Choosing the best text editor for programming is often a key factor in improving productivity. The best code editor or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) can save programmers hours of time by speeding up many repetitive tasks. In fact, having a solid code editor can be a big reason why some programmers get more done than others.
If you’re looking for a new code editor, then read on to find our top recommendations.
Komodo Edit
The software Komodo Edit is an intuitive but immensely powerful code editor that can easily run those long codes that you spent your sprints on.
The application allows you to perform the following functions straight from the application. These functions are integrations with other technologies like Docker, Grunt, Vagrant, PhoneGap, and many others like them.
You can also perform unit testing for all your quality assurance processes, debugging to make your code error-free and code refactoring.
This application is available to be used by Windows, Linux, and Mac device owners from all over the world.
Key Features
- A lot of contemporary color schemes
- Easily integrates into the desktop environment
- Multi-Language Editor
- Native Unicode support and Unicode compatibility checking
- Track Changes
- Multiple selections
- Quick bookmarks
- Smart language detection
- Split view and multi-window
- Variable highlighting
- Symbol browser
- Autocomplete and call tips
- Soft characters and matching braces
Best for anyone who prefers performance over anything.
Vim connects with a wide range of tools thanks to its support for Windows, Linux, and Mac. It is built for command-line usage and use in GUI.
In 1991, Vim was invented. It was among the most famous text editors, which meant that developers could use a sequence of instructions to produce updates and scripts. Vim has one of the oldest editing suites, and it’s notable that coders worldwide still use it.
Features: Undo tree with several levels, comprehensive plugin system, supports various programming languages and file types, find and change, and integration with numerous tools.
Pricing: Free
Website: Vim
JED Editor
JED is a command-line text editor that acts as a graphical interface. It is available on most platforms.
Pros: JED uses drop-down menus, making it more intuitive for people familiar with word processors. It supports color-coded syntax for many different programming languages and has broad support for plugins. JED is also light on system resources, making it an excellent choice for older systems.
Cons: Very few users have complaints about the JED editor.
Leafpad
Leafpad is a Linux-based text editor designed to be simple and lightweight.
Pros: Leafpad uses minimal system resources, making it a great choice for older systems. It provides a decent feature set sufficient for simple editing. Leafpad would make an excellent secondary editor for quick, simple jobs.
Cons: Leafpad is not intended to be a full-featured text editor. It contains some of the more advanced features, such as multiple documents, for speed and efficiency.
Light Table
Light Table is an integrated desktop environment for evaluating software. It works as a text editor, but its main feature is live feedback on code. Light Table is available on most operating systems.
Pros: Light Table’s features include in-line code evaluation, which lets you test code without compiling. It also runs the code as you’re entering it, allowing you to debug on the fly. Many plugins are available to expand Light Table’s functionality. It is also reasonably fast, even without a high-end system.
Cons: Light Table is still in the early stages of development, meaning it doesn’t support all programming languages. It also has a moderate learning curve – the commands are not displayed on the screen. Also, Light Table is based on a web browser, which limits its usability on text-only systems.
Medit
Medit is another open-source, cross-platform text editor designed for Windows and Linux systems.
Pros: Medit includes common text-editor commands, such as find/replace, color-coded syntax, and plugin support. It also adds a split view for working on multiple files at once. It’s a good editor with plenty of features, but nothing unique that sets it apart.
Cons: Medit is designed for graphical interfaces. It has a standard menu bar for commands, but it seems to lack robust documentation.
Kakoune Code Editor
Kakoune is a different kind of text editor for Linux. Instead of focusing on inserting/composing text, it doubles down on navigating around the existing text. In this way, it’s similar to the Vi/Vim editor, in that it uses different modes, like insertion mode and command mode.
Pros: Kakoune includes most modern features, such as color-coding, autocomplete, and on-screen help. One key benefit is the ability to create multiple selections. Kakoune makes the workflow of creating and managing files more straightforward and intuitive.
Cons: Kakoune is only available on Linux-based systems. Even with its enhancements, it’s still based on the Vi/Vim structure, which may be a turn off for users more accustomed to word processors.
Micro Text Editor
The Micro text editor is designed as an enhancement to the Nano text editor. It’s available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
Pros: Micro is a terminal-based text editor, which means it can run without a GUI. It also includes modern improvements, such as color-coded syntax, plugins, copy/paste, and undo/redo. When it runs in a graphical interface, it has a terminal emulator to execute commands directly.
