Which text editor should I use?

[thouartsimple]

I am not a big fan of Gedit and I am looking for a replacement that won't install a crapload of dependencies (like Kate does). Does anyone have any suggestions?

I am using Linux Mint 11 Katya and Linux Mint 10 Julia ... both GNOME editions.

Thanks!

[wayne128]

I am not a big fan of Gedit and I am looking for a replacement that won't install a crapload of dependencies (like Kate does). Does anyone have any suggestions?

I am using Linux Mint 11 Katya and Linux Mint 10 Julia ... both GNOME editions.

Thanks!

consider nano or mousepad.

[proxima_centauri]

Leafpad is a lighter alternative to gedit.
Geany has more features and is an improved gedit for programming uses.

[Aging Technogeek]

You can try Leafpad, the LXDE text editor. It installs from Package manager with no dependent files.

Mousepad, from Xfce, brings just 3 dependent files.

Nano is a terminal based text editor, installed in Mint 10 and 11. Open terminal and enter

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nano

to call program. enter

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man nano

to call the manual pages for usage instructions.

[DrHu]

You probably already have enough java installed to run jedit, which is quite a nice/read as comprehensive text/programming editor..
http://linuxappfinder.com/package/jedit
--otherwise I would suggest smaller is better, such as nano or medit or some others..

[loukoumas]

nano

[ThistleWeb]

There are a lot to choose from, depending on what you use it for, and whether you prefer a terminal based editor or a GUI. I like Gedit mostly, it has the basics of syntax highlighting, line wrapping etc I did make sure to learn the basics of Nano (open, edit, save & exit) so that if I'm ever in the situation where I'm dumped to a terminal prompt and need to edit a config file, I'm not scrambling around trying to do that without a GUI. On that note it's worth taking the time to get familiar at least in basic terms with Elinks (CLI web browser to find solutions) & IRSSI (CLI IRC client to get live help).

Back on the point though, I always have Geany installed, Geany has plenty of more advanced stuff, it's edging towards an IDE. The ability to do a find / replace across the entire session (every document currently open on multiple tabs) in one swoop is amazing at times. No other editor I've seen has that little time saving gem. Bluefish is another one I always install which I believe is very light on dependencies.

Dependencies are also on what DE you use, if you use KDE, then Kate or Kedit will hardly have any (if at all) because everything they need is already installed for other stuff. The same applies to Gedit in Gnome. Mousepad & Leafpad are handy as very light quick editors but they lack a lot of features, they're kinda like Notepad in that regard, very basic. The good thing with Linux and the repos is that you can easily try them all to find out what you prefer.

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sudo apt-get autoremove

After you get rid of one to clear out any dependencies it install that you no longer need. Text editors are one of the pointless contested issues in Linux causing many a flame war over which is best. Whatever works best for you, is the best. What works for others, works for others. It's all good.

[thouartsimple]

Thanks for the all of the advice. I said screw the dependencies as I have plenty of space and nothing to do with it, so I went ahead with Kate, since that's my favorite anyway. I've taken a look at quite a few of these and I really appreciate all of the help! Geany and Bluefish will definitely be on my list here very soon.

[ThistleWeb]

Dependencies are not about the storage space, it's about libs running to run the application. If you run a KDE / QT application outside of KDE it will have to load a lot of QT libs into RAM, meaning it's heavier to run and vice versa. If you have oodles of RAM it's not an issue, but if you have limited RAM, it counts. That's the main reason for trying to stay native when possible. The other is that the application may not take the theme changes you apply to the rest of the desktop, which is just a visual inconsistency, it doesn't affect the functionality.

[thouartsimple]

Dependencies are not about the storage space, it's about libs running to run the application. If you run a KDE / QT application outside of KDE it will have to load a lot of QT libs into RAM, meaning it's heavier to run and vice versa. If you have oodles of RAM it's not an issue, but if you have limited RAM, it counts. That's the main reason for trying to stay native when possible. The other is that the application may not take the theme changes you apply to the rest of the desktop, which is just a visual inconsistency, it doesn't affect the functionality.

Oh, okay. I have 3 gb on this laptop and I don't get anywhere close to using it all... thanks for the explanation!