This article provides basic comparisons for notable 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).
Name | Developer | Initial release | Latest release | Programming language | Cost (US$) | License | GUI | TUI or CLI | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Version | Date | ||||||||
Acme | Rob Pike | 1993 | Plan 9 and Inferno | C | No cost | MIT GPL-2.0-only LPL-1.02 | |||
AkelPad | Alexey Kuznetsov Alexander Shengalts | 2003 | C | No cost | BSD-2-Clause | ||||
Alphatk | Vince Darley | 1999 | 8.3.3 [1] | 2004-12-10 | $40 | Proprietary, with BSD components | |||
Atom | GitHub | 2014 | 1.63.1 [2] | 2022-11-23 | HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C++ | No cost | MIT | ||
BBEdit | Rich Siegel | 1992 | 15.0.3 [3] | 2024-04-08 | Objective-C, Objective-C++ | No cost for most features, $49.99 for full version | Proprietary | ||
Bluefish | Bluefish Development Team | 1999 | 2.2.16 [4] | 2024-09-22 | C | No cost | GPL-3.0-or-later | ||
Brackets | Adobe Systems | 2012 | 2.2.1 [5] | 2023-03-22 | HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C++ | No cost | MIT | ||
Coda | Panic | 2007 | 2.7.7 [6] | 2020-11-05 | Objective-C | $99 | Proprietary | ||
ConTEXT | ConTEXT Project Ltd | 1999 | Object Pascal (Delphi) | No cost | BSD-3-Clause | ||||
Crimson Editor | Ingyu Kang | 1999 | 3.72-r286m [7] | 2011-10-01 | C++ | No cost | Proprietary | ||
CudaText | UVViewSoft [a] | 2015 | 1.217.5.1 [8] | 2024-09-05 | Object Pascal (Lazarus) | No cost | MPL-2.0 | ||
ed | Ken Thompson | 1970 | unchanged from original | C | No cost | ? | |||
Editra | Cody Precord | 2007 | 0.7.20 | 2013-01-05 | Python | No cost | wxWindows license | ||
EmEditor | Emurasoft, Inc. | 1997 | 21.3.0 | 2021-11-24 | C++ | $39.99 | Shareware | ||
epsilon | Lugaru Software | 1984 | 14.00 [9] | 2020-10-20 | C | $250 | Proprietary | ||
FeatherPad | Pedram Pourang | 2016 | 1.4.1 [10] | 2023-06-12 | C++, Qt | No cost | GPL-3.0-or-later | ||
gedit | GNU Project | 2000 | 46.1 [11] | 2023-08-01 | C | No cost | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
Geany | Enrico Tröger | 2005 | 2.0.0 [12] | 2023-10-19 | C, GTK+ | No cost | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
GNU Emacs | Richard Stallman | 1984 | 29.4 [13] | 2024-06-22 | C, Emacs Lisp | No cost | GPL-3.0-or-later | ||
GNU nano | Chris Allegretta | 1999 | 8.2 [14] | 2024-09-05 | C | No cost | GPL-3.0-or-later | ||
IA Writer | Information Architects | 2010.09.22 | 5.6 | 2020-12-07 | Objective-C (iOS), Objective-C (macOS), C# (Windows), Java (Android) | $29.99 | Proprietary | ||
JED | John E. Davis | 1992 | 0.99-19 | 2009-12-13 | C, S-Lang | No cost | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
jEdit | Slava Pestov | 1998 | Java | No cost | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||||
JOE | Joseph Allen | 1988 | C | No cost | GPL | ||||
JOVE | Johnathon Payne | 1983 | C | No cost | JOVE license | ||||
Kate | KDE Project | 2000-12 | 24.08.2 [15] | 2024-10-10 | C++ | No cost | GPL | ||
KEDIT | Mansfield Software Group, Inc. | 1983 | 1.6.1 | 2016-12-05 | C | $129 | Proprietary | ||
Komodo Edit | Activestate | 2007 | 12.0.1 [16] | 2020-02-10 | Python, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, PHP, Ruby | No cost | MPL, GPL, LGPL | ||
Komodo IDE | Activestate | 2001 | Python, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, PHP, Ruby | $295 | Proprietary | ||||
KWrite | KDE Project | 2000 | 24.02 [17] | 2024-02-28 | C++ | No cost | GPL | ||
LE | Alexander V. Lukyanov | 1997 | 1.16.8 [18] | 2021-02-05 | C++ | No cost | GPL-3.0-or-later | ||
Leo | Edward K. Ream | 1996 | 6.7.6 [19] | 2023-12-19 | Python | No cost | MIT | ||
Light Table | Chris Granger | 2012 | 0.8.1 [20] | 2016-01-22 | ClojureScript | No cost | MIT | ||
