Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

macOS Coding program similar to Notepad++

P

PeoTheOne1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 5, 2015
4
0
Hello MacRumors community,

I've just bought myself a new Macbook Pro 15" and I'm looking for a coding app similar to that of Notepad++ on Windows. I really like the simplicity and the large number of languages included.
The most important languages that should be included are:
- C, C++, C#
- Assembler
- VHDL
- HTML
- XML
- Python
- ...
I'm mainly into the embedded devices programming, and I know there are usually a lot of development suites available for each different language. however to quickly glance over a certain code with text markup without having to launch the entire dev suite would be great for me. Thanks!
 
I use TextMate like that. (For what it's worth, I too use Notepad++ as my go-to lightweight text-editor on Windows.)

You'll want the 2.0 beta (which, despite being called a beta has been solid for years and gets updates). It seems like it's free these days. (Unless my old 1.x license is somehow working with me realizing it.)
 
My workflow of late involves using xcode to edit python, using the terminal.

To make a file..

"touch test.py"

to edit it

"open test.py"

to execute it

"python test.py"

but there are probably easier ways.
 
'Standalone' editors:

TextWrangler (http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/) - free
Atom (https://atom.io) - free
Sublime Text (http://www.sublimetext.com) - paid

I'd say TextWrangler is good if you want something with a shallow learning curve that you can use in between 'suites'. For "power users", SublimeText seems to be the choice for 'serious' editor users who have torn themselves away from vi or emacs, Atom is the new shiny for the github generation.
 
What is all this crap you guys are suggesting?

Was it the fact that he named a crappy text editor that made you think he really wanted a crappy text editor?

Sublime Text. It has a $70 price tag but an unlimited demo, no strings attached. I've been using the demo on ~5 different machines over the past several years. I'll pay the $70 someday when I actually have that much money to my name that doesn't immediately need to pay a different bill.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
What is all this crap you guys are suggesting?
Was it the fact that he named a crappy text editor that made you think he really wanted a crappy text editor?
Click to expand...

Purely because I've never heard anyone have such a strong opinion about a text editor, I'm going to give your recommendation of Sublime Text a try. ;) I still say that TextWrangler is a respectable text editor though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CreatorCode
Why call coderunner crap? It is a very nice environment for IDE free coding.

But I shouldn't wonder after reading of your opinion of one of the most annoyong editors I rver met: Sublime...
 
superscape said:
Purely because I've never heard anyone have such a strong opinion about a text editor, I'm going to give your recommendation of Sublime Text a try. ;) I still say that TextWrangler is a respectable text editor though.
Click to expand...

Heh, one thing I've learned in all my years on this earth: The more trivial the differences between the options, the more vociferous the debate. In the end you'll probably find one that suits you without too much trouble. And after a while you'll have a hard time imagining going with anything else. Text editors, religion, it goes the same.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AngerDanger
Am I the only guy that uses Komodo Edit as my primary editor? I never see it come up in threads like these... I wonder if I'm doing everything wrong in my life.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
What is all this crap you guys are suggesting?

Was it the fact that he named a crappy text editor that made you think he really wanted a crappy text editor?

Sublime Text. It has a $70 price tag but an unlimited demo, no strings attached. I've been using the demo on ~5 different machines over the past several years. I'll pay the $70 someday when I actually have that much money to my name that doesn't immediately need to pay a different bill.
Click to expand...

And why is this better than any of the options above, some of which, including VIM come pre-installed?

Sure, VIM isn't for everyone, but it will run over SSH and give you skills which will translate to any unix machine, which plenty of the other options will not.
 
throAU said:
And why is this better than any of the options above, some of which, including VIM come pre-installed?

Sure, VIM isn't for everyone, but it will run over SSH and give you skills which will translate to any unix machine, which plenty of the other options will not.
Click to expand...

VIM doesn't do anything automatically. No automatic indenting, no ability to recognize blocks of code, no code highlighting. The only appealing part of VIM is that it runs over SSH and, like you said, is pre-installed. So if you need to quickly change a file on a server that has no desktop manager and it'll be quicker than transferring the file to your local machine and back, then use VIM. Otherwise, it's about par with TextEdit for how useful it is.
 
throAU said:
Sure, VIM isn't for everyone, but it will run over SSH and give you skills which will translate to any unix machine, which plenty of the other options will not.
Click to expand...

VIM is for softies - you really must learn a line editor like 'ed' in case you fall through a time warp to the 1980s and have to fix a system from the teletype console because all the VT100s are down...

Meanwhile, in the 21st Century, here's all you need to know about VIM:

Code: 
vipw
(curse loudly)
:q!
export EDITOR=/usr/bin/nano (or one of the other fine text editors available)
vipw

...and remember to avoid DeLoreans, police telephone boxes and swirly purple vortex thingies.

Of course, you may actually like VIM which is perfectly permissible, but probably means you've been using it daily for years... like many applications with a steep learning curve, you can get very efficient with it over time.

Meanwhile, TextWrangler has a built-in SFTP client (as, I assume, do most of the other contenders here) or you could use something like Transmit to browse files over SSH, so you can edit files in your lovely Mac GUI without having to copy them back and forth.

ArtOfWarfare said:
Was it the fact that he named a crappy text editor that made you think he really wanted a crappy text editor?
Click to expand...

No, but the comment "however to quickly glance... without having to launch the entire dev suite" kinda suggests that the OP was going to be bouncing around between the editors in various IDEs and needed something that was quick and easy to use 'between' IDEs.

TextWrangler is fairly straightforward and everything it can do is right there in the menu.

Sublime Text may be great but getting your $70 worth out of it includes some considerable investment of time in learning the commands and selecting plug-ins. Not saying its got the same sort of learning curve as VIM - but my definite impression of it was that it took a while to exploit fully.
 
ahall52 said:
Am I the only guy that uses Komodo Edit as my primary editor? I never see it come up in threads like these... I wonder if I'm doing everything wrong in my life.
Click to expand...

A guy at work uses it (well, he used to but now he uses Coda) so gave it a shot.

Good things: It's Java based so it runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac
Bad thing: It's Java based so it's not as fast or as nice as a Mac native editor. It also is a little CPU (and therefore battery) heavy
 
556fmjoe said:
Am I the only one who prefers vi to vim?

(Technically I use nvi, but whatever...)
Click to expand...

What's the difference? I thought VI was how lazy people said Vim.

I use nano (over SSH), because I like to take 30 minutes to do a job I could do in Vim in 30 seconds.

Generally use Sublime for local development though, as it's the best thing since sliced bread.

Tried Atom, but found that it lacked a couple of nice keyboard shortcuts that exist in Sublime, plus it feels slower.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back