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Add to SafariWhen comparing Notepad++ vs Ninja IDE, the Slant community recommends Notepad++ for most people. In the question“What are the best free IDEs for Python?” Notepad++ is ranked 17th while Ninja IDE is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose Notepad++ is:
Notepad++ has built-in support for syntax highlighting for a wide selection of programming languages.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Syntax highlighting for a wide variety of languages
Notepad++ has built-in support for syntax highlighting for a wide selection of programming languages.
Pro Light and fast
Notepad++ is a very light program that starts almost instantly. This makes it a great text editor for users that want something that will start the second they open it.
Pro Extendable via plugins
A list of hundreds of plugins is maintained.
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 Free under GPL
Notepad++ is licensed under GPL, which means it is free/open source software that you can use freely.
Pro Regex replace in selection, active tab, or all tabs
In Notepad++, the user can utilise regular expressions to quickly modify text across multiple files.
Pro Persistent documents, even after exiting the application
If you close Notepad++ (npp), your documents remain even if you haven't saved.
Pro User defined language syntax support
You can define your own custom syntax highlighting rules (or add support for others) .
Pro Easy to use and admin
Very easy to use and personalize.
Pro Multi-line editing
While it is disabled by default, when enabled, it is possible to edit more than one line at a time. This is helpful in many situations.
Pro Split screen
The user can open and edit files in multiple screens within the editor window.
Pro Supports Markdown
If you have the Plugin Manager installed you can search for MarkdownViewer++ and install it via that plugin.
Pro Syntax highlighting
Pro Extensible
Plugins can easily be created to add features that you may need but are otherwise missing from the IDE.
Pro Virtualenv support
Has out of the box support for virtualenv, which can be added when first starting a project or later through the settings.
Pro Embedded Python console
Has an embedded python console built in.
Pro Script runner
It is possible to run the project or any file opened in the editor with just one click.
Pro Find in files / find usages
Allows you to search one or more words, a regular expression, etc.
Pro Breakpoints
Pro Multi-platform
- GNU/Linux
- OS X
- Windows
Pro Built-in static analysis
NInja IDE highlights both static and PEP8 errors in a file. With each type of error having its own icon.
Pro Web-inspector
Pro Render HTML files
Also supports rendering HTML files currently loaded in the editor.
Pro Project management
Allows you to manage projects, saving descriptions and information about them and letting the user to perform file management related task inside the IDE itself.
Pro Easily locate code
Code locator allows quick and direct access to any file, function or class inside one of the project by simply pressing a few keys. Pressing Ctrl + K open a popup over a text field, where you can type the name of what you want.
Pro Symbols explorer built in
You can easily see all functions, classes and attributes in the current program.
Pro Written in Python
Pro Bash support
Pro Sublime snippets
Pro Multi-language support
Cons
Con Windows-only
While it can run in Wine, it is native only to Windows. Linux users will have to use Notepadqq instead.
Con Settings confusingly scattered
Examples: try to change the tab size or used font.
Con Annoying update notifications upon start-up
Annoying update notifications tend to pop up upon start-up after not having used the app or machine for a few days. At the same time, they can be easily turned off.
Con Outdated UI
Only the text area can be themed, and it doesn't have as many features as browser-based text areas.
Con Limited new syntax support for new languages
It may be hard to find good plugins for relatively new languages.
Con Session backups not enabled by default
Unsaved tabs will be lost when Npp crashes, unless you first enable the session backup option.
Con User defined language doesn't support triple quote strings
It also doesn't support triple hashed comments. Both styles are overridden by their single character single line version.
Con Latest version (2.3) is from 2013
But it looks like the project is still maintained towards 3.0 release.
Con Bad performance
Freezes and slows down often.
