Using the Leo editor

Is Leo Just an IDE?

The Leo editor is first and foremost an outliner, read program, with which you can save and edit information in a structured form. Programs or source code are just one of the many structured information instances can manage.

Leo's way of storing data makes it a flexible tool with which you can also store and edit other text data. For example, you can quickly create your own Personal Information Manager from the IDE with just a few tweaks. With other programs, this would be just an address book or contact list, but Leo turns it into a collection of topical information. Ultimately, a contact differs from a programming project only in content, not structure. Leo collects in program outlines the same external data, such as libraries, code fragments, comments and, when appropriate, documentation and instructions.

Because the editor exports the information in PDF and HTML format, depending on the needs of the user, it also serves as a web development or documentation tool. This becomes meaningful in that Leo, through its directives, can export different files as one document, which it can then format according to the user's wishes. An output file of this type can consist of, for example, web page headers, content, and footers that are compiled from various referenced files.

Conclusion

The Leo editor might not win any beauty contests any time soon, but it proves to be a very useful piece of software that knows few bounds. Its Python framework doesn't restrict it as far as the operating system or in its use as an IDE, outliner, or general information collector.