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In Harry Potter, Garrick Ollivander stated that "the wand chooses the wizard". The same is true of text editors. In this challenge you're going to let a text editor choose you. Time ~1hour
Depending on the operating system that you're using, you'll have different options available to you in terms of which text editor you can install.Some of these editors are not free, but we've listed them because they're robust and available for a short period in a trial mode. Trying them out won't cost you anything financially.
Since I'm using ubuntu, i normally use gedit for simple things just for fun while I'm doing something else, or Aptana when I'm fully focused on the task, don't know why I never tried Bluefish and now that I did it, I really liked it, pretty simple to use :)
I tried gedit, which already came with my 11.10 release of Ubuntu, VIM, which was easily installed, and Bluefish, equally simple to install.
gedit was quite simple, vanilla and easy to use. It got the job done and after typing in my handwritten code, I was able to view it using my browser: Firefox.
Upon opening the document with VIM, I was a little intimidated with all the bells and whistles. It seems to have more functionality. After tinkering with the document, I felt impowered. I was still able to do everything I could in gEdit, but would need to excersize a little self control if I were to avoid taking shortcuts.
Bluefish blew me away! It has yet more tools and windows displaying my file tree and push button media insertion. More discipline will be required if I am to learn how to write HTML from scratch. I may end up using this text editor once I feel more comfortable with gEdit.
Used Notepad but I like Komodo so far (for my Windows). I liked the easy templates that saved me a lot of time. I suppose I could create and save templates for notepad but oh well. Might as well learn one program well.
Bluefish seemed the best choice as I was on Linux. I preferred the backup of a "spell-check" in he form of code-completion. More information on my blog.
bluefish counts as a text editor? i thought it was more like a complete IDE?
I would have said Bluefish was an editor, whilst it has a few extra features I don't think it falls into the ide domain.
It's a little unclear some people call geany an ide, when its really a text editor with the ability to compile and run files.
While I have used Notepad ++ for many years now, I havbe foudn that it is not for everyone. IF anyone is still looking for an alternitive I would recomend looking at Alternativeto.net .
Since I'm currently a Windows guy, I like using Notepad++. I like the code highlighting, the interesting plugins, and the low memory usage.
As a mac user I heard good things about TextMate therefore I downloaded and installed a trial version of the software. After scooping around youtube tutorials I managed to find that it does all the things I want and more through bundles.
Sorry after reading the comments below and also not being inclined to download I choose my default notepad++ as my html forger.
I just started using Oxygen yesterday after spending a lot of time with TextWrangler (I'm using Mac OSX). I love Oxygen. It automatically closes all your tags and has great views. I'm a convert.
Only downside compared to TextWrangler is that it's a 1-month trial: http://www.oxygenxml.com/
Suggestion to improve gameplay: Can there be a link to the 'hello world' challenge in the text?
This is a great idea it would provide explaination and add fluidity. I also think it would be worth while to add links to our blog posts to the challenge that we are completing by writing the blog post. It has similar benefits as I described above.
Hey dundoft, thanks for replying. Im having great trouble understanding what you mean. Could you explain? Thanks!
indeed. it's a traditionally must-have challenge for anyone learning a new language. it shows them how to do a basic output.
So I tried out the editors listed here for Windows and have to say, I'll stick to the MS Expression Web, however, if I should chose from one of the listed above I would still chose Notepad++ just because it's so simple to use. ConTEXT is almost exactly the same thing as Notepad++, so... not much to say about it what so ever. I was disappointed however with E-TextEditor. Once I found the website to download it from... I was stuck, nothing was working properly, who knows was it some kind of mistake from my side or theirs, anyway, I didn't even try it out. So that is why I would choose Notepad++. However as I said, I'll rather stick to the tool I've been using for a while now - MS Expression Web.
I choose vim. Finishing up vimtutor now, it doesn't seem hard to learn. Just have to know all the shortcuts, which are pretty straight forward.
I'd be honest and say that I wouldn't be making more Hello World files. I've done so quite a few times before and some I still have with me. Including a Hello World for HTML.
Besides, gEdit has chosen me a long time ago.
This is going to be a tough one for me because currently I'm using Windows, but only as a stop gap until I have my Gnu/Linux laptop back.
I love the versatility of Emacs, but Vim is almost as versatile and is easier to learn (and also works well on Windows, unlike Emacs on Windows which is like driving a Ferarri across a muddy field). I think I'll probably use Vim, but I'm going to play around with my options.
Make use of the plugins on Gedit, especially the Snippet Plugin, will help you code faster.
I've used a few (on a mac):
Text Wrangler, Coda, Espresso, Komodo Edit, TextMate
I keep going back to Espresso though.
