When comparing Brackets vs nano, the Slant community recommends Brackets for most people. In the question“What are the best programming text editors?” Brackets is ranked 13th while nano is ranked 27th. The most important reason people chose Brackets is:
Brackets will automatically refresh the browser and load the latest saved version of a file open in the browser. This works with php as well. Editing a css will even highlight the tag that's currently being worked on. However, it only works with Chrome.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Built-in browser live-updating
Brackets will automatically refresh the browser and load the latest saved version of a file open in the browser. This works with php as well. Editing a css will even highlight the tag that's currently being worked on. However, it only works with Chrome.
Pro Free, open source and cross-platform
Brackets is entirely free and open source.
Pro Built-in extension manager
The functionality of Brackets can be extended via a simple-to-use extension manager. The extension manager also has a considerable number of extensions and themes.
Pro Actively developed
Brackets is being actively maintained and developed.
Pro Can style a tag without switching over to the stylesheet
A feature called "Quick Edit" allows the user to select a tag in (a html file, for example) and edit the associated style without switching over to the css document. It also supports SASS and LESS pre-processors.
Pro Lightweight
Brackets is easy on memory usage and it starts up quickly.
Pro Can be hacked by any front-end developer
The editor is built using html, css, and javascript, making it extendable by any front-end developer.
Pro Popup previews
Hovering over colors hex codes or image paths will pop up previews of corresponding colors and images.
Pro Drag and drop support
Brackets supports drag and drop of text, as well as multi / rectangular selection.
Pro Vim mode
Vim-style editing is already built in the text editor.
Pro Support for Adobe PSD content
A default extension allows for the extraction of PSD resources, such as images and styles. There's good integration for placing extracted resources into source.
Pro Easy to use
Nano includes only the bare minimum of functionality needed to edit documents making it very simple.
Pro Built-in cheat sheet for shortcuts
All command characters are shown at the bottom of the editor.
Pro Available on almost every Linux system as default
Almost like vi (vim), you can find nano on most Unix-like systems.
Pro Lightweight and bug free
Very stable editor that never hang / leak or crash
Pro Most of the languages supported
Syntax coloring is available for most of the programming language.
Cons
Con Still missing some elementary text editor commands
Some gaps have to be filled by plugins, while these features should be built in.
For example:
- Jump to matching brace (bracket / parenthesis);
- Gutter selection of lines;
- Recall previous searches / replacements;
- Autofill of search field with text under caret (text has to be selected);
- Show whitespace / end of lines / indentation guides / right margin;
- Selection to upper / lower case;
and some more.
Con Problematic updater
Though the website says there is an update available, the updater in Brackets may give you an error, resulting in you having to download updates manually.
Con Slow
Con Supports only web languages by default <but>
Brackets is built for web development and that's where it excels at out of the box. Other languages that have a CodeMirror mode can be added as well.
<and language support plugins can be added>
Con Limited feature set
While nano is fine for writing emails and blog posts, it's probably not a good editor for programmers or really anyone that needs an editor more than once in a while.
Con Individual keybindings
You have to learn keybindings especially for Nano.