Dan Dascalescu's Wiki
/reviews/software/text editors
Text editors
Here's how to narrow down a large selection of products that perform a task. In our particular example, we want a "good" text editor software. What "good" means will be seen as we weed out editors. The starting point is Wikipedia's comparison of text editors. Just in case Wikipedia butchers the article, the version I'm talking about is as of 2010-Jan-13.
Open source text editors
- Acme
- AkelPad
- Aquamacs
- Bluefish
- Caditor
- ConTEXT
- Crimson Editor
- Diakonos
- ed
- gedit
- Geany
- GNU Emacs
- Gobby
- JED
- jEdit
- JOE
- Kate
- Komodo Edit
- KWrite
- LE
- Metapad
- MinEd
- Nano
- NEdit
- Notepad++
- Notepad2
- nvi
- Programmer's Notepad
- RText
- SciTE
- Smultron
- TextEdit
- Vim
- XEmacs
- Yi
Open source AND have spell checking
- AkelPad (plugin)
- Aquamacs
- Bluefish
- Crimson Editor - live/instant, like Firefox
- Diakonos
- Geany (plugin)
- gedit
- GNU Emacs
- Gobby (?)
- JED
- jEdit (plugin)
- JOE (plugin)
- Kate
- KWrite
- Nano
- NEdit (plugin)
- Notepad++ (plugin, on-demand only; no red underline squiggles)
- RText
- Smultron
- TextEdit
- Vim
- XEmacs
Open source AND have spell checking AND support UTF-8
All of the above edtors support UTF-8.
...AND with syntax highlight
- AkelPad (plugin)
- Aquamacs
- Bluefish
- Crimson Editor
- Diakonos
- Geany
- gedit
- GNU Emacs
- Gobby (?)
- JED
- jEdit
- JOE
- Kate
- KWrite
- Nano
- NEdit
- Notepad++
- RText
- Smultron
- Vim
- XEmacs
...AND run on Windows without Cygwin
- AkelPad
- Crimson Editor (with the Emerald Editor fork)
- Diakonos - console only
- Geany - spell checking doesn't work on Windows
- gedit
- GNU Emacs
- Gobby - collaborative editor
- JED - console only
- jEdit - requires Java
- Nano - console only
- Notepad++
- RText - requires Java
- Vim - console only
- XEmacs
Bluefish requires Cygwin and a native port is in progress.
...AND not retarded (e.g. console-based)
- AkelPad
- Crimson Editor (with the Emerald Editor fork)
- gedit
- GNU Emacs
- Gobby - collaborative editor
- jEdit - requires Java
- Notepad++
- RText - requires Java
- XEmacs
...AND supports remote editing via (S)FTP or SSH
- Crimson Editor and the Emerald Community Edition - FTP only
- gedit - FTP, HTTP, SSH, WebDAV
- GNU Emacs - FTP, HTTP, SSH, WebDAV
- Gobby (?)
- jEdit - FTP and WebDAV plugin, HTTP native, no SSH
- Notepad++ - (S)FTP plugin only
- XEmacs - FTP, HTTP, SSH, maybe WebDAV
Other notes
- gedit - didn't handle well mixed-mode (CR+LF vs. LF-only) files and caused Subversion commits to fail. Has many plugins, including remote editing via SSH.
- Notepad++ â
- - note that spell checking is on-demand only; it won't underline misspelled words like Firefox
- plugins
- wiki
- IRC - #notepad++ on Freenode
- "community release" version on GitHub with various enhancements
- suggestions: IdeaTorrent
- maintainer: Don HO
- mailing list - sharp drop in traffic since October 2009
- forums - way more traffic
- boycott forum (?!)
IDEs
- Eclipse's editor (not included in the Wikipedia comparison) also satisfies all the criteria above. Plus, it also allows remote access.
- Open Komodo may also satisfy all the conditions.