Update (Oni v2)

Hey backers!

There hasn't been an update from me for a while - so I wanted to share with you what I've been working on.

First off - I wanted to thank our core contributor __Akin__ for giving a talk at VimConf! Akin said they are still working on getting that stream uploaded, but once it's up I'll share it out.

I've been spending my time on the project prototyping what an 'Oni v2' could look like - re-imagined taking what we've learned from Oni v1. 

I've written up my thoughts here that touch on both the Technical aspects as well as Sustainability here: https://gist.github.com/bryphe/ca3260914818a1293864e9fa6422a69c

Some key highlights:

- Leverage complete VSCode Extension Host (that means, eventually, full compatibility with VSCode plugins - including debuggers, etc).
- A fully-native rendering core for the front-end
- A more sustainable model helping us to focus on the right priorities (selling licenses for commercial use - any backers, though, will always get this commercial use license for free).

I view Oni v2 as the next stage of the experiment that Oni started - building the fastest way to go from thought to code.

The past few weeks, I've been doing a few prototypes - some progress there:
- Native text rendering by Revery - DONE
- A standalone extension host - the initial extension host runs. Next step is to test with basic plugins and add tests that run cross-platform.
- Neovim integration - I prototyped using the `libnvim` API, but unfortunately ran into hurdles integrating this into our native OCaml/Reason stack. I'm switching back to MsgPack and looking at performance comparisons in the native vs Node sides.

It will take some time - my hope is that end of January we can have a usable prototype of this new architecture, and focus on the next set of priorities (Also, I hope to have binaries available for download earlier than that). I'll keep you updated as this work progresses.

As stakeholders in the project - your feedback matters to me, so please let me know if you have ideas/questions/concerns! Feel free to reach out via discord or e-mail me directly (bryphe@outlook.com). 

I'm excited about the direction we're heading and feel like we have the foundation for an editor that brings together the best of the tech we have today.

Also - for the past few months, I've been splitting our Patreon funds with the core contributors that have been active on the project.

THANK YOU for supporting the project!

- Bryan