Edit like an Ace

Ace is a code editor written in JavaScript. It powers Cloud9 IDE and, as of today, file editing on GitHub.

If you’re using a recent version of Safari, Chrome, or Firefox here’s how it works:

1. Hit the “Edit” button (or the e hotkey) on any blob

2. Edit your code

The basics should all work: TAB to indent, Shift+TAB to unindent, Command+/ (OSX) or Control+/ (Win/Linux) to comment out or uncomment a line.

3. Preview your changes

4. Commit!

Options

While we try to guess whether your file is using tabs or spaces and the indentation level, you can set those yourself using the options in the top right of the editor view:

Richtext

If the file you’re editing is Markdown, Textile, or any other richtext format GitHub supports we’ll render a preview of it instead of a diff:

More modes

If your favorite language isn’t being highlighted, consider adding a mode for it! Check out Ace’s “Creating or Extending an Edit Mode” wiki page for more info.

Ace

This is just the start. Help us make editing on GitHub even better by forking and improving Ace at ajaxorg/ace.

As always, please email support@github.com with any bugs you find or ideas you have. Happy hacking!

Written by

Chris Wanstrath

@defunkt