mcedit | Miguel de Icaza | 1994 | 4.8.32 [21] | 2024-08-23 | C, Python, PHP, Javascript, Perl, Tcl, Ruby | No cost | GPL-3.0-or-later | ||
Metapad | Alexander Davidson | 1999 | 3.6 [22] [23] | 2011-05-28 | C | No cost | GPL-3.0-or-later | ||
mg | Dave Conroy | 1986 | current [b] | 2020-07-22 | C | No cost | Public domain | ||
MinEd | Thomas Wolff | 1992 | 2022.27 | 2022-12-23 | C | No cost | GPL | ||
MS-DOS Editor | Microsoft | 1991 | 2.0.026 | Bundled with MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows | Proprietary | ||||
ne | Sebastiano Vigna Todd Lewis Daniele Filaretti | 1993 | 3.3.3 [25] | 2023-10-19 | C | No cost | GPL-3.0-or-later | ||
NEdit | Mark Edel | 1991 | 5.7 [26] | 2017-02-08 | C | No cost | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
Notepad | Microsoft | 1985 | 11.2302.16.0 | MASM (originally) | Bundled with Microsoft Windows | Proprietary | |||
Notepad++ | Don Ho | 2003-11-25 | 8.7.1 [27] | 2024-11-04 | C++ | No cost | GPL-3.0-or-later | ||
nvi | Keith Bostic | 1994 | 1.81.6 [28] | 2007-11-18 | C | No cost | BSD-3-Clause | ||
Pico | University of Washington | 1992 | 4.64 | C | No cost | Apache-2.0 | |||
PimNote | Pimtel | 2023 | 1.2.0 [29] | 2023-04-22 | C# | No cost | Proprietary | ||
PolyEdit | PolySoft Solutions | 1998 | 5.4 | 2010‑04‑07 | $27.95 | Shareware | |||
PSPad | Jan Fiala | 2002 | 5.0.7 [30] | 2023-03-10 | Object Pascal (Delphi) | No cost | Proprietary | ||
RJ TextEd | Rickard Johansson | 2004 | 15.63 [31] | 2022-09-29 | Object Pascal (Delphi) | No cost | Proprietary | ||
Sam | Rob Pike | 1980s (early) | stable | C | No cost | LPL (OSI approved) | |||
SciTE | Neil Hodgson | 1999 | 5.3.7 [32] | 2023-07-26 | C++ | $41.99 for macOS. No cost for others | HPND | ||
SlickEdit | SlickEdit, Inc. | 1988 | 28.0.1 | 2024-01-21 | C, Slick-C | $299 | Proprietary | ||
Smultron | Peter Borg | 2004 | 12.0.6 | 2020-01-03 | Objective-C | $7.99 | Proprietary | ||
SubEthaEdit | TheCodingMonkeys | 2003 | 5.2.4 [33] | 2022-01-08 | No cost | MIT | |||
Sublime Text | Jon Skinner, Sublime HQ | 2008 | 4 (Build 4180) [34] | 2024-08-06 | C++ , Python | $99 | Shareware | ||
TED Notepad | Juraj Simlovic | 2001 | 6.3.1 [35] | 2021-12-01 | C | No cost | Proprietary | ||
Textadept | Mitchell | 2007 | 12.4 [36] | 2024-05-01 | C, Lua | No cost | MIT | ||
TextEdit | Apple Inc. | 2001 | 1.18 | 2022-10-24 | No cost (also bundled with macOS) | BSD-3-Clause | |||
TextMate | MacroMates | 2004-10-10 | 2.0.23 [37] | 2021-10-12 | Objective-C++ | No cost | GPL-3.0-or-later | ||
TextPad | Helios Software Solutions | 1992 | 9.3.0 [38] | 2023-08-01 | $30.00 (£16.50) | Shareware | |||
TextWrangler | Bare Bones Software | 2003 | 5.5.2 | 2016-09-20 | No cost | Proprietary | |||
The SemWare Editor | Sammy Mitchell | 1985-11 | 4.49 [39] | 2023-01 | C, SAL | No cost | BSD-2-Clause | ||
UltraEdit | IDM Computer Solutions | 1994 | 25.0 | 2018-03-12 | C++ | $99.95 | Proprietary | ||
VEDIT | Ted Green, Greenview Data | 1980 | 6.24.2 | 2015-01-12 | Assembly, C | $89 standard, $239 Pro64 | Proprietary | ||
vi | Bill Joy | 1976 | 3.7 | C | No cost | BSD-4-Clause or CDDL | |||
Vim | Bram Moolenaar | 1991 | 9.1.0 [40] [41] | 2024-01-02 | C, Vim script | No cost | Vim | ||
Visual Studio Code | Microsoft | 2015 | 1.95.3 [42] | 2024-11-15 | JavaScript, TypeScript | No cost | Source code: MIT [43] Binaries built by Microsoft: Proprietary [44] [45] | ||
XEmacs | Lucid Inc. | 1991 | 21.4.22 [46] | 2009-01-30 | C, Emacs Lisp | No cost | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
XNEdit | Olaf Wintermann | 2018 | 1.5.2 | 2023-10-05 | C | No cost | GPL-2.0-or-later |
This section lists the operating systems that different editors can run on. Some editors run on additional operating systems that are not listed.
