Text Editor of the Year
 

Always an interesting poll.

--jeremy

Perhaps it would be interesting to distinguish between vi and Vim. If you prefer using the simple BSD vi (a.k.a. nvi in Linux) or Vim with ":set cp" you would vote for vi. If you like all the bells and whistles of Vim like syntax coloring and indentation you would vote for Vim.

One could do the same thing for XEmacs and GNU Emacs since they're so different now, but I'm pretty sure nobody uses XEmacs anymore so it wouldn't make a difference. :D

Where's Geany?

:)

How about Leafpad?

Geany is in the IDE category. Strictly speaking, the text editor in Geany is Scintilla.

You mean there's other text editors besides vi/vim? :D

Well spotted, perhaps i should have looked there. But then i forget its classed as an IDE.

where's the control-alt-meta-win key to vote?

Vi/Vim every time ;)

Not overly concerned about colour coding etc.

It's good to have an editor that will always be available.

:1,$ s/^M$//

Gedit.

vi for terminal, GUI i use cream

Hm? I always found that Vim was the text editor that did the best syntax coloring.
I find it harder this year, as Medit was added. I usually use Vim for when I am without X or for editing config file - and Medit for web stuff. I think I'll put one in for Medit - Vim will probably win anyway. Would be interesting with a vi vs. vim poll some day...

vim is great at syntax colouring, however I frequently use Unix systems that have vi rather than vim.

For me this isn't an issue, that was more my point.

Once I learned the keys (and how to combine them with movements) effectively I was much more productive with Vim than Emacs, though I still like Emacs for some things (e.g. SLIME is amazing). Very nice syntax highlighting system which is usually more advanced than the competition, yet still manages to be quite fast. Even so there are times when I just want the simplicity of nvi (just plain "vi" on my BSD systems) for quick things or for files where I tend to break Vim's syntax capabilities (lately, editing LaTeX).

It should be nano/pico.

Scite is really great for java if you use the extensions. In many ways as functional as a full-blown IDE and it needs only fraction of the resources.

sed ????

I think Vim is the nicest if you know how to type. Otherwise, as far as speed goes, it probably doesn't matter a whole lot.

I voted for pico as I probably do more text editing with pico at the command line than anything else. When in a GUI, mousepad is fast to load and simple to use. But if I want syntax highlighting, then i use Kwrite.
I cringe every time that I need to use vi; but maybe I will learn to love it in another ten years when I have memorised fifty useful shortcut commands.

nano for cli
leafpad for basic gui text editing
geany for more complex gui editing

I think most people would say that Stream Editing and Text Editing are not quite the same ;)

Don't get me wrong I like sed and use it a fair bit, but for general text editing I would rather use vi.

Vi/Vim once I learned it does whatever I need it to do. I now use it with SSH on a remote server to edit html files even. No need to ftp, or use a gui.

Any chance of getting ee(1) (easy editor) added to this poll? I use vi personally, but I was going to vote ee (because it made a user very happy this year).

Actually, I must confess that I use the ROX Edit application.

Sadly I can't vote for it.

There is no text editor for me but (n)vi!

When compared with other editors give here
I like the following more.
vi if terminal oriented.
vim on GUI.

VIM
 

There's something I like to name "The VIM experience" ...

The last time I checked out, I was reconfiguring my whole
setup to emulate VIM keystrokes and behavior the better
possible.

nano, gedit & leafpad...depends which environment I'm using.

vi(m) is always the shortest way in complex editing-situations.

Kedit which is my personal favorite was missing for some reason.

Nay, cat.

Leafpad
 

There is leafpad missing.

Joe joe joe and joe again, i wouldn`t use any other one :-)

nano because it works/ gets the job done and, most importantly, because its what I usually find my self using!

My favorite is nano.

Hail vi.

vi/vim default but i love gvim too. Sometimes KWrite/gedit is OK.

* loads fast
* Switches line number fast (use case: G++ reports an erronous line number)
* Find-and-replace is fast
* Syntax hilighting is fast
* Search is fast to type and run

Vim: The Fast Text Editor.

Skip this please...

vi is:
- standard *nix editor
- the fastest (to edit with)
- relatively small and light (less of an issue these days, but still a plus)
- more ergonomic (once you remap ESC/CAPS ;) as you do more with less movement
- full featured.

emacs is at least full featured (a massive understatement for an editor that can browse the web, play chess with you, etc.) and reasonably likely to be installed on any *nix system you have to work with.

as far as i'm concerned the other editors suck faeces through a straw, but obviously some people love them, so it's good that they're around. i was grateful for nano in my first few hours on gnu/linux, when vi seemed strange and evil and i just wanted something that worked a bit like notepad.

my favorite is and will always be vi/vim. though i've been using this for quite a long time, but stil there are hell of features yet to be discovered/used by me. m a great fan of vi. vi/vim rocks!!!

