Jump to content

Comparison of text editors

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nathanr85 (talk | contribs) at 16:17, 21 November 2013 (Corrected latest stable release for Komodo, corrected initial release date, added explicit mentions of Komodo IDE as it's features/functionality is not always the same as Komodo Edit). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article provides basic comparisons for common text editors. More feature details for text editors are available from the Category of text editor features and from the individual products' articles. This article may not be up-to-date or necessarily all-inclusive.

Feature comparisons are made between stable versions of software, not the upcoming versions or beta releases – and are exclusive of any add-ons, extensions or external programs (unless specified in footnotes).

Overview

List of text editors
Name Creator First public release Latest stable version Programming language Cost (US$) Software license Open source
Acme Rob Pike 1993 Plan 9 and Inferno C Free LPL (OSI approved) Yes
AkelPad Alexey Kuznetsov, Alexander Shengalts 2003 4.8.5 C Free BSD Yes
Alphatk Vince Darley 1999 8.3.3 $40 Proprietary, with BSD components No
Aquamacs David Reitter 2005 2.4 C, Emacs Lisp Free GPL Yes
BBEdit Rich Siegel 1992-04 10.5.1 Lasso $49.99 Proprietary No
Bluefish Bluefish Development Team 1999 2.2.2 C Free GPL Yes
Coda Panic 2007 2 Lasso $99 Proprietary No
ConTEXT ConTEXT Project Ltd 1999 0.98.6 Object Pascal (Delphi) Free BSD Yes
Crimson Editor Ingyu Kang, Emerald Editor Team 1999 3.72 C++ Free GPL Yes
Diakonos Pistos 2004 0.9.1 Ruby Free GPL Yes
E Text Editor Alexander Stigsen 2005 2.0.2 $46.95 Proprietary, with BSD components No
ed Ken Thompson 1970 unchanged from original C Free ? Yes
EditPlus Sangil Kim 1998 3.50 $35 Shareware No
Editra Cody Precord 2007 0.6.77 Python Free wxWindows license Yes
EmEditor Emurasoft, Inc. 1997 10.0.1 $39.99 1-user Shareware No
epsilon Lugaru Software 1984 13.06 C $250 Proprietary No
gedit GNU Project 2000 3.2.2 C Free GPL Yes
Geany Enrico Tröger 2005 1.22 C, GTK2 Free GPL Yes
GNU Emacs Richard Stallman 1984 24.3 C, Emacs Lisp Free GPL Yes
Gobby 0x539 dev group 2005 0.4.12 C++ Free GPL Yes
JED John E. Davis 1992 0.99-19 C Free GPL Yes
jEdit Slava Pestov 1998 (?) 5.0.0 Java Free GPL Yes
JOE Joseph Allen 1988 3.7 C Free GPL Yes
Kate KDE Project 2000-12 3.11.1 C++ Free GPL Yes
KEDIT Mansfield Software Group, Inc. 1983 1.6 $129 Proprietary No
Komodo Edit Activestate open-sourced 2007 8.5 Python, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, PHP, Ruby Free MPL, GPL, LGPL Yes
Komodo IDE Activestate 2001 8.5 Python, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, PHP, Ruby $295 Proprietary No
KWrite KDE Project 2000 4.11.1 C++ Free GPL Yes
LE Alexander V. Lukyanov 1997 1.14.5 C++ Free GPL Yes
Leo Edward K. Ream 1996 4.11 Python Free Mit Licence Yes
Metapad Alexander Davidson 1999 3.6 C Free GPL Yes
MinEd Thomas Wolff 1992 2011.17 C Free GPL Yes
MS-DOS Editor Microsoft 1991 2.0.026 Bundled with MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows Proprietary No
Nano Chris Allegretta 1999 2.2.6 C Free GPL Yes
ne Sebastiano Vigna, Todd Lewis, Daniele Filaretti 1993 2.5 C Free GPL Yes
NEdit Mark Edel 1991 5.5 C Free GPL Yes
Notepad Microsoft 1985 6.0 MASM (originally) Bundled with Microsoft Windows Proprietary No
Notepad++ Don Ho 2003-11-25 6.5 C++ Free GPL Yes
Notepad2 Florian Balmer 2004-04 4.1.24 C++ Free BSD Yes
NoteTab Eric Fookes, Fookes Software 1995 7.1 Object Pascal (Delphi) Free, $10 Standard, $20 Pro Proprietary No
nvi Keith Bostic ? 1.79 C Free BSD Yes
Pico University of Washington ? 4.64 Free Proprietary No
PolyEdit PolySoft Solutions 1998 5.0 Preview Release $27.95 Shareware No
Programmer's Notepad Simon Steele 1998 2.3 C++ Free BSD Yes
PSPad Jan Fiala 2002 4.5.6 Object Pascal (Delphi) Free Proprietary No
Q10 Baara Estudio 2007 1.2.21 ? Free Proprietary No
RJ TextEd Rickard Johansson 2004 8.42 Object Pascal (Delphi) Free Proprietary No
RText Fifesoft 2003 1.1.0 Java Free GPL Yes
SciTE Neil Hodgson 1999-03 2.21 C++ Free HPND Yes
skEdit Sean Kelly, skti 2002 3.6.1 $24.95 for lifetime Proprietary No
SlickEdit SlickEdit, Inc. 1988 16.0.0 C, Slick-C $299 Proprietary No
Smultron Peter Borg 2004 3.8 Objective-C $5 Proprietary No
Source Insight Source Dynamics ? 3.50.0072 Source Insight macro language $239-$255 Proprietary No
SubEthaEdit TheCodingMonkeys 2003 3.5.2 (3294) $35 commercial use Proprietary No
Sublime Text Jon Skinner 2008 2126 C++, Python, Lasso $70 commercial use Proprietary No
TED Notepad Juraj Simlovic 2001 5.4.2 C Free Freeware No
TextEdit Apple Inc. 2001 1.7 Free, bundled with OS X New BSD Yes
TextMate MacroMates 2004-10-10 1.5.7 Objective-C++ $54 Proprietary, with MIT components. Version 2 released under GPLv3 Yes (From version 2)
TextPad Helios Software Solutions 1992 6.2.2 $30.00 (£16.50) Shareware No
TextWrangler Bare Bones Software 2003 4.0.1 Free Proprietary No
The SemWare Editor Sammy Mitchell 1985-11 4.4 C, SAL $99 Proprietary No
Tincta Mr. Fridge Software 2011 2.0 Objective-C Free Proprietary No
UltraEdit IDM Computer Solutions 1994 20.00 $59.95 Proprietary No
VEDIT Ted Green, Greenview Data 1980 6.21 Assembly, C $89 standard, $239 Pro64 Proprietary No
Vim Bram Moolenaar 1991 7.4 C, Vimscript Free GPL compatible Yes
XEmacs Lucid Inc. 1991 21.4.22 C, Emacs Lisp Free GPL Yes
Yi Don Stewart 2005 0.6.6 Haskell Free GPL Yes
Name Creator First public release Latest stable version Programming language Cost (US$) Software license Open source

