Which text editor do you use and why?

[drakche]

Long time Sublime Text user, but some months ago I switched to VS Code, and I'm really loving it.
out-of-the-box NodeJS debugger is amazing (I'm a JS developer)

I like VS Code too, but Sublime is very fast and it feels soo wrong using MS VS Code in Linux.

Sublime will always be faster no matter what.
But as I upgraded my work machine, VS code feels more than enough fast.

As for using it on linux.
It was strange at first, but the features won me over. So I decided to do the unthinkable.

BTW, I'm a former C# developer, so I'm used to MS IDE's and work tools, so I got that to help me out with it.

Currently for me, it's hands down the most comfortable text editor for web development.

It has some really kick ass features.

And with the awesome plugin for syncing the settings it's perfect for me since I switch computers a lot.

[iwantatrophy]

Sublime will always be faster no matter what.
But as I upgraded my work machine, VS code feels more than enough fast.

As for using it on linux.
It was strange at first, but the features won me over. So I decided to do the unthinkable.

BTW, I'm a former C# developer, so I'm used to MS IDE's and work tools, so I got that to help me out with it.

Currently for me, it's hands down the most comfortable text editor for web development.

It has some really kick ass features.

And with the awesome plugin for syncing the settings it's perfect for me since I switch computers a lot.

Hey, VS has a syncing plugin? How does it work?

[funderburker]

Used Sublime Text for couple of years but have migrated to Atom. It has better package management and it's open-source so no need to worry about licenses and stuff. It's been quite nice replacement but I had to get used to it, for example, add some keymapping that I grew accustomed to in ST and that's about it.

[Giorgio]

It's VIM. I use it to write prose, letters, code, wikis, todos list. I even use its shortcuts in firefox through vimfx.
I use it because it's faster and easier than all the other editors. Selecting text in normal mode is easier than having to use the mouse, or some combinations like ctrl maiusc arrow. Most of the times, if I have to write a word document, first I write the text in vim, and then I paste in office/libreoffice.

[drakche]

Sublime will always be faster no matter what.
But as I upgraded my work machine, VS code feels more than enough fast.

As for using it on linux.
It was strange at first, but the features won me over. So I decided to do the unthinkable.

BTW, I'm a former C# developer, so I'm used to MS IDE's and work tools, so I got that to help me out with it.

Currently for me, it's hands down the most comfortable text editor for web development.

It has some really kick ass features.

And with the awesome plugin for syncing the settings it's perfect for me since I switch computers a lot.

Hey, VS has a syncing plugin? How does it work?

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Shan.code-settings-sync


You set up a gist and it has the settings and plugins backups.

IMHO one of the most useful things to have on a text editor.

[iwantatrophy]

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Shan.code-settings-sync

You set up a gist and it has the settings and plugins backups.

IMHO one of the most useful things to have on a text editor.

I found something similar for Sublime. I never knew I needed this. Thanks!
https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Sync%20Settings

[rowdy]

I'm a JS developer

You have my deepest sympathy.

[robertdane101]

I use android studio for programming
Ms word for writing

[drakche]

I'm a JS developer

You have my deepest sympathy.

Why, JS is actually an extremely pleasant language to use.
And on top of that, and really potent language, especially if you know what are you doing.
ES6 is beyond amazing.

Mind you, I'm not talking about jQuary or already made frameworks.
I'm mostly talking about NodeJS and usage of pure vanilla JS and ES6.

Currently it's my second favorite after Pyhton.
 
And by far much better to use than PHP or Java.

I think that main problem that people have with JS is that a lot of them dive into directly, and they don't have any prior knowledge of any other proper programming language.
In my opinion, the only correct way of learning to properly use JS is to first be very proficient in a traditional back end language. It's really an language that doesn't hold your hand and on top of it, even a lousy code can work. That doesn't mean you should write a lousy code, it just mean you suck at programming. I've been programming in JS for about 5ish years, while being a programmer professionally for about 8 year. Most of the time I used either python or C# as my main language, while complimenting them with JS. And since couple of years back, I've moved to mostly NodeJS and NoSQL databases. And never felt any hindrances by using the language. On contrary, I felt hindrances using other languages and stuff missing from JS. Over the course of my professional carrier I've work on many platforms and on many languages, from desktop apps, web apps, Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone and even did Mathematical programming in Mathlab and APL2, and in the end. I don't give a **** what I'm using, as long as it's not Java

Everything is logical in JS if you know what are you doing, but if you do 3 courses on Lynda or CodeAcademy and they you have the nerve to call yourself a JS developer... Good on you, but you're full of ****.

