When comparing Chocolat vs Kate, the Slant community recommends Chocolat for most people. In the question“What are the best programming text editors for a Mac with a GUI?” Chocolat is ranked 16th while Kate is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose Chocolat is:
Chocolat offers integrated web-based documentation, so you can quickly look up anything you might need clarification on.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Built-in access to MDN
Chocolat offers integrated web-based documentation, so you can quickly look up anything you might need clarification on.
Pro Unlimited split viewing
Chocolat allows you to view as many files side-by-side as you'd like, rather than limiting you to two.
Pro Live error checking
Chocolat supports live error checking.
Pro Great look
The native Mac looks awesome.
Pro Excellent theme support
Themes can be tweaked in various ways, such as in terms of font-size, colors, and highlighting colors.
Pro Code completion
Chocolat will auto-complete JS variables, keywords, methods, functions, and parameters.
Pro Syntax highlighting
Kate supports syntax highlighting for over 180 languages, from Assembler to Zsh
Pro Project mode
Kate allows you to make projects to simplify the organisation of your code. This brings in additional organization of an IDE without the overhead.
Pro Edit over FTP, SSH, or other protocols
Kate uses KDE's input and output libraries to read and write files, allowing seamless integration with FTP, SMB, SFTP, and many other protocols.
Pro Fast and minimaistic
Kate is pretty fast and lightweight. This helps it with it's start up speed.
Pro Integrated terminal
Has a terminal that can sync to the location of your document, letting you compile or run your program quickly or run quick commands, all without leaving the editor.
Pro Vi entry mode
Kate has a vi entry mode.
Pro Thriving plugin ecosystem
Lots of plugins allow Kate to expand or shrink based on your needs. It includes GDB integration, XML completion, and symbol viewing to speed up programming.
Cons
Con Mac only
Chocolate is only available for Mac.
Con Commercial
Con Hard to install on Windows or OS X
Kate can be a little hard to install and configure, especially for beginners.
On Linux or BSD, it can be easily installed from your distribution's repositories.