Operating system support

This section lists the operating systems that different editors can run on. Some editors run on additional operating systems that are not listed.

Cross-platform

Text editor support for various operating systems
Windows OS X Linux BSD Unix OpenVMS
Acme Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Aquamacs No Yes No No No No
BBEdit No Yes No No No No
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Coda No Yes No No No No
Diakonos Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
ed Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Editra Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
epsilon Yes Yes[1] Yes Yes Yes No
Geany Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
gedit Yes Yes[2] Yes Yes Yes No
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gobby Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
JED Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
JOE Partial[3] Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Kate Partial[4] Yes Yes Yes Yes No
KEDIT Yes No Yes Yes No No
Komodo Edit Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
Komodo IDE Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ?
KWrite Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
LE Partial[3] Yes Yes Yes Yes No
MinEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Nano Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
NEdit Partial[3] Yes[5] Yes Yes Yes Yes
ne Partial[3] Yes Yes Yes Yes No
nvi No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Pico No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RText Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
SciTE Yes Yes[5] Yes Yes Yes No
SlickEdit Yes Yes[5] Yes No Yes No
Smultron No Yes No No No No
Sublime Text Yes Yes Yes No No No
TextMate No Yes No No No No
TextWrangler No Yes No No No No
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes No No No
Vim Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yi Partial Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Windows OS X Linux BSD Unix OpenVMS

Java-based

Windows-only

Template:Multicol

Template:Multicol-break

Template:Multicol-end

Mac-only

Natural language (localization)

Available languages for the UI
English German French Polish Korean Japanese Italian Dutch Portuguese Spanish Swedish Total
Acme Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
AkelPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No 20
Alphatk Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Aquamacs Yes No No No ? No No No No No No 1
BBEdit Yes No No No ? No No No No No No 1
Acme Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
ConTEXT Yes Yes Yes Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes Yes No 22
Crimson Editor Yes No No No ? No No No No No No 1
Diakonos Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
E Text Editor Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
ed No No No No No No No No No No No 0
EditPlus Yes No ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? 2
Editra Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 24
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No 14
epsilon Yes No No No ? No No No No No No 1
gedit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 82
Geany Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 21
GNU Emacs Yes No No No No No No No No No No 1
Gobby Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 20
JED Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
jEdit Yes No No No ? No No No No No No 1
JOE Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 4
Kate Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 50 fully / 18 mostly [7]
KEDIT Yes No No No No No No No No No No 1
Komodo Edit Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
KWrite Yes Yes ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? Yes Yes 5
Metapad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 33 [8]
mined Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
MS-DOS Editor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 11
Nano Yes ? Yes ? ? ? Yes ? Yes ? ? 4
NEdit Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Notepad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 11
Notepad++ Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 43
Notepad2 Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes Yes 6
NoteTab Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
nvi Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Pico Yes ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? 2
PolyEdit Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Programmer's Notepad Yes Yes No No No No No No No Yes No 7
PSPad Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 36
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 18
Q10 Yes Yes ? ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ? 6
RText Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 17
SciTE Yes Yes Outdated (1.72) Yes ? Outdated (1.62) Yes Outdated (1.67) Outdated (1.63) Yes Yes 39 [9]
skEdit Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
SlickEdit Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Smultron Yes Yes Yes No ? Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes 13
Source Insight Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
SubEthaEdit Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
TED Notepad Yes No ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
TextEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 18
TextMate Yes No No No ? No No No No No No 1
TextPad Yes Yes Yes Outdated (4.7.3) ? Yes Outdated (4.7.3) Outdated (4.7.3) Outdated (4.7.3) Outdated (4.7.3) No 9
TextWrangler Yes No No No ? No No No No No No 1
The SemWare Editor Yes No No No No No No No No No No 1
Tincta Yes No No No No No No No No No No 1
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes No 7
VEDIT Yes No No No ? No No No No No No 1
Vim Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 25
XEmacs Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Yi Yes No No No No No No No No No No 1
English German French Polish Korean Japanese Italian Dutch Portuguese Spanish Swedish Total

