I have looked at some related posts, such as Vim as Visual Studio IDE.
The poster seems to want to bring the full power of VIM into Visual Studio, which I understand to be a fairly messy procedure. This is not what I want.
I just want plain vanilla VIM to be functional with the VS IDE. That is, all I want is to be able to switch between Normal and Insert mode (for starters), where I can move through code within Normal mode and type in text within Insert mode. Using the search and marking features would be nice as well, but I just want to make one step at a time. Of course I can just open up a terminal and VIM through the source code, but I would not have the useful VS IntelliSense at my disposal.
I am asking for suggestions/advice on how to achieve the above but a good reference (book, article, another stackoverflow post, etc.) on how to achieve the above also suffices for an answer.
I'll caveat this answer by saying that I don't use Visual Studio, but the options available are similar regardless of the IDE.
If I understand your question correctly, I think you have two options:
1) Install a vim emulation plugin. This should be able to integrate basic vim functionality into the IDE off the bat. Vim by vscode looks like it might satisfy your requirements; the repository states that it implements Normal Mode and Insert Mode, searching with / and ?, and some mark features. (source: ).
VsVim by Jared Par, is also another option, although less well documented.
2) Set up vim as an External tool in your IDE. Open the External Tools (Tools > External Tools). Set the command to point to your vim installation and the arguments"+call cursor($(CurLine)$(CurCol))" $(ItemPath) (you might need to play around with escaping to get this to work). This should open the current file in native vim at the current position. To make this transition as seamless as possible, I would recommend creating a shortcut. Were you to choose this option, you could also experiment with utilising the other arguments provided by VScode, like passing over the currently selected text over to vim, for example.
Out of the two, installing a plugin is quicker and easier and might suit your needs. However, you may get frustrated at the differences to native vim - the lack of support for some features, the inability to configure using a vimrc and through native vim plugins. Ultimately, the right option will depend on how you use Vim at the moment. Personally, I settled for the second option.
Do any of you have any good links that you could share with me? I am looking for a FAST programmers editor that can open a file containing over 100, 000 lines of code really fast? i'm currently using notepad atm and its taking a good 8 seconds to open a file that is 29000 lines long :(
i would prefer something that is just like notepad.
and yes, i have tried everything that i've found on google and they all either have splash screens, or they are just too slow. i don't want to wait 8 seconds just to add a line or two. or just to check what number the last array is etc...
Have you had a look at Notepad++.
I use this editor extensively and have been very impressed thus far.
check out
Programmer's notepad
You could always try vi / vim
Have you tried Sublime Text? I just tried it with 100,000 line file where each line contained 'x' * 80, and it only took about a second.
Personally I use jed, which is a lightweight emacs clone, but it's probably not to everyone's taste. (In particular, it doesn't really feel like a Windows application - it doesn't have the normal keyboard shortcuts etc. Once you're used to it, it's very quick though...)
Textpad is what I've used for years. It's cheap, light-weight, yet very functional.
It does have a splash by default, however, that can be disabled in the options.
I just ran a test of the Zeus programmer's editor and it loaded a 100,000 line C/C++ file in less than a second.
Cream. It's Vim, but with sane keyboard bindings.
TextMate if you use Mac
I am wondering why no one hasn't mentioned SciTE yet... its one of the best code editors, with source code coloring support (don't know if that's the correct term for it), and lots other features...
you can also try Notepad2, such as good replacement for notepad itself, extending it to be good enough as a code/simple programmer's editor...
Nobody mentioned Emacs yet?
I use it on the PC i'm on now without trouble (and the beast has 256Megs of RAM..)
In the linux world GEdit and Kate fits most needs.
Notepad++ has code coloring for almost every language.
Dreamweaver is great to use purely as a text editor/FTP tool if you're doing web stuff.
Assuming a superficial knowledge exists, how might one go about forcing a mastery of Emacs?
Assume also that said person currently uses Aquamacs but falls back on Mac OS X-isms far too often. This person is serious (this time for sure), and needs some advice.
C-h t
Take the tutorial, and actually follow it all the way through.
