2026 in “The vi family”
Works as general-purpose workspace
“I use Acme for everything except web browsing (although most links are still managed by Acme).”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Writing my own text editor, and daily-driving it” “You can edit text while reading your email and chatting on irc from within Acme.”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “Stop Making TUIs” “it has I/O since the beginning, you can plug anything into it”
Comment from 11 Feb 2026 in “Windows Notepad App Remote Code Execution Vulnerability” - Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Terminals should generate the 256-color palette”
Executes commands from any text
“It also had the neat behavior in acme where to execute a command, you middle-click on some regular text”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop” “you can launch these command inside your graphical editor such as sam or better, Acme”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Terminals should generate the 256-color palette” “I can highlight the text with the mouse and write a sam command (on acme too)”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Terminals should generate the 256-color palette” Clear, one-thing-well design
“It's clear, informative, and even without reproducing it, you can still form an opinion about the tool.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Command Lines” “If you look at the Sam and Acme text editors you will find they are true modern TUI programs.”
Comment from 22 Aug 2026 in “Stop Making TUIs” “I've discovered that I like Plan9 Sam, Acme and, in general, the one-thing-well camp better”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Emacs Turns 50”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
X.org dependency, no XWayland mouse warping
“The only major problems are X.org dependency, lack of mouse warping in XWayland (essential for Acme), and slow text rendering on Raspberry Pi 5.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “ma” Slow text rendering on Pi 5
“The only major problems are X.org dependency, lack of mouse warping in XWayland (essential for Acme), and slow text rendering on Raspberry Pi 5.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “ma” Colors not displayed correctly
“one day we will have a new acme, written in common lisp and displaying all the correct colors”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Terminals should generate the 256-color palette”
Other text editors people recommend
The four most recommended other text editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zed | 700 | 430 | 62% | 13 | 6 mo57 owners | — |
| GNU Emacs | 648 | 207 | 76% | 13 | 20 yrs158 owners | Approved |
| Vim | 513 | 127 | 80% | 13 | 20 yrs55 owners | Approved |
| Visual Studio Code | 485 | 547 | 47% | 12 | 2 yrs13 owners | — |
| Acme text editorThis page | 14 | 2 | 88% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
All 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I've discovered that I like Plan9 Sam, Acme and, in general, the one-thing-well camp better”
“It might be different if these things leaned a little bit into acme”
“It also had the neat behavior in acme where to execute a command, you middle-click on some regular text”
“I have used both editors quite a bit and did like both of them.”
“You can edit text while reading your email and chatting on irc from within Acme.”
“If you look at the Sam and Acme text editors you will find they are true modern TUI programs.”
“the ACME way should be used for love of code and ideally when you want to create libraries that stand the test of time”
“The Acme editor is a great example on how to use the mouse.”
“the black on light yellow theme of the Acme editor to be a very comfortable monochrome color scheme”
“I attempted to mimic the Acme editor’s windowing system, but I recovered”
“The only major problems are X.org dependency, lack of mouse warping in XWayland (essential for Acme), and slow text rendering on Raspberry Pi 5.”
“I use Acme for everything except web browsing (although most links are still managed by Acme).”
“it's optimized for this style of work and doesn't shy away mice”
“Acme with shells are still far superior too.”
“you can launch these command inside your graphical editor such as sam or better, Acme”
“I can highlight the text with the mouse and write a sam command (on acme too)”
“one day we will have a new acme, written in common lisp and displaying all the correct colors”
“guides for Acme, Sam editors”
“Years of using the Acme text editor.”
“it has I/O since the beginning, you can plug anything into it”
“I think that Acme is very underrated in its domain”
“the other text editors (sam, acme) didn't worked”
“I have tried several times to convince them of the joys of ACME”
“Smalltalk, Acme, Unix Shell (with Vi and other editors)”
“The Proof of Control records from ACME are much better than what had been the usual practice prior”
“look up on youtube Russ Cox solving AoC with Acme and tell me that's not impressive”
“It's clear, informative, and even without reproducing it, you can still form an opinion about the tool.”
“Kinda similar to emacs, but the whole thing is mostly about interactive text.”
“There's the acme editor for a truly nice usage of the mouse.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.