Document interface

Text editor support for common document interfaces
Multiple instances Single document window splitting MDI: overlappable windows MDI: tabbed document interface MDI: window splitting
Acme Yes Yes No Yes Yes
AkelPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Aquamacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes No
ConTEXT Yes No Yes Yes No
Crimson Editor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Diakonos Yes No No No No
E Text Editor Yes No No Yes Yes
ed Yes No No No No
EditPlus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Editra Yes Yes ? Yes ?
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes No No Yes No
gedit Yes Plugin [8] Yes Yes Plugin [9]
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Plugin [10] [11] Yes
Gobby Yes No No Yes No
JED Yes Yes No No Yes
jEdit Yes Yes No Yes Yes
JOE Yes Yes No No[12] Yes
Kate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
KEDIT No No Yes No No
Komodo Edit Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Komodo IDE Yes Yes No Yes Yes
KWrite Yes No No No No
LE Yes No No No No
Metapad Yes No No No No
mined Yes No No[13] No No
MS-DOS Editor Yes Yes No No Yes
Nano Yes No No No No
NEdit Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Notepad Yes No No No No
Notepad++ Yes Yes No Yes 2 windows
Notepad2 Yes No No No No
NoteTab Yes ? No Yes 2 windows
nvi Yes Yes No No No
Pico Yes No No No No
PolyEdit No No Yes Yes Yes
Programmer's Notepad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PSPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Q10 No No No No No
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RText Yes No Yes Yes No
SciTE Yes No No Yes[14] No
skEdit Yes Yes No Yes No
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Smultron Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Source Insight Yes Yes Yes No No
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes No Yes No
TED Notepad ? ? ? No ?
TextEdit Yes No No No No
TextMate Yes No No Yes No
TextPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes No No Yes
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Vim Yes Yes Yes[15] Yes[16] Yes
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Multiple instances Single document window splitting MDI: overlappable windows MDI: tabbed document interface MDI: window splitting

Notes

  • Multiple instances: multiple instances of the program can be opened simultaneously for editing multiple files. Applies both for single document interface (SDI) and multiple document interface (MDI) programs. Also applies for program that has a user interface that looks like multiple instances of the same program (such as some versions of Microsoft Word).
  • Single document window splitting: window can be split to simultaneously view different areas of a file.
  • MDI: Overlappable windows: each opened document gets its own fully movable window inside the editor environment.
  • MDI: Tabbed document interface: multiple documents can be viewed as tabs in a single window.
  • MDI: Window splitting: splitting application window to show multiple documents (non-overlapping windows).

Basic features

Text editor support for basic editing features
Spell checking Regex-based find & replace Encoding conversion Newline conversion Multiple undo/redo Rectangular block selection
Acme Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
AkelPad Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Aquamacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
ConTEXT No Partial[17] Partial[18] Yes Yes Yes
Crimson Editor Instant/live (like Firefox) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Diakonos Yes[19] Yes No No Yes Yes
E Text Editor Plugin[20] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ed No Yes No No No No
EditPlus Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Editra ? Yes ? ? ? Yes
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Geany Plugin[21] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
gedit Yes[22] Plugin[23] Yes Yes Yes Via plug-in[24]
GNU Emacs Plugin [25] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gobby No No Partial Partial No No
JED Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jEdit Plugin[26] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JOE Plugin[27] Partial[28] No[29] Yes Yes Yes
Kate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
KEDIT No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Komodo Edit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Komodo IDE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
KWrite Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
LE No Yes No[30] Yes Yes Yes
Metapad Partial[31] No Yes Yes Yes No
MinEd No Yes[32] Yes[32] Yes[33] No Yes
MS-DOS Editor No No No Yes No No
Nano Yes Yes No Yes Yes No
Spell checking Regex-based find & replace Encoding conversion Newline conversion Multiple undo/redo Rectangular block selection
NEdit Plugin[34] Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Notepad No No No No No No
Notepad++ Plugin, on-demand only[35] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Notepad2 No Limited[36] Yes Yes Yes Yes
NoteTab Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
nvi No Yes No No Yes ?
Pico Yes No No No Yes ?
PolyEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Programmer's Notepad No Yes Yes[37] Yes[37] Yes Yes
PSPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Q10 Yes ? ? ? ? ?
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RText Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
SciTE No Limited[36] No Yes Yes Yes
skEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Smultron Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Source Insight No Yes No Yes Yes Yes
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[38]
TED Notepad No No No Yes Yes No
TextEdit Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
TextMate Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes
TextPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Tincta Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
UltraEdit Yes Limited[39] Yes Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes[40] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Vim Yes[41] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XEmacs Plugin [25] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yi ? Yes ? ? Yes Yes
Spell checking Regex-based find & replace Encoding conversion Newline conversion Multiple undo/redo Rectangular block selection

Programming features

Text editor support for programming features (see source code editor)
Syntax highlighting Function list Symbol database
(ctags or equiv.)
Brace matching Auto indentation Auto completion Code folding Text folding Compiler integration
Acme No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
AkelPad Plugin Plugin Plugin Plugin Yes Plugin Plugin No Plugin
Alphatk Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Aquamacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes[42]
ConTEXT Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
Crimson Editor Yes No Partial[43] Yes Yes No No No Yes
Diakonos Yes ? Partial Yes Yes Yes No No No
E Text Editor Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ed No No No No No No No No No
EditPlus Yes Yes[44] Partial[43] Yes Yes Yes[45] Yes No Yes
Editra Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? ?
EmEditor Yes Plugin Plugin Yes Yes Plugin [46] Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes Yes Yes[47] Yes Yes Yes Partial No Yes
gedit Yes Plugin Plugin Yes Yes Plugin No Plugin[48] Yes[49]
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gobby Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No
JED Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jEdit Yes Plugin Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Plugin
JOE Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? No No Yes
Kate Yes Plugin Plugin Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Plugin
KEDIT Yes ? Macro Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Komodo Edit Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Komodo IDE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
KWrite Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
LE Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No[50]
Metapad No No No No Yes No No No No
mined Yes[51] ? Yes Yes Yes No No No No
MS-DOS Editor No No No No No No No No No
Nano Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No
Syntax highlighting Function list Symbol database
(ctags or equiv.)
Bracket matching Auto indentation Auto completion Code folding Text folding Compiler integration
ne Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No
NEdit Yes Plugin Yes Yes Yes Plugin No No Yes
Notepad No No No No No No No No No
Notepad++ Yes Plugin Plugin Yes Yes Yes[52] Yes Yes Yes
Notepad2 Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No
NoteTab Partial[53] ? ? No ? Yes ? ? Yes
nvi No ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Pico No No No No No No No No No
PolyEdit Yes No No No No No No No No
Programmer's Notepad Yes Yes Yes Yes[54] Yes[54] Yes Yes[54] No Yes[54]
PSPad Yes Yes Plugin Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
Q10 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RText Yes plugin No Yes Yes No No No No
SciTE Yes No[55] ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
skEdit Yes ? No Yes Yes Yes No No No
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Smultron Yes No No Yes Yes Yes ? ? ?
Source Insight Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Limited
SubEthaEdit Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sublime Text Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TED Notepad No ? ? No Yes Yes No No No
TextEdit No No No No No No No No No
TextMate Yes Yes Plugin Yes Yes Yes[56] Yes Yes No
TextPad Yes No Plugin [57] Yes Yes No No No Yes
TextWrangler Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Plugin [58]
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes Plugin [59] Yes Yes Yes[60] Partial[61] No Yes
UltraEdit Yes Yes Partial[62] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[63] No No Yes
Vim Yes Plugin [64] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XEmacs Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yi Yes[65] No Yes[66] Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes
Syntax highlighting Function list Symbol database
(ctags or equiv.)
Bracket matching Auto indentation Auto completion Code folding Text folding Compiler integration

