popular text editors for developers

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15 Most Popular Text Editors for DevelopersMar27 2009 by Jacob Gube | 99 Comments

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For many developers, a trusty text editor is all you need for even the most complex web applications. Whether

youre creating a site from scratch, editing a CSS file, or messing around with configuration files on the server agood, solid text editor will do the trick just fine. Last week, over600 people voted for the text editor that they

felt was the best from the large set of options out in the market.

In this article, youll find fifteen of the most ubiquitous text editors for development as voted by you.

15. SciTE
http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.htmlhttp://buysellads.com/buy/detail/872/zone/1243576?utm_source=site_872&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=cpmadhere&utm_content=zone_1243576http://stats.buysellads.com/click.go?z=1243576&b=3597876&g=&s=&sw=1024&sh=768&br=chrome,30,win&r=0.9978564470075071&link=http://www.wix.com/eteamhtml/ppl-static?utm_campaign=ma_sixrevisions.com&experiment_id=ma_sixrevisions.com_300_3d_pplstatichttp://stats.buysellads.com/click.go?z=1243576&b=3597876&g=&s=&sw=1024&sh=768&br=chrome,30,win&r=0.9978564470075071&link=http://www.wix.com/eteamhtml/ppl-static?utm_campaign=ma_sixrevisions.com&experiment_id=ma_sixrevisions.com_300_3d_pplstatichttp://stats.buysellads.com/click.go?z=1243576&b=3597876&g=&s=&sw=1024&sh=768&br=chrome,30,win&r=0.9978564470075071&link=http://www.wix.com/eteamhtml/ppl-static?utm_campaign=ma_sixrevisions.com&experiment_id=ma_sixrevisions.com_300_3d_pplstatichttp://stats.buysellads.com/click.go?z=1243576&b=3597876&g=&s=&sw=1024&sh=768&br=chrome,30,win&r=0.9978564470075071&link=http://www.wix.com/eteamhtml/ppl-static?utm_campaign=ma_sixrevisions.com&experiment_id=ma_sixrevisions.com_300_3d_pplstatichttp://stats.buysellads.com/click.go?z=1243576&b=3597876&g=&s=&sw=1024&sh=768&br=chrome,30,win&r=0.9978564470075071&link=http://www.wix.com/eteamhtml/ppl-static?utm_campaign=ma_sixrevisions.com&experiment_id=ma_sixrevisions.com_300_3d_pplstatichttp://stats.buysellads.com/click.go?z=1243576&b=3597876&g=&s=&sw=1024&sh=768&br=chrome,30,win&r=0.9978564470075071&link=http://www.wix.com/eteamhtml/ppl-static?utm_campaign=ma_sixrevisions.com&experiment_id=ma_sixrevisions.com_300_3d_pplstatichttp://sixrevisions.com/http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.htmlhttp://sixrevisions.com/contests/best-text-editor-for-developers-10-prizes-to-give-away/#commentshttp://buysellads.com/buy/detail/872/zone/1243576?utm_source=site_872&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=cpmadhere&utm_content=zone_1243576http://stats.buysellads.com/click.go?z=1243576&b=3597876&g=&s=&sw=1024&sh=768&br=chrome,30,win&r=0.9978564470075071&link=http://www.wix.com/eteamhtml/ppl-static?utm_campaign=ma_sixrevisions.com&experiment_id=ma_sixrevisions.com_300_3d_pplstatichttp://sixrevisions.com/web-development/the-15-most-popular-text-editors-for-developers/http://twitter.com/sixrevisionshttp://feeds2.feedburner.com/SixRevisionshttp://sixrevisions.com/contact/http://sixrevisions.com/about/http://sixrevisions.com/category/freebies/http://sixrevisions.com/category/tutorials/http://sixrevisions.com/all-articles/http://sixrevisions.com/http://sixrevisions.com/


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04/10/2013 The 15 Most Popular Text Editors for Developers

sixrevisions.com/web-development/the-15-most-popular-text-editors-for-developers/ 2

SciTE download

page

SciTE, an open source text editor for Windows and Linux, was originally developed to demonstrate the power

ofScintilla. It has since grown into a fully-featured text editor for developers. You can extend the default SciTE

installation with user-generated configuration files like the SciTE command-line launcher(a simple Windows

command-line tool for opening files in SciTE).

