Best Text Editors of 2024

A lightweight, multi-language text editor and IDE for macOS. CodeRunner is designed to run all the most popular programming languages instantly and support them all. The app can run code in 25 languages straight out of the box. Additional languages can be added by simply entering their terminal commands. CodeRunner is your favorite editor for all types of text files. It has over 200 syntax modes, lots more advanced editing features, and thoughtful details. CodeRunner's code completion is among the best in any IDE. Intelligent matching of typed text allows for completions beyond single words. With the extra-fuzzy search algorithm and helpful documentation snippets, you can quickly find the right completion from thousands of others. Smart ranking of results allows you to rank the results. Do not clutter your code with print-statements to debugging. Instead, use CodeRunner’s built-in debugging tools to set breakpoints and walk through your code.

Microsoft's vscode code is open-source (MIT-licensed), however, the product (Visual Studio Code), which is available for download, is licensed under this not FLOSS license. It contains telemetry/tracking. The VSCodium project is available so that you don’t need to download+build directly from the source. This project contains special build scripts that clone Microsoft’s vscode repo and run the build commands. The resulting binaries are then uploaded to GitHub releases. These binaries are licensed under MIT. Telemetry is disabled. For Mac OS X Mojave users: If you see the message "App cannot be opened because Apple can't check it for malicious code" when opening VSCodium for the first time, right-click on the application and select Open. This is only necessary for the first Mojave launch. This document contains the most current information about migrating from Visual Studio Code, as well as any quirks that might occur.

This IDE was built from scratch using 20 years of experience in developing IDEs. JetBrains Fleet is powered by the IntelliJ code processing engine. It features a distributed IDE architecture with a reimagined UI. Fleet is a lightweight and fast text editor that allows you to quickly browse and modify your code. It is quick to start up so you can immediately begin working. The IntelliJ code-processing engine can also run separately from the editor. Fleet inherits the best features of IntelliJ-based editors, including navigation to definitions and usages, code quality checks and quick fixes. Fleet's architecture can be configured to support a variety of workflows. Fleet can be run on your computer, or you can move some processes to another location, such as the cloud.

Bluefish is a powerful editor that targets programmers and web developers. It offers many options to create websites, scripts, and programming code. Bluefish supports many programming languages and markup languages. Take a look at the screenshots and get a complete overview of features. You can also download it immediately. Bluefish is an open source development project released under the GNU GPL License. Bluefish runs on all desktop operating systems, including Linux, FreeBSD MacOS-X, Windows and OpenBSD. Bluefish 2.2.12 is minor maintenance release that includes some minor new features. The most important feature is a fix for crashes in simple searches. The compatibility with Python 3 has been improved. Improved coding detection in Python files. Triple-click now selects a line. Bluefish works better on Mac OSX thanks to the new permission features. Bluefish also supports certain languages on OSX by using the correct language in its user interface.

Firepad is an open-source collaborative text editor that allows for real-time collaboration. Firepad allows for true collaborative editing. It also supports intelligent operational transform-based merging, conflict resolution, and more. Firepad can render documents with the CodeMirror Ace, Monaco, or Ace editors. Its operational transform code borrows from www.js. Firepad uses the Firebase Realtime Database to store and sync cloud data. Any application that requires collaborative editing text documents can be built. Firepad supports rich text and code editing right out of the box, and it is easy to extend for additional uses. Firepad was developed by Michael Lehenbauer, Firebase's team. Firepad could have many more features. Please star Firepad on GitHub, and send a pull request if you have anything to add! Any application that requires collaboration editing of text documents can be built.

It is a core component of Emacs Lisp's interpreter. This Lisp dialect includes extensions that support text editing. Many file types can be edited using content-aware modes, including syntax coloring. You will find all the documentation you need, as well as a tutorial for novice users. Unicode support for almost all human scripts. Emacs Lisp code and a graphical interface make it easy to customize. You can access a wide range of functionality, beyond text editing. This includes a project planner and mail and news reader, debugger interface and calendar, IRC client and many more. A packaging system to download and install extensions. Support for arbitrary-size integers built-in HarfBuzz allows text shaping. Native support for JSON parsing Cairo drawing support improved Unexec can be replaced with portable dumping. Support for XDG conventions init files. Additional early-init initialization files. Support for tab bar and tab line built-in. ImageMagick does not support the resizing or rotation of images.

GNU nano was created to replace the Pico text editor as part of The University of Washington's Pine email suite. It was designed to "emulate Pico as closely and then add additional functionality". Debian GNU/Linux distribution is known for its strict standards when it comes to distributing "free" software (i.e. software that is free from restrictions on redistribution. Many people were faced with a dilemma. They loved these programs but the versions that were available at the time weren't truly free software in the GNU meaning of the word. GNU nano is a small, friendly text editor. Nano offers basic text editing as well as syntax coloring, interactive search and replace, syntax coloring, syntax coloring, syntax coloring, line numbers, word completions, file locking, backups, and internationalization support. Nano no longer hard-wraps lines that are too long starting with version 4.0.

Geany is a lightweight, powerful and stable text editor for programmers. It doesn't slow down your work flow. It is compatible with Windows, Linux, and MacOS. It can be translated into more than 40 languages and has built-in support to more than 50 programming languages. Geany's existence was primarily due to the need for an IDE/editor that is decent, lightweight, cross-platform, flexible, and powerful. Many editors can meet some of these requirements, but not all. Geany uses the GPL v2 license to ensure that you can customize and hack it. Also, everyone benefits from the community's changes. Geany has many customizable parts, including color themes (GeanyThemes) and adding new filetypes. Geany offers many settings that allow you to adjust it to suit your needs and preferences. Many file types are supported, including popular programming languages such as C, Java, PHP and HTML.