Notes

  • Syntax highlighting: Displays text in different colors and fonts according to the category of terms.
  • Function list: Lists all functions from current file in a window or sidebar and allows user to jump directly to the definition of that function for example by double-clicking on the function name in the list. More or less realtime (does not require creating a symbol database, see below).
  • Symbol database: Database of functions, variable and type definitions, macro definitions etc. in all the files belonging to the software being developed. The database can be created by the editor itself or by an external program such as ctags. The database can be used to instantly locate the definition even if it is in another file.
  • Bracket matching: Find matching parenthesis or bracket, taking into account nesting.
  • Auto indentation: May refer to just simple indenting to the same level as the line above, or intelligent indenting that is language specific, e.g., ensuring a given indent style.
  • Compiler integration: Allows running compilers/linkers/debuggers from within editor, capturing the compiler output and stepping through errors, automatically moving cursor to corresponding location in the source file.

Extra features

Text editor support for other programming features
Text shell integration Graphical shell integration Macro language Collaborative editing Large file support Multi-line regex support[67] Search in files
Acme Yes No Yes No ? Yes ?
AkelPad Yes Yes Yes No memory Yes Plugin
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes[68] No ? ? ?
Aquamacs Yes Yes Yes Yes memory Yes ?
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes[69] No memory[70] Yes ?
Bluefish No Yes ? Yes ? Yes ?
ConTEXT No Yes Yes No memory[71] No ?
Crimson Editor No Yes Yes No No No ?
Diakonos No No Yes No ? Yes ?
E Text Editor Yes Yes No[72] Yes Yes Yes ?
ed No No No No ? ? Yes
EditPlus ? Yes Yes No memory Yes Yes
Editra ? ? ? ? 2GB ? ?
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes ? Plugin ? ? ? Yes
gedit Yes Yes Yes[73] Plugin No No No
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes on 64bit OS[74] Yes Yes
Gobby ? Yes No Yes ? No ?
JED Yes No Yes No memory[75] ? ?
jEdit Yes No Yes No No (heap)[76] Yes ?
JOE Yes No Yes No Yes ? ?
Kate Yes Yes No No No[77] No ?
KEDIT Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes ?
Komodo Edit ? ? Yes No ? Yes Yes
Komodo IDE ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
KWrite No No No No No[77] No ?
LE Yes No No No[78] memory[79] Yes ?
Metapad Yes Yes No No memory[80] No ?
mined ? ? ? ? ? Yes ?
MS-DOS Editor No No No No No (~300 KB) No No
Nano Yes No No No ? ? ?
Text shell integration Graphical shell integration Macro language Collaborative editing Large file support Multi-line regex support Search in files
NEdit Yes Yes Yes No No Yes ?
Notepad Yes Yes No No memory No No
Notepad++ Yes Yes Yes with plugin No[81] Yes Yes
Notepad2 No No No No memory[82] No ?
NoteTab ? ? Yes ? No Yes[83] ?
nvi Yes No No ? ? ? ?
Pico ? ? ? No ? ? ?
PolyEdit Yes Yes No No Yes Yes ?
Programmer's Notepad No Yes Yes[73] No slow[84] Yes ?
PSPad Yes Yes Yes No memory[85] with plugin Yes
Q10 ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes No No Yes ?
RText No No Yes No No Yes ?
SciTE ? ? Yes No No No Yes
skEdit Yes Yes No Yes[86] ? ? ?
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes No 2 GB Yes Yes
Smultron ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Source Insight ? ? Yes No ? No ?
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes No Yes ? Yes ?
TED Notepad Yes Yes No No No ? ?
TextEdit Yes Yes No No ? ? ?
TextMate Yes Yes Yes No No Yes ?
TextPad No Yes Yes No memory[87] Yes Yes
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes No memory[70] Yes ?
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes Yes No 2 GB No ?
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Vim Yes Yes Yes with plugin Yes Yes Yes
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes Yes on 64bit OS[74] Yes Yes
Text shell integration Graphical shell integration Macro language Collaborative editing Large file support Multi-line regex support Search in files

Large file support:

Yes = Larger than 4GB (LFS) 2GB = Larger than 1GB, not limited by memory
memory = Limited by available memory    No (64k) = Some limit less than available memory (give max size if known)

In general, most text editors do not support large text files. Some restrict themselves to available in-core RAM while others use sophisticated virtual memory management techniques and paging algorithms.[88]

Search in files: Perform search (and possibly replace) in multiple files on disk, for example on a sub-directory and recursively all the directories below it. Similar to grep.

Key bindings

Support for custom key bindings.