14. EditPlus

EditPlus download

page

EditPlus is a Windows text editor for HTML and programming. It has syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS,

PHP, JavaScript (among others), a built-in web browser (which they call Seamless Web Browser) for

previewing your work and browsing the web, and auto-completion. EditPlus isnt free, and it costs thirty-five

buckaroos for a 1-user license.
http://www.editplus.com/ss/internet.gifhttp://www.editplus.com/download.htmlhttp://www.editplus.com/http://www.editplus.com/http://www.frykholm.se/scitecmd.htmlhttp://groups.google.com/group/scite-interest/web/extras?pli=1http://www.scintilla.org/http://www.scintilla.org/SciTEDownload.htmlhttp://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html


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13. E TextEditor

E TextEditor

download page

E TextEditor, or just calledE, is TextMate for Windows. It has a host of useful features that developers will

appreciate such as a personal revision control system to ease the burden of managing multiple versions of a file,

ultimate customization possibilities, and a collection of automated tasks to save you time and improve your

productivity. Check out the Keyboard Shortcuts Cheatsheet to make writing with E more efficient.

12. GNU Emacs

GNU Emacs

download page

GNU Emacs is an open source, cross-platform (available for various distros of Linux, Mac OS X, and even

Windows) text editor. Emacs is highly extensible and customizable to your particular needs and has all of the
http://www.gnu.org/software/software.htmlhttp://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/http://www.e-texteditor.com/wiki/index.php/Cheatsheethttp://macromates.com/https://www.plimus.com/jsp/buynow.jsp?contractId=1646065http://www.e-texteditor.com/http://www.e-texteditor.com/


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things youd expect from a developers source code editor such as syntax highlighting, ability to edit plenty of file

types, and the ability to broaden its features with extensions such as debuggers and note managers/organizers.

11. gedit

gedit download page

geditis the official open source text editor forGNOME (a desktop GUI for Linux-based and Unix-based

computers). It has a plethora of options and features that coders will love, including syntax highlighting for many

languages, full support for UTF-8 text, remote-file editing, and file backups. It also has a very accommodating

plugin systemthat permits you to extend gedit.

10. TextPad

TextPad download

page
http://www.textpad.com/download/index.htmlhttp://www.textpad.com/http://www.textpad.com/http://projects.gnome.org/gedit/plugins.htmlhttp://www.gnome.org/http://ftp.acc.umu.se/pub/GNOME/sources/gedit/http://projects.gnome.org/gedit/http://projects.gnome.org/gedit/http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/org.htmlhttp://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Debuggers.html


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TextPadis a general purpose text editor for Windows-based systems. It has plenty of features like a spell

checker for 10 languages, a Warm Startfeature which lets you start the program from where you left off when

you last opened it, and a keystroke macro recorder for automating keystrokes (which can save you a ton of time

from typing frequently-used code), and lots more.

9. UltraEdit

UltraEdit download

page

UltraEditis a popular and powerful Windows-based text editor for developers and programmers. It has

support for languages like PHP, JavaScript, Perl, C/C++, has built-in file management features, and has a

notable and robust search-and-replace feature. Check out theirfeature map to see a gallery-style presentation ofUltraEdits features.

8. Dreamweaver
http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/http://www.textpad.com/products/textpad/features.htmlhttp://www.ultraedit.com/downloads/ultraedit_download.htmlhttp://www.ultraedit.com/http://www.ultraedit.com/http://www.textpad.com/products/textpad/features.html


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Dreamweaver

download page

Dreamweaveris a fully-featured IDE for web designers and developers created by Adobe. Its built-in Code

View is excellent for developers: it has syntax-highlighting, a very smart code-hinting/auto-completion feature,

and on-the-fly syntax validation.

