#3 Choose Your Weapon

This course will become read-only in the near future. Tell us at community.p2pu.org if that is a problem.

Task Navigation 

A bit of background


Find out the basics of text editors

Text editors come in all many different forms, but at their hearts they all do the same thing - allow you to edit files that are composed of straight forward, everyday text. HTML & CSS files are like this, their contents are simply plain text.

Your computer may already have a text editor on it. If you're using a Windows based computer then you'll likely have Notepad (Programs > Accessories > Notepad). If you're using an Apple computer then you'll have VIM already installed (Applications > Utilities > Terminal and then type in VIM and press return). Finally, if you're running Linux (bonus points if you are) then you'll certainly have one of either VI/VIM, emacs, Kate or gedit. 
 
Not all text editors are created equally and whilst VIM is a truly splendid text editor, it has a steep learning curve. Unless you can already use it, then we'd recommend something else for now. You can always come back to VIM later on.
 
If you're running windows then Notepad has the opposite problem to VIM - it's too simple. You'll be fighting with it all the way to use it to do serious webcraft work.

Task Discussion


  • jamesweaver said:

    I haven't found anything better than Notepad++, guess I'll stick with it!

    on Jan. 24, 2012, 9 p.m.

    Sinsedrix said:

    I confirm, this is mine since several years.

    on Jan. 25, 2012, 4:09 a.m. in reply to jamesweaver

    Jose Maravillas said:

    I have used so many different text editors, but I always keep comming back to Notepad++ becuase it is so awesome.

    on March 10, 2012, 2:22 a.m. in reply to jamesweaver

  • Andres Eduardo Velásquez said:

     

    Estoy utilizando Sublime Text 2 y me parece muy bueno 

    on Jan. 24, 2012, 2:41 p.m.

  • Jay said:

    I've got 2 partitions on my machine under linux I'm use vim and love it! It does have a learning curve but if you type vimtutor at the terminal you should get in interactive tutorial, which should help ease the learning process.

    On windows I do most of my editing on notepad++. However, after reading AndyBKK's comment I've decided to install Komodo edit and give it a try.

    on Jan. 15, 2012, 11:41 p.m.

    flebber said:

    Any reason for not using vim on windows? I feel that's the beauty of it once your setup you can do anything on any platform.  Vim is even available on iPad and iPhone now.

    on Jan. 24, 2012, 11:05 p.m. in reply to Jay

    ntarpey said:

    Good call on vimtutor

    on Jan. 25, 2012, 9:48 p.m. in reply to Jay

    Jay said:

    No good reason flebber, I've just used notepad++ for along time and I don't really like the was the dos command line on windows works.

    As and aside, I'm now giveing Aptana studio ago since it's cross platform. I'm liking it so far :)

    on Jan. 26, 2012, 4:12 a.m. in reply to flebber

  • AndyBKK said:

    I am on a Mac and for now I am going with TextWrangler . 

    on Jan. 13, 2012, 3:49 a.m.

    AndyBKK said:

    Scrub that it's all about komodo Edit.

    on Jan. 13, 2012, 4:28 a.m. in reply to AndyBKK

  • Julio Garcia said:

    I'm going to use dreamweaver from Adobe. It's quite complex but my html savy mate next desk will help me! 

    on Jan. 12, 2012, 12:10 p.m.

    flebber said:

    It isn't a text editor. WYSIWYG.

    on Jan. 12, 2012, 4:58 p.m. in reply to Julio Garcia

    Philipp said:

    Hey Julio - You won't learn as much with a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor, because it hides the underlying HTML structure from you. I would encourage you to get a text editor for your web development. It may seem more cumbersome initially, but you will learn a lot more about the structures of the web, and in the end you will be able to create better web-applications and do so faster. 

    on Jan. 13, 2012, 10:15 a.m. in reply to Julio Garcia

    Julio Garcia said:

    You right! I'm going to test Notepad++ and will see.

    on Jan. 13, 2012, 12:15 p.m. in reply to flebber

    jamesweaver said:

    FYI - It's true that Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG, but it can also be strictly a text editor. It's not my choice, but it can strictly be used as a text editor.

    on Jan. 24, 2012, 9:03 p.m. in reply to Julio Garcia

    Dave Joe said:

    Correct. It has Code, Split, and Design views. Sticking with Code View would give the desired result.

    on Feb. 5, 2012, 4:59 p.m. in reply to jamesweaver

  • flebber said:

    Will be using Vim and Gvim on linux. I know it has a learning curve to it but it operates easily when you are a newbie and as I pick up little skills here and there it feels better and better.

    There are such a wide variety of support for anything you want to program you wont likely have to change editors if you change the language you want to do.