Rant over...

TL;DR; I kinda had to rant about people slandering JS all the time, while not knowing anything about it or how to proper utilize it. I'm not saying that you don't know, but most people in fact don't, and they're not helping by slandering it.

[iri]

I'm a JS developer

You have my deepest sympathy.

Why, JS is actually an extremely pleasant language to use.

 

[davkol]

Everything is logical in JS if you know what are you doing

Oh dear…

[Giorgio]

Could we please modify the subject?

What text editor do you use, and why is it vim?

[dubious]

I use vim, because I don't totally hate babies

[dubious]

"...VS Code.....Super lightweight"

Lightweight compared to what?? a full fledged Visual Studio install!?   )

[davkol]

GNU Emacs, because ELisp >>> that native abomination in Vim. Perhaps I could give Neovim a chance, but I don't see that much of a point in switching TBH.

[iri]

I use vim, because I don't totally hate babies

I totally hate babies and I use Vim.

[rowdy]

I'm a JS developer

You have my deepest sympathy.

Why, JS is actually an extremely pleasant language to use.
And on top of that, and really potent language, especially if you know what are you doing.
ES6 is beyond amazing.

Mind you, I'm not talking about jQuary or already made frameworks.
I'm mostly talking about NodeJS and usage of pure vanilla JS and ES6.

Currently it's my second favorite after Pyhton.
 
And by far much better to use than PHP or Java.

I think that main problem that people have with JS is that a lot of them dive into directly, and they don't have any prior knowledge of any other proper programming language.
In my opinion, the only correct way of learning to properly use JS is to first be very proficient in a traditional back end language. It's really an language that doesn't hold your hand and on top of it, even a lousy code can work. That doesn't mean you should write a lousy code, it just mean you suck at programming. I've been programming in JS for about 5ish years, while being a programmer professionally for about 8 year. Most of the time I used either python or C# as my main language, while complimenting them with JS. And since couple of years back, I've moved to mostly NodeJS and NoSQL databases. And never felt any hindrances by using the language. On contrary, I felt hindrances using other languages and stuff missing from JS. Over the course of my professional carrier I've work on many platforms and on many languages, from desktop apps, web apps, Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone and even did Mathematical programming in Mathlab and APL2, and in the end. I don't give a **** what I'm using, as long as it's not Java

Everything is logical in JS if you know what are you doing, but if you do 3 courses on Lynda or CodeAcademy and they you have the nerve to call yourself a JS developer... Good on you, but you're full of ****.

Rant over...

TL;DR; I kinda had to rant about people slandering JS all the time, while not knowing anything about it or how to proper utilize it. I'm not saying that you don't know, but most people in fact don't, and they're not helping by slandering it.

I tried to learn JavaScript for a couple of months last year following online courses (can't remember which) and about 4 different books.

The courses were not going in the direction I wanted (writing web components), so I tried the books.

Many of the examples in the books simply didn't work.

I did a few of the exercises, and my solutions worked, more or less, but bore almost no resemblance to the solution the book was expecting, so I probably missed the point of the exercises.

I tried going it alone and using intuition, which usually works well, but we were using an alpha framework something from Google at the time and when something broke I had no idea if it was me or the framework, which didn't help.

Not much in JavaScript seemed to make sense, not many of the changes I made to existing scripts had the expected results, and eventually I was moved off onto $ome more important $tuff.

If you've been programming professionally for 8 years, then I have probably been programming professionally since before you were born., and have forgotten more programming languages than most people have known.

My favourite is Python - it is simple, comprehensive, well supported, does almost everything out of the box and there are modules that can be installed for almost anything else, even runs under the JVM in environment where I'm not allowed to install a Python interpreter but a Java runtime is available.

Maybe one day I'll go back to JavaScript, although others in the company have already written the web components, and most of the rest of us are concentrating on migrating to Java anyway.

And I do use vim on a daily basis, and don't mind babies as long as they are somewhere else (mine has grown up a lot now and is approaching teenhood).

