Whats the best text editor?

Discount_God · Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2002 5:13 am Post subject: Emacs

Emacs is the only editor you ever need. Vi and it's variants are incredibly obtuse and counter-intuitive.

masseya · Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2002 5:38 am Post subject:

This is just a notice to keep the discussion germane to the topic. I don't really want to lock this thread because it's the original text editor thread, but if it turns into a holy war or flame fest it's going to get locked. Try and provide something substantive and don't feed the trolls. Thanks!

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Reformist · Guru Joined: 06 Oct 2002 Posts: 323

Jedit is a great editor, and I used it for awhile, and since it's java it's cross compatible and you can use it on any OS. Since I love to do my coding in gnome and would like to make things for gnome anyway, Anjuta is the best thing I've seen that's native (which means it's a bit faster, yes), and it supports Java (my language of choice) as well as C++; Jedit is good for java but does not really have C++ support (the editor does, but there aren't any compiler plugins, debugger plugins etc. for it). So, if you want something that is integrated into gnome and looks nice, with project support etc., anjuta is the way to go.

I've always hated VIm but I haven't used it for years, so I'm going to say I'm not educated in the program. Emacs was much easier to pick up, but not my cup of tea.
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lemming · n00b Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 57 Location: Kanab, UT

Well, I learned vi in 1981, so I've got a lot of investment into it. And I do like vim and gvim. They're very nice.

Pretty much, what you should do is try out emacs and vim, see what sings to you more.

And you should learn the basics of both, just in case you get stuck on a system which is lacking one. (At least until you get around to installing the right one)

EzInKy · Veteran Joined: 11 Oct 2002 Posts: 1742 Location: Kentucky

For simple editing, kedit on the desktop and mc on the console. For code, kdevelop and rhide.

OdinsDream · Veteran Joined: 01 Jun 2002 Posts: 1057

emerg'ing Jedit now... I had this on Windows, and it was my favorite editor.

Kate is a nice replacement, but it seems to suffer the same flaw that JEdit had in Windows.

I have a habit of sometimes holding "shift" while trying to do Backspace, and both JEdit and Kate block this action, and do not delete any characters.

Can this be altered?

PlatinumCursor · Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2002 12:41 pm Post subject:

Personally I cant live without vim for console and emacs for X. A unbeatable combination for pretty much everything.
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ikshaar · Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2002 6:43 pm Post subject:

I did that search few months ago, I finally choose Scite.

Scite : a very light weighted editor, but with syntax highlighting, customizable by language, user or/and directory where you work. Very convenient folding. Buffering of files. and much more... I really look for the next Gnome2 release, but the GTK1 version is already very good. Only bad point for me, the lack of a file browser or project manager-like browser.

Not to start a war, just to mention, for newbies like me, vi, emacs ... are just too complex to use and impossible to learn in a reasonable amount of time.

PS: I still use vi to edit config files and simple script or to work in the console.
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TheCoop · Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2002 7:15 pm Post subject:

nedit & nano, although im thinking about (g)vim and (x)emacs
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really · Guru Joined: 27 Aug 2002 Posts: 430 Location: nowhere

nano

and kate sometimes, until i get used to tha xemacs.
nano rox!
(yes yes i do)

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petu · Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2002 5:16 pm Post subject: emacs for editing

I use emacs for writing code(IMHO RCS+Emacs is very powerful). But it's not that one editor would be better than another one. I just have more experience from emacs than for example Vim and I dont' want to use time to learn a new editor. But let's NOT make this thread a war emacs vs. Vim vs. some other editor.

Matje · Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2002 5:29 pm Post subject:

I use pico in commandline, should learn vi but too lazy ;-)

In gnome I use xedit. For real word processing AbiWord, and yes, finally for PHP / HTML... I use... Dreamweaver MX :-)

It's still the best program for me, nice upload function, syntax highlight, ... Since wine doesn't work for me, for little, fast adjustments I boot up a VMWare, but when I got a big job planned, I reboot to my windoze. * hears faint hissing sounds and decides to run for his life :-)

green sun · Guru Joined: 04 Nov 2002 Posts: 325 Location: Wista, MA

Personally, Kate & its like are fine for text editing. I like Quanta for php stuff (funny, my main two "editing" apps are KDE, and I run Gnome... so much bloat for two apps

)

However, you should learn vi. A default install of any Linux flavor may be overflowing with editor choices, but do a default of some BSD & you will find a little knowledge of vi will go a *long* way.

TheCoop · Posted: Tue Nov 05, 2002 6:35 pm Post subject:

zypher · Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2002 6:46 am Post subject:

Ok, not a flame-war but I never put my finger on exactly what was so great about vi.
Used to wordstar keybindings, I used joe as an editor since my first linux days and it never left me since (one of the first things to emerge).
I highly recommend it to any newbie and pro.
And as I learned in this thread there is scite for linux so I'm going to emerge that right now

Wonderful editor and fast too.
Just my $0.02
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masseya · Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2002 2:52 pm Post subject:

fuxored · n00b Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 71

I've been using jEdit alot lately, very nice editor. Syntax highlighting, folding, plugins for project management, compiling etc... So yeah for coding useually jEdit or vim. For simple everyday tasks, usually nano or vim again.

phong · Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2002 4:47 pm Post subject:

On the reasons why _I_ use vim, part of it simply has to do with the fact that it's a modal text editor. Switching from modeless editors like nano to a modal one (or vice versa) is hard, but once you get in the thinking of a modal editor, it's actually really nice. Much fewer chorded keystrokes, which is much less fatiguing on the hands.

OTOH, I can't recommend that anyone learn vi/vim who already have an editor they like. Why? The learning curve is extreemly steep, and the advantages can really only be realized after spending a lot of time just learning the editor (and configuring it - default configurations of vi clones are reprehensable). Everything is totally counterintuitive to those who haven't used a modal editor before (though vim has made some strides to improve this such as virtualedit and making arrow keys usable in insert mode). Most users will walk away in frustration before they even get started.

If you're willing to take the time to learn it, you get a full featured text editor (syntax highlighting, column marking, folds, really advanced search/replace, integration with your compiler, etc. etc. etc.) plus the powerful, if esoteric, real-time editing command construction.
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!k · Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2002 7:38 pm Post subject:

Matje · Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2002 7:53 pm Post subject:

eryvile · Apprentice Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 234 Location: europe

guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

I've been watching this thread with some level of amusement, and must make my crash to the party now.

As an avid supporter of vi/vim/gvim, of course my first instinct would be to go with one of those, but does no one recall the title of this thread? "The best GUI editor" or something of the sort... *sigh*. Sadly, my absolute favorite is not a GUI, unless you go to gvim or some such. Yes, you can argue for Xemacs, gedit, kate, kedit, notepad under wine, whatever as GUI editors, but do remember -- the original request was for something presumably equivalent to Notepad.

/me -$0.02

Craigo · Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2002 11:50 pm Post subject:

Really it is down to how you would use them.

For mutt, I use nano because it's quicker and nippy to get emails done and For coding, I use vim over ssh if I'm editing elsewhere and gvim on the desktop.

I've tried bluefish a while ago and got put off with it constant crashing and not being corrective w3c validator. I think I will install and see what they've done but chances are that I'm sticking to the 'vim' family.

-/Craigo/-

Please.. no wars on text editors. Everyone got their own liking, now leave them alone

metalhedd · Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2002 2:20 am Post subject:

I'd just like to retract my Vote for Quanta for HTML/PHP. Its got a nasty nasty bug that really screws up the text on the screen... I can't really explain it any better than that, it just doesn't display text properly, which you'd think is pretty critical of a text editor.