Text editor support for key bindings.
Dynamically customizable IBM CUA OS X Vi Emacs Pico WordStar WordPerfect Brief
Acme No ? No No No No ? ? ?
AkelPad Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Alphatk ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Aquamacs Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
BBEdit[89][90] Yes ? Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ?
Bluefish Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
ConTEXT ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Crimson Editor ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Diakonos Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
E Text Editor ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
ed No No No No No No No No No
EditPlus Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Editra No No No Yes No No No No No
EmEditor Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
epsilon Yes ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? Yes
Geany Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
gedit Yes[91] ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
GNU Emacs Yes Yes No Yes Yes Partial[92] Yes[93] ? ?
Gobby No ? No No No No ? ? ?
JED Yes ? ? Yes Yes ? Yes ? Yes
jEdit Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ? ? ?
JOE ? ? ? ? Yes Yes ? ? ?
LE Yes ? ? No ? ? ? ? ?
Kate Yes ? ? Yes[94] ? ? ? ? ?
KEDIT Yes ? No No No No ? ? ?
Komodo Edit Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
Komodo IDE Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? ? ?
KWrite Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Metapad ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
mined ? ? ? ? Yes Yes Yes ? ?
MS-DOS Editor No No No No No No No No No
Nano Yes No ? ? Partial[95] Yes No ? ?
NEdit Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Notepad No Yes No No No No No No No
Notepad++ Partial Yes No No No No No No No
Notepad2 No ? No No No No ? ? ?
NoteTab ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
nvi ? ? ? Yes ? ? ? ? ?
Pico No No No No Partial[95] Yes No No No
PolyEdit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Programmer's Notepad Partial ? ? Partial[96] ? ? ? ? ?
PSPad Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Q10 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
RJ TextEd Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
RText Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
SciTE Partial[97] ? ? No No No ? ? ?
skEdit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
SlickEdit Yes[98] Yes Yes[99] Partial[100] Yes No No No Yes
Smultron ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Source Insight Yes ? No No No No ? ? ?
SubEthaEdit ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
TED Notepad ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
TextEdit No ? Yes No No No ? ? ?
TextMate ? ? Yes No No No ? ? ?
TextPad Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
TextWrangler[89][101] Yes ? Yes No Yes No ? ? ?
The SemWare Editor Yes ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
UltraEdit Yes ? No ? ? ? ? ? ?
VEDIT Yes Yes No No[102] No No Yes Yes Yes
Vim Partial No ? Yes[103] Partial[104] ? ? ? ?
XEmacs Yes No No Yes Yes Partial[92] ? ? ?
Yi Yes ? Yes Yes Yes No ? ? ?
Dynamically customizable IBM CUA OS X Vi Emacs Pico WordStar WordPerfect Brief

Notes, bugs

  • Vim: custom maps of Ctrl-1 .. Ctrl-9, Ctrl-0 cannot be set, nor is Control-Shift-<char> distinguished from Ctrl-<char>. References: unable to map ctrl-1 , How to map (say) Ctrl-Shift-B
  • Notepad++: custom shortcuts of Shift-<char> cannot be set, they need an added modifier such as Ctrl or Alt. i.e. SCI_LINESCROLLUP cannot be bound to "Shift-I" as the "Add" button is greyed out.
  • Programmer's Notepad: keybindings of Shift-<char> can be set, but a bug executes the command and inserts the literal character.
  • Emacs and Pico: pico uses most of Emacs's motion and deletion commands: ^F ^B ^P ^N ^D etc.

Protocol support

Native internal support for editing files over a network or the internet.

Text editor support for remote file editing over Internet Protocols
FTP HTTP SSH WebDAV
Acme Yes Yes Yes Yes
AkelPad No No No No
Alphatk Yes No No Yes
Aquamacs Yes Yes Yes Yes[105]
BBEdit Yes No Yes No
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes
ConTEXT No ? No ?
Crimson Editor Yes No No No
Diakonos No No No No
E Text Editor Yes No No No
ed No No No No
EditPlus Yes No No No
Editra ? ? ? ?
EmEditor No No No No
Geany No No No No
gedit Yes Yes Yes Yes
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gobby No No No No
JED No No No No
jEdit Plugin[106] Yes[107] No Plugin.
JOE No No No No
LE No No No No
Kate Yes Yes Yes Yes
KEDIT No No No No
Komodo IDE FTP, FTPS, SFTP No Yes No
KWrite Yes Yes Yes Yes
Metapad No No No No
mined ? ? ? ?
MS-DOS Editor No No No No
Nano No No Yes No
FTP HTTP SSH WebDAV
NEdit No No No No
Notepad No No No No
Notepad++ Plugin for FTP, FTPS, FTPES, SFTP No No No
Notepad2 No No No No
NoteTab No ? No ?
nvi No No No No
Pico No No No No
PolyEdit No No No No
Programmer's Notepad No No No No
PSPad Yes No No No
Q10 ? ? ? ?
RJ TextEd FTP, SFTP No Yes No
RText No No No No
SciTE No No No No
skEdit Yes No Yes Yes
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes No
Smultron Yes ? ? ?
Source Insight No No No No
SubEthaEdit Yes No No No
TED Notepad No ? No ?
TextEdit No No No No
TextMate Yes[105] No No No
TextPad No No No No
TextWrangler FTP,SFTP No Yes No
The SemWare Editor No No No No
UltraEdit Yes No Yes No
VEDIT Yes No No No
Vim Plugin[108] Plugin[108] Plugin[108] Plugin[108]
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes ?
Yi No No No No
FTP HTTP SSH WebDAV

Unicode and other character encodings

To support specified character encoding, the editor must be able to load, save, view and edit text in the specific encoding and not destroy any characters. For UTF-8 and UTF-16, this requires internal 16-bit character support.

Partial support is indicated if: 1) the editor can only convert the character encoding to internal (8 bit) format for editing. 2) If some encodings are supported only in some platforms. 3) If the editor can only display specific character set (such as OEM) by loading corresponding font, but does not support keyboard entry for that character set.

