#Best text editor for mac and windows download
#Best text editor for mac and windows windows

Sometimes the editor seems like it’s just what the name states: an enhanced version of Windows Notepad application. (update: combatchuck on reddit points out that you can use NppFTP for remote file editing and alt-click for column select). The look and feel also seem to be a little underdeveloped. It has many of the features developers look for in an editor, but still lacks others like column select and remote file editing. To me, this editor falls somewhere between UltraEdit and EditPlus.

#Best text editor for mac and windows download

I’ve used Notepad++ the least and only when working on a computer that didn’t haveUltraEdit or EditPlus, since you can download Notepad++ for free. The drawback: It’s only available for Windows. Also like UltraEdit, EditPlus isn’t free, but it’s inexpensive. EditPlusĮditPlus is very similar to UltraEdit and offers lots of the same features, but in a very lightweight manner-last time I checked, the complete executable was less than 2MB.

It’s very inexpensive for its many features, and can be downloaded as demoware so you can take it for a ride first and see how you like it. For example, providing the ability to open up and use an SSH session directly on the editor-to me, there are separate tools built specifically for this which do a better job (putty), and I don’t mind changing focus from the editor to my SSH session from time to time.įor a long time, UltraEdit was a Windows-only editor, but in recent years it’s become available for Linux and Mac, too. In my opinion, it’s come to a point where it feels like it’s trying to do anything and everything for everyone, which is not necessarily a good thing. Like most established software, development for it continues and feature after feature has been added. UltraEdit hit the scene almost 20 years ago and is very rich in features.

Hardcore Unix/Linux developers tend to choose either Emacs or vi and never, ever change. Emacs allows you to customize everything from its functionality (cut, paste, replace, etc.) to its user interface, to the point where it can be used as an IDE to allow a user to edit, compile, debug, and version control code. Like vi, Emacs has been around a long time and is very powerful, but at the same time it can be intimidating to newcomers. Very similar to vi in terms of availability, this editor can almost always be found on a Unix-like system, and if it’s not, it can easily be installed for free. Because it’s been around for so long, you can easily find plugins for everything and anything from integrating to a MySQL database to using it together with GitHub. The fact that you can’t just start up vi and type away takes some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it you can become very productive with it. Vi is not very intuitive for new users and its modal editing system and cryptic command set can be intimidating, but long-time users swear by it (or at it). One of these clones, vim, is now the version most developers use. So, without further ado, my list of editors (in the order in which I started using them): vi/vimĬoming out of UC Berkeley in the 1970s, vi was the first major full-screen unix editor, and vi or one of its clones has been standard on virtually all Unix-like systems since then. I encourage you to give each a try, if you haven’t already. Ideally I’d give each editor its own blog post, but since it’d take a pretty long time to cover every single one, for now I’m only going to focus on those that I’ve had a chance to use and can comment on. Project organization and easy file navigation (tabbed document interface).Integration with version control systems.Powerful regular expression support, macros, scripts, etc.Multi-language (C/C++, Java, Perl, PHP, Ruby, etc.) syntax highlighting support.Ability to open/edit remote files (FTP/SFTP).What do developers look for in an editor? For the most part: The “best editor” depends highly on the project at hand. And even if you do have a favorite right now, don’t be afraid to try out others-you might be pleasantly surprised with something new. But the good news is there are lots of editors out there with tons of different features, so with a little experimentation, you can find one that fits your needs and preferences. All developers have their favorite text/code editor, but is there one, best, magic bullet editor? Well, no.