7. Komodo Edit / Komodo IDE

Komodo Edit

download page

Komodo Editis an open source, cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac) editor for serverside languages that

comes with Komodo IDE (but you can download it separately). Developers will have a great set of features in

store for them in Komodo Edit, including code folding for tucking away lines of code youre not currently

working on, on-the-fly syntax checking, and the ability to extend it with various plugins.
http://community.activestate.com/addonshttp://www.activestate.com/komodo_edit/comparison/http://www.activestate.com/komodo_edit/http://www.activestate.com/komodo/http://www.activestate.com/komodo_edit/http://www.adobe.com/downloads/http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/


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6. Aptana

Aptana download

page

Aptana is a free, complete web development IDE thats available as a standalone application or as an Eclipse

plugin. It has built-in support for popular libraries like jQuery, MooTools, and Prototype to make client-side

web development easier for you.

5. PSPad

PSPad download

page

PSPadis a freeware programmers editor for MS Windows. It has the ability to save sessions so that you can

return to your previous set-up after you close the program, a built-in FTP client, and a text difference feature so

that you can compare differences between several files.
http://www.pspad.com/en/download.phphttp://www.pspad.com/en/http://www.pspad.com/en/http://www.eclipse.org/http://www.aptana.com/studio/downloadhttp://www.aptana.com/http://www.aptana.com/


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4. Vim

Vim download page

Vim is an advanced text editor for Linux, Windows, and the Mac OS. It is very extensible and was designed

with the principle of making text editing as efficient as possible. Many consider it to be a programmers text

editor, and even an IDE. Vim is charityware, meaning that donations to the project go to charities.

3. Coda

Coda download

page

Coda is a web development environment for the Mac OS. Its powerful and elegant text editor has all the

features youd expect from an application made for developers: syntax highlighting, line numbers, and auto-

completion. It also has the ability for live collaboration (based on the Subetha Engine) and a Clips feature which

is a floating window that stores frequently used snippets automatically.
http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaengine/http://www.panic.com/coda/http://www.panic.com/coda/http://www.panic.com/coda/http://charityware.info/http://www.vim.org/download.phphttp://www.vim.org/http://www.vim.org/


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2. TextMate

TextMate download

page

TextMate is a powerful Mac OS editor for programmers and designers. It allows you to theme the interface to

your preference, auto completes character pairs like parenthesis and brackets, and allows you to run shell

commands from within a document.

1. Notepad++

Notepad++

download page

Garnering close to a quarter of the total votes, Notepad++ stands to be the most popular text editor for

developers. Notepad++ is a free source code editor for Windows released under the GPL license. Its features

are too many to mention, but among the notable ones are: macro-recording and playback for repetitive
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/download.phphttp://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htmhttp://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htmhttp://manual.macromates.com/en/shell_commands#executing_commands_filtering_texthttp://manual.macromates.com/en/working_with_text#auto-paired_characters_quotes_etchttp://manual.macromates.com/en/themes#themeshttp://license.macromates.com/http://macromates.com/http://macromates.com/


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keystrokes, a powerful regular expression search-and-replace, and support for many programming languages.

A Poll

What's the best text editor fordevelopers?

SciTEEditPlus

E - TextEditor

GNU Emacs

gedit

TextPad

UltraEdit

Dreamweaver

Komodo Edit / Komodo IDE

Aptana

PSPad

Vim

Coda

TextMate

Notepad++

Other:

V iew Results

Polldaddy.com

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99 Comments

Robert Banh

March 27th, 2009

Notepad++ is the best! Tabs, syntax highlights, and quicktext are all built-in lifesavers.

Umut Muhaddisoglu

March 27th, 2009

Although never tried most of them, my favorite is Notepad++. It runs fast, highlights and these are all that

matters.