Vi/Vim all the way. even with graphical interface I prefer to edit file on terminal using vim. But still sometimes use gedit if my mood permits.

I vote for Scite..
Its good for programmers

but Vi/Vim best if on CLI

i agree...
 

yea...where is geany...i love the way it's tabs work and the change of focus when using it

Geany is in there in IDE list.

Nano. I rarely do any serious editing/code crunching so syntax highlighting and what not is really lost on me.

I choose pico because in addition to using Ubuntu 64bit (On my Hpo Pavilion a6230n) I just recntly started using FreeBSD and pico is comes ona typical FreeBSD 7.0 installation.

VI 'til I die!!!!!

What do mean vi is the STANDARD!! :-[
 

STANDARD *NIX EDITOR!!! WRONG!!!

Ed, man! !man ed

ED(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual ED(1)

NAME
ed - text editor

SYNOPSIS
ed [ - ] [ -x ] [ name ]
DESCRIPTION
Ed is the standard text editor.
---

Computer Scientists love ed, not just because it comes first
alphabetically, but because it's the standard. Everyone else loves ed
because it's ED!

"Ed is the standard text editor."

And ed doesn't waste space on my Timex Sinclair. Just look:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 24 Oct 29 1929 /bin/ed
-rwxr-xr-t 4 root 1310720 Jan 1 1970 /usr/ucb/vi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 5.89824e37 Oct 22 1990 /usr/bin/emacs

Of course, on the system *I* administrate, vi is symlinked to ed.
Emacs has been replaced by a shell script which 1) Generates a syslog
message at level LOG_EMERG; 2) reduces the user's disk quota by 100K;
and 3) RUNS ED!!!!!!

"Ed is the standard text editor."

Let's look at a typical novice's session with the mighty ed:

golem> ed

?
help
?
?
?
quit
?
exit
?
bye
?
hello?
?
eat flaming death
?
^C
?
^C
?
^D
?

---
Note the consistent user interface and error reportage. Ed is
generous enough to flag errors, yet prudent enough not to overwhelm
the novice with verbosity.

"Ed is the standard text editor."

Ed, the greatest WYGIWYG editor of all.

ED IS THE TRUE PATH TO NIRVANA! ED HAS BEEN THE CHOICE OF EDUCATED
AND IGNORANT ALIKE FOR CENTURIES! ED WILL NOT CORRUPT YOUR PRECIOUS
BODILY FLUIDS!! ED IS THE STANDARD TEXT EDITOR! ED MAKES THE SUN
SHINE AND THE BIRDS SING AND THE GRASS GREEN!!

When I use an editor, I don't want eight extra KILOBYTES of worthless
help screens and cursor positioning code! I just want an EDitor!!
Not a "viitor". Not a "emacsitor". Those aren't even WORDS!!!! ED!
ED! ED IS THE STANDARD!!!

TEXT EDITOR.

When IBM, in its ever-present omnipotence, needed to base their
"edlin" on a UNIX standard, did they mimic vi? No. Emacs? Surely
you jest. They chose the most karmic editor of all. The standard.

Ed is for those who can *remember* what they are working on. If you
are an idiot, you should use Emacs. If you are an Emacs, you should
not be vi. If you use ED, you are on THE PATH TO REDEMPTION. THE
SO-CALLED "VISUAL" EDITORS HAVE BEEN PLACED HERE BY ED TO TEMPT THE
FAITHLESS. DO NOT GIVE IN!!! THE MIGHTY ED HAS SPOKEN!!!



(From emacs/etc/JOKES file)


(As you may guess, I actually use emacs-cvs-latest )

I use a lot of text editors
 

I use many text editors, more than have even been mentioned as of the time that I writing this note. When doing a lot of editing, I use GNU Emacs the most.

For light editing in a notepad style I use Leafpad.

For touch typing or quick editing I use a variety of Vi based editors to keep my fingers vi nimble. Levee is the smallest of them all, Vim/Gvim is arguably the most flexible and capable of them all.

For simple console editing I use nano, but I also like joe a lot - I can make it have the keypad feel of several different editors.

For a faster Emacs, I sometimes use MicroEmacs.

There are many editors that I like for many reasons, but I keep coming back to GNU Emacs as my full featured editor of preference. I can use it with any number of keypad styles, even the vi style. I can read news, Email, documentation, even browse the Web. While I do not always use it in all of those ways, I can, and I've done so many times. I have yet to find any editing task that I cannot do with it.