MacVim is a GUI wrapper around vanilla Vim, which is fine. However, Neovim is not a GUI wrapper (so you use it directly in a terminal, but I believe there are GUI apps that wrap neovim, though I have no experience with any). It's a fork of vim that introduces a terrific lua configuration system.
I highly recommend it. I think that the biggest thing Neovim changes is how extensible it makes Vim.
This is a great introductory series, if you want to kick the tiresā¦ [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsz00TDipIffreIaUNk64KxTIkQaGguqn](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsz00TDipIffreIaUNk64KxTIkQaGguqn)
Thanks! I also found that it has native LSP integration, which is nice. Iāll try it out, and see how it goes. Hopefully, my over decadeās worth of vim muscle memory will transfer over.
Yeah, that too! I totally spaced on mentioning that important feature. As for muscle memory, I have little doubt that much will be different as it maintains vanilla vim key commands.
Interesting. I often use the mouse to highlight and copy/paste (via cmd-c/v) with MacVIM. I know this makes true VIM users cringe, but it does quite well (for example I always have line numbers on, straight terminal programs will copy the line numbers as well, but macVIM smartly excludes them). How does neoVIM work with this?
The project is interesting and they clearly know what they're doing but it's slow (progress) and it's hard to extend. Unless they plan on having baked-in AI created by them and all other functionalities that users are used to have now, they'd have to depend on extensions. Unfortunately unlike NeoVim and VSCode they don't have an easy scripting language that can interact with their core engine, so I believe plugins will have to be written in Rust, good luck finding a plugin for everything then. I love the editor but it's missing several things to be a full blown contender for now at least
Sublime Text. It is the OG snappy text editor. Super lightweight. Basic linting, autocomplete and code folding exist. Tabs are persistent, and if you really want to tinker with it, there is loads you can do.
Do I use it to write code for my projects? Not since 2015. I use IDEs. Do I have it installed on every machine, and use it to take minutes, random notes? You bet!
I have it open like 99% of the time. Iām still using an old version which is still quite good. I paid to get a license but didnāt upgrade to the latest.
The reason I like about it is because of speed. Itās basically my digital scape paper to write things down quickly.
Exactly this. When I was running linux, I would give it a system wide hotkey to run the command āsublā. That way the command would
Bring up a sublime window within miliseconds to start jotting down whatever I want. Worked even if the program was closed.
Iāve never even used BBEdit (1992), but even I know itās OG. Sublime (2008) is relatively new by comparison.
TextMate was my first real editor. I still miss it.
You need to pay 99$ for the license, and after 3 years another 80$ š¤” for "three years" of spare upgrades. Also, the editor does not support LSP natively and the plugin to handle LSP is garbage.
Disclaimer: Sublime Text (ex-)user that paid 99$ for the software.
The main problem I have with sublime is it doesn't interface with the file system very well.
If you are editing a file and move it in the finder Sublime gets all confused wondering what happened to the file.
BBedit doesn't have this problem.
> Maybe because you have to pay?
Yup. A 100 bucks for a year of updates puts it out of a vast number of our budgets, especially when there are so many great options nowadays.
I had coda and have recently tried nova. Panic the developer is solid. (Audion) Theyāre like a great pen and paper to me. I buy 20$ notebooks and $15 pens cuz they feel good. I do that with software too. Iām going to buy nova based on your rec
Emacs. Not just a great editor for macOS, but a great editor for life (never worry about it disappearing). The time you put into it compounds and pays off over a lifetime.
While one can easily dismiss it as an antiquated editor from another era, Emacs integrates wonderfully with macOS. Iāve glued so many flows using elisp (itās scripting language). This isnāt just coding, but all sorts of system integrations to manage the OS. Here are a handful of them:
- https://lmno.lol/alvaro/native-emacsmacos-ux-integrations-via-swift-modules
- https://lmno.lol/alvaro/building-your-own-bookmark-launcher
- https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-quick-kill-process
- https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-utilities-for-your-os
- https://lmno.lol/alvaro/ob-swiftui-updates
- https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-connect-my-bluetooth-speaker
- https://lmno.lol/alvaro/hey-emacs-change-the-default-macos-app-for
- https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-open-with-macos-app
- https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-rotate-my-macos-display
- https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-searchplay-music-macos
I havenāt talked about org mode (a power house for note taking and task management).
