Top 5 text editors for linux developers

We know that all complex tasks require specialized tools or applications that allow this work to be carried out without problems, in an agile, optimal and intelligent way; avoiding above all any problem or possible error. Text editors represent the most important working tool of a developer or programmer. Therefore, using the correct text editors can make a difference in a programmer's performance by varying their level of effectiveness in performing tasks.

Choosing a perfect ally where to type, organize and save the code is essential (I tell you). The options presented are varied and in most cases it will also depend on the type of project to be carried out or the programming language to be used. We can mention an endless list of text editors, however we decided to make a compilation with the 5 best text editors for developers on Linux.

Index of contents

Top 5 text editors for developers on Linux

Now, the first question we ask ourselves is: What characteristics must text editors have for programmers to be recommended?

First, they must allow development under any current programming language. Certainly any of the text editors supports different types of code, but what is required is that said editors highlight the code with different colors, in this way being able to locate lines or sectors of the program with ease. Additionally, if you notify us of syntax errors, it would be a great plus!

On the other hand, commonly while programming, multiple files are used simultaneously. Hence the need for text editors to facilitate moving between various files, either through a panel or through tabs.

Other desirable features are the possibility of checking that the code is correct and being able to compile directly from the same editor.

Taking those features into account, below we will see a list of the best text editors in Linux.

Sublime Text

It is one of the most complete and popular text editors currently. It has one of the best interfaces, it allows you to divide the screen by workgroups to make the most of the use of multiple screens. It has excellent performance and allows great customization options.

Provides support for countless programming languages. Additionally, it has a huge Python-based API which gives way to a large group of plugins to add functionality.

It is a cross-platform text editor, that is, you can download it for Linux, Windows and Mac. Despite being a paid application, you can download an unlimited trial version, with the only drawback being a certain reminder to buy a license.

You can install Sublime Text in Ubuntu and the like, using a PPA repository with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: webupd8team / sublime-text-3 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install sublime-text-installer

NotepadQQ

It is the Notepad ++ alternative (open source text editor for Windows) for Linux. It has interesting features that place it as a fairly advanced text editor. Among them the selection and multiple edition of text, and the selection and edition in block. Another feature of NotepadQQ is the text replacement tool, which provides the possibility to use regular expressions for searches and advanced text replacement.

At the moment it includes a variety of visual themes and supports a large number of languages, for which it has syntax highlighting.

To install NotepadQQ on ArchLinux we use:

$ yaourt -S notepadqq

For installation in Ubuntu or derivatives the commands are:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: notepadqq-team / notepadqq sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install notepadqq

Brackets

It is an open source text editor, specialized in support for web design. It receives support mainly from the Adobe company. It was developed in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Its source is released under an MIT license.

Because Brackets integrates with the browser, it has a preview of the changes in a project every time they are saved. Both HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Additionally, it has highlighting options, autocompletion of tags, properties, and syntax values.

Its design is elegant, minimalist, without many complications and it also allows adding plugins to enrich its functionalities. Likewise, it is a multiplatform editor.

WE RECOMMEND 6 reasons to try Linux today

In order to install it in Ubunto or similar, we do it by console with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: webupd8team / brackets sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install brackets

They can also be obtained by direct download from the official website of the project.

We recommend you also read: Visual Studio Code on Linux

Atom

Atom is a text editor created by GitHub, it is an open source editor and is shaping up to be the free alternative to Sublime Text. In fact, its appearance is quite similar and its development team has been in charge of cloning the most outstanding features and even improving other aspects. It is developed with C ++ and Node.js, making use of different web technologies such as CoffeeScript, CSS or HTML.

Customization represents the best feature of Atom. Virtually any detail of the edit can be configured, this is due to the great development team behind it and they increasingly create more and more packages and plugins to extend their functionalities. This allows you to add new features or configure existing ones, as well as adjust their appearance.

To perform its installation in Ubuntu, the commands to use are:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: webupd8team / atom sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install atom

Geany

This is a small and light IDE, the objective of its creation was to have the least amount of package dependencies in a specific desktop environment and that for its operation it only needs the GTK2 libraries. Geany is cross-platform, capable of running on Linux, Windows, MacOS X, NetBSD, OpenBSD, AIX v5.3, Solaris Express and FreeBSD.

It has support for more than 30 programming languages ​​and provides syntax highlighting, automatic closing of tags, auto-completion, suggestions, plugins, etc.

The steps to follow to install in Ubuntu through the console are:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa: geany-dev / ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install geany geany-plugins

The text editor of your choice did not appear in the list? Would you like to add another one? Do you know other equal or more powerful text editors? Well, I invite you to share all the information with us in the comments.