[xtrafrood]

I'm a JS developer

You have my deepest sympathy.

Why, JS is actually an extremely pleasant language to use.
And on top of that, and really potent language, especially if you know what are you doing.
ES6 is beyond amazing.

Mind you, I'm not talking about jQuary or already made frameworks.
I'm mostly talking about NodeJS and usage of pure vanilla JS and ES6.

Currently it's my second favorite after Pyhton.
 
And by far much better to use than PHP or Java.

I think that main problem that people have with JS is that a lot of them dive into directly, and they don't have any prior knowledge of any other proper programming language.
In my opinion, the only correct way of learning to properly use JS is to first be very proficient in a traditional back end language. It's really an language that doesn't hold your hand and on top of it, even a lousy code can work. That doesn't mean you should write a lousy code, it just mean you suck at programming. I've been programming in JS for about 5ish years, while being a programmer professionally for about 8 year. Most of the time I used either python or C# as my main language, while complimenting them with JS. And since couple of years back, I've moved to mostly NodeJS and NoSQL databases. And never felt any hindrances by using the language. On contrary, I felt hindrances using other languages and stuff missing from JS. Over the course of my professional carrier I've work on many platforms and on many languages, from desktop apps, web apps, Symbian, Android, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone and even did Mathematical programming in Mathlab and APL2, and in the end. I don't give a **** what I'm using, as long as it's not Java

Everything is logical in JS if you know what are you doing, but if you do 3 courses on Lynda or CodeAcademy and they you have the nerve to call yourself a JS developer... Good on you, but you're full of ****.

Rant over...

TL;DR; I kinda had to rant about people slandering JS all the time, while not knowing anything about it or how to proper utilize it. I'm not saying that you don't know, but most people in fact don't, and they're not helping by slandering it.

I tried to learn JavaScript for a couple of months last year following online courses (can't remember which) and about 4 different books.

The courses were not going in the direction I wanted (writing web components), so I tried the books.

Many of the examples in the books simply didn't work.

I did a few of the exercises, and my solutions worked, more or less, but bore almost no resemblance to the solution the book was expecting, so I probably missed the point of the exercises.

I tried going it alone and using intuition, which usually works well, but we were using an alpha framework something from Google at the time and when something broke I had no idea if it was me or the framework, which didn't help.

Not much in JavaScript seemed to make sense, not many of the changes I made to existing scripts had the expected results, and eventually I was moved off onto $ome more important $tuff.

If you've been programming professionally for 8 years, then I have probably been programming professionally since before you were born., and have forgotten more programming languages than most people have known.

My favourite is Python - it is simple, comprehensive, well supported, does almost everything out of the box and there are modules that can be installed for almost anything else, even runs under the JVM in environment where I'm not allowed to install a Python interpreter but a Java runtime is available.

Maybe one day I'll go back to JavaScript, although others in the company have already written the web components, and most of the rest of us are concentrating on migrating to Java anyway.

And I do use vim on a daily basis, and don't mind babies as long as they are somewhere else (mine has grown up a lot now and is approaching teenhood).

Awesome. I'm literally on day 21 of a Python learning experiment. Python must be a good choice. Currently using Geany as I pool resources to help with the first VIM configuration.

[lolbitter]

Vim and python for me too. I guess vim bindings felt relatively reasonable to learn, although this thread made me think maybe emacs wouldnt be so bad to revisit

[Jhors2]

Lately I've been using Atom.  I write a lot of go and the extra extensions for auto formatting and import make my life a lot easier.

[vim_commando]

I think it goes without saying for me: Vim.

A genuine question : is Vim like editor really viable for those who have to work on files in multiple directories? It seems way easier for me to use a GUI to browse and open the file rather than type :b and browse to the file manually.

Absolutely, I use a plugin called NERDTRee https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree and it works wonders for projects with lots of subdirectories. You can recursively open directories and quickly search by filename just like any other buffer.



In Vim (not plain Vi) there is some basic file browsing built in as well. Just use "e ." (edit current directory) to open it. You can use CTRL+O like a "back" button to reopen your previous file too.

[profanum429]

Vim when using a Linux or BSD system; Notepad++ in Windows.

I'll also end up using the editor provided by an IDE depending on the platform; like for developing ARM software I'll usually be using either the Keil uVision IDE or Segger Embedded Studio (depending on the tools I'm using).

