Recommended Text Editors for Code

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Gawd
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Mar 15, 2002
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Anyone wanna suggest some text editors for writing code? (particularly java, but I'd be interested in just about anything) I've been using TextPad, which has a trial period before it runs out, but I was hoping to get some [H] feedback on what to use. Notepad is always a possibility, but anyone recommend using anything else?

Thanks.
 
I personally use UltraEdit. I've used it for the past few years and have tried some others...but just keep going back to it.

It does color coding for a ton of languages, and is customizeable (sp?).
 
Eclipse is very good for Java programming, but it is a IDE. As for text editors, I have been using Context . It supports many programming languages, colour codes everything and the best part... it's FREE! If your intersted with Eclipse it is also free too. Hope this helps!
 
Yea, I agree with ^^

Eclipse for Java, Zend for PHP, and ee for everything else.
 
I use EditPlus. Whenever this comes up, UltraEdit and EditPlus are the two most recommended for Win32 editors, plus a spattering of others. I'm sure a search will bring up a full list or two.
 
i use notepad2. i know there was a long thread about editors a while ago
 
Visual SlickEdit

best editor I've ever used. I also use the Zend PHP Development environment @work.
 
nst6563 said:
I personally use UltraEdit. I've used it for the past few years and have tried some others...but just keep going back to it.

It does color coding for a ton of languages, and is customizeable (sp?).
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yup i use it as well, great editor.
 
TextPad Pro with a few scripts was my long time favourite.
Now I'm using UltraEdit and am very happy with the results thus far.
I'll have to take a gander at some of the above mentioned ones too.
 
I use SourceEdit . It understand a plethora of different languages (C/C++, PHP, SQL, Perl, Python, etc.), can edit plaintext, and has the ability to write the file out in either UNIX or DOS text format. I also like that it can change between languages syntaxes ON THE FLY using a niftly little pull-down bar.

I use this all the time for webdev and have even begun using it for my C/C++ apps.
 
http://www.crimsoneditor.com/

I've been using this for ages and every person I've told about this prog loves it. Free + customizable macros / shorcuts + supports numerous languages + very lightweight.

overview.gif
 
I use EditPlus for most things.
I use UltraEdit for hexediting.
I use Metapad when I need to make the window partially transparent.

I recommend Crismon Editor for those that want EditPlus, but don't have the $$.
 
Shadow2531 said:
I use Metapad when I need to make the window partially transparent.
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I use PowerMenu, which is a free system tray deal, that'll make any window partially transparent. Just figured I'd toss it out as an alternative.
 
I think VI(M) has a really steep learning curve, but it is worth getting used to. Once you start to learn the commands you can manipulate text faster than a two dollar hooker. Want to jump to line 337 really quick? 337gg Want to copy an paste 25 lines? 25yy then p. It is really crazy fast, and supported on almost any machine you could ever want to run it on.
 
I've been using jEdit for a little while now and I love it. It's very customizable and it has a simple interface that doesn't get in the way.
 
Thanks for the all feedback, just finished my most recent work using UltraEdit, not bad, I like the default settings, but I'm going to try to use all of them to see which one I like best.

Thanks! :)
 
Depends on what im coding, C/C++ or VB in Windows I use the Microsoft IDE with VS6, C in Linux I use Emacs, for PHP/HTML/Javascript/CSS I use Textpad (great editor and allows you to create your own syntax highlighting files), for Python I use IDLE, for perl I use vi.
 
lomn75 said:
I use PowerMenu, which is a free system tray deal, that'll make any window partially transparent. Just figured I'd toss it out as an alternative.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll give it a shot.
 
vim- the text editor of real men. It might take some getting used to (I doubt I even know 10% of the commands), but once you get used to it you'll enver want to go back to an GUI editor again.
 
inotocracy said:
Depends on what im coding, C/C++ or VB in Windows I use the Microsoft IDE with VS6, C in Linux I use Emacs, for PHP/HTML/Javascript/CSS I use Textpad (great editor and allows you to create your own syntax highlighting files), for Python I use IDLE, for perl I use vi.
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Is it really worth it though? You have to take the time to learn each and every editor. Something like vim or emacs can easily handle all of those with ease.
 
@lomn75

Thanks for the PowerMenu suggestion. I tried it. Just what I needed to make EditPlus transparent.
 
swinchen said:
Is it really worth it though? You have to take the time to learn each and every editor. Something like vim or emacs can easily handle all of those with ease.
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Of course there are free/open source alternatives, but whenever I do web based programming I tend to do it on a Windows platform and Textpad is great, I love it. At my old job a co-worker of mine got me hooked on it during a project we were doing in Python & PHP. It comes with tons of syntax highlighting files already and you can add/modify your own if you want which comes in handy when your dealing with multiple languages. Theres so many ways to customize it to the way you want, and if you tend to print out your code time to time it has a great printing engine. Plus, it has all kinds of great little features a lot of editors don't have (my favorite is splitting the text window into multiple views so you can look at different sections of code within the same file). You can download a shareware version and try it out, I think its well worth it.
 
