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| 30 Recommended Products | Recommendations | Platforms | License | Collaborative editing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Notepad++· · · | 20 | 1 | Windows | GPL | plug-in |
| #2 Sublime Text· · · | 7 | 0 | Windows; macOS; Linux | Proprietary | No |
| #3 Atom· · · | 4 | 0 | Windows, Mac, Linux | MIT | plug-in |
| #4 Notepad2-mod· · · | 3 | 0 | – | – | – |
| #5 Vim· · · | 2 | 0 | Windows; macOS; *nix; iOS; Android | – | – |
| #6 Visual Studio Code· · · | 2 | 0 | Windows; macOS; Linux | MIT | – |
Pro Light and fast
Notepad++ is a very light program that starts almost instantly. Making for a great text editor for users that want something that will start the second the open it.
Pro Portable
You can get a portable version of N++ and put it on a flash drive or your dropbox account and have your editor, configured the way you like, at any computer that you are on.
Pro Handles massive files
Always opens a file gracefully regardless of size, e.g. 10s of MBs . Great for browsing logs, dumps etc.
Con Dated UI
Very old fashioned user interface. With a modern GUI, Notepad++ could be way more popular.
Con Annoying update notifications upon start
Update notifications tend to pop up and annoy upon start after having not used the app or machine for a few days. They are at least easily turned off.
Pro Fast and responsive
Starts almost immediately. Doesn't feel bloated even though it has a lot of functionality. Package control is not installed but is essential for customization and adding key features (sidebar enhancements).
Pro Extendable
Due to its modular design, almost any aspect of the editor can be changed. Even seemingly core packages, like those taking care of search and replace functionality, can be forked on GitHub, and changed and replaced in the editor. The documentation for creating new plugins is also great, making it...
Pro Beginner friendly
One of the goals of Atom is to be a text editor for both experienced and beginner programmers. You can add keyboard shortcuts, change themes, install plugins, and change core settings by clicking through a GUI, or by manually editing config files the old-fashioned way. It has the added advantage of
Con High memory usage
Atom has a relatively high memory usage, especially when compared to some other text editors not based on Electron. For those who develop on the go, this also tends to mean shorter battery life.
Con Has difficulty with large text files
Tends to crash or hang with large >(10MB) text files, making it less useful as a general text editor.
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Pro Works in terminal over SSH
Unlike other editors such as Sublime Text, Vim is a command line editor and hence can be used in remote development environments like Chromebooks via SSH.
Pro Extremely portable
Vi/vim exists on almost all Unix-like platforms. It's the de-facto Unix editor and is easily installed on Windows. All you need to make it work is a text-based connection, so it works well for remote machines with slow connections, or when you're too lazy to set up a VNC/Remote Desktop con...
Con Poor support for external tooling
Many plugins depend on optional Python and Lua features, which may or may not be included in whatever binaries are available for your system. And without platform-specific hacks, it is difficult for plugins to operate in the background or use external tooling.
Con Lacks many modern programming features out of the box
Syntax checking, autocompletion, file management, plugin/update management, etc., all require plugins and extensive configuration to get working. Further to this, you'll probably have to compile native binaries yourself and ensure your system has the proper development libs to do so.
Con Single undo
Some versions have upgraded this (and you may have to enable it), but the standard is from a time of very limited RAM.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
Know any negative aspects of this option?
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