myDevWares

March 27th, 2009

I cant believe you put Notepad ++ as the second LAST item!?
http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/http://twitter.com/robertbanhhttp://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=C-UjL1ShOUoz0OIPAigf__YHYBanv9tgDsYTZoYQBwI23ARABIPzf6BlQqtXJzwNg5dLkg6gOoAGnuZr9A8gBAakC7BljBOhkUT7gAgCoAwHIA58EqgR_T9BOeJHgUjDWgBbtFPlfT6x3_i9S0Zl81TUh5TDt0b-bsPcRSkVJzJ5oz_YfVzeJg8EEZc7N0utCwMH5EJPYL4PGPpRr0Lz2b5gnWaa6daGnQdif775lYXi5vqSksetRXw9gxYKx_SZVA9-nWxJ-b-5SDROsLvAbhQsOzIXJHeAEAYAHwcblAg&num=1&sig=AOD64_06NvUHeGP1E0DpYvooXqvL2ANC1g&client=ca-pub-2049948180079264&adurl=http://jobs.monsterindia.com/details/13583196.html%3Fspl%3DG_TCSHTML5MobileWebDeveloper%26WT.Srch%3D1%26WT.mc_n%3Dolm_sk_google_paid%26cid%3Dolm_sk_google_paidhttp://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=C-UjL1ShOUoz0OIPAigf__YHYBanv9tgDsYTZoYQBwI23ARABIPzf6BlQqtXJzwNg5dLkg6gOoAGnuZr9A8gBAakC7BljBOhkUT7gAgCoAwHIA58EqgR_T9BOeJHgUjDWgBbtFPlfT6x3_i9S0Zl81TUh5TDt0b-bsPcRSkVJzJ5oz_YfVzeJg8EEZc7N0utCwMH5EJPYL4PGPpRr0Lz2b5gnWaa6daGnQdif775lYXi5vqSksetRXw9gxYKx_SZVA9-nWxJ-b-5SDROsLvAbhQsOzIXJHeAEAYAHwcblAg&num=1&sig=AOD64_06NvUHeGP1E0DpYvooXqvL2ANC1g&client=ca-pub-2049948180079264&adurl=http://jobs.monsterindia.com/details/13583196.html%3Fspl%3DG_TCSHTML5MobileWebDeveloper%26WT.Srch%3D1%26WT.mc_n%3Dolm_sk_google_paid%26cid%3Dolm_sk_google_paidhttp://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=l&ai=C-UjL1ShOUoz0OIPAigf__YHYBanv9tgDsYTZoYQBwI23ARABIPzf6BlQqtXJzwNg5dLkg6gOoAGnuZr9A8gBAakC7BljBOhkUT7gAgCoAwHIA58EqgR_T9BOeJHgUjDWgBbtFPlfT6x3_i9S0Zl81TUh5TDt0b-bsPcRSkVJzJ5oz_YfVzeJg8EEZc7N0utCwMH5EJPYL4PGPpRr0Lz2b5gnWaa6daGnQdif775lYXi5vqSksetRXw9gxYKx_SZVA9-nWxJ-b-5SDROsLvAbhQsOzIXJHeAEAYAHwcblAg&num=1&sig=AOD64_06NvUHeGP1E0DpYvooXqvL2ANC1g&client=ca-pub-2049948180079264&adurl=http://jobs.monsterindia.com/details/13583196.html%3Fspl%3DG_TCSHTML5MobileWebDeveloper%26WT.Srch%3D1%26WT.mc_n%3Dolm_sk_google_paid%26cid%3Dolm_sk_google_paid


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rami

March 27th, 2009

Geany is the best, because he is very nice and VERY fast.

kodisha

March 27th, 2009

No editor can come even close to the textMate when it comes to work comfort.

Jim Gaudet

March 27th, 2009

Oh yes, Notepad++ had to be the winner!

VitaminCM

March 27th, 2009

I just switched over to a Mac and mostly love it. I wish I could get Notepad ++ for Mac though. Coda is good,

I just love the way ++ works.

Tyk

March 27th, 2009

Theres also Geany and Bluefish, both wonderful text editors for Gnome. I personally use Geany because its

lightning fast and versatile, but Bluefish is more complete and robust.
http://www.tyktak.com/http://www.vitamincm.com/http://www.thejimgaudet.com/blog/http://yourtree.org/blog/http://www.raphaelmichel.de/


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Ruan Carlos Eduardo Kovalczyk

March 27th, 2009

Hello

I develope in Eclipse. It is a very good IDE

Peter

March 27th, 2009

Coda is an absolute lifesaver for me although I keep hearing people really talk up TextMate.

Can anybody whose used both give their preference?

Dan

March 27th, 2009

Excellent round-up. I am always looking for, and trying, new text editors. I have used almost all the editors on

this list at one point or another. One that I was surprised was not on this list, was Crimson Editor. It is not in

development anymore, but is still a pretty solid editor, with macro support.

I am currently transitioning from Dreamweaver to Aptana, and really like it.

Thanks to all the Six Revisions visitors who participated to make this great list.