Cons: Micro still uses hotkeys to execute functions, which some users don’t find appealing. Also, Micro lacks some of the next-generation features that set graphical text editors apart.
Brackets
Best for Web designers.
Brackets is a free text editor designed to allow designers to create sites in a browser. Developed specifically for web designers and front-end developers, it has a wide range of tools for coding, including real-time website visualization with changes reflected instantly.
Adobe is responsible for the development of Brackets, which lets users extract colors, gradients, fonts, and measurements in the same format as CSS. As such, it is a must-have tool for any interface designer.
Brackets will no longer be supported from the beginning of September onwards.
Features: Inline Editors, Live Preview, Preprocessor Support
Pricing: Free
Website: Brackets
#6) Notepad++
Best for working on TXT, HTML, CSS, PHP, and XML.
It is also an open-source project. This text editor is popular with programmers because it lets them easily examine code, paste snippets from FTP clients, and use it without having to wait for their development environment to load. If you compare it to Atom and Sublime Text, it is more frequently used.
This software has several helpful features, including an interface for tabs, support for macros and plugins, and an autosave tool that stores documents temporarily and allows you to save them to another location.
The important program for scripters is Notepad Text Editor. While free and simple to use, this program only supports a few file formats (TXT, HTML, CSS, PHP, and XML), has an antiquated user interface, and lacks numerous capabilities.
Features: Autosave, support plugins, simple user interface.
Pricing: Free.
Website: Notepad++
#7) Expresso
Best for web design.
Espresso is an affordable single-window web editor that offers quick code editing and more functionality
Espresso is a free, open-source program to arrange your company into three sections. The program has Workstation, Drag-and-drop workflows, and Files and Publish sections. Espresso functions depend on the demands and requirements of a range of developers. This, however, depends on the developer’s expectations and work style.
Features: Code syntax highlighting, CodeSense, easy-to-use snippet implementation.
Pricing: $99
Website: Expresso
#8) UltraEdit
Best for Developers and System Administrators
UltraEdit is also an excellent choice for text editing. The paid version entitles you to a free upgrade for all future versions, as well as the regular UltraEdit text editor. Whether you are using Windows, Mac, or Linux PCs, you may have the software installed on all three.
Once you have those upgrades and enhancements, you will also have the tools such as FTP and comparison features, as well as a finding option. All of these add-ons demand a purchase.
For the main text editor, UltraEdit is well-known for being speedy and customizable, with nice-looking themes to make things easier for you.
Features: Text editor, code editor (both general and specific), sync/share and other cloud services, search on FTP servers.
Pricing: $99.95/yr with all access.
Website: UltraEdit
#9) Coffee Cup- The HTML Editor.
Best for web developers.
HTML Editor from CoffeeCup is one of the most powerful and robust text editors available for coding and general site design management. The editor offers a free trial, but it requires a $29 one-time subscription. The freemium version is available as well, although it lacks functionality.
For producing HTML pages, you can choose CoffeeCup. If you’re interested in learning about HTML or PHP, then consider using CoffeeCup, as it can save you time.
You’ll only be getting one license with this purchase, so if you have a complete team in need of the text editor, you’ll have to pay for several licenses.
Features: Visual code selector, live preview, customizable templates, tag highlighting.
Pricing: $29
Website: Coffee Cup- The HTML Editor
#10) TextMate
Best for quick edits and a web developer’s Unicode environment.
It is a custom to use TextMate on macOS to get started on your text-editing journey. It seems simple, but it has a lot of functionality built-in. Find, search, and replace features, completion, and board management are commonly included in text editors.
While TextMate supports every programming language, it also has a separate utility designed specifically for Xcode applications.
Features: Custom commands, multiple carets, file search.
Pricing: Free
Website: TextMate
#11) Light Table
Best for any fast-paced environment.
Light Table offers quick feedback that lets you correct mistakes on the fly, go over code, and look up related documentation. Abstractions are developed in an execution environment that offers rapid feedback.
To avoid needing programmers, to do experiments as they write code, the development team created software that visualizes the changes a programmer makes in real-time.
Initially, the software supported just Clojure; however, the framework has been updated to provide support for Python and JavaScript. Programming time may be reduced by up to 20 percent using the software.
Features: Open source, inline evaluation, plugin manager.
Pricing: Free
Website: Light Table
Conclusion
A code editor is a very important tool for us programmers. It’s an application we use to write and modify computer programs by writing in structured text called source code. A good text editor and IDE (Integrated Development Environment) acts like a typewriter: it translates what we write into the machine language that the computer understands.