Microsoft Windows | macOS | Linux | BSD | Unix | OpenVMS | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acme | Partial [c] | |||||
AkelPad | ||||||
Alphatk | ||||||
Atom | ||||||
Arachnophilia | ||||||
BBEdit | ||||||
Bluefish | ||||||
Brackets | ||||||
Coda | ||||||
ConTEXT | ||||||
Crimson Editor | ||||||
CudaText | ||||||
ed | Partial [d] | |||||
Editra | ? | ? | ? | |||
EmEditor | ||||||
epsilon | [47] | |||||
Geany | ||||||
gedit | [e] | |||||
GNU Emacs | ||||||
JED | ||||||
jEdit | ||||||
JOE | [ dubious – discuss ] | |||||
JOVE | ||||||
Kate | ||||||
KEDIT | ||||||
Komodo Edit | ? | ? | ||||
Komodo IDE | ? | ? | ||||
KWrite | ||||||
LE | Partial [d] | |||||
Light Table | ||||||
Metapad | ||||||
mg | ? | |||||
MinEd | ||||||
GNU nano | ||||||
ne | Partial [d] | |||||
NEdit | Partial [d] | [f] | ||||
Notepad | ||||||
Notepad++ | ||||||
nvi | ||||||
Pico | ||||||
PSPad | ||||||
RJ TextEd | ||||||
Sam | Partial [c] | |||||
SciTE | [f] | |||||
SlickEdit | ||||||
Smultron | ||||||
SubEthaEdit | ||||||
Sublime Text | ||||||
TED Notepad | ||||||
Textadept | ||||||
TextEdit | ||||||
TextMate | ||||||
TextPad | ||||||
TextWrangler | ||||||
The SemWare Editor | ||||||
UltraEdit | ||||||
Ulysses (text editor) | ||||||
vi | ||||||
Vim | ||||||
Visual Studio Code | ||||||
XEmacs | ||||||
XNEdit | Partial [d] [g] | [f] |
Languages supported | |
---|---|
Acme | English |
AkelPad | English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish |
Alphatk | English |
Atom | English |
BBEdit | English |
Brackets | English, German, French, Polish(Outdated), Korean, Japanese, Italian, Czech, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish(Outdated) |
Coda | English, German, French, Spanish |
ConTEXT | English, German, French, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish |
Crimson Editor | English |
CudaText | Main: English. Addons: Japanese, French, Polish, Korean, Hungarian (2018), Greek, German (2017), and 9 others |
ed | |
Editra | English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish |
EmEditor | English, German, French, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish |
epsilon | English |
Geany | English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi |
gedit | English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi |
GNU Emacs | English |
JED | English |
jEdit | English |
JOE [48] | English, German, French |
JOVE | English |
Kate [49] | English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish |
KEDIT | English |
Komodo Edit | English |
KWrite | English, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish |
Metapad [50] | English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish |
mined | English |
MS-DOS Editor | English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish |
Nano | English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese |
NEdit | English |
Notepad | English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi |
Notepad++ | English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi |
nvi | English |
Pico | English, Italian |
PolyEdit | English |
PSPad | English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Czech, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish |
RJ TextEd | English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish |
Sam | English |
SciTE [51] | English, German, French (Outdated (1.72)), Polish, Japanese (Outdated (1.62)), Italian, Dutch (Outdated (1.67)), Portuguese (Outdated (1.63)), Spanish, Swedish |
SlickEdit | English |
Smultron | English, German, French, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish |
SubEthaEdit | English |
TED Notepad | English |
TextEdit | English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish |
TextMate | English |
TextPad | English, German, French, Polish (Outdated (4.7.3)), Japanese, Italian(Outdated (4.7.3)), Dutch (Outdated (4.7.3)), Spanish (Outdated (4.7.3)), Portuguese (Outdated (4.7.3)) |
TextWrangler | English |
The SemWare Editor | English |
UltraEdit | English, German, French, Korean, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese |
VEDIT | English |
vi | English |
Vim | Afrikaans, Catalan, Chinese(Simplified), Chinese(Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch, German, English(UK), English(US), Esperanto, Finnish, French, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian(Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese(Brazil), Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese |
Visual Studio Code | English, Bulgarian, Chinese, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish |
XEmacs | English |
XNEdit | English |
Multiple instances | Single document window splitting | MDI: overlappable windows | MDI: tabbed document interface | MDI: window splitting | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acme | |||||