Not to sound like a broken record.... but vim is freware (open source) no need to download a demo, it does sytnax highlighting, you can split the window, it comes with a ton of built in syntax files, bracket matching, you can junp to functions easily, jumpt to matching brackets, just about anything you can think of. If it doesnt do you can (in most cases) find a script or plugin that will do what you need it to. Maybe I am just a !!!!!!, but I started using it about a month and a half ago and I love it! Sometimes when I working with a lot of files I still use ultraedit because of the tabs.
 
Venesectrix said:
vim- the text editor of real men. It might take some getting used to (I doubt I even know 10% of the commands), but once you get used to it you'll enver want to go back to an GUI editor again.
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I've heard of vim a couple of times before, but I've never tried it or even seen what it looks like. Since you said it's the editor for "real men" I figured why not try it out.

It's awesome! It's insanely unique too, I've never used anything like it. I just finished that tutor that comes with it, I'm going to go on Google and try and find some more tutorials on it. If you know of any good ones that I should visit let me know.
 
I_Need_Money said:
I've heard of vim a couple of times before, but I've never tried it or even seen what it looks like. Since you said it's the editor for "real men" I figured why not try it out.

It's awesome! It's insanely unique too, I've never used anything like it. I just finished that tutor that comes with it, I'm going to go on Google and try and find some more tutorials on it. If you know of any good ones that I should visit let me know.
Click to expand...

dont get caught up with trying to learn to do EVERYTHING in vim. Start out with just the basics of cursor movement, mode switching, undo, redo, and delete.

Slowly incorporate more commands as you feel the need to and you'll eventually build up your vim-foo :D

vimtutor is good if you havent gone through it yet. Otherwise, just google for vim cheat sheet and print it out for reference.

Also, for movement, try to stay away from usingthe arrow keys. The whole point is to stay on the home row for the majority of the time thus reducing stress and increasing speed.

esc i g esc 2 i o esc i d space l u c k shift 1 esc shift ; w enter esc shift z z :D

--KK
 
I wish somebody would take vim and wrap a mini-IDE around it, maybe with completion, tabs/tree to handle projects easier. In terms of actual code generation, vim is by far the fastest editor around. In terms of actual project management however, things like ultraedit might be better.
 
Ultraedit is the one for me. I love the features and the speed. I used to use it to do several thousand search/replace operations on files and they'd be done in a fraction of a second.
 
sorry to intrude on your thread, but i didnt think it was necessary to ask this same question in a new thread. can anyone refer me to a good/user friendly (since im a novice) text editor for html (preferably free/shareware)? thanx
 
fatryan said:
sorry to intrude on your thread, but i didnt think it was necessary to ask this same question in a new thread. can anyone refer me to a good/user friendly (since im a novice) text editor for html (preferably free/shareware)? thanx
Click to expand...

I like Chami's HTML-Kit

http://www.chami.com
 
I_Need_Money said:
I just finished that tutor that comes with it, I'm going to go on Google and try and find some more tutorials on it. If you know of any good ones that I should visit let me know.
Click to expand...

After the tutor, start slowly working your way through ":help user-manual". I've been using Vim for going on six years and still find, or at least am reminded of, good stuff in the user manual.

Fryguy8 said:
I wish somebody would take vim and wrap a mini-IDE around it, maybe with completion, tabs/tree to handle projects easier. In terms of actual code generation, vim is by far the fastest editor around. In terms of actual project management however, things like ultraedit might be better.
Click to expand...

You are right that Vim is lacking in a lot of the modern IDE stuff that many take for granted. At least the couple things you mentioned are somewhat covered though. For basic completion, just hit ctrl-n or ctrl-p in insert mode; those keys will complete words in the current buffer. For more advanced completion, ":help ins-completion"; you can complete whole lines, file paths, from headers or dictionaries, etc., by typing ctrl-x followed by another key in insert mode.

Real "Intellisense" style completion is a Vim7 "wishlist" feature, though I doubt it'll ever be as good as that in MSVS or Eclipse, at least because it'll likely be more general language-wise. There's an existing Intellisense for Java and HTML script, but I don't know if it is any good.

For project management-type stuff, there are quite a few scripts like Winmanager.vim and Taglist.vim that at least make Vim closer to what you'd expect from a full-fledged IDE. Again, they aren't going to be as nice as what you get in Visual Studio or Eclipse, but you get to keep the good Vim stuff, too. There are also patches to gVim that add tabs (search vim.org) and scripts that make pseudo-tabs out of small, clickable, window.

Finally, I think it's possible to use the Vim "kpart" as the editor for KDE's Kdevelop IDE. When I tried this about six months ago, though, it seemed pretty buggy.
 
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