Advanced Text Editors

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GROUP TEST ADVANCED TEXT EDITORS

ADVANCED TEXT EDITORS GROUP TEST Mayank Sharma tests ﬁve supercharged text editors that can crunch more than just words.

On Test Advanced Text Gedit URL http://projects. Editors gnome.org/gedit/ The right editor can be passport to a better Linux. Version 3.10 Licence GPL f you’ve been using Linux long, Some simple text editors even Is Gnome’s default text you know that whether you exceed their design goals thanks to editor up to the challenge? Iwant to edit an app’s plugins that infuse them with configuration file, hack together a capabilities to rival text-centric apps shell script, or write/review bits of from other genres. They can take Kate code, the likes of LibreOffice just on the duties of a source code URL www.kate-editor.org won’t cut it. Although the words editor and even an Integrated Version 3.11 mean almost the same thing, you Development Environment. Licence LGPL/GPL don’t need a word processor for Two of most popular and Will Kate challenge fate? these tasks; you need a text editor. powerful plain text editors are In this group test we’ll be looking Emacs and Vim. However, we didn’t at five humble text editors that are include them in this group test for a more than capable of heavy-lifting couple of reasons. Firstly, if you are Sublime texting duties. They can highlight using either, congratulations: you syntax and auto-indent code just as don’t need to switch. Secondly, both URL www.sublimetext. com effortlessly as they can spellcheck of these have a steep learning Version 2.0.2 documents. You can use them to curve, especially to the GUI-oriented Licence Proprietary record macros and manage code desktop generation who have Proprietary software in snippets just as easily as you can access to alternatives that are the land of free with the copy/paste plain text. much more inviting. heart of gold. UltraEdit “Some simple text editors even exceed URL www.ultraedit.com Version 4.1.0.4 their design goals thanks to plugins.” Licence Proprietary Does it do enough to justify its price? THE CRUCIAL CRITERIA All the tools, except Gedit and jEdit, of the desktop environment they are were installed on Fedora and Ubuntu via running on. That not only rules it out as their recommended installation method. an evaluation criterion, it also means jEdit The former already shipped with the that you are no longer bound by the default Gnome desktop and the latter tools that ship with your favourite URL www.jedit.org stubbornly refused to install on Fedora. desktop environment. Version 5.1.0 Since these are relatively simple apps, In addition to their geekier Licence GPL they have no esoteric dependencies, functionality, we also tested all our Will the Java-based the only exception being jEdit, which candidates for general-purpose text editor spoil the party requires Oracle Java. editing. However, they are not designed for the rest? Thanks to the continued efforts of to mimic all the functionality of a both Gnome and KDE, all editors look modern-day word processor and weren’t great and function properly irrespective evaluated as such.

28 www.linuxvoice.com ADVANCED TEXT EDITORS GROUP TEST Programming Keyboard language support control They’re called code editors for a reason. Flex those ﬁngers!