Then, learn some of the more useful time-saving functionality, like C-x ( to start recording a macro, C-x ) to finish, and C-x e to execute the last macro. Read the manual (C-h i m emacs RET) for more details. Try learning to browse through the documentation within info mode in Emacs, rather than resorting to the web, to get more used to how navigation works in Emacs.
Oh, and try using an Emacs that doesn't have the Aquamacs key bindings. There is a command line version of Emacs included on Mac OS X, though using the Meta key is a pain there (you have to either set your Terminal preferences to use Option as meta, or always use Esc). You can also use MacPorts to install an X11 version of Emacs, which won't have the Mac style keybindings.
Also, try using Emacs keybindings in other Cocoa text editing views. It's not something that a lot of people know, but a few common Emacs keybindings also work in the standard Cocoa text controls, such as C-a to go to the beginning of a line, C-e to go to the end, C-k to kill to the end of the line, C-y to yank from the kill buffer (which is different than the pasteboard). C-t transposes two characters, and I'm sure there are more that I can't think of at the moment. Using these on a regular basis will get your fingers used to Emacs keybindings (many of these also generally work in most shells, and in programs that use GNU Readline for being able to accept editable input).
For any technology you use on a regular basis, seek out the best Emacs mode you can for that technology, and learn it inside and out. For instance, if you're a Git user, I find Magit indispensable. If you program JavaScript, make sure you use Steve Yegge's js2-mode. If you use Common Lisp, learn SLIME, if you use Erlang learn distel. Sometimes, the best Emacs mode won't be the best tool you can find for a job, but for many, many things it's pretty good, and great to have it all integrated in to the same editor and environment.
Keep practicing everything you learn, over and over. I find that I frequently learn a new Emacs keybinding, and then promptly forget it because I don't use it for another 6 months. You can alleviate this problem by looking for any excuse you can to use a new keybinding after you first learn it, to help get it ingrained in your memory.
Don't use Mail.app, Gmail, or whatever -- use Gnus.
Don't use a web browser for programming information, use Info pages
where possible.
Don't use Terminal, use M-x shell.
Make sure you have a right and a left control key. I have a MacBook and have mapped the right option key to control.
Swap left control and capslock.
Read Steve Yegge's advice.
Find a killer app.
Always, always, always read the Emacs manual and use M-x apropos when you want to do something but don't quite know how. Emacs probably has the best online help of any program, ever.
I found the only way to master anything is to do it daily (practice, practice, practice).
As far as Mac OS X-isms... I'm not sure that's a problem per-say. Personally, in my quest to master Vim, I ditched Mac OS X entirely and have been happily living in GNU/Linux-land since.
Good luck!
Practice.
Try to answer questions here that are tagged Emacs.
Practice more.
Visit the Emacs Wiki and try ideas from it.
Practice even more.
Good luck!
Step 1: Notice you are doing something complicated.
Step 2: Read the manual to see if there's an easier way.
Step 3: Undo your changes.
Step 4: Do things the "new way".
Step 5: You've just learned one more new feature. Go to Step 1.
Switch to Carbon Emacs which doesn't have all the Mac bindings. It's a lot closer to the Unix Emacs experience but doesn't require X11 installed. The only real downside to Carbon Emacs is that Apple has no 64 bit Carbon and is probably phasing Carbon out, so Carbon Emacs might not have a long life ahead of it.
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 10 years ago.
I searched for this and found Maudite's question about text editors but they were all for Windows.
As you have no doubt guessed, I am trying to find out if there are any text/code editors for the Mac besides what I know of. I'll edit my post to include editors listed.
Free
Textwrangler
Xcode
Mac Vim
Aquamacs and closer to the original EMacs
JEdit
Editra
Eclipse
NetBeans
Kod
TextMate2 - GPL
Brackets
Atom.io
Commercial
Textmate
BBEdit
SubEthaEdit
Coda
Sublime Text 2
Smultron
WebStorm
Peppermint
Articles related to the subject
Faceoff, which is the best text editor ever?
Maceditors.com, mac editors features compared
Thank you everybody that has added suggestions.
I thought TextMate was everyone's favourite. I haven't met a programmer using a Mac who is not using TextMate.
