Choosing a Text Editor

(Note: This article was first published, in a slightly different form, at Open Source Musings and appears here via a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.)

The humble (and often, not-so-humble) text editor. It can be a wonderful thing. I know more than a few people who are zealous about their editors, and view them in the same way that they view their toothbrushes. Yes, they’re that hardcore.

Having said that, I know more than a few people who actually shy away from text editors. Why? Because they view editors as strictly a programmer’s tool. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even though I’m not a coder of any stripe, I find a text editor to be a valuable tool. More than that actually. For me, a good text editor is indispensable for leading a plain text life.

You might be writing an article, either in straight text or with a markup language like Markdown. You might be editing the HTML of your web site. You might be peeking at a shell script. Or you might just be perusing a README file or change log for some software that you’re about to install. Pulling those kinds of files into a word processor is overkill.

Those are situations in which text editors are very handy. But with so many editors out there, how do you choose the one that’s for you? And by you, I mean someone who isn’t a software developer or (too much of) a techie. Someone who thinks that C is the third letter in the alphabet, for whom regular expressions mean an ordinary way of speaking.

Everyone has their own favourite editor. Here’s some advice I give to people who are looking for the right one for them.

What to Look For

Here are four things that I look for in a text editor. Your mileage (or whatever distance measurement you use) may vary.

First, the editor should pack some form of syntax highlighting — whether automatic or which you can turn on or off with a click or two. Why syntax highlighting? If you’re looking at any markup language (or even some code), black text on a white background tends to all look the same. It really helps if tags or comments or functions have different colours from the rest of the text. I can’t tell you how many times syntax highlighting helped me find unclosed tags in HTML.

Second, the editor should be fairly easy to extend. That includes

• I can add custom syntax highlighting definitions.
• It’s easy to link the editor to an external program that can process or validate the file I’m working with.
• The developers and/or user community supply plugins that can extend the editor in a variety of ways.

Third, a spelling checker is a must, especially if you’re writing. Nothing more needs to be said about that.

Fourth, the interface should be clean. No ribbon a la Microsoft Word. Instead, it should have one toolbar and the ability to quickly show or hide side panes (which could contain anything from a list of files to additional commands). Also, I prefer an interface with tabs rather than an old school multiple document interface or a (gasp!) single document interface.

Some Suggestions

So, what editors do I recommend? I mainly work on the Linux desktop, so here a few for that operating system. And you don’t have to be a coder to appreciate them.

First up, Gedit. It took me a little while to warm up to Gedit, but when I did I couldn’t stop using it. Well, until I switched to elementary OS and started mainlining its default text editor. Gedit has the four main features that I look for in a text editor. What do I use it for? Mainly writing, with Markdown and without, and editing web pages. Gedit has nice Markdown and LaTeX plugins, and it also has a full-screen editing mode. Perfect for distraction-free writing.

Users of elementary OS have a simple but effective option editor that comes with the distribution called Code. It's not the most feature-packed editor around, but it's great if your needs are simple. Code has several useful plugins — like a spelling checker, word completion, and browser preview of HTML files — along with syntax highlighting and a solid search and replace function.

I don’t use KDE anymore. But when I did, I used Kate as my sole editor. All of my KDE-using friends do the same, and with good reason. Like Gedit, Kate has the four features that I look for in a text editor — its syntax highlighting, plugin support, and boomarking are great. As well, it’s clean and fast. While Kate isn’t enough to tempt me back to the KDE world, I’d definitely use it if I ever did go back.

While Geany is essentially a programmer’s tool, there’s a lot in it for the average user. And if you’re working with straight text or HTML or LaTeX, it’s a good choice. Geany also has a number of plugins that can really beef up its set of features. Plus Geany supports Markdown, which is a nice bonus.

On other operating systems, I've enjoyed using BBEdit for MacOS and NotePad++ whenever I've had to use Windows. Both editors do a lot, but even for someone with simple needs BBEdit and NotePad++ can be great choices.

If you’re wondering why I didn’t mention Emacs or vi(m), I just didn’t want to go there.