Text editor support for some of the most common character encodings
ASCII ISO-8859 DOS (OEM) EBCDIC UTF-8 UTF-16
Acme Yes ? ? ? Yes No
AkelPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Alphatk Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Aquamacs Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ConTEXT Yes Yes Partial[109] No No No
Crimson Editor Yes Yes Partial[109] No Partial No
Diakonos Yes ? ? ? Partial No
E Text Editor Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
ed Yes ? ? ? Yes No
EditPlus Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes
Editra Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
gedit Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gobby Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
JED Yes Yes Yes ? Yes No
jEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JOE Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
LE Yes ? ? ? Yes No
Kate Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes
KEDIT Yes Yes Partial[109] No No No
Komodo Edit Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
Komodo IDE Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
KWrite Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Metapad Yes Yes Partial[109] No No No
mined Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
MS-DOS Editor Yes ? Yes ? ? ?
Nano Yes ? ? ? Yes No
ASCII ISO-8859 DOS (OEM) EBCDIC UTF-8 UTF-16
NEdit Yes ? ? ? No No
Notepad Yes Yes Partial[109] No Yes Yes
Notepad++ Yes Yes No plugin? Yes Yes
Notepad2 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
NoteTab Yes ? Yes Yes Partial[110] Partial[110]
nvi Yes ? ? ? Yes[111] No
Pico Yes No No No No No
PolyEdit Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Programmer's Notepad Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
PSPad Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
Q10 ? ? ? ? ? ?
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RText Yes Yes Yes Yes[112] Yes Yes
SciTE[113] Yes No No No Yes Yes
skEdit Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
SlickEdit Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Smultron Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Source Insight Yes ? ? ? ? ?
SubEthaEdit Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
Sublime Text Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TED Notepad Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes
TextEdit Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes
TextMate Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes
TextPad Yes ? ? ? Partial[114] Partial[114]
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes[115] Partial[109] plugin No No
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial[116] Partial[116]
Vim Yes Yes Yes No[117] Yes Yes
XEmacs Yes Yes ? ? Yes[118] Yes
Yi Yes ? ? ? Yes No
ASCII ISO-8859 DOS (OEM) EBCDIC UTF-8 UTF-16

Right-to-left and bidirectional text

Support for right to left (RTL) texts (like Hebrew, Arabic, Persian) and the mixture of left to right (LTR) and RTL known as bidirectional (bidi) support.

Depending on the algorithm used in the programs they might only render the bidirectional text correctly but may not be able to edit them. (e.g. Notepad++ 5.1.3 shows bidirectional texts correctly but you cannot edit it and you should change the window direction to be able to edit right to left texts correctly.)

Right to left (RTL) & bidirectional (bidi) support
Right-to-left (RTL) Bi-directional (Bidi)
Acme No No
AkelPad No No
Alphatk ? ?
Aquamacs ? ?
BBEdit No No
Bluefish Yes Yes
ConTEXT ? ?
Crimson Editor ? ?
Diakonos ? ?
E Text Editor ? ?
ed ? ?
EditPlus No No
Editra ? ?
EmEditor No No
Geany ? ?
gedit Yes Yes
GNU Emacs Yes Yes
Gobby ? ?
JED ? ?
jEdit ? ?
JOE ? ?
LE ? ?
Kate Yes Yes
KEDIT No No
Komodo Edit Yes Yes
Komodo IDE Yes Yes
KWrite ? ?
Metapad ? ?
MS-DOS Editor ? ?
mined Yes[119] Yes[119]
Nano ? ?
RTL Bidi
NEdit ? ?
Notepad Yes Yes
Notepad++ Yes No (limited)
Notepad2 No No
NoteTab ? ?
nvi ? ?
Pico ? ?
PolyEdit ? ?
Programmer's Notepad ? ?
PSPad ? ?
Q10 ? ?
RJ TextEd Yes Yes
RText ? ?
SciTE No No
skEdit ? ?
SlickEdit ? ?
Smultron ? ?
Source Insight No No
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes
Sublime Text No No
TED Notepad ? ?
TextEdit Yes Yes
TextMate No No
TextPad ? ?
TextWrangler No No
The SemWare Editor No No
UltraEdit No No
VEDIT ? ?
Vim Yes No
XEmacs ? ?
Yi ? ?
RTL Bidi

Newline support

Text editor support for newline character sequence support
Windows (CR/LF) Unix (LF) Mac OS (CR)
Acme Yes Yes Yes
AkelPad Yes Yes Yes
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes
Aquamacs Yes Yes Yes
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes
ConTEXT Yes Yes Yes
Crimson Editor Yes Yes Yes
Diakonos ? Yes ?
E Text Editor Yes Yes Yes
ed No Yes No
EditPlus Yes Yes Yes
Editra Yes Yes Yes
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes Yes Yes
gedit Yes Yes Yes
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes
Gobby Yes Yes Yes
JED Yes Yes Yes
jEdit Yes Yes Yes
JOE Yes Yes ?
Kate Yes Yes Yes
KEDIT Yes Yes Yes
Komodo Edit Yes Yes Yes
Komodo IDE Yes Yes Yes
KWrite Yes Yes Yes
LE Yes Yes No
Metapad Yes Yes ?
MS-DOS Editor Yes No No
mined Yes Yes Yes
Nano Yes Yes Yes
NEdit Yes Yes Yes
Notepad Yes No No
Notepad++ Yes Yes Yes
Notepad2 Yes Yes Yes
NoteTab Yes Yes Yes
nvi ? Yes ?
Pico ? Yes ?
PolyEdit Yes Yes Yes
Programmer's Notepad Yes Yes Yes
PSPad Yes Yes Yes
Q10 Yes Yes Yes
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes
RText Yes Yes Yes
SciTE Yes Yes Yes
skEdit Yes Yes Yes
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes
Smultron Yes Yes Yes
Source Insight Yes Yes Yes
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes Yes
Sublime Text Yes Yes No
TED Notepad Yes Yes Yes
TextEdit Yes Yes Yes
TextMate Yes Yes Yes
TextPad Yes Yes Yes
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes Yes
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes
Vim Yes Yes Yes
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes
Yi ? Yes ?
Windows (CR/LF) Unix (LF) Mac OS (CR)

