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[ad_1] When it comes to programming, nothing is arguably more heated than a debate about text editors. At times, the arguments border on fanaticism to the point that choosing the right editor almost confirms your status among your peers. While in actuality it may not be that dramatic, selecting the right option from the plethora of text editors available is important. You have to consider your needs, the project, your current ability, and much more. As such, this post is going to look at a number of different text editors. Throughout we’ll offer advice on which one may be more suitable. First, let’s talk more about why a dedicated text editor is necessary. Why You’d Need a Dedicated Text Editor In a nutshell, your choice of text editor is important enough to warrant some serious research. Among the YouTube channels and Reddit forums, you may come across some severe fanaticism for one particular editor. While most is hyperbole and dramatics, there is sound reasoning for getting your choice right: As time goes on, you get used to a particular editor and the way it works. This will speed up your work compared to a newbie to the editor. One editor may offer a different ‘feel’ that suits you over another. This is obviously going to be subjective, hence the arguments. Some editors offer functionality that can assist your workflow with a particular language or framework. As such, you’ll want to consider the makeup of your perfect text editor carefully. Getting the wrong blend of features and functionality could even set you back. What You Should Look For In a Text Editor When it comes to the exact features you should seek out, most of it is largely subjective. However, there is a list of considerations you should keep in mind: Can you export projects from one editor and import it into another? Do the keyboard bindings make sense, especially if you’re coming from an editor such as Vim, which has an idiosyncratic approach to editing? How well supported is the text editor, in case of issues? If there’s no active support, an open-source editor is going to be marginally more suitable. Is the workflow logical to you, in as much as setting up projects and working daily using the editor? There are many more considerations you can make, but these are going to help you narrow down your options. One thing’s for certain, you should choose a text editor based on your own needs, rather than go with forum opinions. 8 Excellent Text Editors for Windows, macOS, and Linux Let’s take a look at the eight text editors we’ll feature. Here’s a quick summary of each one: Vim. This text editor has a reputation for a vertical learning curve. However, it’s actually intuitive to use. Atom. An open-source functional editor that has lots of ‘hackability’. Sublime Text. The ‘old man’ of premium text editors has been around for years, yet still delivers. Notepad++. Windows users will appreciate this flexible upgrade to Notepad, that can also scale with your ability. Visual Studio Code. A Microsoft product that has captured over half of the text editing market share. Intellij IDEA. A full-fledged Integrated Development Environment (IDE). There are actually a number of spin-offs available from the developers. BBEdit. This is a great first text editor that also has a bunch of excellent premium functionality. Nova. The developers are known for their previous Mac-only editor Coda – and for the popular Untitled Goose Game cult classic! Without further ado, let’s take a look! 1. Vim First off, let’s deal with the sorcerer’s text editor. Vim comes with a reputation. It’s known as power editor, mainly because of…well, everything about it. It’s a terminal-based text editor that uses idiosyncratic key bindings to navigate and populate your files. There’s no Graphical Use Interface (GUI), and your hands practically have to stay on the keyboard for the entire time. It’s open-source and pre-packaged with macOS and Linux machines. As such, it’s become an editor of choice for sysadmins and general IT techs. Even so, it’s actually intuitive, and the built-in vimtutor takes about an hour to complete. We’d suggest that Vim isn’t necessarily suitable for a coding beginner, because you have to learn Vim as well as your language of choice. However, if you have the stomach, getting to grips with Vim is going to make you more efficient and knowledgeable in the long run. 2. Atom Next, Atom is a text editor that once got a lot of love, but has fallen out of favor with developers. However, it’s still capable and worth installing – perhaps as your primary editor. It’s based on the Electron framework, and was developed by the GitHub team prior to the Microsoft acquisition. As such, it can lag a little compared to other native text editors. Atom looks like many other text editors, although there are some nice touches throughout. There’s a built-in terminal for running programs, and GitHub integration as standard: It may be a touch slow, but Atom is a worthwhile editor for both those new to coding and long-time programmers. We haven’t even touched on its extensibility through ‘packages’, which makes Atom a text editor that can be adapted to any project or language. 3. Sublime Text You’ll likely have seen Sublime Text in the past, or even heard of it. However, you may not have used it. This is a shame because it’s a fantastic minimalist text editor that can stick with you from your very first “Hello, World!” line, to large-scale professional projects. At a base level its simply a text editor. However, it offers much more that the competition have adapted. For example, the Command Palette can be found in Atom and Jetbrains products, and the Goto Anything feature has Vim-like functionality: Overall, Sublime Text is a great text editor, and what’s more the licensing is flexible. While the trial version is unrestricted, if you stick with Sublime Text you should pay the