Wookash Podcast 4coder editor is different | Allen Webster
Dec 13, 2025
In a captivating conversation, Allen Webster, a developer and tools researcher, shares his journey from experimenting with GameMaker to creating Forecoder. He reveals the inspiration behind his innovative coding editor and discusses its unique architecture. Allen explains the challenges of building code intelligence and introduces the concept of C-scripting, which enhances game engine workflows. His vision for modernizing programming tools through richer data structures sparks an engaging exploration of the future of coding.
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Origin Story Of 4coder
- Allen Webster started 4coder inspired by Handmade Hero and Casey's complaints about editors.
- He built a C editor with a DLL-based customization layer so users could extend it in C/C++.
Design With Tiny Extensible Primitives
- Expose simple primitives (commands + hooks) and let users compose them for flexibility.
- Make rendering and buffer hooks first-class to allow deep customization without changing core.
Documentation Is A Major Product Cost
- Shipping a product is more than core code: docs, website, examples and metadata are large hidden costs.
- Design APIs so documentation can be packaged and used at runtime and for web docs to avoid duplication.