AkelPad | |||||
Alphatk | |||||
Atom | |||||
BBEdit | |||||
Bluefish | |||||
Brackets | |||||
Coda | |||||
ConTEXT | |||||
Crimson Editor | |||||
CudaText | |||||
ed | |||||
Editra | ? | ? | |||
EmEditor | |||||
Geany | Plug‑in | ||||
gedit | Plug‑in [h] | Plug‑in [i] | |||
GNU Emacs | [j] [k] | ||||
JED | |||||
jEdit | |||||
JOE | [l] | ||||
JOVE | |||||
Kate | |||||
KEDIT | |||||
Komodo Edit | |||||
Komodo IDE | |||||
KWrite | |||||
LE | |||||
Light Table | |||||
Metapad | |||||
mined | [m] | ||||
MS-DOS Editor | |||||
Nano | |||||
NEdit | |||||
Notepad | |||||
Notepad++ | 2 windows | ||||
nvi | |||||
Pico | |||||
PolyEdit | |||||
PSPad | |||||
RJ TextEd | |||||
Sam | |||||
SciTE | [n] | ||||
SlickEdit | |||||
Smultron | |||||
SubEthaEdit | |||||
TED Notepad | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
TextEdit | |||||
TextMate | |||||
TextPad | |||||
TextWrangler | |||||
The SemWare Editor | |||||
UltraEdit | |||||
VEDIT | |||||
vi | |||||
Vim | [o] | [p] | |||
Visual Studio Code | |||||
XEmacs | |||||
XNEdit | |||||
Multiple instances | Single document window splitting | MDI: overlappable windows | MDI: tabbed document interface | MDI: window splitting | |
Spell checking | Regex-based find & replace | Encoding conversion | Newline conversion | Multiple undo/redo | Rectangular block selection | Virtual space support | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acme | external [q] | ? | |||||
AkelPad | Plug‑in | ? | |||||
Alphatk | ? | ||||||
Atom | Plug‑in | ||||||
BBEdit | ? | ||||||
Bluefish | ? | ||||||
Brackets | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | ? | ||||
Coda | ? | ||||||
ConTEXT | Partial [r] | Partial [s] | ? | ||||
Crimson Editor | Instant/live (like Firefox) | ? | |||||
CudaText | ? | ||||||
ed | ? | ||||||
Editra | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
EmEditor | |||||||
Geany | Plug‑in [t] | [53] | |||||
gedit | [u] | Plug‑in [v] | plug‑in [54] | ? | |||
GNU Emacs | Plug‑in [w] | [55] | |||||
JED | ? | ||||||
jEdit | Plug‑in [x] | [56] | |||||
JOE | Plug‑in [y] | Partial [z] | [aa] | ? | |||
JOVE | ? | ||||||
Kate | |||||||
KEDIT | ? | ||||||
Komodo Edit | ? [ab] | ||||||
Komodo IDE | ? [ac] | ||||||
KWrite | ? | ||||||
LE | [ad] | ? | |||||
Light Table | Plug‑in [57] | ? | ? | ? | |||
Metapad | Partial [ae] | ? | |||||
mg | [58] | Partial | [58] | ? | |||
MinEd | [af] | [ag] | [ah] | ? | |||
MS-DOS Editor | |||||||
Nano | ? | ||||||
Spell checking | Regex-based find & replace | Encoding conversion | Newline conversion | Multiple undo/redo | Rectangular block selection | Virtual Space Support | |
ne | ? | ||||||
NEdit | Plug‑in [59] | ? | |||||
Notepad | Partial | Partial | ? | ||||
Notepad++ | [60] | ||||||
nvi | ? | ? | |||||
Pico | ? | ||||||
PolyEdit | ? | ||||||
PSPad | ? | ||||||
RJ TextEd | ? | ||||||
Sam | external [ai] | ? | |||||
SciTE | Limited [aj] | ? | |||||
SlickEdit | [61] | ||||||
Smultron | ? | ||||||
SubEthaEdit | [62] | ? | |||||
Sublime Text | [63] | ||||||
TED Notepad | ? | ||||||
TextEdit | ? | ||||||
TextMate | Partial | ? | |||||
TextPad | ? | ||||||
TextWrangler | ? | ||||||
The SemWare Editor | ? | ||||||
UltraEdit | Limited [ak] | ? | |||||
VEDIT | [al] | ? | |||||
vi | ? | ||||||
Vim | [am] | No [65] | |||||
Visual Studio Code | Plug‑in | Limited [an] | [66] | ||||
XEmacs | Plug‑in [w] | ? | |||||
XNedit | Plug‑in [59] | ? | |||||
Spell checking | Regex-based find & replace | Encoding conversion | Newline conversion | Multiple undo/redo | Rectangular block selection | Virtual Space Support |
Syntax highlighting | Function list | Symbol database (ctags or equiv.) | Brace matching | Auto indentation | Auto completion | Code folding | Text folding | Compiler integration | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acme | external [q] | external [q] | Partial [ao] | external [q] | |||||
AkelPad | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | ||
Alphatk | ? | ? | |||||||
Atom | Plug‑in | ||||||||
BBEdit | |||||||||
Bluefish | [ap] | ||||||||
Brackets | Plug‑in | ||||||||
Coda | |||||||||
ConTEXT | ? | ? | |||||||
Crimson Editor | Partial [aq] | ||||||||
CudaText | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | ||||||
ed | external [ar] | ||||||||
Editra | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
EmEditor | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in [as] | ||||||
Geany | [at] | Partial | |||||||
gedit | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in [au] | [av] | ||||
GNU Emacs | |||||||||
JED | |||||||||
jEdit | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | ||||||
JOE | ? | ? | |||||||
JOVE | |||||||||
Kate | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | ||||||
KEDIT | Macro | ||||||||
Komodo Edit | |||||||||
Komodo IDE | |||||||||
