Dropping Pluma for Geany Lite

[Amanas]

We are considering dropping Pluma for a lightweight version of Geany and are interested in our user's opinions on this potential change. Please see this post on our site for more details.

Thanks!

[heavy metal]

go ahead with geany-lite, that is if it will do the same job as pluma do and with better development, then go ahead!

[griffon]

I always use Geany anyway. No point in a light version as far as I'm concerned.

[joshg253]

As with anything, I'd have to try it before deciding to switch to it.

[TheDynamicHamza21]

Downloaded and installed geany as nonprogrammer who uses a text editor for text only (notes that are too long for Tomboy) I absolutely hate it!!
The sidebar,message window, the numbers on left side of the page...ugly and in the way. Not at all simple like Pluma.

I'm running LM 13 MATE and will until the next LTS but if Geany is included in next LTS I'll just delete it and add gedit or mousepad for my use. Geany is no Pluma! Programmers may like but the average non-geeks who uses text editors for simple notes won't, it is too advanced for their needs.

[nomko]

Agree with TheDynamicHamza21!!! Just saw the screenshot's on the official homepage....damn what a ugly beast it is!!! You have to be a rocket scientist just to understand how that program works! As said by TheDynamicHamza21, it's total bulls*** for the average user.

[nomko]

I double posted my message even i clicked once on the submit button....

[sjr]

I use Geany all the time, as a replacement for Pluma, but it is not without issues.

1. As a Latex user, I miss I miss "Forward Search" with Okular, which cannot be set up on Geany due to the fact that Geany doesn't provide a complete set of "Wildcard" parameters for use in command line specifications. GEdit is a bit more flexible in this respect. This has been a topic on the Geany forums, and the author admits that the required feature is "not yet implemented". This is not a problem with Okular itself: Kyle has no problems with Okular and forward search.

2. Geany has become slower and more laggy in its later versions, even on my (very fast) machine. In particular the clipboard bogs things down.

3. Geany's implementation of shortcut keys is somewhat ad hoc and disorganized. One can wrestle the thing into place, but it doesn't approach the big guys, like emacs. (To be fair, what does?) For example the shortcuts for "build", "compile", etc are restricted to a fixed "Build" menu with a somewhat idiosyncratic structure.

4. Maybe "the" central feature of a Linux editor of this type is the quality and flexibility of the virtual terminal. Emacs is the champ here, but a nightmare to set up. Geany beats Pluma but there are issues: Using Geany as a text-based frontend for Python, for example, the VTE sometimes "looses the script" and has to be restarted. Moreover, a crash in the program one is writing will often destroy your session: There needs to be some generic form of recovery. The key feature of Geany's VTE is the ability to send text from the editor into whatever process is running from the command line. This needs a lot more attention, more configurability and a good cleanup.

There are many other issues. Perhaps making a Geany "lite" will be an opportunity to clean up Geany. Hopefully "lite" doesn't mean "less useful as a programmer's editor".