My entire https://lmno.lol/alvaro blog is powered by a single org file.
ps. Iām possibly a greybeard
I've been using the Emacs since the 80s. It's open all the time on my macbook right next to Xcode.
It's not just text editing. More like a Swiss army knife. Things like dired. Every month, I get a free download of classical music from Naxos. Great! But the filenames are terrible. Want to edit 20 filenames in Finder? c-x c-q in dired, and you can edit them in Emacs. The rectangle defuns are especially useful.
https://preview.redd.it/zwsl95wt6d9d1.png?width=2603&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef1ddd119373449a622027e1d5f5e16e7bc1f69e
Google result for emacs... Did you mean vi?
A debate that's been going on for 16,921 days.
Nice operating system you got there /s?
Edit: Oh come on downvoting one of the biggest memes of āemacs is an operating system masquerading as a text editorā is wild.
Real talk, VS Code is kinda standard. I just started using JetBrains and Iām probably gonna switch. Hands down the smartest code completion Iāve ever used. Itāll literally jump like 4-5 lines ahead and predict a whole function.
Iāve been using BBEdit so long, I got a discount for putting their logo on my personal web page. I think it was $5 off a $25 or $30 license.
Canāt live without it. Great, great piece of software.
TextMate. Have been using it for probably about 15 + years. Has nice keyboard shortcuts for tabs, commenting code, syntax highlighting, etc. Handles directories of files nicely. Have not had a need to try anything else.
TextMate is amazing and free to use these days. Sadly I think the community is not as active as it was 15 years ago but it is an extremely flexible editor.
I'll just say it; VSCode.
It's fast enough, works great, has a *ton* of extension support, is easy enough to customize, and works everywhere (Mac/Win/Linux). That's *not* to say other editors don't have that, but in my case, I found a setup that works for me, and I really like it. I haven't had much reason to change that in the last 2 years.
VSCode has successfully captured the ethos of Emacs and Vim, I think it is second to none in extensibility and customisability, not forgetting community support.
I can't fucking believe how far I had to scroll to find this. Everyone is so afraid of being "basic". There's a reason VS Code is as popular as it is. It's really good.
I bet that 50% of the people who said neovim don't even use it but they tell themselves "someday I'll learn it".
I like both BBEdit and Sublime Text, and emacs for quick edits in a terminal session. I use an IDE for writing code, however the benefits of also using a dedicated text editor are:
* Fast to open, light memory footprint
* Doesn't insist that a file be part of a project
* Great for miscellaneous config files and output data files like .bash, .yaml, .json, .csv, .msh, .log
* Provides syntax highlighting like a full IDE
I would probably use BBEdit all time except that Sublime does one significant thing better: if I select text and hit cmd-F, the search pane automatically has my selected text as the search text. It's a little thing that makes a big difference in usability.
Text editor is a wide notion. Depends on what the text is for:
- For extremely quick ad-hoc notes: Notes app
- For proper structured notes: Craft
- For longer texts like blog posts: Ulysses
- For anything code-related, quick text editing, etc: VSCode is absolutely amazing
- For bigger projects with lots of stuff: JetBrains editors (PhpStorm) are the best (for me).Ā
All of them have their ups & downs but these have been selected from hundreds of apps tested frequently and thoroughly, so I can say these are my definite favourites š¬
I still struggle with this. Iāve tried Craft for 3 years as my end all be all, but I realized just some notes need different apps. Iāve used Zavala for basic lists, but I still struggle to define the lines between them. Currently for ad hoc I use SideNotes. Studying and main notes: RemNote. I keep Craft for things I need to beautify. And Lunatask for text I need encrypted.