Mark O'Grady

March 27th, 2009

Ive seen a few of these polls lately and although im a fan of ultra edit how is Visual Studio missed out. It is by fa

one of the best editors on the market. It is way more advanced and initutive than most of the editors above. Is

this because people dislike microsoft. If you havent tried it download Web Developer Express Its free and may

improve your development no end.
http://www.danstephenson.ca/http://apartmentonesix.com/http://www.ruancarlos.com.br/


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FlLottoNumbers

March 27th, 2009

Very good collection, thanks for the post.

basil

March 27th, 2009

what about eclipse? http://www.zend.com/PDT

Desiztech

March 27th, 2009

I love text editors that are easy to use. Smultron for me. Thanks for the share

taylan

March 27th, 2009

My favorite is pspad. Its free, open source and very useful.

Keith Dsouza

March 27th, 2009

Wow I am surprised you skipped Eclipse from this list

JManGt
http://guateonrails.wordpress.com/http://techie-buzz.com/http://www.oyun4oyun.com/http://desizntech.info/http://www.zend.com/PDThttp://www.fllottonumbers.net/


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March 27th, 2009

I like my editor to do what I want it to do, and not eat 1Gb or Ram in the process. Emacs FTW!!! plus you can

use it via ssh directly to your remote server.

kidata

March 27th, 2009

Aptana is really awesome! Loving it!

Matt

March 27th, 2009

SubEthaEdit!!!

Paulius

March 27th, 2009

I prefer NetBeans for development. It has a plenty of features and is easier configurable than Eclipse, which is a

great IDE as well.

Netbeans is not only for Java, but there are separate versions for the most popular languages: Java, Ruby, PHP,

C/C++

carlos

March 27th, 2009

being a non-developer who has to occasionally dabble in code I find Dreamweaver to be the easiest, the auto

complete/code hints are a lifesaver
http://ownindustries.com/http://www.lescinskas.lt/http://designoplasty.com/


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zela

March 27th, 2009

Strange reviews of editors. Most of them have features, that described for just one, for example FTP access orauto complete character pairs. All in all difference of concrete editor from others didnt discovered.

Craig Huffstetler

March 27th, 2009

Im glad gedit and vim are listed!

Cheers,

Craig

demogar

March 27th, 2009

E all the way :)

Alexey

March 27th, 2009

Vim. Just because its Vim.

jack
http://typesett.com/http://www.twitter.com/demogar/http://alistapart.com/


17/37



March 27th, 2009

Im cool enough to be a mac user and rockin Panics Coda. I use Dreamweaver at work though, turn off the

silly preview stuff, work straight off of firefox and its dev tools and its a nice editor.

cancel bubble

March 27th, 2009

Does anyone still use BBEdit? I used to use it back in the day, the built-in FTP was the bomb!

twe4ked

March 27th, 2009

NP++ for PC and Text Mate for mac osx, has most, if not all of the standard features found in ++.

Bonnie

March 27th, 2009

As a Mac person I would say BBEdit, which I dont see on your list, but thats probably because its not made

for PC. Its awesome with tons of features, compliance checking and shortcut code pastes.

Jim

March 27th, 2009

I have been using UltraEdit since 2001 it is pretty killer. Tried a bunch of others Eclipse was great with the

CFEclipse plugins but kind of bloated I thought. Dreamweaver I just despise. The new UltraEdit Studio is really

killer I downloaded the trial version currently have lifetime upgrades for just regular UltraEdit it is my

workhorse. Macros, snippets, templates, sybtax hilite just about whatever you want it has mine has

UltraCompare built into it for file compare. Anyway, cant say enough good things about it. Notepad ++ comes

prolly a close 2nd also JEdit was not on the list (did not use that much tho).
http://tentonweb.com/http://www.landaudesign.com/http://twe4ked/http://www.cancelbubble.com/


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Thx for posting this list.

Jim

Jax, FL

Two Socks

March 28th, 2009

howdy hoe,

Nice list, certainly a couple there I need to try as everyone is singing its praise *cough* textmate *cough*

BTW you have a typo on the dreamweaver review it says on-they-fly should be on-THE-fly ;)

Simmessa

March 28th, 2009

I Love Notepad2, very simple, not quite powerful as others on this list, try it:

http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html

All the Best!

