Best Text Editor For Programming Linux

There are tons of text editors out there, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to picking the best one.

If you are a programmer or developer, you need a text editor that makes it easy for you to write and edit code. You also need your text editor to be compatible with multiple programming languages.

The good news is that there are many options for programmers to choose from. The bad news? There are many options for programmers to choose from.

In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the best text editors for programming on Linux, so you can find the perfect tool for your needs.

Best Text Editor For Programming Linux

Sublime Text

What makes Sublime Text stand out is its ability to make use of each OS’ native functionalities. That makes Sublime Text one of the more resource-efficient options.

Pros: Sublime Text is highly customizable, both in appearance and in functionality (using plugins). In addition to having many of the basic editor features (like colored syntax and searchability), Sublime adds a Goto Anything feature. You can search inside or outside the application or open and manipulate files with a quick keystroke. It also allows multiple selections, so you can highlight multiple lines and edit them all at once.

Cons: Sublime Text has a steep learning curve even though it’s designed to simplify workflows. You can use it free of charge, but it has a very intrusive popup system asking users to buy a license.

How to Install

Sublime Text is not a default application on most Linux installations. Install it with the following command:

wget -qO - https://download.sublimetext.com/sublimehq-pub.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

echo "deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install sublime-text

Vim

Almost all Linux distributions, even older versions, come with the Vim editor installed. Vim stands for Vi Improved, meaning that Vim is a modified and improved version of the old Vi text editor.

Pros: Vim supports automatic commands, digraph inputs (useful in programming), split and session screens, tabs, colored schemes (color-coded by function), and tagging. It can be configured with plugins and comes with a tutorial (invoked with the vimtutor command). When you master the commands, Vim is very efficient.

Cons: It does not have a GUI. The only way you can initiate Vim is from the command line. The interface is user-unfriendly, while some commands are not intuitive. Coding a file from scratch would be too complicated. The learning curve can be steep, but Vim is very popular in the Linux community.

Note: Learn how to edit lines in a text file without a text editor using the Linux sed command.

Nano Editor

Nano is a revision of an older editor called Pico and comes pre-loaded on most Linux installations. Nano is an ideal lightweight editor for beginners. It’s a lot easier to use than Vim, so it’s worth learning Nano for quick configuration edits.

Pros: It supports GNU Autoconf, interactive search-and-replace, auto-indent, and spellcheck. Nano is intuitive and easy to use. It lists the keystroke commands at the bottom of the editor, so you don’t have to memorize or look them up.

Cons: The list of commands is short and some may be unintuitive.

Atom

Atom is a popular open-source code/text editor that works across several platforms such as Windows, Mac, or Linux. Atom is also considered to be one of the best Python code editors.

Pros: Atom has color-coded syntax, a smart autocomplete feature, multiple panes, and a search-and-replace feature. It also has its own package manager for plugins, so you can easily expand its functionality. You can also customize the appearance manually by using themes. A new plugin – called teletype – allows you to share workspaces with other Atom users.

Cons: Most users will have to tweak the default configuration. Low-spec computers will struggle to run Atom, especially if you load multiple projects.

How to Install

Atom is not typically included in a default Linux installation. Install it with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/atom

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install atom

For RedHat or CentOS systems, use the yum install command instead of apt-get install.

Gedit

Gedit is a text editor that comes with the GNOME desktop environment. The design emphasizes simplicity so gedit is a great editor for beginners. Even though simple in design, gedit is a powerful tool.

Pros: The uncomplicated interface includes clipboard support, multilanguage spellchecking, undo/redo, syntax highlighting for various languages (C, C++, Java, Python, etc,), color-coded syntax, and has a flexible plugin system.

Cons: This editor works well if you do not need too many features, or if you simply prefer a clean interface. Gedit works great with GNOME, but there are better options for other desktop environments.

How to Install

On older versions of Linux, or versions without GNOME, it may not come pre-installed. Install gedit with the following command:

sudo apt-get install gedit

Note: Can’t decide between CentOS and Ubuntu? Read our CentOS vs Ubuntu comparison article.