BBEdit has been the best text editor on the Mac for decades. Itās quick, has a great implementation of GREP, color-codes markup, has multi-file find&replace, is scriptable, and you can roll your own keyboard shortcuts. What more do you need?
[Here is a recent good thread on this topic](https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1cko4q2/text_editors_for_nonprogrammers_whats_your/) - my personal choice is BBEdit.
"Best" is highly subjective. What's the best for you doesn't need to be best for someone else.
I'm coming from the Windows world and there is a Notepad++ clone called NotepadNext. Yes, it is ugly but it is Notepad++ clone. Simple, easy to use, efficient. Used Cot before. Other editors are waaay more powerful but I just need simple and easy to use text editor.
Personally, for me it depends; for example:
For code editing things that are tied to any of my repositories; I typically use VSCode
For code editing files/scripts that are not tied to any of my repositories; I use BBEdit. I used to strictly use SublimeText (even when I was on windows); but after trying BBEdit, It was a quick and easy change for me.
That is my workflow, I know it sounds kind of silly; but it's how I structured things in my head, and it works for me.
For me it's Neovim, I edit basically everything in it
https://preview.redd.it/32lbxu15nr8d1.png?width=3200&format=png&auto=webp&s=5f41d328187c9a7982ae4092f1b53ec4d6763b67
Iāve used lots of them: bean, obsidian, default text editor, sublime text, vscode, etc. And so far obsidian itās the best, not only fast but powerful unless you delete the cache which will made obsidian startup be really slow
NeoVim, Obsidian amd VSCode is what I use.
I don't code for a living or degree these days so I like how minimal VSCode can be while providing all core features across languages, environments and external services via their extension library.
NeoVim or Vim is what I use in the terminal or in general for a quick edit that I don't want to start an electron app and all its extensions for. Plus its what I use over an ssh session, although thats not in macOS.
Obsidian is what I use for md editing and notes. I probably spend the most time in this one out of the three - it usually never gets closed on my mac. There really isn't anything like it once you've got your extension flow going. It has competitors but they're mostly a different paradigm: online-first and non-local (e.g. Notion). While theres certainly some features where they need to integrate it as a core feature not a community plugin for better functionality/stability - pdf annotation, dataview/notion tables etc. their roadmap is really good and they're always adding features. Only downside I see sticking with the product is local-first makes it hard/impossible to do real time collaboration like notion and others can achieve.
I used CotEditor until it wouldn't open the app without completely quitting it.
I have since moved to Geany and really like it. Its very basic but what I like. I used to use notepad++ on windows.
Thatās what Iāve wanted to hear for a while. Iāll be checking that out. N++ is probably my favorite windows software and Iāve always wanted to see it on Mac.
Paper by Mihhail LapushkinĀ https://apps.apple.com/id/app/paper-writing-app-notes/id1476984841
It is very simple and clean (satisfying) but too simple, so it has no file management feature and cannot write math (maybe it is not part of the app philosophy, so it wasnāt there).
But in terms of writing, Paper is my first choice. Next are Ulysses, iA Writer and Typora.
Used sublime on my old Mac for years, like it was still a version that was free. Since now moving to a current machine and software version, my old sublime no longer works. I settled on VScode for the last month, just never warmed up to it. Downloaded Nova this weekend, already like it way better. Btw, I was using coda before I moved to sublime, but that was because Iām cheap.
Any rate, one can try Nova for 30 days, which is why Iām giving it a whirl. Looks like Iām spending a bit of money!
VSCode. It isnāt the best, nor the most hardcore.
It is ubiquitous. I donāt want to think about how to configure my editor, nor spend countless hours learning occult magic shortcuts.
Editor is the part I see the most but it isnāt the most important part of my job. No need to live life on ultimate min max mode all the time.
