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Youssef-mic
Youssef-mic

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What text editor should I use? ⌨️

A man is as good as his tools

— Emmert Wolf

So I am gonna help you choose which text editor to use because there are so many companies selling shovels in the developer gold rush!

First, let’s see what are the choices:
In the stack overflow developer survey, those were the results stack overflow developer survey

So this leads us to the first question:

Should I use an IDE or regular text editor?

it depends first if you were developing something like Java and you know that you’re coding in Java only it’s better to use an IDE to get access to some special developer and debugging tools that may be hard to find in a regular text editor like visuals studio code, but on the other hand, when using multiple languages using multiple IDEs will take you between a million and a quadrillion times slower. Also using an IDE can be pricey for example JetBrains if you want to use some of their IDEs you have to pay around $69 a month!!
So now after clarifying the situation let's look at the best text editors.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code is a free and open-source text editor. It’s built over chromium(so be rest assured that it's a memory hog) I use it and I like it because of its massive extension store and its minimal design. It’s so powerful!

Notepad++

This editor feels like you are programming in Microsoft word but not in a bad way it’s like it’s simple there’s not that much usability for it but it’s good for a quick edit.

Sublime Text

This is also one of my main editors are use it rarely if I want to do some quick edits or something it’s decent and it’s also good for beginners because it doesn’t have the tooling and stuff it’s just simple.

Vim

Unlike the other three above it, I can’t say I have tried vim. I use it as a vs code extension and I like that it boosts my productivity other than that can't say anything.

So here we conclude our small little tour in the text editor world hope you liked it.
And write down in the comments what are you using!!

Top comments (18)

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raguay profile image
Richard Guay

My favorite is NeoVim with the LunarVim configuration. For a graphical editor, I prefer OniVim 2. It run many of the VC plugins as well.

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drsensor profile image
૮༼⚆︿⚆༽つ

Does OniVim 2 now support native multi cursor?

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raguay profile image
Richard Guay

Not completely. But, it is MIT licensed now. It’s open source and the original author hasn’t had time to work on it since he had to get a job instead of working on NeoVim 2 all the time. So, it has gone stale but is still very usable.

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

Regarding SublimeText...

because it doesn’t have the tooling and stuff it’s just simple.

What do you mean by that?

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youssefmic profile image
Youssef-mic

I mean that it’s not as good as visual studio code in my opinion because it's the community is far smaller

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy 🎖️

That's not related to the portion I highlighted

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youssefmic profile image
Youssef-mic

It has a simpler and beginner friendly interface

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youssefmic profile image
Youssef-mic

First time I feel that I helped somebody

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ethand91 profile image
Ethan

My personal favorite is Vim.
You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. xD

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youssefmic profile image
Youssef-mic

Just you have to learn how to exit😂🤣

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varshithvhegde profile image
Varshith V Hegde

I think VSCode is best as it has growing and active community which builds extensions that can make programming more easy.

 
youssefmic profile image
Youssef-mic

Look, I’d like to burn back...
But I’m not supposed to burn trash
😳😂

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auracle profile image
Auracle • Edited

If something is trending, it's often because it's the current best.
VScode, simple.

You can always complex your life and use something else

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youssefmic profile image
Youssef-mic

Right, but it is possible to consider some alternative

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jujist profile image
Jujist

Geany.
Simple, lightweight, very powerful, offering a lot of options and customizations,
great for PHP and other www technologies.