Top 16 Best Text Editors

Top 16 Best Text Editors

A Text editor is a best friend for any programmers or web developers as it makes it easy to read or write and compile any source code.

By using a text editor, the text we write will always be easy to read irrespective of file formats which change from time to time.  Most of the text editors are compatible with many operating systems.

So let us see Minimum 9 Best Text Editors for each OS which are mostly compatible with other operating systems also.

1. Visual Studio Code (Free):

  • Live share – You can work together remotely by call features, you can chat, and also debug you code in real-time.
  • IntelliSense-It provides smart completions based on variable types, function definitions and imported modules.
  • Peek Definition-Peek editors are provided for easy check. For, Go to References press Shift+F12 or for Peek definition press Alt+F12.
  • You can customize themes and colors.
  • It gives you suggestion to complete lines of code and fixes common mistakes.
  • We can see graphical side by side view to compare changes of our code from different points in time.
  • We can use Jupyter notebooks inside VS Code for any project.

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2. Atom (Free):

  • OS SUPPORT: Windows, Linux and macOS
  • You can create your own feature by writing your own package. Everything is customizable vide CSS or JavaScript.
  • Fuzzy Finder (Ctrl+t) allows you to search for any file and also indexes your current project.
  • You can set files under Ignored names, Project home and can also Hide Ignored Names from Tree view.
  • Add plugins to make Atom have some of the best features of Sublime Text 3 and Vim.
  • Linter can detect error easily.
  • Auto update packages are available which updates at regular intervals as per the setting.
  • Git-plus (Ctrl+Shift+H) provides shortcuts to common git actions, so you need not switch to your terminal.

3. Sublime Text 3:

  • Command palette (Ctrl+shift+p) – You can access anything in setting menus, change file syntax, call your package commands etc…
  • Goto symbols (ctrl+r) will list all your methods.
  • Multi edit options- (ctrl+d) to select current work and next same word, (ctrl+click) to create a cursor to edit and (ctrl+shift+f) to find word.
  • Type a word and it will expand into snippet. You can create your own snippets or use pre- installed ones.
  • Emmet allows you to build HTML easily.
  • DocBlockr creates doc blocks for many languages. Just type /** above your function and press tab.

4. Coda2 (Not free):

  • Its great for mac users. You can switch between your sites, editor, preview etc..modes quickly.
  • Local indexing and CSS override for editing CCS files on live website are its key features.
  • You can track all your files outside the Coda app using publishing tool.
  • It also has the basic features like syntax highlighting, code folding and autocompletes. Apart from that it allows programmer to quickly create items like gradients and colours while typing.

5. Brackets (Free):

  • It can refactor certain Javascript codes.
  • It has popular bracket extensions like Emmet, Git, W3C validation, Indent guides, Auto prefixer etc…
  • Inline editors allows you to open a popup on top of the code that you want to change instead of navigating within file tabs.

6. BBedit 13 (Not free):

  • This new version has “Grep cheat sheet” which provides quick reference to frequently used pattern idioms at regular points of need.
  • We can have live preview of search and replace command
  • “Apply Transform “ feature allows for single text change in multiple file and folders.
  • Many features will be unlocked even after 30 Day evaluation which if free of cost. This is a plus and the minus is it wont be compatible with macOS versions less than 10.14.2.
  • Pattern playground, is a search menu help to know how Grep patterns work before using them. We can use already configured Grep patters or create our own.

7. Ultra Edit (Not free):

  • You can pay for one license and use it on 3 systems.
  • Most of the tools have to be purchased. But its worth it as it provides community, and customer support
  • You can edit large files (4GB+). Its very fast in search and replace.
  • Provides line HTML preview.
  • Line change indicator shows saved changes in green and unsaved changes in red.
  • Dockable “Tag list” can be inserted in files automatically.
  • Provides Ctag support.
  • Hightlighted text can be searched using WebSearch Toolbar.

8. Vim (Free):

  • It has online community where you can learn a lot.
  • Its one of the oldest text editor and is still in use.
  • Many plugin are provided such as linters, showing colours in CSS, Integration with Git etc…
  • Vimdiff is a new addition which allows completion, merging and comparison of files.
  • Vim includes extended regular expressions, support for plugins, GUI (gvim), Limited IDE like features, mouse interaction, editing of compressed files and remote files.
  • In case of any crash, user can recover the changes he made by viewing the swap file with “.swp” extension.

9. Bluefish (Free):

  • This text editor starts quickly and is capable of loading even hundreds of files in seconds.
  • MDI (Multiple Document Interface) – It can open more than 500 documents without any issue.
  • It provides Project support which allows you to work on multiple project and at the same it restores the settings automatically.
  • Multi-threaded support – It supports FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SFTP, WebDAV etc… for remote files.
  • Powerful search and replace option
  • Snippets sidebar – allows you to search, replace or insert patters and bind them to shortcut key.

10. Geany(Free):

  • If you need a GUI, lightweight, flexible, cross platform and powerful IDE/editor then go for Geany.
  • Geany has a large community from which you can benefit.
  • Its highly customizable where you ad filetypes or change themes.
  • It supports many file types like C, Java, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, Python or Perl.
  • It has a lot of plugins to choose from.

11. GNU Emacs (Free):

  • Its great for Linux users. You can write code, display a manual and even email from it.
  • It cross compatible with other GNU apps like mail app, debugger etc..
  • It has wide-range of documentation, tutorial, language support, editing modes and extension package managers.

12. JED Editor (Free):

  • It supports colour folding and syntax highlighting.
  • Contend with editors like Emacs, Wordstar, Brief, EDT, Borland
  • Its highly customizable as its extensible in C like language  S- Lang.
  • Wide range of programming modes available for C,C++, Perl, HTML, Python etc…
  • We can read GNU info files (Texinfo) within the JED’s browser.

13. Pico (Free):

  • Pico means Pine composer. It comes with Pine email app. Its an ancestor to Nano text editor.
  • It displays all the commands on screen by which we need not remember any key combinations.
  • Its very simple to use and has all the basic features.
  • It provides many plugins for customization.
  • Working with multiple files (Search, replace, copy, paste) is complicated with pico.

14. MinEd(Free):

  • It’s a text editor with CJK and Unicode support.
  • It easy to edit HTML files. Its user friendly.
  • Runs in text-mode environment.
  • It has extensive character set, Unicode and flexible editing paradigm.
  • It supports mouse control and menu system, data loss prevention.

15. XEmacs( Free):

  • Many packages are available which can be downloaded from XEmacs package manager or install in bulk using sumo tarballs.
  • Its highly customizable which can be done using Emacs Lisp language. The changes done here do not need restarting or recompiling the editor.
  • It provides online help and manuals are also given on the website. It supports many operating systems, markup languages.

16. NEdit (Free):

  • It means Nirvana editor. It is extensible through C-like macro language.
  • It can process tag files using Unixctags or Exuberant Ctags program.
  • Start up speed is just 100 milliseconds only which is great.

Hope you have gained enough knowledge about each of the text editors. Happy coding!!!

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