{"slug": "turbo-go-or-90s-nostalgia", "title": "Turbo Go, or 90s nostalgia", "summary": "Developer Rickub released Turbo Go v1.0.3, an open-source terminal IDE for the Go programming language built with AI assistance, offering snippets, LSP support, an embedded terminal, and TOML-based configuration. The tool is available as binaries for macOS and Linux, with a Windows binary built but untested, and can be installed via a curl command or configured with a ready-made Golang config from the turbo-editors/configs repository. Rickub said the project was partly a test of AI-assisted development skills and that the minimal editing mode helps developers \"use my brain a bit more.", "body_md": "My first real IDE was Borland's [Turbo Pascal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Pascal) editor (or maybe [QBasic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QBasic) 🤓), and I have to admit I missed it a lot, especially when I'm in a terminal. The closest thing to it is the [Midnight Commander](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Commander) text editor, but it's not development oriented.\n\nFor the (much) younger ones among you who probably never got to know [Turbo Pascal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_Pascal) (or Turbo C and Turbo C++), it looked like this:\n\nSo, like I was saying, I missed it: a simple but powerful editor, where I don't need to type `!wq` to get out ... troll ... And what if AI gave me a hand on this one? I've been polishing development skills, quality skills, ... for a few months now, so it was a good test subject: I wanted to build a **Turbo Go** 🚀. And the test was conclusive 🎉! So today let me introduce my little **Turbo Go**, an old-school IDE/editor with modern features.\n\nNow, it's not \"battle tested\" yet, but it's already usable. I keep working on it and I still need to \"polish\" the docs, which for the moment are generated automatically. I've been able to test **Turbo Go** on macOS and Linux (the Windows binary exists, but I need to find a bit of time).\n\n## [Installing Turbo Go](#installing-turbo-go)\n\nYou can find the binaries of the latest release (`v1.0.3` ) over here: [https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/turbo-go/releases/v1.0.3](https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/turbo-go/releases/v1.0.3).\n\nI work on macOS, and here's how I do it:\n\n```\n# download the binary release in https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/turbo-golo/releases\nVERSION=1.0.3\ncurl -fsSLO \"https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/turbo-golo/releases/download/v${VERSION}/turbo-golo-${VERSION}-darwin-arm64\"\nchmod +x ./turbo-golo-${VERSION}-darwin-arm64\nxattr -cr ./turbo-golo-${VERSION}-darwin-arm64\nsudo rm /usr/local/bin/turbo-golo\nsudo cp ./turbo-golo-${VERSION}-darwin-arm64 /usr/local/bin/turbo-golo\n```\n\nAnd now I can launch **Turbo Go** from anywhere with the `turbo-go` command.\n\nFor the other operating systems, I'll let you figure it out (but I'll update the `README.md` once I'm done with my tests, or I'll write some \"quick starts\").\n\n## [Launching Turbo Go - first contact](#launching-turbo-go-first-contact)\n\nSo, **Turbo Go** is configurable with `.toml` files, but for this post, I've prepared a ready-made configuration (over here: [turbo-editors/configs](https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/configs)) that you can install like this:\n\n```\ncd demo # or any other directory\nturbo-go -load-config https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/configs/tree/main/golang-init\n```\n\nOutput:\n\n```\nCopied .turbo-go from https://git.rickub.com/turbo-editors/configs.git (main):\n  settings.toml\n  snippets.toml\n  tools.toml\n```\n\nSo now you have this in your `./demo` directory:\n\n```\n.\n└── .turbo-go\n    ├── settings.toml\n    ├── snippets.toml\n    └── tools.toml\n```\n\nAnd you can launch `turbo-go`:\n\n## [Using Turbo Go - Quick Tour](#using-turbo-go-quick-tour)\n\nStart by saving the file as `main.go`:\n\nThen use the **snippets** menu and select `main`:\n\nThere you go, you have a first program to get started:\n\nWith a bit of completion as a bonus:\n\nThen run a `go mod init`:\n\nAnd we can finally run the program:\n\nNow, we could have done the same thing faster from a terminal, and that works out nicely, because we have a terminal in Turbo Go! 📺 :\n\nYou can also get the list of your project's files:\n\nThen, for a bit more clarity, tidy up your windows:\n\nI also added LSP support (it can be improved, but it's a start):\n\nThat's it for this quick tour of **Turbo Go**.\n\nOh, by the way, you can change the theme:\n\n## [So, do you actually use it?](#so-do-you-actually-use-it)\n\nWell, yes, I use it. The goal was to have a tool to code quickly and comfortably, and also to use my brain a bit more 😉.\n\nAt first, it was also for fun, but I'm discovering that this very minimal editing mode is also a good way to discover other languages, and in parallel I'm evolving, at the same time as Turbo Go, other editors for other languages (which are on my todo list):\n\n- [Turbo Rust](https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/turbo-rust)\n- [Turbo Python](https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/turbo-python)\n- [Turbo JS](https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/turbo-js) (I already know it, but it's handy)\n- **[Turbo Golo](https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/turbo-golo)** (my favorite language 🥰)\n- [Turbo Moonbit](https://rickub.com/turbo-editors/turbo-moonbit) (a very nice functional language for doing WebAssembly)\n\nand probably more to come ...\n\n## [And what's next?](#and-whats-next)\n\nSince I really like playing with local LLMs, I added support for ACP (Agent Client Protocol) so I can use them from the Turbo Editors, but I'll tell you about that later:\n\nStay tuned 🤗, and if you too ask AI to help you build the tools you're missing, feel free to add a comment, I'm very curious to hear about your creations.\n\nWritten by\n\nKeep reading\n\n### Pablo, a small Golang library to make your life easier with BubbleTea\n\nPablo is a small declarative TUI framework for Go, built on BubbleTea, bringing HTML-like component composition to the terminal.\n\nApr 9, 2026\n\n### N.O.V.A. Chat Agent & Docker Model Runner\n\nBuild composable conversational mini-agents with the NOVA Go library, powered by local models through Docker Model Runner.\n\nFeb 18, 2026\n\n### Create an AI Coder Agent with Golo[Script] and Agentic Compose\n\nBuild an AI coder agent with GoloScript and Agentic Compose, with streaming code generation and a TUI, powered by local models.\n\nJan 29, 2026", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/turbo-go-or-90s-nostalgia", "canonical_source": "https://k33g.org/p/20260920-nostalgia", "published_at": "2026-09-20 00:00:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-07 18:16:48.491610+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["Turbo Go", "Rickub", "Turbo Pascal", "Midnight Commander", "Go", "macOS", "Linux", "Windows"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/turbo-go-or-90s-nostalgia", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/turbo-go-or-90s-nostalgia.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/turbo-go-or-90s-nostalgia.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/turbo-go-or-90s-nostalgia.jsonld"}}