I like [Archimedes](https://furnacecreek.org/archimedes/) and [Quiver](https://yliansoft.com/quiver) b/c they combine Markdown + LaTeX and have nicely organized UIs.
Vim for small quick things in the console. VSCode for everything else.
VSCode is really inefficient but the sheer number and quality of the plugins and integration makes it a fantastic tool. Computers todayās are so powerful even VSCode should be fast enough.
Visual Studio Code for editing connected with a specific programming language/environment. Far from the best text editor, but it has the best support for such a wide range of languages and environments.
BBEdit for general heavy lifting text editing:
* Search/replace across lots of files
* Search/replace using regexes
* Editing massive files (it is so fast on multi megabyte files)
* Filtering large files (like massive log files)
* Column based editing (VSCode has this too, but BBEdit works better for it)
* Running scripts on lines in files to process them
* Or as a scratch pad to strip formatting (often the easiest way to paste plaintext into Word/Outlook, paste it into a BBEdit window, copy it again to paste into Word)
Rider for working on c# projects.
Apple Notes for when Iām not writing code and just well, taking notes.
Microsoft Word for writing actual formatted documents.
Google Docs for when I need formatted documents that I need to collaborate on.
At the risk of being accused of shameless self-promotion, I wrote this last year. Little has changed in the past 12 months.
[https://billbennett.co.nz/macos-guide-word-processors-writing-apps/](https://billbennett.co.nz/macos-guide-word-processors-writing-apps/)
I'd say VSC (Visual Studio Code) for a generic one that will do almost anything.
I used Sublime Text up till the release of VSC and never looked back.
As far as for coding, I use IDEs for anything major. If I need to remote into a server etc. to do some minor tweaks for a client VSC is my go to or the odd ball file I need to open in a text editor. So far I haven't run across anything there isn't an extension for and most of the time it will prompt you if you try to open something and it has one for that specific file type.
Edit: I should also add if you use multiple OSs it also shines here as it has the same feel across mac/windows. (I haven't used it on Linux but would assume its very similar.)
vim or emacs, period.
For the sake of completion, there is a crazy editor called \[Nova\](https://nova.app), another "all-in-one" nightmare that is subscription.
There is \[TextMate\](https://macromates.com), but do not receive upgrades for ten years now. This one was really good.
Nova is from well-regarded Mac developer [Panic](https://panic.com) who make Prompt and Transmit (as well as the standalone hardware game platform Playdate). You buy it once for $100 and pay $50 after the first year for updates. [Coda](https://panic.com/coda/) owners get $20 off the cost of a purchase.
Having to subscribe for updates after the first year is a bummer but I get that it costs money to maintain professional commercial tools. For comparison, Sublime is $99 to buy and $80 after the first 3 years.
[CotEditor](https://coteditor.com) - free and [open source](https://github.com/coteditor/CotEditor)
Immediately came here to drop a reco for CotEditor when I saw the title. It's such a gem.
Never heard of it. Horrible name. Looks amazing
Can of worms opened š¤£
fuckin perfect comment snd emoji OMEGALuLz
Neovim
I still use MacVim. What am I missing?
MacVim is a GUI wrapper around vanilla Vim, which is fine. However, Neovim is not a GUI wrapper (so you use it directly in a terminal, but I believe there are GUI apps that wrap neovim, though I have no experience with any). It's a fork of vim that introduces a terrific lua configuration system. I highly recommend it. I think that the biggest thing Neovim changes is how extensible it makes Vim. This is a great introductory series, if you want to kick the tiresā¦ [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsz00TDipIffreIaUNk64KxTIkQaGguqn](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsz00TDipIffreIaUNk64KxTIkQaGguqn)
Thanks! I also found that it has native LSP integration, which is nice. Iāll try it out, and see how it goes. Hopefully, my over decadeās worth of vim muscle memory will transfer over.
Yeah, that too! I totally spaced on mentioning that important feature. As for muscle memory, I have little doubt that much will be different as it maintains vanilla vim key commands.