sers of an advanced text editor expect to control and operate it exclusively Uvia the keyboard. Furthermore, some apps even allow their users to further customise the key bindings for the shortcuts. You can easily work with Gedit using its extensive keyboard shortcut keys. There are keys for working with and editing files as well as invoke tools for common tasks such as spellchecking a document. You can access a list of default shortcut keys from within the app, but there’s no graphical way to customise them. Similarly, to customise the keybindings in Sublime, you need to make modifications in its XML keymap files. Sublime has been Kate can double up as a very versatile and capable integrated development editor. criticised for its lack of a graphical interface to define keyboard shortcuts, but long-term users ltraEdit does syntax highlighting, navigating long code files and lets you have defended the current file-based can fold code and has project jump between different parts of the file. mechanism, which gives them more control. Umanagement capabilities. There’s One of the best features of Sublime is UltraEdit is proud of its “everything is also a function list, which is supposed to its ability to run code for certain languages customisable” motto, which it extend to list all the functions in the source file, but it like C++, Python, Ruby, etc from within the keyboard shortcuts. You can define custom didn’t work for any of our test code files. editor itself, assuming of course you have hotkeys for navigating the menus and also UltraEdit also supports HTML5, and has a the compiler and other build system tools define your own multi-key key-mappings for HTML toolbar with which you can add installed on your computer. This helps accessing its plethora of functions. commonly-used HTML tags. save time and eliminates the need to In addition to its fully customisable keyboard Even Gnome’s default text editor, Gedit, switch out to the command line. shortcuts, jEdit also has pre-defined keymaps has several code-oriented features such You can also enable the build system in for Emacs. Kate is equally impressive in this as bracket matching, automatic Kate with plugins. Furthermore, you can respect. It has an easily accessible window to indentation, and will also highlight syntax add a simple front-end to the GDB customise the key bindings. You can change for various programming languages debugger. Kate will work with Git, the default keys, as well as define alternate including C, C++, Java, HTML, XML, Subversion and Mercurial version control ones. Furthermore, Kate also has a Vi mode Python, Perl, and many others. systems, and also provides some which will let users operate Kate using Vi keys. If you’re looking for more programming functionality for project management. assistance, look at Sublime and Kate. It does all this in addition to highlighting Sublime supports several programming syntax for over 180 languages, along with languages and (as well as the popular other assistance like bracket matching, ones) is able to highlight syntax for C#, D, auto-completion and auto-indentation. It Dylan, Erlang, Groovy, Haskell, Lisp, Lua, also supports code folding and can even MATLAB, OCaml, R, and even SQL. If that collapse functions within a program. isn’t enough for you, you can download The only disappointment is jEdit, which add-ons to support even more languages. bills itself as a programmer’s text editor, Furthermore, its syntax highlighting but it struggled with other basic functions ability offers several customisable such as code folding and wouldn’t even Both UltraEdit and Kate have options to print a options. The app will also match braces, suggest or complete functions. reference guide for all their keyboard shortcuts. to ensure they are all properly rounded off, and the auto-complete function in Sublime VERDICT VERDICT works with variables created by the user. Gedit Gedit Kate Kate Just like Komodo IDE, sublime also Sublime Sublime UltraEdit UltraEdit displays a scrollable preview of the full jEdit jEdit source code, which is really handy for

www.linuxvoice.com 29 GROUP TEST ADVANCED TEXT EDITORS

Snippets and Ease of use Inviting or intimidating? macros nlike a bare-bones text editor, the Although at first glance most apps in Because time is money. text editors in this feature are this group test have a very similar layout, Ubrimming with features to upon closer inspection, you’ll notice Macros help you cut down the time spent on accommodate a wide range of users -- several usability differences. We have a editing and organising data by automating from document writers to programmers. weak spot for apps that expose their repetitive steps, while Snippets of code Instead of stripping features from the functionality and features by making extend a similar functionality to programmers apps, their developers are looking for judicious use of the user interface, instead by creating reusable chunks of source code. avenues to add more functionality. of just overwhelming the user. Both have the ability to save you time. The vanilla Gedit installation doesn’t have either of these functionalities, but you can Gedit enable them via separate plugins. While the Gedit wears a very vanilla look. It has an a tool enabled by a plugin. The app will Snippets plugin ships with Gedit, you’ll have to easy interface with minimal menus and detect when an open file is modified by manually download and install the macro buttons. This is a two-edged sword another application and offers to reload plugin (it’s called gedit-macropy and is though, as some users might fail to realise that file. hosted on GitHub) before you can enable it its true potential. The UI has been given a major overhaul from within Gedit. The app can open multiple files in tabs in the latest version of the app yet to make Kate takes the same plugins route to that can be rearranged and moved its way into Gnome. However it isn’t yet enable the snippets feature. Once added, the between windows. Users can optionally stable, and while it maintains all features, plugin also adds a repository of snippets for enable panels on the side and bottom for several plugins that interact with the PHP, Bash and Java. You can display the list displaying a file browser and the output of menu will need to be updated. of snippets in the sidebar for easier access. Right-click on a snippet to edit its contents as well as its shortcut key combination. However, very surprisingly, it doesn’t support macros – despite repeated hails from users There’s a fine balance since 2002! between stuffing an app with jEdit too has a plugin for enabling snippets. features and exposing all But it can record macros from user actions of them to the user – Gedit and you can also write them in the BeanShell keeps most of its features scripting language (BeanShell supports hidden. scripted objects as simple method closures like those in Perl and JavaScript). jEdit also has a plugin that will download several Kate macros from jEdit’s website. Although a major part of its user interface with multiple files at the same time. But Sublime ships with inbuilt ability to create resembles Gedit, Kate tucks in tabs at unlike the traditional horizontal tab both snippets and macros, and ships with either side and its menus are much fuller. switching bar in most app, Kate has tabs several snippets of frequently used functions The app is approachable and invites users on either side of the screen. The left for most popular programming languages. to explore other features. sidebar will display an index of open files. Snippets in UltraEdit are called Smart Kate can transparently open and save Programmers who need to see different Templates and just like with Sublime you can files over all protocols supported by KDE’s parts of the same file at the same time will insert them based upon the kind of source file KIO including HTTP, FTP, SSH, SMB and also appreciate its ability to split the you’re editing. To complement the Macro WebDAV. You can use the app to work interface horizontally as well as vertically. recording function, UltraEdit also has an integrated javascript-based scripting language to automate tasks. You can also download user-submitted macros and scripts from the editor’s website.