Simmessa.com

naspinski

March 28th, 2009

as always, Microsoft was left out because they are Microsoft

Visual Web Developer Express is better than most of these and is not mentioned even though it is 100% free.

http://www.microsoft.com/express/vwd/
http://www.microsoft.com/express/vwd/http://naspinski.net/http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.htmlhttp://simmessa.com/http://www.twosocks.com.au/


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Schoschie

March 28th, 2009

BBEdit and TextWrangler (free, light version of BBEdit) are missing from this list. Both OS X only.

Though not a user of them, I second naspinskis comment that the MS IDE (Visual somethingsomething) should

be included as well.

Thirdly, XCode (for OS X) is a free (after registration with Apple Developer Connection, which is free) and very

powerful IDE with an excellent editor. Missing as well.

Lastly, Eclipse and NetBeans. Dont know exactly off the top of my head now, but Aptana, Komodo, Eclipse

and NetBeans are all variants/derivatives of each other in some way, iirc.

It would be interesting for the reader to include the price with each of these apps.

Jacob Gube

March 28th, 2009

@Two Socks: Thanks for the catch, Ive fixed it.

Cindy Sue Causey

March 28th, 2009

Popping in to thank those who first highlighted Notepad++ on that other thread last weekish.. It fit snuggly right

in with the various other software Ive been collecting to date..

@naspinski , I, for one *as one* who travels a highly eclectic cyber swath across the Net, have never seen

Visual Web Developer Express mentioned *anywhere*, well, obviously that it stood out anyway.. They mightneed to broaden their advertisement of it.. Will certainly check it out, possibly test drive since its been

proffered.. Heres hoping it is *cognitively friendly*, of course, something even high profile products have been

known to lack..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock.. :)
http://claimid.com/Butterflyhttp://sixrevisions.com/http://ngin.de/


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chris

March 28th, 2009

Top Style Pro is by far and away the best text editor out there IMHO.

http://www.newsgator.com/individuals/topstyle/default.aspx

Michael

March 29th, 2009

Is this an ordered list, meaning is NP++ the winner in number of votes?

Jacob Gube

March 30th, 2009

@Michael: Yes its ordered, and yes, Notepad++ is the winner by votes, it garnered almost 25% of the total

votes.

Ben

March 30th, 2009

Half of these are IDEs and NOT text editors. An IDE provides many more features than a text-editor, making

this list misleading.

Notepad++ is TOO SLOW.

Sometimes I need to work on large XML files (10MB-150MB). Notepad and Dreamweaver crash when

opening such large files SciTE opens them instantly :)

Jacob Gube
http://sixrevisions.com/http://sixrevisions.com/http://www.newsgator.com/individuals/topstyle/default.aspxhttp://www.answerjam.com/


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March 30th, 2009

@Ben: Im aware of that, but I also published the results of the votes. Also, IDEs do have text/source code

editors in them. Then we get into the gray areas like Vim, which is, in essence a text editor, but to some,

considered as an IDE. Where do you draw the line, and who gets to draw them?

Mike

March 30th, 2009

Great list Jacob.

Im been using Dreamweaver CS4 (code-view only) and Im very happy with it. However, once I transition to a

Macbook Id like to check out Coda or TextMate.

Ben

March 30th, 2009

Personally I think of IDEs and text-editors as separate, distinct software applications (although every IDE

includes a text-editor).

I consider the best text-editors to have syntax highlighting, code-hinting/completion and possibly basic project

management.

An IDE should provide all of that plus more. E.g. debugging tools and extras like an SSH client, database client,

FTP client, etc.

Maybe its time for a Best IDE for Web Developers vote? :)

ZigBie

March 30th, 2009

Notepad++ is not creative.
http://vabis.net/http://www.mogillmedia.com/


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Jacob Gube

March 30th, 2009

@Ben: Thats coming sometime in the very near future, Ive wanted to do an IDE vote for a while, but wanted

to start with text/source code editors. I think Komodo, Dreamweaver, Aptana, and Coda all fall under IDEs but

these are the items that got the biggest number of votes and I cant discredit them. Youre right though.

