Question

DISCUSS COMPARING TEXT EDITORS IN LINUX.

Research the different text editors available in Linux and write up a comparison of each. Your comparison should include a recommendation as to the editor you feel would be most useful and why.

Answer 1

1. VIM

If you are bored of using the default “vi” editor in linux and want to edit your text in an advanced text editor that is packed with powerful performance and lots of options, then vim is your best choice. As per the name suggests, VIM means “vi improved” as it is just an advanced version of the default linux text editor. It is specially designed keeping in mind the needs of a developer. It is also called as a programmers editor for its highly configurable options. Similar to the Vi editor, it can be used as a command line utility or also as a standalone GUI application.

Some of the unique features of VIM includes:

• Syntax Coloring
• Tag System
• Tab expansion
• Session Screen
• Split screen
• Digraph input
• Automatic commands

2. Geany

Geany is one of the most popular text editors for Linux desktop environment that comes with an integrated GTK+ toolkit. It also serves as an excellent development environment for programmers and developers. If you are looking for text editor that also doubles up as a development environment, then Geany is your best bet. It is lightweight and supports almost all major programming languages and doesn’t have many dependencies from other packages.

Some of the unique features of Geany includes:

• Easy to use and clean interface
• Syntax highlighting for easy development
• Lots of customizable options
• Line numbering for easy tracking of code
• Easy pluggable interface

3. Sublime Text Editor

Sublime text editor is another popular text editor for the linux environment. It is packed with a lot of features and is specially designed to be used as a text editor and also as a development environment. It supports a lot of programming along with many markup languages. With the numerous plugins available, you can take the text editor to the next level by extending its functionality to a great extent. One of the unique features of the text editor is the “Goto Anything” feature that helps you to easily go to any section of the code or navigate to any file in your system.

Some of the other unique features of Sublime text editor includes:

• Excellent Command Palette
• Python-based plugin API
• Parallel editing of Code
• Project specific preferences

4. Brackets

Adobe launched a text editor way back in 2014 called the Brackets for the linux environment. It is an open source text editor that comes packed with a lot of exciting features that makes working with this text editor a lot of fun. It is also easy and simple to use with a clean interface. It is specially designed to act as both as text editor as well as a code editor to help web designers and programmers. It’s completely developed using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It is lightweight, but still has all the qualities to beat some of the best text editors with its advanced features.

Some of the unique features of Brackets text editor includes:

• Live Preview
• Inline Editing
• Focused visual tools Pre processor support

5. Gedit

If you are working in a GNOME desktop environment, then by default it comes loaded with a text editor called Gedit. Similar to the objective of GNOME to always provide functionalities that are clean and straightforward, Gedit also follows the same objective as it is lightweight and comes with clean and simple user interface. It first got released to the public in 2000 with the GNOME desktop environment. It is completed developed using C language and supports completely for internationalized text.

Some of the unique features of Gedit includes:

• Syntax highlighting
• Supports internationalized text
• Supports various programming languages

6. Kate

If you are familiar with the Kubuntu desktop environment then you would have definitely know about Kate text editor that comes as a default editor loaded with the Kubuntu environment. It is a lightweight and easy to use text editor. You can work with multiple files simultaneously. It also can be used a powerful IDE.

Some of the unique features of Kate includes:

• A powerful IDE
• Supports many languages
• Auto-detects languages
• Sets indentation for documents automatically

7. Eclipse

Front end developers and designers looking for a robust and advanced text/code editor can definitely go for the Eclipse editor. It is popular among many java developers as it is completely developed in JAVA and is also contains a lot of features that supports writing and developing Java application easily. If you need additional language support, then you need to install extra plugins to achieve this. The Eclipse IDE becomes even more powerful with the help of additional plugins as you can insert a lot of advanced functionalities to the editor. It can also be used to develop programs for PHP, Python, C, C++, Ruby on Rails, COBOL etc.

Some of the unique features of Eclipse includes:

• Free and open source text editor
• Includes Java Development tools for Java developers
• Plugin Support

8. Kwrite

Kwrite text editor is developed by KDE and first released to the public in 2000. It is entirely based on the Kate text editor along with the KParts technology from KDE. With the help of additional plugin installation, you can extend the functionality of Kwrite to a great extent and make it a more powerful development environment. It can also be used to edit remote file along with encoding your files.

Some of the unique features of Kwrite includes:

• Word Completion
• Auto Indentation
• Syntax highlighting
• vi input mode

9. Nano

Nano is another popular text editor that is also used in the UNIX operating systems. It is similar to the Pico text editor and first got released in 2000. It also comes packed with a lot of additional functionalities to make this as a powerful and advanced text editor. It can be run in a command line interface only.

Some of the unique features of Nano includes:

• Case sensitive search
• Auto Indentation
• Tab Completion
• Autoconf support

10. GNU Emacs

GNU Emacs is one of the oldest text editor for the linux environment that has been here for a long time. It is developed by Richard Stallman, the project founder of GNU. It is being used by thousands of linux programmers all around the world and GNU Emacs is one of their favorite and preferred text editors. It is entirely developed using LISP and C.

Some of the unique features of GNU Emacs includes:

• Mail and News options
• Debugger interface extension
• Extensive documentation and support