Discussion on: What Alternative Text Editors Does DEV Use? (Not VS Code 🐱‍👓)

Vim with Powerline in most cases for me, together with the stock netrw file browsing script that comes standard as part of the runtime files, with the following reasonably simple vimrc on top of the stock config:

set ambiwidth=double
set autochdir
set autoindent
set autoread
set background=dark
set nocompatible
set copyindent
set display=lastline,uhex
set errorbells
set expandtab
set fileformats=unix,dos,mac
set foldenable
set foldmethod=syntax
set incsearch
set laststatus=2
set list
set listchars=trail:-,tab:>-,nbsp:_
set modeline
set mouse=a
set mousef
set number
set preserveindent
set scrolloff=2
set shiftround
set shiftwidth=4
set showcmd
set showmatch
set noshowmode
set showtabline=2
set smartindent
set smarttab
set splitbelow
set splitright
set wildmenu
set winheight=5

syntax on
filetype on

py3 from powerline.vim import setup as powerline_setup
py3 powerline_setup()
py3 del powerline_setup

Depending on what, exactly, it is that I need to do though, especially if it's large batch operations, I'll just use ex from the command line, or occasionally an interactive Python session (if I'm manipulating structured data in ways that ex just isn't good for).

Part of why this works for me though is that I specifically don't want my editor doing things for me. I have no interest in auto-completion (I find it wastes more of my time than it saves), or doing full IDE-style integration with my build system (because, you know, I've got a plain shell open in another terminal window that I can use to interact with the build system). I just want basic auto-indentation, basic syntax highlighting, and basic indentation-based code folding with usable static presentation features (line numbering, display of whitespace when it wouldn't be visible, etc).