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Updated readme

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Andrew S. Rightenburg 2023-04-09 23:30:29 -04:00
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README.md
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@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ A uniquely memory-efficient and modular text editor
– Hamlet, Act II, Scene II
## About
Polonius is a text editor with a focus on memory efficiency.
Polonius can be used to edit files of any size (up to just over **8 million terabytes**) on systems with as little as only **a few kilobytes** of available memory.
Although Polonius can be used as a general-purpose text editor, it is primarily designed for editing **very large files** on systems with **very little RAM**.
In order to achieve this, it never loads any more data into RAM than is currently being used. All that we have to keep in memory is the part of the file that's *currently* being displayed, plus a list of the *changes* the user wants to make.
Most text editors function by:
- **(1)** *loading the entire contents of a file into RAM*,
@ -22,10 +22,6 @@ Most text editors function by:
There's nothing wrong with this method -- but it does limit you to how much you can load into RAM at any one time. Try editing a 100GB file in a normal text editor!
Polonius can be used to edit files of any size (up to just over **8 million terabytes**) on systems with as little as only **a few kilobytes** of available memory.
In order to achieve this, it never loads any more data into RAM than is currently being used. All that we have to keep in memory is the part of the file that's *currently* being displayed, plus a list of the *changes* the user wants to make.
Polonius is made up of separate **binary modules**:
- The *"reader"*, which outputs a *selected portion* of the contents of a file
- The *"editor"*, which interprets editing instructions (*replace*, *insert*, and *remove*) and makes the requested changes to the file