I haven't used it myself, but another free one that I've heard good thing about is Smultron.
In my own research on this, I found this interesting article:
Faceoff: Which Is The Best Mac Text Editor Ever?
Emacs
Vim
But I use TextMate, and can say that it is, without a doubt, worth every penny I paid for it.
Sublime text is awesome (http://www.sublimetext.com/2). Excellent search features, very fast and lightweight. Very decent code completion.
I also use RubyMine and WebStorm a lot (http://www.jetbrains.com/). They are excellent but not all purpose like TextMate.
MacVim and SubEthaEdit are two nice options
I've tried Komodo out a bit, and I really like it so far. Aptana, an Eclipse variant, is also rather useful for a wide variety of things. There's always good ole' VI, too!
If you ever plan on making a serious effort at learning Emacs, immediately forget about Aquamacs. It tries to twist and bend Emacs into something it's not (a super-native OS X app). That might sound well and all, but once you realize that it completely breaks nearly every standard keybinding and behavior of Emacs, you begin to wonder why you aren't just using TextEdit or TextMate.
Carbon Emacs is a good Emacs application for OS X. It is as close as you'll get to GNU Emacs without compiling for yourself. It fits in well enough with the operating system, but at the same time, is the wonderful Emacs we all know and love. Currently it requires Leopard with the latest release, but most people have upgraded by now anyway. You can fetch it here.
Alternatively, if you want to use Vim on OS X, I've heard good things about MacVim.
Beyond those, there are the obvious TextEdit, TextMate, etc line of editors. They work for some people, but most "advanced" users I know (myself included) hate touching them with anything shorter than a 15ft pole.
CotEditor is a Cocoa-based open source text editor. It is popular in Japan.
Best open source one is Smultron in my opinion, but it doesn't a torch to TextMate.
There's a new kid on the block - PHPStorm. I used it for a whole year. Its not free but offers an individual license of 49$ for a year, free for Open Source Developers.
Speedy for an IDE - Its based on Java so looks somewhat like Eclipse/Netbeans but smokes them to dust in terms of speed (not as fast as Coda/Textmate as this is an IDE).
Keyboard shortcuts galore - I seldom touched the mouse while developing using PHPStorm (that's what I didn't like about Coda)
Subversion support built-in - Didn't need to touch Versions or any other SVN client on Mac
Supports snippets, templates - zen-coding is supported as well
Supports projects, though in separate windows
File search, code search
code completion, supports PHPDoc code completion too
BBEdit makes all other editors look like Notepad.
It handles gigantic files with ease; most text editors (TextMate especially) slow down to a dead crawl or just crash when presented with a large file.
The regexp and multiple-file Find dialogs beat anything else for usability.
The clippings system works like magic, and has selection, indentation, placeholder, and insertion point tags, it's not just dumb text.
BBEdit is heavily AppleScriptable. Everything can be scripted.
In 9.0, BBEdit has code completion, projects, and a ton of other improvements.
I primarily use it for HTML, CSS, JS, and Python, where it's extremely strong. Some more obscure languages are not as well-supported in it, but for most purposes it's fantastic.
The only devs I know who like TextMate are Ruby fans. I really do not get the appeal, it's marginally better than TextWrangler (BBEdit's free little brother), but if you're spending money, you may as well buy the better tool for a few dollars more.
jEdit does have the virtue of being cross-platform. It's not nearly as good as BBEdit, but it's a competent programmer's editor. If you're ever faced with a Windows or Linux system, it's handy to have one tool you know that works.
Vim is fine if you have to work over ssh and the remote system or your computer can't do X11. I used to love Vim for the ease of editing large files and doing repeated commands. But these days, it's a no-vote for me, with the annoyance of the non-standard search & replace (using (foo) groups instead of (foo), etc.), painfully bad multi-document handling, lack of a project/disk browser view, lack of AppleScript, and bizarre mouse handling in the GVim version.
jEdit runs on OS X, being Java-based. It's somewhat similar to TextMate, I think.
Editra looks interesting, but I've not tried it myself.