    I have found this intro video series very useful and easy to help me learn vim, its here at ontwik http://ontwik.com/tools/vim-from-novice-to-professional-by-derek-wyatt-p1/ . Also if you might find this helpful, my vimrc is on github here https://github.com/flebber/MyVim it is mainly setup at the moment for javascript, html, perl and python.

    Note I use the fantastic 'Vundle' system to add all levels of insane language support to vim. Vundle is an outstanding project and can be found here on github https://github.com/gmarik/vundle you would need to use this before my vimrc would be useful.

     

    If you want a non mode based editor I would suggest the best editor is sublime text, version to is currently in alpha/beta and currently remains free, but will at some point(not sure when) cost $59. It is here http://www.sublimetext.com/

    on Jan. 6, 2012, 11:42 p.m.

    Jose Maravillas said:

    I also watched those videos to learn how to use vim, but I didn't follow through and ended up forgetting everything I learned from it. All I remember was that j was to move left and k was to move right.

    What features makes the sublime text great? I have seen it before, but never adopted it as my default code editor.

    on March 10, 2012, 2:15 a.m. in reply to flebber

  • Sitereader said:

    I have Notepad++ installed at work because I already had jEdit at home when I started learning basic coding at codeacademy.com.

    I like Notepad++ because I can customize the compile and run into a single macro and notepad remembers the open files from the last session.

    That said I have no opinion on which will prove friendlier. Kudos and thanks to the great developers who make us these gifts of their labor.

     

    ps: I neither work for them do I get any benefit by promoting them.

    on Dec. 27, 2011, 6:39 a.m.

  • Edgardo José said:

    I highly recommend gEdit on Ubuntu, VIM is too much for me. On Windows, I don't know much about editors.

    on Dec. 25, 2011, 10:17 p.m.

  • bryzer112 said:

    I used Linux for a year or two.  Unfortunately I didn't have time to really get into it.  I do recall VIM being an awesome text editor.  Looks like Notepad for me now, unless I can find VIM for Windows.  Anyone?

    on Dec. 21, 2011, 12:22 p.m.

    Anders Hovgaard said:

    VIM for windows:

    http://www.vim.org/download.php#pc

    on Dec. 21, 2011, 4:07 p.m. in reply to bryzer112

  • Joshua S. Williams said:

    I am a Linux (Ubuntu 11.10) user and have been for a long time. I have also been using Bluefish for all of my HTML needs. 

    on Dec. 6, 2011, 10:40 a.m.

  • Vita said:

    I'm on Windows and at the very beginning of my web designing experience i was using Notepadd++ which was great for a beginner like me. It really helped me to learn more about writing an actual code. Later on it became too slow for me, so i swithched to some more powerful tools... Started to introduce myself to Visual Studio, but at the moment my preferite is MS Expression Web.

    on Dec. 6, 2011, 3:45 a.m.

  • Anonym said:

    I have Terminal and i been trying to study on my own but it is a little hard right now so I will start now with TextWrangler and continue..

    on Nov. 28, 2011, 9:44 a.m.

    alanliddell said:

    Have you tried vimtutor? Just go into Terminal and type vimtutor, that should clear things up a bit. That's how I learned. Also, you might want to consider MacVim if you don't feel like screwing around in the Terminal.

    on Dec. 1, 2011, 9:15 p.m. in reply to Anonym

  • Joan said:

    Basically, Window's Notepad is useless to a developer. Not only can it not highlight text - which is rather important - it is too stubborn and would insist to save everything with a .txt extension. Plus, everything else seems to have been updated - from MS Office to MS Paint - but they didn't seem to have touched Notepad.

    Back when I was in Windows XP, I looked for a better text editor and found Notepad++ from Sourceforge.

    Windows XP couldn't serve all my purposes so I opted to switch to Linux. Of course, it's amazing. I was using Ubuntu Lucid Lynx. Now, I'm on Joli OS. It's still pretty much the same but it makes my computer run a wee bit faster.

    I've heard of VIM and used it a bit on some else's Mac. But I can't afford a Mac and gEdit works well for me so I'll stick with it.

    on Nov. 25, 2011, 1:18 a.m.

  • kaizer1v said:

    I am currently using gEdit on Ubuntu 11.04. I am also learning to use VIM a termnial based text editor. I recommend this for all linux users who are willing to learn a terminal based text-editor. It's very powerful and cool :D.

    on Nov. 23, 2011, 5:01 a.m.

  • jenEliz said:

    I am using Notepad ++ which has quite a few features...

    on Oct. 31, 2011, 12:26 a.m.

    brotherhutch said:

    Agreed. I use np++ as well, and have not found it lacking anything.

    on Nov. 9, 2011, 8:38 p.m. in reply to jenEliz

    Joan said:

    I used to use it. It's works well if you're on Windows.

    on Nov. 25, 2011, 1:20 a.m. in reply to jenEliz