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Windows 10 plain text editor7/26/2023 ![]() ![]() Xedit uses only the most basic X11 librariesĪ similar experience is available for KDE users:.Some have names that follow a certain pattern: What features they do offer are often centered around markup, Markdown, or code. These editors let you write and edit text with minimal interference and minimal assistance. If your idea of a good text editor is a word processor except without all the processing, you're probably looking for one of these classics. It's not the most robust editing experience, but it is versatile and always available. The heredoc (or Here Doc) system, available in any POSIX terminal, allows you to type text directly into your open terminal and then pipes what you type into a text file. You don't always need a text editor to edit text.Get to know it better, and you may find yourself open text editor applications a lot less frequently. Sed is a powerful command with lots of useful subcommands. Most Linux users learn at least one sed command when searching for the easiest and fastest way to update a line in a config file, but it's worth taking a closer look. Building upon ed, the Sed stream editor is popular both for its functionality and its syntax.You can count on it being installed on nearly every Linux or Unix system you'll ever encounter. The ed line editor is part of the POSIX and Open Group's standard definition of a Unix-based operating system.In other words, no matter what terminal-based editor you are used to, you're likely to feel right at home with e3. The excellent e3 application is a tiny text editor with five built-in keyboard shortcut schemes to emulate Emacs, Vi, nano, NEdit, and WordStar.By default, it's a good compromise between something relatively mysterious like Emacs or Vi and the always-on verbosity of GNU Nano (for example, it tells you how to activate an onscreen help display, but it's not on by default). If you're not familiar with Wordstar, JOE can also mimic Emacs or GNU nano. JOE is based on an old text-editing application called WordStar.This is a refreshing take on user experience, so it's no wonder that it's nano, not Vi, that's set as the default editor for "user-friendly" distributions. Yes, this humble editor takes a cue from GUI editors by telling the user exactly which key they need to press to perform a specific function. GNU nano takes a bold stance on terminal-based text editing: it provides a menu.One thing that sets it apart from other editors is its use of S-Lang, a C-like scripting language providing extensibility options to developers more comfortable with C than with Lisp. Another lightweight emacs editor, Jed is a simple incarnation of a macro-based workflow.It's easy to use, but if you're new to emacsen (the plural of emacs), Jove is also easy to learn, thanks to the teachjove command. If you like Emacs but find GNU Emacs too bloated, then you might like Jove.Once you start using Emacs, you might find it difficult to think of a reason to close it because it's just that versatile! It's great for sysadmins, developers, and everyday users alike, with loads of features and seemingly endless extensions. The original free emacs, and one of the first official applications of the GNU project that started the Free Software movement, GNU Emacs is a wildly popular text editor.As a special bonus, it features an implementation of the Clippy interface. It looks and feels a lot like Vi at first, but with its own unique style, both in design and function. Kakoune is a Vim-inspired application with a familiar, minimalistic interface, short keyboard shortcuts, and separate editing and insert modes.It takes practice (it even has its own tutor application, vimtutor.) Modern incarnations of Vi, most notably Vim, have added many features, including multiple levels of undo, better navigation while in insert mode, line folding, syntax highlighting, plugin support, and much more. The original Vi editor was an application written by Bill Joy, creator of the C shell. It's the quintessential Unix text editor, with its unique combination of editing modes and super-efficient single-key shortcuts. Vi ships with every Linux, BSD, Solaris, and macOS installation.Whether you want to work in the terminal, on your desktop, or in the cloud, you can literally try a different editor every day for a month (or one a month for almost three years) in your relentless search for the perfect typing experience. If you're looking for a good text editor, you'll find that Linux has plenty to offer. And the more time you spend in a text editor, the more likely you are to demand more from whatever you use. Computers are text-based, so the more things you do with them, the more you find yourself needing a text-editing application. ![]()
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