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ Epsilon version 13
  2. ^ GEdit, when installed from MacPorts, runs in X11 and, therefore, does not have a native look and feel. However, precompiled native OS X binaries for GEdit may be downloaded from the GEdit project page, or from the GEdit FTP download server.
  3. ^ a b c d Requires Cygwin to run on Windows.
  4. ^ Does Kate/KWrite run on windows?Kate and KWrite run on Windows using cygwin.
  5. ^ a b c gedit, NEdit, SciTE, and SlickEdit run in the X11 window environment, and therefore do not use the native Aqua look-and-feel when running on OS X.
  6. ^ a b c Notepad, Notepad++, and Notepad2 run flawlessly on Linux and OS X, via Wine. See Notepad++ on the WineHQ Application Database for more information. Furthermore Notepad2 and Notepad++ are built on Scintilla (editing component), which is available on other platforms as part of other editors including Geany, Komodo Edit, and SciTE.[dubiousdiscuss]
  7. ^ The SemWare Editor (TSE): Linux beta version in progress.
  8. ^ gedit supports single document window splitting via plugins. [1].
  9. ^ gedit supports multiple document window splitting via plugins. [2].
  10. ^ GNU Emacs can use a tabbed document interface in a non OS-native way, using the tabbar plug-in.
  11. ^ GNU Emacs can support a tabbed document interface modelled after GNU Screen using the elscreen package.
  12. ^ JOE supports editing multiple files but only seeing one of them, and switching to others via Ctrl+K+N, which is functionally equivalent to having tabs but no visible tab bar.
  13. ^ mined supports Copy/Paste between multiple documents in separate windows, when these documents are in separate terminal windows
  14. ^ SciTE has a maximum number of buffers, which can only be set as high as 100.
  15. ^ Vim Provided GVim is used.
  16. ^ Vim version 7 supports a tabbed document interface. Earlier versions can emulate tabs through scripts, for example TabBar.
  17. ^ ConTEXT does not support regular expression backreferences in its search and replace function.[3]
  18. ^ ConTEXT only supports converting text to UTF-16. Also, it can only use one type of new-line format if converting to UTF-16.
  19. ^ Diakonos supports spell checking by calling the external program aspell.
  20. ^ e supports spell checking via a bundle command available at the e Bundles repository.
  21. ^ Geany supports spell checking via a plugin, but not for Windows at the moment.
  22. ^ gedit supports spell checking via a plugin, which is distributed with gedit.
  23. ^ gedit supports Regex-based find & replace via plugins ([4].
  24. ^ https://live.gnome.org/Gedit/Plugins/ColumnMode
  25. ^ a b Emacs supports spell checking via the external programs ispell, aspell, or Hunspell.
  26. ^ jEdit supports spell checking via an external plugin.
  27. ^ JOE supports spell checking via the ispell or aspell external plugins.
  28. ^ JOE uses a non-standard regular expression syntax.
  29. ^ JOE can easily pipe text through the GNU recode(1) utility; it detects locale settings and allows editing in any encoding set up by the environment.
  30. ^ LE can pipe text through the GNU recode(1) utility
  31. ^ Metapad spell checking by calling external program Aspell.
  32. ^ a b mined supports multiple lines in search and replacement expressions. Cite error: The named reference "minedEncoding" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  33. ^ mined supports new-line conversion via a command-line option or from the menu. Files with mixed newline types can be edited transparently; different kinds of new-line have different visual indications.
  34. ^ NEdit supports spell checking via a plugin
  35. ^ Notepad++ supports spell checking via the aspell plugin. Spell checking can only be done on-demand, as opposed to instantly by underlining misspelled words.
  36. ^ a b Scintilla-based editors such as SciTE, Notepad2 and Notepad++ do not support alternation (|) in regular expressions. Cite error: The named reference "Scintilla_regex" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  37. ^ a b Programmer's Notepad 2.
  38. ^ SubEthaEdit supports advanced block editing, including multi-line typing and non-contiguous block selections.
  39. ^ UltraEdit uses the Boost C++ regex library. While Boost supports backreferences past \9 with \g{10}, UltraEdit has not yet implemented this feature.
  40. ^ VEDIT 6.2 comes with Scribe spelling checker which has been written entirely in Vedit macro language. In addition, macro package for integrating Aspell can be downloaded here.
  41. ^ Vim version 7 supports spell checking natively. Earlier versions require a script shown here.
  42. ^ bluefish: Configurable via the outputbox feature.
  43. ^ a b With external tool OpenCTags
  44. ^ editplus: Opens in a window, not really integrated.
  45. ^ editplus: Enabled by editing the corresponding .acp file.
  46. ^ EmEditor Professional supports Auto Complete via plugins (32-bit or 64-bit).
  47. ^ Geany uses its own tags file format, not compatible with ctags, see the manual.
  48. ^ gedit-folding: Folding plugin for Gedit
  49. ^ gedit: Compiler integration: Functionality in plugins installed with gedit.
  50. ^ make can be launched from the LE text editor, but the output is not captured
  51. ^ mined: Syntax highlighting: HTML/XML, Javascript, JSP.
  52. ^ Notepad++: Auto complete: Supported via supplied/user-created lists.
  53. ^ NoteTab: Syntax highlighting only for html documents and NoteTab clip/scripts.
  54. ^ a b c d Programmer's Notepad 2
  55. ^ Function list (and stuff) available in Ru-Board build, ver 1.79.66Ru and later
  56. ^ TextMate: Auto complete: Supported language bundles
  57. ^ Textpad uses an add-on (http://www.textpad.com/add-ons/)