VERDICT Gedit Kate Sublime KDE’s philosophy of exposing UltraEdit functionality to the user jEdit applies to Kate, and works well in this context.

30 www.linuxvoice.com ADVANCED TEXT EDITORS GROUP TEST

Sublime Text Sublime lets you view up to four files at files. The app ships with several snippets the same time in various arrangements. for popular functions in several Availability and There’s also a full-screen distraction free programming languages, which makes it mode that just displays the file and the very usable for developers. Another neat menu, for when you’re in the zone. editing feature, whether you are working support The editor also has a minimap on the with text documents or code, is the ability Where do you look for help? right, which is useful for navigating long to swap and shuffle selections. There are several similarities between Gedit and Kate. Both apps take advantage of their respective parent project, Gnome and KDE, and are bundled with several mainstream distros. Yet both projects are cross-platform and have Windows and Mac OS X ports as If you don’t like Sublime’s well as native Linux versions. default ‘Charcoal’ appearance Gedit is hosted on Gnome’s web you can choose one of the 22 infrastructure and has a brief user guide, other themes it includes. information about the various plugins, and the usual channels of getting in touch including a mailing list and IRC channel. You’ll also find UltraEdit usage information on the websites of other UltraEdit’s interface is loaded with several fingertips. You can also access remote Gnome-based distros such as Ubuntu. toolbars at the top and bottom of the files via FTP and SFTP. Advanced features Similarly, Kate gets the benefit of KDE’s interface. Along with the tabs to switch such as recording a macro and comparing resources and hosts detailed user information between documents, panes on either side files are also easily accessible. as well as a mailing list and IRC channel. You and the gutter area, these leave little room Using the app’s Preferences window can access their respective user guides for the editor window. you can tweak various aspects of the app, offline from within the app as well. Web developers working with HTML including the colour scheme and other UltraEdit is also available for Windows and files have lots of assistance at their features like syntax highlighting. Mac OS X besides Linux, and has detailed user guides on getting started, though there’s none included within the app. To assist users, UltraEdit hosts a database of frequently asked questions, a bunch of power tips that have detailed information about several UltraEdit’s UI is highly specific features, and users can engage with configurable – you can customise the layout of one another other on forum boards. toolbars and menus just as Additionally, paid users can also seek support easily as you can change from the developers via email. many other aspects. Sublime supports the same number of platforms, however you don’t need to buy a separate licence for each platform. The jEdit developer keeps users abreast with ongoing In terms of usability, one of the first inbuilt help, which will help ease the development via a blog and also participates red-flags was jEdit’s inability to install on learning curve. actively in the hosted forums. The highlight of RPM-based distros. Navigating the editor jEdit highlights the current line you are the project’s support infrastructure is the takes some getting used to, since its on and enables you to split windows in freely available detailed tutorial and video menus aren’t in the same order as in other multiple viewing modes. You can easily course. Sublime is lovely. popular apps and some have names that install and manage plugins from within the Because it’s written in Java, jEdit is won’t be familiar to the average desktop app, and in addition to full macros, jEdit available on several platforms. On its website user. However, the app include detailed also lets you record quick temporary ones. you’ll find a detailed user guide and links to documentation of some plugins. However, there are no avenues for users to engage with other users or the developer.

