View Full Version : Need Code Editor Recommendations?
Hi guys. Can you recommend a good code editor? I currently work in notepad most of the time, because I've never really found another editor I trully liked.
I've tried a variety - vim, emacs, ultraedit, conText etc. But I don't like any of them. Vim and emacs are just annoying to learn how to use. I like the intuitive feel of holding down shift and control to select blocks of text, and having my basic copy/cut/paste commands be ctrl-c, ctrl-x, ctrl-v. I don't like some of the other editors because they feel bloated and cluttered with tool bars, and project windows. etc.
Basically I want something like notepad, but with just a few more features. Specifically I am looking for:
1. Something free, preferably open source.
2. Notepad style cut/copy/paste key combos.
3. Something thats available for both Windows and Linux would be nice.
4. Small memory footprint - I don't want to have to wait half an hour for the editor to load (like Netbeans)
5. Code highlighting for csharp, vb.net, python, java, javascript, html
6. Autocompletion (like ALT-/ in emacs)
7. Simple looking interface - I just want a menu bar and status bar, no button palettes, HTML reference, project management widgets etc.
8. Support for unicode.
9. Regex support for search and replace would be nice.
10 Line and column number indicated somewhere, with a goto-line feature.
Theres so many editors out around there must be one that fits this feature list, but I can't find it. Right now im seriously considering writing my own but to satisify requirement 4 it would probably have to be written in C++, which im very rusty on.
evilghost
05-03-06, 11:46 PM
Truth be told I prefer pico/nano for my PHP/Perl coding on Linux and Ultraedit for win32. I think I keep grasping Ultraedit due to the line numbers located on the left, it certainly makes debugging easier.
I'm actually subscribing to this thread to see some suggestions, I don't need an IDE with syntax completion, but I would enjoy code highlighting.
I have a number of them in my toolset (UltraEdit is actually one of my favorites). However, I really like Notepad2 and Notepad++. Both offer most of the things you're looking for on your list. Notepad2 is my overall favorite because it's the most lightweight.
Notepad2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html)
Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm)
Also, I highly recommend that you take a look at Scott Hanselman's list here:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ScottHanselmans2005UltimateDeveloperAndPowerUsersT oolList.aspx
As a side note, the one thing I wish more editors had was columnar selection. VS.NET does which is nice but other than that UltraEdit is the only one I know of that has this very useful feature.
Man, I can't believe you didn't like vim. The various VI clones are my favorite.
Oh no, I love vim. Talk to you later!
wq
^[
(beep)
:wq
^[wq!!
(beep)
I have a number of them in my toolset (UltraEdit is actually one of my favorites). However, I really like Notepad2 and Notepad++. Both offer most of the things you're looking for on your list. Notepad2 is my overall favorite because it's the most lightweight.
Notepad2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html)
Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm)
Those two look very close to what im looking for, ill check them out more, thanks.
http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
The only editor u need :D
Imbroglio
05-04-06, 12:11 PM
Oh no, I love vim. Talk to you later!
wq
^[
(beep)
:wq
^[wq!!
(beep)
lmfao, i know how you feel :D
notepad2 is probably going to be your best bet
even though i've always been partial to textpad in win and vim in *nix, it seems like notepad2 is everything you've described
Those two look very close to what im looking for, ill check them out more, thanks.
Cool, let us know what you think after using them. Notepad++ is quite a bit "busier" but still kind of nice for some things. Notepad2 rocks and for those that don't know how otherwise, there are plenty of isntructions on how to replace the old Notepad with Notepad2 at the lowest level in Windows.
http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
The only editor u need :D
I forgot about CE, I used it a few years ago...and it does have columnar editing.
I looked at Crimson, it was pretty nice but I read on their forums that the project is now dead. I mean literally dead - the coder died !?!
I used Notepad++ and Notepad2 a lot today. They are both similar and based on Scintilla. Notepad++ has some more features and some GUI clutter, but you can turn most of it off, except for the annoying toolbar which turns back on when you reload - seems to be a bug in 3.5, it wasn't there when I tried release 3.4. Reading the forums there seems to be a lot of little bugs and glitches in Notepad++. I may never encounter most of them but I don't like the idea of being less than 100% confident in my text editor. I expect a big GUI like Visual Studio to crash once in a while, but not Notepad.
I think Notepad2 has me hooked. It feels so light weight. You gotta love an app who's installation consists of:
1) extract .exe from zip
2) run.
Its missing autocompletion as far as I know, but I can live without it.
Basically it offers extra features over notepad, without any drawbacks. So theres no reason (yet) to go back to Notepad after using Notepad2.
That's what I've found as well...Notepad2 is almost perfect.
Pardon my opinnion, but learning to use vim is most definitely worth the trouble. Good things never come easy. :-) What I like about vim is not having to press several keys at once and never need to use the mouse. For some reason I'm especially fond of "map <F5> <C-o>:w<CR><C-o>:make<CR><C-o>:cw<CR>", the three visual modes, and split windows.
I started with some ancient emacs-like editor on Amiga, then moved to micro-emacs, bought a PC, tried some IDEs and started using xemacs. One day I saw someone using vim and it looked very "effective". Now I've been using vim for past six years and I learn something new every now and then.
Pardon my opinnion, but learning to use vim is most definitely worth the trouble. Good things never come easy. :-) What I like about vim is not having to press several keys at once and never need to use the mouse. For some reason I'm especially fond of "map <F5> <C-o>:w<CR><C-o>:make<CR><C-o>:cw<CR>", the three visual modes, and split windows.
I started with some ancient emacs-like editor on Amiga, then moved to micro-emacs, bought a PC, tried some IDEs and started using xemacs. One day I saw someone using vim and it looked very "effective". Now I've been using vim for past six years and I learn something new every now and then.
Allright, then give the command of the top of your head for copy 3 lines from one file and inserting them into another file. :p
VI is great for coding if you are writing code on an ancient system or allready have memorized all its commands.
I use Notepad2 for light editing and msvc2k5 or eclipse for more project based coding.
give the command of the top of your head for copy 3 lines from one file and inserting them into another file
Assuming you are using vim to edit file A (in insert mode) and the cursor is on the first line you want to copy to file B: <esc>y2j:new fileB<enter>P
This assumes you have been editing fileB lately and you have configured vim to remember which line you edited the last. If you wanted to paste it before the seventh paragraph from bottom, you'd press G7{ and then P. If you then wish to save and close file B, just press ZZi and you're back editing file A. Of course you may continue editing both files, using <ctrl-w><ctrl-w> to swap between the windows.
VI is great for coding if you are writing code on an ancient system or allready have memorized all its commands.
I can only agree with that. Especially if talking about Vi Improved (as in vim).
What I like about vim is not having to press several keys at once and never need to use the mouse.
There in lies the difference. I prefer to hold down control sequences than typing in different commands. I also find it easier to just double click on a word with the mouse than trying to find its row and column coordinates.
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