TextMate not for "advanced programmers". That does not make sense, TextMate contains everything an "advanced programmer" would want. It allows them to define a bundle that allows them to quickly set up the way they want their source code formatted, or one that follows the project guidelines, quick easy access to create entire structures and classes based on typing part of a construct and hitting tab.
TextMate is my tool of choice, it is fast, lightweight and yet contains all of the features I would want in a tool to program with. While it is not tightly integrated in Xcode, that is not a problem for me as I don't write software for Mac OS X. I write software for FreeBSD.
Definitely BBEdit. I code, and BBEdit is what I use to code.
You might consider one of the classics - they're both free, extensible and have large user bases that extend beyond the Mac:
Aquamacs - emacs for OS X (emacs in a shell window is also an option)
Mac Vim - VI with a Mac-specific GUI (vim in a shell window is also an option)
I prefer an old-school editing setup. I use command-line vim embedded in a GNU Screen "window" inside of iTerm.
This may not integrate well with XCode, but I think it works great for developing and using command-line programs. If you spend any significant time working in a terminal, GNU Screen is worth the 30 minutes it takes to master the basic terminal multiplexing concepts.
Coda's great for PHP/ASP/HTML style development. Great interface, multiple-file search and replace with regexp support, slick FTP/SFTP/etc integration for browsing and editing remote files, SVN integration, etc.
It now supports plugins and the plugin editor can import TextMate bundles, so there's a bright future there. There aren't a lot of must-have plugins yet because the plugin support was newly introduced with version 1.6 a few months back. It's a popular app, though, so I expect more in the future.
The "killer features" for me are:
* Seamless editing of remote files
* Code navigator (symbol browser; pane that lists functions etc)
Most people aren't really into using symbol browsers but as I have to maintain a lot of unfamiliar code I find them invaluable.
I'm not sure that Coda has the "raw power" of TextMate though. I plan on getting familiar with TextMate next.
I make use of Komodo IDE. It supports a huge number of languages, and is customisable but is a bit expensive (my company bought me a copy). A really good alternative is the free version called Komodo Edit. Loads really quickly and has a decent feature list and I find myself turning to it rather than the full IDE for a lot of jobs.
Smultron is another good (and free) one.
I actually prefer EditRocket over TextMate. I use it on both my Mac and Ubuntu machines. It is nice to use the same editor on multiple operating systems.
Textmate is state of the Art editor, but if someone is thinking about developing on several platforms without awkward memory eaters monsters like jedit, eclipse, netbeans etc take a look at geany (geany.org). It is free. The only problem the editor has not esthetic look and feel on Mac OS X :)
Fraise is a nice free option. It has some rough edges, but you can't beat the price. I believe it's a fork or successor of Smultron.
SubEthaEdit
Coda
DashCode with OS X 10.8 or older
Eclipse and its variants.
Netbeans
I use Eclipse as my primary editor (for Python) but I always keep SubEthaEdit handy as my supplemental text editor (free trial, 30 euros to license). It's not super-complicated but it does what I need.
Another vote for Smultron. I used it when doing some XQuery programming and being able to define a keyword files for syntax color highlighting was great.
I have installed both Smultron and Textwrangler, but find myself using Smultron most of the time.
I would love to use a different editor than XCode for coding, but I feel, that no other editor integrates tightly enough with it to be really worthwhile.
However, given some time, TextMate might eventually get to that point. At the moment though, it primarily lacks debugging features and refactoring.
For everything that does not need XCode, I love TextMate. If I had another Mac-user in my workgroup I would probably consider SubEthaEdit for its collaboration features. If it is Emacs you want, I would recommend Aquamacs (more Mac-like) or Carbon Emacs (more GNU-Emacs-like)
I've been using BBEdit for years. It's rock-solid, fast, and integrates into my Xcode workflow decently well. (I'm not sure anything integrates into Xcode as well as the built-in editor, but who has time to wait for the built-in editor?)
For small team projects which don't use a source control system, or for single user editing on multiple machines, SubEthaEdit comes highly recommended.
Eclipse and Netbeans have text editors among a whole lot of other stuff. I don't think you would want to wait 10 seconds for your text editor to become ready :/...If you are going to spend some serious time coding then spend some time and learn to use vim (emacs too but, I recommend vim)