VERDICT Gedit Kate Thanks to its Java Sublime UltraEdit underpinnings, jEdit doesn’t jEdit really feel at home on any desktop environment.

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ifferent users have different all the files in the same tab order as you requirements, and a single saved them. Dlightweight app can only do as Similarly, you can extend Kate by much. This is where plugins come into adding plugins using its built-in plugin the picture. The apps rely on these manager. In addition to the impressive small pluggable widgets to extend their projects plugins, some others that will feature set and be of use to even more be of use to developers include an number of users. embedded terminal, ability to compile You can run any external command or shell script in Gedit The one exception is UltraEdit. The and debug code and execute SQL by defining it as an external tool. app has no third-party plugins, but its queries on databases. developers do point out that third-party categories such as File Management, tools such as HtmlTidy are already Sublime plugins Version Control, Text, etc. You’ll find lots installed with UltraEdit. Plugins for Sublime are written in of plugins housed under each category. Gedit ships with a number of plugins Python, and the text editor includes a Some of the best plugins are the installed, and you can download more tool called Package Control, which is a Android plugin, which provides utilities with the gedit-plugins package. The little bit like apt-get in that it enables the to work on Android projects; the project’s website also points to several user to find, install, upgrade and remove TomcatSwitch plugin, using which you third-party plugins based on their plugin packages. With plugins, you can can create and control an external compatibility with the Gedit versions. bring the Git version control to Sublime, Jakarta Tomcat server process; and the Three useful plugins for as well as the JSLint tool to improve Vimulator plugin, for Vi-like capabilities. programmers are Code Comment, JavaScript. The Sublime Linter plugin is You can install these plugins using Terminal Plugin, which adds a terminal a must have for coders and will point jEdit’s using its plugin manager. in the bottom panel, and the Session out any errors in your code. Saver. The Session Saver is really useful jEdit boasts the most impressive VERDICT when you’re working on a project with plugin infrastructure. The app has over Gedit Kate multiple files. You can open all the files 200 plugins, which can be browsed in Sublime UltraEdit in tabs, save your session and when the dedicated site of their own. The jEdit you restore it with a single click it’ll open website lists plugins under various Plain ol’ text editing How good are they as just simple editors ?

espite all their powerful highlighted text. It’s also got a line extra-curricular activities that modification system which visually Dmight even displace full-blown alerts users of lines which have apps across several genres, there will modified and unsaved changes in a file. be times when you just need to use In addition, it enables users to set these text editing behemoths to read, bookmarks within a file to ease write, or edit plain and simple text. navigation of lengthy documents. While you can use all of them to enter Sublime has a wide selection of Sublime text, we are evaluating them for access editing commands, such as indenting Text offers files via FTP. One unique feature of jEdit to common text-editing conveniences. text and formatting paragraphs. Its some is its support for an unlimited number Gedit which is Gnome’s default text auto-save feature helps prevent users unique of clipboard which it calls registers. You editor, supports an undo and redo from losing their work. Advanced users features to can copy snippets of text to these manipulate mechanism as well as search and will appreciate the regex-based registers which are available across text. replace. It can spellcheck documents in recursive find and replace feature, as editing sessions. multiple languages and can also well as the ability to select multiple access and edit remote files using non-contiguous spans of text and act VERDICT Gnome GVFS libraries. on them collectively. Gedit Kate You can spellcheck documents with UltraEdit also enables the use of Sublime Kate as well, which also lets you regular expressions for its search and UltraEdit jEdit perform a Google search on any replace feature and can edit remote