KWrite | ? | ? | |||||||
LE | [aw] | ||||||||
Light Table | Partial [ax] | ||||||||
Metapad | |||||||||
mined | [ay] | ? | |||||||
MS-DOS Editor | |||||||||
Nano | |||||||||
Syntax highlighting | Function list | Symbol database (ctags or equiv.) | Bracket matching | Auto indentation | Auto completion | Code folding | Text folding | Compiler integration | |
ne | |||||||||
NEdit | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | |||||||
Notepad | |||||||||
Notepad++ | [az] | [67] [68] | [ba] | ||||||
nvi | ? | ||||||||
Pico | |||||||||
PolyEdit | |||||||||
PSPad | Plug‑in | ||||||||
RJ TextEd | |||||||||
Sam | external [ai] | ||||||||
SciTE | [bb] | ? | |||||||
SlickEdit | |||||||||
Smultron | ? | ? | ? | ||||||
SubEthaEdit | ? | ? | |||||||
TED Notepad | ? | ? | |||||||
TextEdit | |||||||||
TextMate | Plug‑in | [bc] | |||||||
TextPad | Plug‑in [bd] | ||||||||
TextWrangler | Plug‑in [be] | ||||||||
The SemWare Editor | Plug‑in [69] | [bf] | Partial [bg] | ||||||
UltraEdit | Partial [bh] | ||||||||
VEDIT | < [bi] | ||||||||
vi | |||||||||
Vim | Plug‑in [70] | ||||||||
Visual Studio Code | |||||||||
XEmacs | ? | ||||||||
XNEdit | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | |||||||
Syntax highlighting | Function list | Symbol database (ctags or equiv.) | Bracket matching | Auto indentation | Auto completion | Code folding | Text folding | Compiler integration | |
Text shell integration | Graphical shell integration | Macro language | Collaborative editing | Large file support | Long line support | Multi-line regex support [bj] | Search in files | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acme | Extensible | ? | ? | ? | ||||
AkelPad | memory | Plug‑in | ||||||
Alphatk | [bk] | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
Atom | [71] | ? | Plug‑in [72] | ~27 MB | Soft-wrapping | [73] | ||
BBEdit | [bl] | memory [74] | ||||||
Bluefish | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
Brackets | Extensible | ? | Partial | |||||
Coda | [bm] | ? | ? | |||||
ConTEXT | memory [bn] | ? | ? | |||||
Crimson Editor | ? | ? | ||||||
CudaText | Plug‑in | ? | ? | Plug‑in | ||||
ed | via mkfifo | ? | ? | ? | ||||
Editra | ? | ? | ? | ? | 2 GB | ? | ? | ? |
EmEditor | 16TB | ? | ||||||
Geany | ? | Plug‑in | ? | ? | ? | |||
gedit | [bo] | Plug‑in | ? | Plug‑in [75] | ||||
GNU Emacs | 2.3 EB [76] [77] [78] [79] | |||||||
JED | memory [80] | Plug‑ins | ||||||
jEdit | (heap) [bp] | ? | ||||||
JOE | [ citation needed ] | ? | ? | [82] | ||||
JOVE | memory | ? | ||||||
Kate | Plug‑in | [83] | Maybe [bq] | Plug‑in | ||||
KEDIT | [ citation needed ] | 10Kb | ||||||
Komodo Edit | ? | ? | [85] | ? | ? | |||
Komodo IDE | ? | ? | [85] | ? | ? | |||
KWrite | [83] | [86] | ? | |||||
LE | [br] | memory [bs] | ? | ? | ||||
Light Table | ? | ? | ||||||
Metapad | memory [87] | ? | ||||||
mined | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
EDIT (MS-DOS) | (64~300 KB) | |||||||
EDIT (DR-DOS) | 2 GB, for as long as there is disk swap space for two temporary files | |||||||
Nano | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
Text shell integration | Graphical shell integration | Macro language | Collaborative editing | Large file support | Long line support | Multi-line regex support | Search in files | |
NEdit | ? | |||||||
Notepad | memory | ? | ||||||
Notepad++ | [88] | 2GB [89] | [90] | |||||
nvi | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
Pico | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
PolyEdit | [ citation needed ] | ? | ? | |||||
PSPad | memory [91] | ? | with plug‑in | |||||
RJ TextEd | ? | ? | ||||||
Sam | ? | ? | external [ai] | |||||
SciTE | ? | ? | ? | |||||
SlickEdit | 2 TB | |||||||
Smultron | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
SubEthaEdit | ? | ? | ? | |||||
TED Notepad | ? | ? | ? | |||||
TextEdit | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
TextMate | ? | ? | ||||||
TextPad | memory [92] | ? | ||||||
TextWrangler | memory [93] | ? | ||||||
The SemWare Editor | Only in special DOS multi-user version | 2 GB | ? | |||||
UltraEdit | [bt] | |||||||
VEDIT | [ citation needed ] | |||||||
vi | ~65 MB | ? | ||||||
Vim | with plug‑in [94] | memory [bu] | ||||||
Visual Studio Code | with plug‑in [95] | ? | ? | |||||
XEmacs | on 64-bit OS [bv] | ? | ||||||
XNEdit | ? | |||||||
Text shell integration | Graphical shell integration | Macro language | Collaborative editing | Large file support | Long line support | Multi-line regex support | Search in files |
Large file support:
= Larger than 4 GiB (LFS) | 2 GB | = Larger than 1 GB, not limited by memory | |
memory | = Limited by available memory | (64 KB) | = 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. [96]
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.
Support for custom key bindings.
