[ALUG] Discuss: Favourite Text / Programmer's Editor

[Chris G]

On Tue, Dec 18, 2007 at 10:47:43AM +0000, samwise wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> We touched on this briefly last night after the question was asked
> about the best Linux replacement for UltraEdit, but we didn't really
> get into it as we were all getting ready to stuff ourselves with Hoi
> Sin sauce.
> 
> I thought it'd make an interesting thread.  So, suggestions for
> favourite editors.
> 
> Without getting into a flame war between vi and emacs ... what editor
> do you prefer for light-weight editing?  i.e. not a full IDE like
> eclipse or KDevelop, but just for the little jobs of editing small
> text files.
> 
I use a vi clone called vile for *everything*, it's not that different
from vim but I have got used to it over the years (I first started
using it on Solaris) so I have stuck with it.

A *big* advantage for me is that at work I very often log in to test
systems and customer systems that only have 'real' vi available so I
don't have to re-learn the editor there.


> I use nano on my very old gentoo box, which is a nice console based
> editor that is more user friendly than vi/emacs (tho, naturally, less
> feature rich).  I generally rely on vi for console-based editing on
> other machines.
> 
Seems odd to me that using two different editors can be 'easier' than
knowing one (possibly more complex) one in depth.


> As for the GUI-based ones, I tried gVim but just found it too much
> hard work.

I use the GUI vile which is called xvile.  Again I don't see the
problem, xvile is just the same as vile with a few GUI addons like
mouse awareness etc.  Just using the same editor *everywhere* means
that it's never 'hard work'.


>            I have run Crimson Editor under WINE for a while because it
> has lots more features than Kate or KWrite.  I'll accept that Crimson
> Editor is somewhat stagnant (the replacement Emerald Editor appears to
> be stuck in development hell) and Notepad++ under WINE might be a
> better choice, but I haven't taken the time to play with it properly.
> 
> So, anyone got any other favourites worth trying?  Does anyone know of
> a native Linux GUI app that can compete with UltraEdit et al?
> 
I still think my philosophy of using the same editor *everywhere* is
the best approach.  You need to choose one that's available on every
platform you use of course, that's what led me to vile/xvile.  I use
it in all the following situations:-

    At work as my programming editor, Solaris with a Config management
    system that launches the editor via a gnuclient type mechanism (my
    original reason for choosing xvile, a vi clone that worked in
    server mode).

    As my mail editor, I use mutt for mail and thus can choose what
    editor I use for writing mail.

    As my newsgroup posting editor, I use tin and, like mutt it uses
    whatever editor I specify.

    For all my editing of scripts, python, pearl, etc. on Linux. Vile
    has syntax colouring for just about every language you can think
    of and quite a few that you can't!

    For editing textareas in Firefox, this is done via a neat little
    extension called mozex.  Whenever a textarea asks for input I can
    hit CTRL/E and the contents of the textarea can be edited using my
    favourite editor!

    On Windows I have the windows version of vile which is called
    winvile so even there I can feel at home (and avoid notepad!).

Nowadays I could probably replace most of the above by using vim/gvim
and starting now I probably would.  I'm not sure if there's a server
mode in gvim though.

-- 
Chris Green