[xtrafrood]

I think it goes without saying for me: Vim.

A genuine question : is Vim like editor really viable for those who have to work on files in multiple directories? It seems way easier for me to use a GUI to browse and open the file rather than type :b and browse to the file manually.

Absolutely, I use a plugin called NERDTRee https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree and it works wonders for projects with lots of subdirectories. You can recursively open directories and quickly search by filename just like any other buffer.

(Attachment Link)

In Vim (not plain Vi) there is some basic file browsing built in as well. Just use "e ." (edit current directory) to open it. You can use CTRL+O like a "back" button to reopen your previous file too.

I found that Ranger works really well with vim. Super fast and deadly

[iri]

Deadly?

[xtrafrood]

Deadly?

... a file browser that takes vi/vim commands tho. Sometimes I forget how serious this stuff is to some people.

[iLLucionist]

I think it goes without saying for me: Vim.

A genuine question : is Vim like editor really viable for those who have to work on files in multiple directories? It seems way easier for me to use a GUI to browse and open the file rather than type :b and browse to the file manually.

Absolutely, I use a plugin called NERDTRee https://github.com/scrooloose/nerdtree and it works wonders for projects with lots of subdirectories. You can recursively open directories and quickly search by filename just like any other buffer.

(Attachment Link)

In Vim (not plain Vi) there is some basic file browsing built in as well. Just use "e ." (edit current directory) to open it. You can use CTRL+O like a "back" button to reopen your previous file too.

NERDtree is awesome, although fuzzy file finders are also great, like CtrlP:

https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim

[rasmusx]

Using Vim for over 5 years. Recently switches to nvim

Like it because of the modal editing mode. Now using it in browser also through chrome extension.

[SBJ]

On Linux: nano, as I'm usually on through ssh.
On Win: just your standard notepad. Or notepad+ if I'm feelin' fancy.

[robertdane101]

MS Word for Normal work
Sometimes wordpad

[fine_italian_leather]

PhpStorm and Vim.

[Findecanor]

I recently came across a page about Elastic Tabstops. There are plugins for a whole slew of text editors.
At first glance, the idea looks really tempting - I see potential for not having to fidget so much with the code I write to make it pretty but I can see how it could be problematic when having to deal with code/users that do not use it.

Are you using it? What do you think of it? Could the idea be improved somehow?

[Entropia]

I've been using Ultraedit for many years. Now, thanks to this thread, I've discovered Sublime Text 3 and I've installed it and configured it in all my computers. It's fantastic.

[user 18]

I recently came across a page about Elastic Tabstops. There are plugins for a whole slew of text editors.
At first glance, the idea looks really tempting - I see potential for not having to fidget so much with the code I write to make it pretty but I can see how it could be problematic when having to deal with code/users that do not use it.

Are you using it? What do you think of it? Could the idea be improved somehow?

No plugin for my preferred editor (Geany).

In terms of making things less problematic for collaborators, it might be nice to combine the alignment properties of the elastic tabstops with some sort of space:tab ratio like in a lot of editors right now, moving whole blocks/columns to the next predefined stop (I like every 4 spaces). If I'm interpreting the page correctly, I think this is similar to how Sublime handles the idea right now?

That's a little against the stated philosophy, but I think it improves the portability aspect a lot.

[riktors]

VIM4Life

Seriously though I started with vi/vim because I started as a UNIX admin 16 years ago and that is guaranteed to be everywhere. HP-UX, Solaris, Linux, AIX, BSD etc.

At this point I can't imagine anything replacing it for me.

[asianboy30354]

sublime for me, just so clean imo

[Darksair]

10 year Emacs user here.

Because there's no way I can migrate my ~200K of configuration to any other editor…  And since no other editor are configured with Lisp, I don't want to… 

[rowdy]

10 year Emacs user here.

Because there's no way I can migrate my ~200K of configuration to any other editor…  And since no other editor are configured with Lisp, I don't want to… 

That's a lot of configuration

Does it take long to start up?