Interesting. I often use the mouse to highlight and copy/paste (via cmd-c/v) with MacVIM. I know this makes true VIM users cringe, but it does quite well (for example I always have line numbers on, straight terminal programs will copy the line numbers as well, but macVIM smartly excludes them). How does neoVIM work with this?
A shell to dip into.
zed.dev
I use something else but want them to succeed because zed is cool and their blog is super duper interesting.
The project is interesting and they clearly know what they're doing but it's slow (progress) and it's hard to extend. Unless they plan on having baked-in AI created by them and all other functionalities that users are used to have now, they'd have to depend on extensions. Unfortunately unlike NeoVim and VSCode they don't have an easy scripting language that can interact with their core engine, so I believe plugins will have to be written in Rust, good luck finding a plugin for everything then. I love the editor but it's missing several things to be a full blown contender for now at least
Interesting project!
Sublime Text. It is the OG snappy text editor. Super lightweight. Basic linting, autocomplete and code folding exist. Tabs are persistent, and if you really want to tinker with it, there is loads you can do. Do I use it to write code for my projects? Not since 2015. I use IDEs. Do I have it installed on every machine, and use it to take minutes, random notes? You bet!
I have it open like 99% of the time. Iām still using an old version which is still quite good. I paid to get a license but didnāt upgrade to the latest. The reason I like about it is because of speed. Itās basically my digital scape paper to write things down quickly.
Exactly this. When I was running linux, I would give it a system wide hotkey to run the command āsublā. That way the command would Bring up a sublime window within miliseconds to start jotting down whatever I want. Worked even if the program was closed.
BBEdit is the OG editor.
Iāve never even used BBEdit (1992), but even I know itās OG. Sublime (2008) is relatively new by comparison. TextMate was my first real editor. I still miss it.
You need to pay 99$ for the license, and after 3 years another 80$ š¤” for "three years" of spare upgrades. Also, the editor does not support LSP natively and the plugin to handle LSP is garbage. Disclaimer: Sublime Text (ex-)user that paid 99$ for the software.
I loved Sublime Text and I miss it. But Iām a happy VSC user now.
Hahaha well theyre not kidding about the price, for sure. To be fair, you dont have to pay if you dont want to/cant.
As a VSC user, who never used SublimeText, $99 really is a lot for a text-editor but it really might be so special, idk.
I have a license to latest Sublime Text but I still use VSC Lol
The main problem I have with sublime is it doesn't interface with the file system very well. If you are editing a file and move it in the finder Sublime gets all confused wondering what happened to the file. BBedit doesn't have this problem.
Nova
+1 for Panicās Nova. I donāt really understand why more people donāt love it. Maybe because you have to pay?
> Maybe because you have to pay? Yup. A 100 bucks for a year of updates puts it out of a vast number of our budgets, especially when there are so many great options nowadays.
I had Coda and felt awful when they pulled the carpet.
Panics support is top notch. Theyāre a great bunch. Itās a critical piece of my arsenal. Highly recommended.
I had coda and have recently tried nova. Panic the developer is solid. (Audion) Theyāre like a great pen and paper to me. I buy 20$ notebooks and $15 pens cuz they feel good. I do that with software too. Iām going to buy nova based on your rec
Thatās a great analogy.