What IDE do you use? I tried Aptana for a while, then switched back to Dreamweaver (CS4 is amazing

though if you dont have a fast machine, it could be a little bit sluggish).

macobex

March 30th, 2009

as what ive expected, notepad++ will be on the 1st place. Nice list.

rizlox

March 31st, 2009

Notepad++ just miss diff-compare thats very important!

lexx

March 31st, 2009

On windows, intype will crush them all.

br1

March 31st, 2009

yeah! notepad++ ftw ^_^
http://www.hacksomnia.com/http://sixrevisions.com/


23/37



Rob S

March 31st, 2009

No BBEdit?!

vimfanboy

March 31st, 2009

macro-recording and playback for repetitive keystrokes, a powerful regular expression search-and-replace

Vim has done this for decades.

henry

March 31st, 2009

i recommend trying http://intpe.info alpha stage but VERY promising!

henry

March 31st, 2009

/* http://intype.info/home/index.php */

sorry typo

Sable

April 1st, 2009
http://intype.info/home/index.phphttp://intpe.info/


24/37



Love Notepad++


25/37



Also, Notepad++ all the way :)

Jacob Gube

April 3rd, 2009

@Nick: You actually read my article?! Thats a new one for me :D

Dan

April 3rd, 2009

@basil: Aptana is Eclipse for web developers. It is based on the Eclipse platform.

Damian Herrington

April 3rd, 2009

Great article but it has to be TextWrangler for me. An excellent text editor and free.

monle

April 12th, 2009

I like dreamweaver or komodo.

Ben

April 17th, 2009

Dont forget Kate, the advanced text editor in KDE; easy to use, tons of features, and open source.
http://www.bcchang.com/http://www.monle.com/http://www.damianherrington.co.uk/http://www.danstephenson.ca/http://sixrevisions.com/


26/37



Ozh

April 18th, 2009

I concur. A couple years ago I ran a text editor deathmatch with a nightmare file to test syntax highlighting andcame to the same conclusion: Notepad++ > *

Daniel

April 24th, 2009

PSPad forevar!!!!!!!!I had never used notepad+++ but I would like try use it.

TY!

anthony

April 28th, 2009

what about html kit?

besworks

May 13th, 2009

http://liquidninja.com/metapad/ is another decent one for Windows. I usually use gedit but if I am stuck working

on a windoze box I use metapad. I just keep it on my flash drive.

Sean O

June 5th, 2009
http://www.sean-o.com/http://liquidninja.com/metapad/http://www.daniel-xavier.com/http://planetozh.com/blog/2007/06/text-editors-for-coders-deathmatch-review/http://planetozh.com/


27/37



Used to use Notepad++ a few years back, but *PSPad* is the new king of lightweight editors. Been using and

enjoying HippoEdit lately as well sometimes quirky, but quite powerful, and should be added to the list to

make it 16.

SEAN O

Avery

July 16th, 2009

Love Notepad++


28/37



code-hinting and auto-completion feature in market.

its build-in ftp isnt that bad, but i cant say that it good! template and library feature are fantastic for those

smaller project and it doesnt request programing.

i just hate the way adobe doing business!

and cs-suit is over price, heavy, slow and problematic installation. adobe (auto)update is outrage.

wish macromedia was still around!

all in all i really want to move away from them, but having problem finding any software that has code-

hinting/auto-completion feature as good as DW!

i will have to stick with DW for now, but if any one know something offer code-hinting/auto-completion feature

as good as DW, please let me know.

Dave Jones

March 5th, 2010

Nice to see Vim and Emacs still going after all these years. It reminds me of the very first folding code editor I

used. It was called Origami. Anyone remember it?

I would add NetBeans to this list. Just tried it recently and Im really impressed even though Ive never been a

fan of Java.

I use Coda a lot and TextMate, though lately Ive been giving Espresso a go and Im liking it too. Notepad++ is

the best of the Windows bunch, but it lacks the finesse of the Cocoa apps.

kral oyun

March 27th, 2010

Coda is an absolute lifesaver for me although I keep hearing people really talk up TextMate.

Can anybody whose used both give their preference?