[nmur]

last time i posted in this thread i said i wanted to try vscode

i've been using it at work for the last 3-4 months, and i'm loving it. very customisable and its development is very active

i urge you guys to give it a try. there are apparently pretty good vim extensions available if you can't live without it

[dodgeyhack]

vim, gVim, MacVim.
Firstly because I can do so much without moving my hands very much.
Secondly it's fun. It's like regularly getting new toys as you learn more and more tricks.
My favourite plugins are:
* Tagbar
* NERDTree
* CtrlP

[Darksair]

10 year Emacs user here.

Because there's no way I can migrate my ~200K of configuration to any other editor…  And since no other editor are configured with Lisp, I don't want to… 

That's a lot of configuration

Does it take long to start up?

Unlike Vim, you can pretty much use Emacs as a notepad right from the start.  And you can build up your configs over time.  Nowadays Emacs has become much more "user-friendly" than the version 21 days; packages are quite easy to install and config.  In fact if you use the built-in package manager usually you don't need to do any configuration.  In this sense it's very similar to Atom, VS Code, and the like.  So yea, now it's a good time to start and it shouldn't take you very long to install some essential (and modern) packages (magit, company, and helm come to mind) and enjoy the experience.

[iri]

there are apparently pretty good vim extensions available

Not a single one.

[seva1385]

20-years of VIMming. Best part of it is regular expression support. Macros come in handy often; for example, I can calculate total of Amazon promotional charges using VIM (loading statement in the editor and doing a bit of context-replacement, macroing, and scripting). I sometimes process millions of lines of text at a time in this manner, though sed is a better tool for such bulk work. Yes, configuration  script of VIM  does not deserve to be called a language; most of the time, however, you only need to write couple of lines in it.

Prior to that, I tried to love Emacs, which, they joked, stands for "Eight Megs And Constant Swapping", back in the day when eight megs was a lot of memory.

[malthusthomas]

On Mac OS X I was using TextWrangler, mainly for working with raw data. I only wrote code within the editors contained in Stata and R Studio. Since I've migrated to Ubuntu I've been using Atom to write my code for Stata and R (and learning a little html, css, and js). For any document creation I use TeXstudio, though I see Atom has a package for TeX and I might check that out at some point.

[rowdy]

On Mac OS X I was using TextWrangler, mainly for working with raw data. I only wrote code within the editors contained in Stata and R Studio. Since I've migrated to Ubuntu I've been using Atom to write my code for Stata and R (and learning a little html, css, and js). For any document creation I use TeXstudio, though I see Atom has a package for TeX and I might check that out at some point.

For anyone following this, TextWrangler has been put out to pasture, and BBEdit (by the same company) now has a free mode with otherwise pretty much equivalent functionality.

[malthusthomas]

On Mac OS X I was using TextWrangler, mainly for working with raw data. I only wrote code within the editors contained in Stata and R Studio. Since I've migrated to Ubuntu I've been using Atom to write my code for Stata and R (and learning a little html, css, and js). For any document creation I use TeXstudio, though I see Atom has a package for TeX and I might check that out at some point.

For anyone following this, TextWrangler has been put out to pasture, and BBEdit (by the same company) now has a free mode with otherwise pretty much equivalent functionality.

Jeez, I wonder how I missed that development.

[rowdy]

On Mac OS X I was using TextWrangler, mainly for working with raw data. I only wrote code within the editors contained in Stata and R Studio. Since I've migrated to Ubuntu I've been using Atom to write my code for Stata and R (and learning a little html, css, and js). For any document creation I use TeXstudio, though I see Atom has a package for TeX and I might check that out at some point.

For anyone following this, TextWrangler has been put out to pasture, and BBEdit (by the same company) now has a free mode with otherwise pretty much equivalent functionality.

Jeez, I wonder how I missed that development.

I think I probably saw an article on a tech website somewhere.  I pondered sticking with TextWrangler - it still works - but decided to cross-grade to BBEdit.  Once the trial period passed, for all intents and purposes it is identical to TextWrangler for my purposes.

[ojrask]

Notepad++ on Windows. Vim or Gedit on Ubuntu. Vim when I'm already in a terminal and Gedit when I open stuff for just reading or putting notes about something.

I'm not a hardcore Vim user (I don't even have a .vimrc file), but especially with tmux it is nice once you learn the basics. I should start learning a bit more about configuring and extending it though.

[Sylvester]

sublime.

[wylie]

sublime.<vim movement command>

[iri]

sublime.<vim movement command>

SVim<esc>