  58. ^ TextWrangler can integrate with a compiler if you write a shell script that takes flag input of the code and compiles it. You place this in ~/Library/Application Support/TextWrangler/Unix Support/Unix Filters/. It should show in the #! menu.
  59. ^ TSE uses a macro http://www.semware.com/html/tseprofiles.php
  60. ^ The Semware Editor: Auto complete: Supported via supplied/user-created lists.
  61. ^ The Semware Editor: Text folding: Compressed view possible.
  62. ^ Not in the Linux version.
  63. ^ Vedit: Auto complete: Template editing, plus 3rd party macro for expanding symbols from tags database.
  64. ^ Vim has a popular TagList plugin that provides a function list.
  65. ^ unlike most editors that use regexps or ad hoc parsing, Yi" uses an algorithm of incremental parsing to dynamically update the syntax highlighiting
  66. ^ currently supports only haskell with hasktags -c
  67. ^ Multi-line regex support Support for expressions spanning several lines (e.g. "\n\n(.+)\n\n")
  68. ^ Alpha Macro support via AppleScript, Tcl or text factories.
  69. ^ BBEdit Macro support via AppleScript, Perl, Python, Lasso, shell scripts or text factories.
  70. ^ a b BBEdit and TextWrangler are technically capable of any size file, but limited practically by RAM and OS X limitation to files = 384mb. Cf. BBEdit FAQ Entry 36.
  71. ^ ConTEXT claims Large File Support but load time is proportional to file size and a 1GB file gave an Out of Memory error.
  72. ^ e Macro support via Cygwin and languages like Ruby, Python, or Perl.
  73. ^ a b Cssed Macro support via Python.
  74. ^ a b Emacs: 64-bit compilation on 64-bit OS can handle large files, otherwise the limit is 512 MiB.[5]
  75. ^ JED Editor
  76. ^ jEdit: Limited by Java heap size. jedit-users forum
  77. ^ a b kwrite-devel, Large Files open slowly due to futile Syntax-Highlighting
  78. ^ LE text editor locks the file and warns if someone else has changed the file
  79. ^ LE text editor can view and edit large files or their parts in mmap-shared mode
  80. ^ metapad FAQ, Loading Large Files
  81. ^ Question Defense, Windows: File Is To Big To Be Opened By NotePad++, Use Wordpad As Alternative
  82. ^ Notepad2 -- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
  83. ^ NoteTab: Standard and Pro versions only.
  84. ^ Programmer's Notepad LFS, but not optimized. Editing is too slow to be useful.
  85. ^ PSPad Forum
  86. ^ skEdit Macro support via SCM plugins.
  87. ^ mozillaZine: Edit large mbox files
  88. ^ Comparison of Windows Text Editors for Large Files: Text editors for large files
  89. ^ a b Bare Bones Software | BBEdit Comparison Chart
  90. ^ Bare Bones Software | Features (BBEdit)
  91. ^ It is possible to customize all Gedit shortcuts because it is Gtk based.
  92. ^ a b pico uses most of Emacs's motion and deletion commands: ^F ^B ^P ^N ^D etc. See Pico: A Unix text editor retrieved 2012-01-09.
  93. ^ GNU Emacs comes with Wordstar emulation, with the command M-x wordstar-mode, as found in the latest download from GNU Project Archives retrieved 2012-01-09. Found in file ws-mode.el ZZ see also the "Emulation" section of the GNU Emacs manual.
  94. ^ Kate supports an optional VI Input Mode.
  95. ^ a b pico (and nano) uses most of Emacs's motion and deletion commands: ^F ^B ^P ^N ^D etc. See Pico: A Unix text editor retrieved 2012-01-09.
  96. ^ Programmer's Notepad: Partial VI key bindings supported via PyPN plugin and Command Mode.
  97. ^ In SciTE, custom keystrokes may be assigned to Lua scripts, external programs or lexers (highlighters).
  98. ^ SlickEdit provides emulation of VisualStudio, Visual C++ 6, CodeWright, Epsilon and ISPF key bindings in addition to those given in the table.
  99. ^ SlickEdit supports CodeWarrior, Xcode and BBEdit key binding emulation.
  100. ^ SlickEdit includes support of vi key bindings, the ex command line and some, but not all Vim extensions.
  101. ^ Bare Bones Software | Features (TextWrangler
  102. ^ Vedit: Old Unix and QNX versions could emulate Vi 100%. Windows version doesn't come with vi emulation.
  103. ^ Vim emulates vi keys fully when in 'compatible' mode
  104. ^ Vim With a script such as Vimacs
  105. ^ a b Aquamacs Supported via a OS X mounted volume.
  106. ^ jEdit FTP and SFTP are supported via the FTP plugin.
  107. ^ jEdit: "HTTP is supported natively"
  108. ^ a b c d Vim Supported via netrw plugin distributed in the standard Vim installation.
  109. ^ a b c d e f when choosing e.g. Terminal font
  110. ^ a b Although NoteTab is not a native Unicode editor, you can open, edit, convert, and save such files reliably as long as all the text fits within a single ANSI code page supported by Windows.
  111. ^ nvi Gentoo
  112. ^ RText supports EBCDIC n z/OS and anywhere with a JVM that supports it
  113. ^ SciTE can open files in UTF or one single-byte encoding specified in a configuration file.
  114. ^ a b TextPad can load and save UTF-8 and UTF-16 text files, but cannot use or even preserve characters outside of the system encoding. [6]
  115. ^ when choosing e.g. New Courier font
  116. ^ a b Vedit can convert UTF-8 and UTF-16 files to Windows character set and back. Characters not included in Windows charset can be preserved.
  117. ^ Vim supports EBCDIC when compiled on a system that uses the EBCDIC character set.
  118. ^ from version 21.5.29
  119. ^ a b mined: supports bidi in cooperation with bidi terminal (mlterm, mintty); also supports "poor man's bidi mode" (automatic visual text order right-to-left input) in normal terminal

External links

  • "GNU Emacs manual". GNU Emacs Manual 14th edition. Retrieved March 11, 2005. "The Emacs Editor"
  • Quick reference card for TextPad
  • TED Notepad Manual
  • BBEdit 9.5 User Manual
  • EmEditor 10.0 User Manual
  • Python Editors
  • List of editors at Editplus wiki
  • TextEditors Wiki