Dynamically customizable | IBM CUA | macOS | Vi | Emacs | Pico | WordStar | WordPerfect | Brief | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acme | |||||||||
AkelPad | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Alphatk | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Atom | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BBEdit [97] [98] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
Bluefish | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
Brackets | Partial | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | ||||||
Coda | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
ConTEXT | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Crimson Editor | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
CudaText | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
ed | |||||||||
Editra | |||||||||
EmEditor | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
epsilon | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
Geany | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
gedit | [bw] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GNU Emacs | Partial [99] | [100] | [101] | [101] | |||||
JED | Partial [bx] | ? | ? | ? | |||||
jEdit | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
JOE [102] | |||||||||
JOVE | [103] | ||||||||
LE | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
Light Table | Partial | ? | Plug‑in | Plug‑in | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Kate | [104] | ||||||||
KEDIT | |||||||||
Komodo Edit | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
Komodo IDE | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||||
KWrite | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Metapad | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
mg | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
mined | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
MS-DOS Editor | |||||||||
Nano | Partial [105] | ||||||||
NEdit | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Notepad | |||||||||
Notepad++ | Partial | ||||||||
nvi | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Pico | Partial [105] | ||||||||
PolyEdit | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
PSPad | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RJ TextEd | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Sam | |||||||||
SciTE | Partial [by] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||
SlickEdit | [bz] | [ca] | Partial [cb] | ||||||
Smultron | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
SubEthaEdit | |||||||||
TED Notepad | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
TextEdit | |||||||||
TextMate | |||||||||
TextPad | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
TextWrangler [97] [106] | ? | ? | ? | ? | |||||
The SemWare Editor | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
UltraEdit | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
VEDIT | [107] | ||||||||
vi | |||||||||
Vim | Partial | Plug‑in [108] | Plug‑in [109] | [cc] | Plug‑in [cd] | ? | Plug‑in [111] | Plug‑in [112] | |
Visual Studio Code | Plug‑in [113] | Plug‑in [114] | Partial Plug‑in [115] | ||||||
XEmacs | Partial [99] | [100] | [101] | [101] | |||||
XNEdit | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Dynamically customizable | IBM CUA | macOS | Vi | Emacs | Pico | WordStar | WordPerfect | Brief |
Support for editing files over a network or the Internet.
FTP | HTTP | SSH | WebDAV | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Acme | ||||
AkelPad | ||||
Alphatk | ||||
Atom | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BBEdit | ||||
Bluefish | ||||
Brackets | Plug‑in | |||
Coda | ||||
ConTEXT | [118] | ? | [118] | ? |
Crimson Editor | ||||
CudaText | ||||
ed | ||||
Editra | ? | ? | ? | ? |
EmEditor | ||||
Geany | ||||
gedit | ||||
GNU Emacs | ||||
JED | ||||
jEdit | plug‑in [119] | [120] | plug‑in [119] | plug‑in. |
JOE | ||||
JOVE | ||||
LE | ||||
Kate | ||||
KEDIT | ||||
Komodo IDE | FTP, FTPS, SFTP | |||
KWrite | ||||
Metapad | ||||
mined | ? | ? | ? | ? |
MS-DOS Editor | ||||
Nano | ||||
FTP | HTTP | SSH | WebDAV | |
NEdit | ||||
Notepad | ||||
Notepad++ | Plug‑in for FTP, FTPS, FTPES, SFTP | Plug‑in | ||
nvi | ||||
Pico | ||||
PolyEdit | ||||
PSPad | ||||
RJ TextEd | FTP, SFTP | |||
Sam | ||||
SciTE | ||||
SlickEdit | ||||
Smultron | ? | ? | ? | |
SubEthaEdit | ||||
TED Notepad | [121] | ? | [121] | ? |
TextEdit | ||||
TextMate | ||||
TextPad | ||||
TextWrangler | FTP, SFTP [122] | |||
The SemWare Editor | ||||
UltraEdit | ||||
VEDIT | ||||
vi | ||||
Vim | [123] | [123] | [123] | [123] |
Visual Studio Code | Plug‑in [124] | Plug‑in (limited?) [124] | Plug‑in [124] | Plug‑in [124] |
XEmacs | ? | |||
XNEdit | ||||
FTP | HTTP | SSH | WebDAV | |
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.
