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HTML

Posted by Ricardo Primon
Ricardo Primon
473 Points

Text editor - which one is the best?

Which text editor is the best one out there?

8 Answers

Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points

Hi Richardo!

You'll have to do some trial-and-error to know for sure but in my book, I would rank the code editors like this:

1) VSCode

2) Atom

3) Sublime 3

4) Brackets

(I use all four at different times, for different reasons, but mainly to keep current/active projects separated/isolated in my own mind!?!)

What you have to really explore is/are the keyboard shortcuts and the available extensions to add (and how you like to use them)!?!

One real advantage with VSCode is its integration with Git/Github!!!

Just my $0.02, so to speak...

I hope that helps.

Stay safe and happy coding!

Ricardo Primon
Ricardo Primon
473 Points

Hey there Peter,

Many thanks for your help and fantastic response. Nice to know that VSCode has that integration with Github.

This was super helpful!! =)

Ricardo Primon
Ricardo Primon
473 Points

Hey Peter. Thanks a lot! I really appreciate you taking the time to share all these great resources with me. I'll take a look and spend some quality time going through them. I have installed VS Code and started to play around. It's awesome. =)

Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points
Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points

BTW,

Are you a Mac user?

If you are, I highly recommend checking out Dash:

https://kapeli.com/dash

(Unfortunately, it is only available for the Mac, but there are similar programs for Windows as well)

It's a handy little program that serves two main purposes:

1) It's a repository for documentation for just about any programming language imaginable, and keeps that documentation available even if you are offline.

2) (And this is really what I mostly use it for) It is a snippet manager (a.k.a. a text expander)

What is a snippet manager/text expander?

It is a program that allows you to associate short abbreviations with long blocks of text that you need to retype frequently. Many modern code/text editors offer similar functionality, but the real beauty of Dash is that it will expand text ANYWHERE ON YOUR SYSTEM that you can place a cursor and type (with the exception of password fields, I came to find)

One tip: begin your abbreviations with a backtick, to lessen the likelihood of accidentally expanding text.

For Example, for use in the forums, I have made two abbreviations that I use constantly:

(backtick)ss

Prints out

I hope that helps.

Stay safe and happy coding!

And

(backtick)js

Prints out

(```javascript

```)

(Without the parens, of course, I had to use them for it to display it right in the markup, if you can imagine!?! LOL)

(Note: I had to write the abbreviations with (backtick) instead of an actual ` because otherwise it just expands the text!?! LOL)

I hope that helps.

Stay safe and happy coding!

(See - I just used it again!?!)

Ricardo Primon
Ricardo Primon
473 Points

Nice Peter, So in this case I could use VS Code as my text editor while Dash would be integrated to run my snippets, right? I see how this can come in very very handy and save a ton of time.

Thanks a lot!!!

Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points
Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points

Ricardo,

VSCode has some of its own snippet manager/text expansion capabilities (check out Emmet and other related extensions).

But Dash works ANYWHERE you can type text - VSCode, Word, TextEdit, the browser address bar, email (ANYWHERE YOU CAN PUT AN ACTIVE CURSOR - it's really cool!

(But NOT a pwd field, of course... LOL)

Enjoy!

-Pete

Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points
Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/emmet

Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points
Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points

And thanks for the kudos!

Feel free to hit me up anytime!

Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points
Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points

Just remember when using Dash to start your abbreviations with a backtick (or other weird/odd character).

So:

`html

Could be associated with this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

And then, ever after, all you have to type is:

`html

And this will magically (!) replace it:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

It's awesome!

I hope that helps.

Stay safe and happy coding!

-Pete

Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points
Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,425 Points

Hey Richardo!

Not trying to make your brain hemorrhage or anything (LOL), but you may also want to take a look at the VIM editor, which is UNIX-style command-line editor.

It has a bit of a steep learning curve (it takes some getting used to), but if you get to where you have some finesse with it, you can do text edits FAST!

It's super great for editing system and shell scripting files.

More info:

https://danielmiessler.com/study/vim/

https://openvim.com/

https://peterxjang.com/blog/how-to-learn-vim-a-four-week-plan.html <--- REALLY GREAT!!!

https://www.vim.so/

https://thoughtbot.com/upcase/vim

https://thoughtbot.com/blog/the-vim-learning-curve-is-a-myth

https://alvinalexander.com/linux/learn-vi-vim-tutorial-vimtutor-help/

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Learn+VIM

A game (that helps you learn VIM - it's free at first, but eventually you have to pay to continue):

https://vim-adventures.com/

BTW, if you are using a Mac (and or Linux/Ubuntu), VIM and vimtutor are already available via the command line (terminal).

I hope that helps.

Stay safe and happy coding!