Kate has many features that make it easy to view and edit your text files. Kate allows you to view and edit multiple files simultaneously, both in tabs or split views. It also comes with a variety of plugins including an embedded terminal that allows you to launch console commands from Kate, powerful search-and-replace plugins, and a preview plugin which can show you your MD, HTML, and even SVG. Kate supports highlighting in over 300 languages, making it easier to understand code in almost all programming languages. Kate is also familiar with brackets and can help you navigate through complex code blocks hierarchies. Spellchecking on-the-fly is also available. This will allow you to check the quality of your text before publishing. Split views allow you to work on multiple files simultaneously. You can navigate your project folder structures using the sidebar. Kate smart tabs allows you to quickly access any recently opened documents.

A community-driven Emacs distribution. Emacs and Vim are not the best editors, it's Emacs! Spacemacs is a new way of using Emacs. It's a sophisticated and polished setup that focuses on ergonomics, mnemonics, and consistency. Mnemonic prefixes such as b for buffer, project, s search, help, and h for help are used to organize key bindings. Innovative real-time display for all key bindings. A simple query system allows you to quickly find layers, packages, and other information. Due to a set of conventions, similar functionalities will have the same key binding everywhere. Community-driven configuration allows for curated packages that are tuned by power users. Bugs can be fixed quickly.

API is first-class. It can be discovered, versioned, and documented. MessagePack structured communication allows extensions in any language. Remote plugins can be run as co-processes safely and asynchronously. GUIs, IDEs and web browsers can embed Neovim as an editor/script host. It works everywhere with one build-type and one command. Modern terminal features include cursor styling, focus events and bracketed paste. Strong defaults and a built-in terminal emulator. Compatible with Vim's editing mode and Vimscript version 1. If you are already using Vim, start with :help vim-from-vim. The current stable version is 0.5 (RSS). The roadmap contains information about the current state of affairs and future plans. Neovim has 30% less source code than Vim. This allows for new applications to be developed without compromising Vim’s traditional roles. Lua is already included, but Vimscript has the most advanced Vimscript engine (which includes an AST-producing Parser).

CudaText, a cross-platform text editor written in Object Pascal, is available. It is an open-source project that can be used for free, even for business. It starts quite fast on Linux on CPU Intel Core i3 3GHz. It can be extended by Python add-ons and plugins, code tree parsers and other tools. EControl engine's syntax parser has many features. Syntax highlight for a lot of languages (270+ Lexers). Code tree structure of functions/classes/etc, if lexer allows it. Multi-selections, code folding, and multi-carets. Regular expressions can be used to find/replace. Configs in JSON format. Includes lexer-specific configurations. Tabbed UI with split views to primary/secondary and a split window to the 2/3/4/6 tab groups. Command palette with fuzzy matching, micromap, and minimap. Displays unprinted whitespace and supports many encodings. Customizable hotkeys. Binary/Hex viewer to view files of unlimited size (can display 10 Gb logs).

Buffer Editor is a powerful text and code editor that allows you to easily create software, view code, or take notes while on the move. Buffer Editor is trusted by thousands of coders for its fast, powerful, and advanced mobile code editing. Any file supported by iOS, including images, PDFs and movies, can be viewed in preview mode. Switch quickly between open files. Multiple terminals can be opened in tabs. Preview on localhost and on your server

jEdit is a text editor for mature programmers with hundreds of person-years (counting the time spent developing plugins). jEdit is a great development tool for its ease of use and features. However, it is free software that includes all source code. It is available under the terms of GPL 2.0. Built-in macro language; extensible plugin architecture. There are hundreds of plugins and macros available. Plugins can easily be downloaded and installed within jEdit by using the "plugin manger" feature. Supports many character encodings, including Unicode and UTF8. Highly configurable and customizable. You will find every other feature, both basic or advanced, in a text editor.

ConTEXT is a small, powerful and fast text editor for software developers. Unlimited file sizes, unlimited open files, powerful syntax highlighting, Delphi/Pascal and 80x86 assemblers, Java, Java Script and Visual Basic, Perl/CGI HTML, SQL, Python PHP, Tcl/Tk. User-definable syntax highlighter. Project workspaces. Compiler integration. Multi-language support. Many other features.

GNOME's text editor, gedit, is called the GNOME desktop environment.

CotEditor was specifically designed for macOS. It behaves and looks exactly like macOS applications should. CotEditor launches quickly so you can start writing your text as soon as you want. CotEditor is an open-source project, which allows anyone to contribute. You can colorize more than 50 languages, including HTML, PHP and Python. You can also make your own settings. Split a window into multiple windows to view different parts of your document simultaneously. Display Unicode character data for each character in your document in a popover. There are no complicated configuration files that require geeky knowledge. All your settings, including syntax definitions or themes, can be accessed from a standard preferences window. You don't have to lose any of your saved data. CotEditor automatically backs up your documents while you edit. You can check and list-up any characters that are not compatible with the desired encoding.

It also contains a special.yedit2 format file that is password-protected. You can save all your web logins and email accounts in yEdit, then save them in a password protected file. Spacejock Software cannot view or send the contents of your files. There is also no way to gain access to your files if you forget your password. An Android version is also available on the Play Store, currently in public beta. An iOS version is in the works. Mobile versions will not be able to file encryption due to the play store/app-store regulations.