ASCII | ISO-8859 | DOS (OEM) | EBCDIC | UTF-8 | UTF-16 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Acme | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
AkelPad | ||||||
Alphatk | ? | ? | ? | |||
Atom | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BBEdit | ||||||
Bluefish | ||||||
Brackets | ||||||
Coda | ? | |||||
ConTEXT | Partial [ce] | |||||
Crimson Editor | Partial [ce] | Partial | ||||
CudaText | ? | |||||
ed | ? | ? | ? | |||
Editra | ||||||
EmEditor | ||||||
Geany | ? | |||||
gedit | ? | ? | ||||
GNU Emacs | [cf] | [cg] | ||||
JED | ? | Partial [ch] | ||||
jEdit | ||||||
JOE | ? | ? | ? | |||
JOVE | ||||||
LE | ? | ? | ? | |||
Kate | ? | ? | ||||
KEDIT | Partial [ce] | |||||
Komodo Edit | ||||||
Komodo IDE | ||||||
KWrite | ? | ? | ? | |||
Metapad | Partial [ce] | |||||
mined | ||||||
MS-DOS Editor | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
Nano | ? | ? | ||||
NEdit | ? | ? | ? | |||
Notepad | Partial [ce] | |||||
Notepad++ | plug‑in? | |||||
nvi | ? | ? | ? | [ci] | ||
Pico | ||||||
PolyEdit | ? | ? | ? | |||
PSPad | ? | |||||
RJ TextEd | ||||||
Sam | ? | ? | ? | |||
SciTE [cj] | ||||||
SlickEdit | ||||||
Smultron | ? | ? | ? | |||
SubEthaEdit | ||||||
TED Notepad | ? | ? | ? | |||
TextEdit | ? | ? | ||||
TextMate | ? | ? | ||||
TextPad | ? | ? | ? | Partial [ck] | Partial [ck] | |
TextWrangler | ||||||
The SemWare Editor | [cl] | Partial [ce] | Plug‑in | |||
UltraEdit | ||||||
VEDIT | Partial [cm] | Partial [cm] | ||||
vi | ? | ? | ? | |||
Vim | Partial [cn] | |||||
Visual Studio Code | [126] | |||||
XEmacs | ? | ? | [co] | |||
XNEdit | ? | ? |
Support for Right-To-Left (RTL) texts is necessary for editing some languages like Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Yiddish and the mixture of left to right (LTR) and RTL known as bi-directional (BiDi) support.
Depending on the algorithm used in the programs it 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 cannot edit it and user should change the text direction to RTL to be able to edit RTL texts correctly.)
Right-to-left (RTL) | Bi-directional (Bidi) | |
---|---|---|
Acme | ||
AkelPad | ||
Alphatk | ? | ? |
Atom | ||
BBEdit | ||
Bluefish | ||
Brackets | ? | ? |
Coda | ? | ? |
ConTEXT | ? | ? |
Crimson Editor | ? | ? |
ed | ? | ? |
Editra | ? | ? |
EmEditor | ||
Geany | ? | ? |
gedit | ||
GNU Emacs | [cp] | |
JED | ? | ? |
jEdit | ||
JOE | ? | ? |
JOVE | ||
LE | ? | ? |
Kate | ||
KEDIT | ||
Komodo Edit | ||
Komodo IDE | ||
KWrite | ? | ? |
Metapad | ? | ? |
MS-DOS Editor | ? | ? |
mined | [cq] | [cq] |
Nano | ? | ? |
RTL | Bidi | |
NEdit | ||
Notepad | ||
Notepad++ | Partial [cr] | |
nvi | ? | ? |
Pico | ? | ? |
PolyEdit | ? | ? |
PSPad | ? | ? |
RJ TextEd | ||
Sam | ||
SciTE | ||
SlickEdit | ? | ? |
Smultron | ? | ? |
SubEthaEdit | ||
TED Notepad | ? | ? |
TextEdit | ||
TextMate | ||
TextPad | ? | ? |
TextWrangler | ||
The SemWare Editor | ||
UltraEdit | ||
VEDIT | ? | ? |
vi | ? | ? |
Vim | through terminal support | |
Visual Studio Code | ||
XEmacs | ? | ? |
XNEdit | ||
RTL | Bidi | |
Windows (CR/LF) | Unix-like systems (including macOS) [127] (LF) | Classic Mac OS (CR) | |
---|---|---|---|
Acme | |||
AkelPad | |||
Alphatk | |||
Atom | |||
BBEdit | |||
Bluefish | |||
Brackets | |||
Coda | |||
ConTEXT | |||
Crimson Editor | |||
CudaText | |||
ed | |||
Editra | |||
EmEditor | |||
Geany | |||
gedit | |||
GNU Emacs [cs] | |||
JED | |||
jEdit | |||
JOE [128] | |||
JOVE | |||
Kate | |||
KEDIT | |||
Komodo Edit | |||
Komodo IDE | |||
KWrite | |||
LE | |||
Metapad | ? | ||
MS-DOS Editor | |||
mined | |||
Nano | |||
NEdit | |||
Notepad | |||
Notepad++ | |||
nvi | ? | ? | |
Pico | |||
PolyEdit | |||
PSPad | |||
RJ TextEd | |||
Sam | ? | ? | ? |
SciTE | |||
SlickEdit | |||
Smultron | |||
SubEthaEdit | |||
Sublime Text | |||
TED Notepad | |||
TextEdit | |||
TextMate | |||
TextPad | |||
TextWrangler | |||
The SemWare Editor | |||
UltraEdit | |||
VEDIT | |||
vi | |||
Vim | |||
Visual Studio Code | |||
XEmacs | |||
XNEdit | |||
Windows (CR/LF) | Unix-like systems (including macOS) (LF) | Classic Mac OS (CR) | |
Vim is a free and open-source, screen-based text editor program. It is an improved clone of Bill Joy's vi. Vim's author, Bram Moolenaar, derived Vim from a port of the Stevie editor for Amiga and released a version to the public in 1991. Vim is designed for use both from a command-line interface and as a standalone application in a graphical user interface. Since its release for the Amiga, cross-platform development has made it available on many other systems. In 2018, it was voted the most popular editor amongst Linux Journal readers; in 2015 the Stack Overflow developer survey found it to be the third most popular text editor, and in 2019 the fifth most popular development environment.
gedit is a text editor designed for the GNOME desktop environment. It was GNOME's default text editor and part of the GNOME Core Applications until GNOME version 42 in March 2022, which changed the default text editor to GNOME Text Editor. Designed as a general-purpose text editor, gedit emphasizes simplicity and ease of use, with a clean and simple GUI, according to the philosophy of the GNOME project. It includes tools for editing source code and structured text such as markup languages.
