What code editor or IDE do you use?

One or several? What have you used in the past?

[ronin]

I can pretty much reel off my entire history of code editors - because it's so short.

March 1997 - March 2004: Windows Notepad
March 2004 - April 2013: Notetab
April 2013 - December 2022: Sublime Text 2 / 3
December 2022: Visual Studio Code

I've enjoyed using Sublime Text for nearly the last decade, but, I have to be honest, VSCode is so much more capable.

I have definitely seen my productivity improve with VSCode. Colour-hinting and IntelliSense for JS and TS is excellent of course - that's one of its selling points - but it also has a superior implementation of Find and Replace in Files.

N.B. I don't rule out switching to VSCodium (https://vscodium.com/), once I've got completely used to VSCode.

What code editors / IDEs do you use / have you used?

Which are your favourites and why?

[Brett_Tabke]

1989-1998 = Boxer for ms dos. It was so fast and solid. It never made a good transition to Windows.

1997- Perl/PHP/JS/Text/HTML = Edit Plus. Light weight, fast, and rock solid full featured text editor. [editplus.com...]

2012 - C++,VB.net = MS Visual Studio. It is incredible (best I've ever used). Variable/routine/param matching and auto completion catches errors before they are errors.

[tangor]

Current needs are pretty simple. Notepad++ (txt, html, perl, php...)

Quick, lean.

[robzilla]

Recently switched from UltraEdit, because they switched to subscription-based pricing, to EditPlus, a $35 one-time purchase.

Not quite as intuitive but I'm pretty happy with it overall.

[jay5r]

I use PhpStorm. Generally happy with it. Probably overkill for what I do.

[graeme_p]

Right now I mostly use KDevelop with some use of Kate. I like Kate in many ways, but KDevelop's rainbow colour highlighting is better, and it is more of a complete IDE out of the box.

I use vim and nano on servers.

In the past I have used Komodo and Geany quite a lot.

I have tried a lot of others but none I really liked. I would still consider Geany for something lightweight with a nice UI, and might give Komodo another go.

[not2easy]

On WIN I liked freebie PSPad with its superior (at the time) regex find/replace.
_{I have not used WIN much for a dozen years, not sure of current versions/status.}

from their site:

Editor PSPad supports file types:
C++, Cobol, MS-Dos batch, CSS, Forth, Fortran, FoxPro, HTML, XHTML, INI, Inno Setup, Java, JavaScript, KixStart, Object Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python, RSS, SQL, TCL/TK, Unix ShellScript, VBScript, Visual Basic, X86 assembler and other 170+ languages included as user highlighter definition.

[csdude55]

I only use Notepad++ and plain old Notepad.

Before Notepad++ I used HTML Beauty:

[htmlbeauty.com...]

Now that was a nice one! You could preview HTML right in the editor, using your choice of browser emulator. I hated that they stopped updating it :-(

It had all of these keyboard shortcuts that I got used to, like Shift+Enter would automatically plug in <br>. It's been almost 20 years, and I STILL do it on muscle memory!

I almost got in trouble with it, though. I was VP at a company and had it on my desktop. I always thought that the icon was a bug, but a girl walked by and seemed very offended by it! She pointed out that, no, it was a woman's breast in a bikini! LOL I was actually ordered to remove it, but instead I found a way to change the icon.

On WIN I liked freebie PSPad with its superior (at the time) regex find/replace.

FWIW, @not2easy, Notepad++ has a good regex find/replace option that I use all the time!

[mack]

Bluefish. It's a pretty simple editor with an emphasis on projects not just single files. Good syntax highlighting and one-click code insertion/completion.

Mack.

[lucy24]

Primarily SubEthaEdit, which comes with different “modes” for syntax highlighting and a decent RegEx engine (including the rarely seen but useful \h character). They used to have an HTML preview that I liked a lot; now they have an HTML preview that I dislike intensely (but still use for preliminary work).

Secondarily BBEdit.

[Martin Potter]

When I started, back in Windows days, I used HoTMetaL (get it?) developed by a company in Toronto. Since switching to Linux (~ 2005?), I have been using BlueFish. As pointed out by Mack, it is simple, and it does what I need. Also use Kate a few times each week.

Have to admire all of you regex experts. All I do is HTML, CSS, and a bit of PHP. So much still to learn.

[tangor]

Any one remember HomeSite? Used that for a while, until bought up by Adobe and made too expensive to acquire.

[eriky]

I exclusively use Visual Studio Code these past two years. It's an allround editor/IDE that does OK for all the languages and formats I write in (HTML, CSS, TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, Markdown, etcetera). It also works great with Docker containers and Windows WSL. It can do anything from simple file editing to managing a large project. I also like that it syncs settings and plugins between my PCs and OSes, e.g. I use Windows, Linux, and sometimes a Mac depending on the job at hand.

Before that, I used IntelliJ IDEA, but it was expensive. And before that, I mostly used Eclipse. Way, waaaaaaaaay back I used Dreamweaver for website development.

As a professional developer, I urge those using simple text editors to try VSCode. It's easy to get started with and grows with you, so to speak. It's such an improvement for any editing task you may have.

[graeme_p]

Really interesting, I am always open to better tools.

I was surprised so few people mentioned VSCode. I thought it was what all the cool kids used now?

@eriky do not underestimate "simple text editors". Most of those people here have mentioned have plugin systems that make them very powerful. My favourite is Kate. It supports LSP for the same autocompete (AFAIK) as VSCode as well as CTags. It has git integration, integration with debug tools, XML validation, class and function browser, sessions, macros, querying databases from within it, build/make/compile built in terminal and a few other things.

There are also subjective elements: I have tried Bluefish and VSCode, I can see what is good about them, but I just never felt comfortable with the UIs. I might give Bluefish another go when I next need to do HTML or PHP.