Visual Studio Code

If you’ve installed Anaconda on Linux, you may be familiar with the option to install Microsoft Visual Studio Code. Even though it’s from Microsoft, VSCode is cross-platform, meaning it works on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Pros: Visual Studio Code is lightweight but powerful, and it offers an extensive library of add-ons. These include additional programming language support, debuggers, and commands. This text editor is an excellent choice for developing JavaScript applications and working in cross-platform environments.

Cons: Compared to other text editors on this list, VSCode might not always run properly on Linux, especially Ubuntu. It is also known to use a lot of memory and CPU resources. Furthermore, it may run slower compared to other text editors.

How to Install

Install VSCode with the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-desktop/ubuntu-make

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-make

GNU Emacs

GNU Emacs is a text/code editor for Linux professionals created by Richard Stallman, the founder of the GNU project. Emacs allows you to write code, display a manual, or draft an email from the same interface.

Pros: It has content-aware editing modes, extensive documentation and a tutorial, incredible language support, and a package manager for extensions. It also offers cross-compatibility with other GNU apps, including an organizer, mail app, calendar, and debugger.

Cons: It’s not for everyone. You might choose Emacs if you have multiple different tasks and want a standard interface. It’s designed for the Linux power user, so if that’s you, it’s worth a try.

How to Install

Install GNU Emacs with the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kelleyk/emacs

sudo apt update

sudo apt install emacs26

Notepadqq

Notepadqq is a Linux editor inspired by the Notepad++ application for Windows. Even though different developers manage the projects, Notepadqq is a fair replica of Notepad++.

Pros: Notepadqq supports tabbed projects, color-coded syntax, syntax highlighting, auto-tabbing, and a good search-and-replace feature. It has a smart-indent feature that remembers the indentation settings of the last line typed. Another strong point is how efficiently it converts files between various types of character encoding.

Cons: Notepadqq supports over 100 languages but if you compare it to other text editors, Notepadqq’s set of features might seems lacking. It opens any text file though it doesn’t do tag matching or auto-completion.

How to Install

Install Notepadqq with the following command:

sudo snap install --classic notepadqq

Note: Most modern Linux distributions support Snap. If you’re running CentOS (or another Linux distribution without Snap), you’ll need to install the Snap app first.

brackets text editor

Brackets is a source code editor with a primary focus on web development.[5] Created by Adobe Inc., it is free and open-source software licensed under the MIT License, and is currently maintained on GitHub by open-source developers. It is written in JavaScript, HTML and CSS. Brackets is cross-platform, available for macOS, Windows, and most Linux distributions. The main purpose of Brackets is its live HTML, CSS and JavaScript editing functionality.[6]

On November 4, 2014, Adobe announced the first (1.0) release of Brackets. The update introduced new features such as custom shortcut key combinations and more accurate JavaScript hinting. Brackets has a major focus on development in JavaScript-enabled, CSS and HTML. With release of version 1.0, Adobe announced a feature that extracts design information from a PSD file for convenience of coding in CSS.[7] As of June 28, 2016, the feature is officially discontinued, due to low usage.[8] However, Extract is still available via Photoshop and Dreamweaver, both of which are part of their paid service, Adobe Creative Cloud.[9] In March 2021, Adobe announced it would end their support for Brackets on September 1, 2021.

The Brackets editor project is now 100% community-owned and driven. The latest version release of Brackets is 2.0.1.[10]

Features

Brackets provides several features including:

• Quick Edit
• Quick Docs
• Live Preview
• JSLint
• LESS support^[15]
• Open source^[16]
• Extensibility

Functionality

1. HTML & CSS real time updates (without reloading)
2. Element Highlighting: Elements selected in HTML and CSS files are highlighted within the browser.

Live preview limitations

• Currently only works with desktop Google Chrome (not open-source Chromium), as the target browser.
• Opening developer tools in Google Chrome will close all live development connections.
• All files to be viewed must be inside a currently open folder in Brackets.
• Only one HTML file can be previewed at a time.
• Real time updates are paused when syntactically invalid HTML is encountered. Brackets will resume pushing changes to the browser when the syntax is corrected.

Conclusion

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