Ctags is a programming tool that generates an index file of names found in source and header files of various programming languages to aid code comprehension. Depending on the language, functions, variables, class members, macros and so on may be indexed. These tags allow definitions to be quickly and easily located by a text editor, a code search engine, or other utility. Alternatively, there is also an output mode that generates a cross reference file, listing information about various names found in a set of language files in human-readable form.
jEdit is a free software text editor available under GPL-2.0-or-later. It is written in Java and runs on any operating system with Java support, including BSD, Linux, macOS and Windows.
A source-code editor is a text editor program designed specifically for editing source code of computer programs. It may be a standalone application or it may be built into an integrated development environment (IDE).
Notepad++, is a text and source code editor for use with Microsoft Windows. It supports tabbed editing, which allows working with multiple open files in one window. The program's name comes from the C postfix increment operator.
GNU Readline is a software library that provides in-line editing and history capabilities for interactive programs with a command-line interface, such as Bash. It is currently maintained by Chet Ramey as part of the GNU Project.
TextMate is a free and open-source general-purpose GUI text editor for macOS created by Allan Odgaard. TextMate features declarative customizations, tabs for open documents, recordable macros, folding sections, snippets, shell integration, and an extensible bundle system.
This article compares computer software tools that are used for accomplishing comparisons of files of various types. The file types addressed by individual file comparison apps varies but may include text, symbols, images, audio, or video. This category of software tool is often called "file comparison" or "diff tool", but those effectively are equivalent terms — where the term "diff" is more commonly associated with the Unix diff
utility.
Geany is a free and open-source lightweight GUI text editor using Scintilla and GTK, including basic IDE features. It is designed to have short load times, with limited dependency on separate packages or external libraries on Linux. It has been ported to a wide range of operating systems, such as BSD, Linux, macOS, Solaris and Windows. The Windows port lacks an embedded terminal window; also missing from the Windows version are the external development tools present under Unix, unless installed separately by the user. Among the supported programming languages and markup languages are C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, PHP, HTML, LaTeX, CSS, Python, Perl, Ruby, Pascal, Haskell, Erlang, Vala and many others.
GNU Emacs is a text editor and suite of free software tools. Its development began in 1984 by GNU Project founder Richard Stallman, based on the Emacs editor developed for Unix operating systems. GNU Emacs has been a central component of the GNU project and a flagship project of the free software movement.
Emacs, originally named EMACS, is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, self-documenting, real-time display editor". Development of the first Emacs began in the mid-1970s, and work on GNU Emacs, directly descended from the original, is ongoing; its latest version is 29.4 , released June 2024.
In human–computer interaction, simultaneous editing is an end-user development technique allowing a user to make multiple simultaneous edits of text in a multiple selection at once through direct manipulation.
Leafpad is a free and open-source graphical text editor for Linux, Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), and Maemo that is similar to the Microsoft Windows program Notepad. Created with the focus of being a lightweight text editor with minimal dependencies, it is designed to be simple-to-use and easy-to-compile.
Pluma is a fork of gedit 2 and the default text editor of the MATE desktop environment used in Linux distributions. It extends the basic functionality with other features and plugins.
Spacemacs is a configuration framework for GNU Emacs. It can take advantage of all of GNU Emacs' features, including both graphical and command-line user interfaces, and being executable under X Window System and within a Unix shell terminal. It is free and open-source software (FOSS) released under the GPL-3.0-or-later license.
Xed is a lightweight text editor forked from Pluma and is the default text editor in Linux Mint.
EditorConfig is an open specification and file format for Syntax highlighting, text editors and integrated development environment (IDEs) that aims to maintain a consistent coding style, particularly aimed at groups working together. It can help keep multiple editors as well as individuals using the same conventions. It stores configurations in a file which can be shared by multiple people or used in multiple editors. It defines rules for how to format different programming languages or other structured text files with conventions such as what character to end a line with and how to manage indentation.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help){{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help){{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help){{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help){{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help){{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help){{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help){{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help)A buffer's size cannot be larger than some maximum, which is defined by the largest buffer position representable by Emacs integers. This is because Emacs tracks buffer positions using that data type. For typical 64-bit machines, this maximum buffer size is 2^{61} - 2 bytes, or about 2 EiB. For typical 32-bit machines, the maximum is usually 2^{29} - 2 bytes, or about 512 MiB. Buffer sizes are also limited by the amount of memory in the system.
The search covers all loaded buffers.
JOE also emulates several other editors. JSTAR is a close imitation of WordStar [...]. JPICO is a close imitation of the Pine mailing system's PICO editor [...]. JMACS is a GNU-EMACS imitation. [...] Key binding tables are defined. You can define as many as you like [...].
character sets must use LF (0x0A) or CR-LF (0x0D - 0x0A) as line terminators [...]. [...] character sets which use CR terminated lines (MACs) will not yet work.