A lot of people have used expensive tools. Paying for software? How odd :)

More seriously, the one IDE (or any application) I considered paying for in many years was Komodo IDE (I had used Komodo Edit, and liked it a lot) but when I finally decided to buy it had become free but tied to a Komodo account which put me off. Its not open source but probably dead - they open sourced it because development had become too expensive because the underlying libraries (Mozilla's XUL stuff) are no longer maintained. I hope I am wrong about that!

[Kendo]

What can VScode do that Notepad+ cannot?

[lexipixel]

Arachnophilia (on WIN10, and still using 20 year old v4.0 -- see:[arachnoid.com ]). Author is Paul Lutus (who wrote "Apple Writer" in 1979). He's been one of my "online folk heros" for a long time -- he released program as "Careware" --- see what that's about here --> [arachnoid.com ]

[ClosedForLunch]

Have always used Homesite, out of habit. Recently moved to Notepad++

[Brett_Tabke]

Related - Notepad to get tabs:
[theverge.com...]

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Notepad++, It gets the job done.

It's open source, not linked to a major corporation that will forcefully integrate it with other stuff and I'm practical in general.

- the best, the most powerful, the coolest etc? *yawn*

[csdude55]

Since we're talking about Notepad++ so much, what plug ins do ya'll have in it?

Other than the defaults, I have these:

BracketsCheck
Customize Toolbar
Explorer
HTML Tag
ImgTag
JavaScript Map Parser
NavigateTo
NppExec
NppFTP
NppTextViz
Select to Clipboard

I thought about just going through and installing all of them, though. It's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it, right?

[Kendo]

Since we're talking about Notepad++ so much, what plug ins do ya'll have in it?

Nothing more than the default install. I don't need plugins and code everything including PHP, ASP, HTML and JavaScript from Notepad++. I code web pages live via remote desktop and proof them from a browser real time. It's a bit like open heart surgery but haven't lost a patient yet.

[ronin]

I code web pages live [...] proof them from a browser real time.

Hah! Yes, this is similar to what I do. Though my process is not quite real time - I have an intermediate stage where I pull up Core FTP, line up the local and remote folders and then upload the local file to replace the remote file. But, unless I'm writing an offline-first app, I've never really developed locally.

It's a bit like open heart surgery

It can be. :-D

but haven't lost a patient yet

I hear you. ;-)

At the start of this month, one of the handful of reasons which motivated me to make the shift from Sublime Text 3 to Visual Studio Code is because I really like the in-browser concept of VSCode.dev - which launched in Oct 2021 but which I only discovered in October 2022.

See: [code.visualstudio.com...]

I really like the idea of being able to open a browser on any laptop / tablet / desktop anywhere in the world and opening three tabs:

one tab for the website I'm working on

one tab for VSCode Dev

one tab for my own password protected document-storage web-app

and then... loading code from tab 3, editing it in tab 2 and reviewing my updates live in tab 1.

That feels like a much smarter setup than running Sublime Text 3 (with loads of tabs open) alongside Core FTP (which crashes without warning occasionally).

For the actual app, see: [vscode.dev...]

[blend27]

Eclipse J2EE(+Old CFEclipse plug << for the past +nnnn years or so), VSCode(with plugins, several language supported),

[graeme_p]

@Kendo and @ronin (with regard to your Core FTP workflow) why pick those approaches rather than editing the files remotely? Every text editor I use can open a file over SFTP. No need to upload manually, and no need to run a remote desktop (which needs more resources and increases attack surface, unless you need to run one anyway).

Obviously an in-browser editor means you can use any device without installing anything, but that would only matter if you need to use other people's devices. If I wanted that I think I would go with a remote desktop.

[lucy24]

why pick those approaches rather than editing the files remotely?

Depends on how big the site is, doesn't it. I keep full copies of all sites locally (with the computer's hosts file edited to recognize example1.local, example2.local and so on so everything can be viewed via MAMP) and upload to the real site. It would make me exceedingly anxious to have something that exists only in one place.

[tangor]

^^^ I, too, develop locally xamp, test, then upload only the one (or as many as I worked on that day). Tends to prevent unexpected 500 errors if it passes the local machine first.

[Kendo]

why pick ftp approaches rather than editing the files remotely?

I do edit live on both Windows and Linux. But I use FTP for updating our download packages and backing up site pages/scripts and databases... when editing live there is no backup should the server go turtle.

[ronin]

@Kendo and @ronin (with regard to your Core FTP workflow) why pick those approaches rather than editing the files remotely? Every text editor I use can open a file over SFTP. No need to upload manually,

It's basically what @lucy24 (and others) said:

It would make me exceedingly anxious to have something that exists only in one place.

Back in late summer 2000, after three and a bit years on the web, I still only had a Geocities website. Something happened (I forget exactly what) and I lost three weeks of work. I had no backup.

I've dealt with harder things since, but that was probably my first experience of the No Backup Blues.

After that I did two things:

1) I took out my own domain and webspace and started paying to have a web presence

2) I have - ever since - kept a local copy and a remote copy of pretty much everything I do. (Sometimes I have two or more remote copies: e.g. a working version of a script on my site, a local backup and a second backup on GitHub)

Having a local copy and a remote copy of almost everything has saved me a couple of times. Like @lucy24, if it's anything remotely non-trivial, I certainly wouldn't want less than one backup.

[graeme_p]

It would make me exceedingly anxious to have something that exists only in one place.

Backups are a must, of course.

These days I have everything (even small static sites) version controlled (using Fossil for one person projects where Git would be overkill) so I have rollback as well.

[Brett_Tabke]

Yesterday I made a request for a minor feature in EditPlus. Today it was in the latest build. That is amazing support.