32 www.linuxvoice.com ADVANCED TEXT EDITORS GROUP TEST OUR VERDICT Advanced text editors ll the editors in this feature outscores Gnome’s default editor are good enough to replace even after taking their respective Ayour existing text editor for plugin systems into consideration. Despite being a KDE app, Kate looks good across many desktops. editing text files and tweaking Both Sublime and Kate are configuration files. In fact, chances equally good. They performed 1st Kate are they’ll even double up as your equally well in most of our tests. Licence LGPL/GPL Version 3.11 IDE. These apps are chock full of Whatever ground it lost to Sublime bells and whistles, and their for not supporting macros, it gained www.kate-editor.org developers aren’t thinking of for its keyboard friendliness and its The ultimate mild-mannered text editor with super powers. stripping features, but adding more ease of use in defining custom Kate is one of the best apps to come out of the KDE project. and more and more. keybindings. At the tail end of this test we have Kate’s success can be drawn 2nd Sublime Text jEdit. Not only does it insist on from the fact that it offers the Licence Proprietary Version 2.0.2 using the proprietary Oracle Java maximum number of features with Runtime Environment, it failed to minimal learning curve. Just fire it www.sublimetext.com install on our Fedora machine, and up and use it as a simple text editor, A professionally done text editor that’s worth every penny – easy to use, full of features and it looks great. “Kate offers the maximum features with 3rd Gedit the minimum learning curve.” Licence GPL Version 3.10 the developer doesn’t actively or easily edit configuration file with http://projects.gnome.org/gedit Gets it done from Gnome. It’s a wonderful text editor and does engage with its users. syntax highlighting, or even use it to an admirable job, but the competition here is too great. UltraEdit does little better. This collaborate and work on a complex commercial proprietary tool programming project thanks to its focuses on web developers, and project management capabilities. 4th UltraEdit doesn’t offer anything to non- We aren’t pitching Kate to replace Licence Proprietary Version 4.1.0.4 developer power users that makes a full-blown integrated development www.ultraedit.com it worth recommending over free environment such as [insert your Focuses on bundling conveniences for web developers without software alternatives. favourite specialised tool here]. But offering anything special for general users. On the third podium position we it’s an ideal all-rounder and a perfect have Gedit. There’s nothing stepping stone to a specialised tool. inherently wrong with Gnome’s Kate is designed for moments 5th jEdit default editor, but despite all its when you need something that’s Licence GPL Version 5.1.0 positive aspects, it’s simply quick to respond, doesn’t www.jedit.org outclassed by Sublime and Kate. overwhelm you with its interface A lack of support, lack of working on Fedora and a lack of Out of the box, Kate is a more and is just as useful as something looking nice relegate jEdit to the bottom slot. versatile editor than Gedit, and that might otherwise be overkill. YOU MAY ALSO WISH TO TRY… The default text editor that ships with your If you wish to follow the steps of Linux advanced editors like Emacs and Vim, such distro will also be able to assist you with gurus, you could always try the revered text as the JED editor and Joe’s Own Editor, both some advanced tasks. There’s KDE’s KWrite editors Emacs and Vim. First time users who of which have an emulation mode for Emacs. and Raspbian’s Nano, for instance. KWrite want to get a taste for the power of Vim On the other hand, if you are looking for inherits some of Kate’s features thanks to might want to consider gVim, which exposes lightweight code editors check out Bluefish KDE’s katepart component, and Nano has Vim’s power via a graphical interface. and Geany. They exist to fill the niche sprung back into limelight thanks to its Besides jEdit and Kate, there are other between text editors and full-fledged availability for Raspberry Pi. editors that mimic the usability of veteran integrated development platforms.