Micah

June 4th, 2010
http://www.micahcarrick.com/http://www.kraloyuna.net/http://technicacreative.co.uk/


29/37



Gedit is pretty fantastic. It has so much more functionality than people realize as you need to enable the plugins

you want. You have a file browser with remote file support, class/function browsers, terminal, code snipppets

with tab triggers, auto completing brackets (like in textmate), bookmarks, run command-line tools on documents

and plenty more. Best part is that its very stable, can open HUGE documents, and is very fast.

Deko Web

August 24th, 2010

Thanks for sharing, but i like notepad+

StocksDoc

September 4th, 2010

I have used ALL of the editors listed here for Windows and Mac.

I have found CODA to be by far the best.

TextMate and Notepad++ are very good ones, but since I develop code for websites as well the built-in ftp

service for Coda makes life a breeze.

PLUS, Coda has all the features of the other ones as well . . PLUS code-completion AND code-suggestions

and parameter choices as you are typing.

There is nothing missing from Coda.

If youre not worrying about money (because its worth it in the long run) .. CODA is the best for Mac and

Notepad++ is the best for Windows (with UltraEdit a close second)

Good Luck All !!!!

HAVRET

September 23rd, 2010

If you want i build a program for programmation (php, html and javascript).

You can test here: http://www.page-3dit.tk

-> Under construction and diponible on french for the moment
http://www.page-3dit.tk/http://www.page-3dit.tk/http://www.stocksdoc.com/http://www.dekogroup.com.tr/


30/37



Espreson

September 23rd, 2010

Notepad++ is the best!

Adam

October 7th, 2010

What, no Programmers Notepad??

Mazznoer

October 12th, 2010

I love Notepad++

John Ramirez

November 1st, 2010

Notepad ++is by far the best for me, very fast and intuitive. flexible on all programming languages.

Mohsen Derakhshan

December 28th, 2010

lovely Notepad++

mawakana onike
http://webdesigner.downloadkar.com/http://www.lajmar.com/http://mazznoer.web.id/http://www.espreson.com/


31/37



December 30th, 2010

The number of Notepad++ users is literally exploding and for good reasons. Probably THE most popular text

editor in the world right now by a huge margin.

Lau Boyd

January 20th, 2011

Notepad++ is the best :)

silver_light

February 5th, 2011

buddy there is a lot of knowledge, experience all n all

like it

silver_light

February 5th, 2011

i like dreamweaver

Faraj Farook

February 9th, 2011

ITZ ++.. its cool light weighted.. n damn helpful. a better option to get rid of MS notepad. Very useful in minor

edits and quick alterings.
http://farajonline.blogspot.com/http://tellmybro/


32/37



Sverri

March 16th, 2011

gEdit, e-TextEditor or even SciTE are all fine.

A lot of editors try to do too much, IMO.

Siegfried

March 19th, 2011

my favorite two are ultraedit and editplus, both very good

BRent

April 6th, 2011

Why aint php designer 7 on this list? It really puts most of these editors to shame when it comes the Interface and

features its boss. I guess you get what you pay for:)

Dan

April 11th, 2011

Coda, hands down. It is by far the best way Ive found to manage a site locally, live, and in Subversion all in one

program.

Dave

June 21st, 2011

Sorry, but this poll is a which test editor do you use not a which text editor is the best.

Obviously Notepad++ is going to place highest, as it is open source so more people have access to it. Others,
http://rosetta.null-zero.com/


33/37



such as Coda and Ultraedit, require a license, so will immediately get fewer votes as fewer people use it.

Andr

June 28th, 2011

I would definitely go for TextMate / E -text editor. Anyone saying Syntax high lighting and simplicity is all you

need hasnt worked for long or with a proper editor. Theres much more to it than that. Coda seems nice of

course, havent tried though. Cheers

majoro

August 30th, 2011

using Notepad++ for Windows and Geany for Linux

Jude

November 4th, 2011

I am fond of using only msql in cpanel.

StocksDoc

November 16th, 2011

Update to my previous comment on September 4th, 2010 . . .

UltraEdit now has a MAC OS version.

IT is now my favorite for both Mac and Windows computers.

AND, UltraEdit has been upgraded all around . . .

it does everything a programmer would want

and more you never realized you needed!
http://www.stocksdoc.com/http://www.bizgreenglobe.blogspot.com/http://chtchtonicles.net/http://miphe.com/


34/37



M H

November 20th, 2011

Emeditor good for larg text file.

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