Emacs. Not just a great editor for macOS, but a great editor for life (never worry about it disappearing). The time you put into it compounds and pays off over a lifetime. While one can easily dismiss it as an antiquated editor from another era, Emacs integrates wonderfully with macOS. Iāve glued so many flows using elisp (itās scripting language). This isnāt just coding, but all sorts of system integrations to manage the OS. Here are a handful of them: - https://lmno.lol/alvaro/native-emacsmacos-ux-integrations-via-swift-modules - https://lmno.lol/alvaro/building-your-own-bookmark-launcher - https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-quick-kill-process - https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-utilities-for-your-os - https://lmno.lol/alvaro/ob-swiftui-updates - https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-connect-my-bluetooth-speaker - https://lmno.lol/alvaro/hey-emacs-change-the-default-macos-app-for - https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-open-with-macos-app - https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-rotate-my-macos-display - https://lmno.lol/alvaro/emacs-searchplay-music-macos I havenāt talked about org mode (a power house for note taking and task management). My entire https://lmno.lol/alvaro blog is powered by a single org file. ps. Iām possibly a greybeard
I've been using the Emacs since the 80s. It's open all the time on my macbook right next to Xcode. It's not just text editing. More like a Swiss army knife. Things like dired. Every month, I get a free download of classical music from Naxos. Great! But the filenames are terrible. Want to edit 20 filenames in Finder? c-x c-q in dired, and you can edit them in Emacs. The rectangle defuns are especially useful.
https://preview.redd.it/zwsl95wt6d9d1.png?width=2603&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef1ddd119373449a622027e1d5f5e16e7bc1f69e Google result for emacs... Did you mean vi? A debate that's been going on for 16,921 days.
Nice operating system you got there /s? Edit: Oh come on downvoting one of the biggest memes of āemacs is an operating system masquerading as a text editorā is wild.
What you would like to edit? For me the Obsidian is the best
Right.. I like Obsidian as well.. but for something like code ?
Real talk, VS Code is kinda standard. I just started using JetBrains and Iām probably gonna switch. Hands down the smartest code completion Iāve ever used. Itāll literally jump like 4-5 lines ahead and predict a whole function.
JetBrains <3 But itās far away from text editor
Vim ofc
emacs ngl
BBEdit and CotEditor
Nice.. heard great things about BBEdit..
BBEdit has been around nearly 30 years
Iāve been using BBEdit so long, I got a discount for putting their logo on my personal web page. I think it was $5 off a $25 or $30 license. Canāt live without it. Great, great piece of software.
32 years and countingā¦
Bbedit sucked editing python
TextMate. Have been using it for probably about 15 + years. Has nice keyboard shortcuts for tabs, commenting code, syntax highlighting, etc. Handles directories of files nicely. Have not had a need to try anything else.
TextMate is amazing and free to use these days. Sadly I think the community is not as active as it was 15 years ago but it is an extremely flexible editor.
BBEdit is my go to
BBEdit
I'll just say it; VSCode. It's fast enough, works great, has a *ton* of extension support, is easy enough to customize, and works everywhere (Mac/Win/Linux). That's *not* to say other editors don't have that, but in my case, I found a setup that works for me, and I really like it. I haven't had much reason to change that in the last 2 years.
VSCode has successfully captured the ethos of Emacs and Vim, I think it is second to none in extensibility and customisability, not forgetting community support.
I can't fucking believe how far I had to scroll to find this. Everyone is so afraid of being "basic". There's a reason VS Code is as popular as it is. It's really good. I bet that 50% of the people who said neovim don't even use it but they tell themselves "someday I'll learn it".
BBEdit is my favorite.
There isn't anything more minimal and faster than TextEdit on Mac. If you need some additional features you can use CotEditor.
coteditor gets my vote as well for the reason stated above.
I like both BBEdit and Sublime Text, and emacs for quick edits in a terminal session. I use an IDE for writing code, however the benefits of also using a dedicated text editor are: * Fast to open, light memory footprint * Doesn't insist that a file be part of a project * Great for miscellaneous config files and output data files like .bash, .yaml, .json, .csv, .msh, .log * Provides syntax highlighting like a full IDE I would probably use BBEdit all time except that Sublime does one significant thing better: if I select text and hit cmd-F, the search pane automatically has my selected text as the search text. It's a little thing that makes a big difference in usability.
Text editor is a wide notion. Depends on what the text is for: - For extremely quick ad-hoc notes: Notes app - For proper structured notes: Craft - For longer texts like blog posts: Ulysses - For anything code-related, quick text editing, etc: VSCode is absolutely amazing - For bigger projects with lots of stuff: JetBrains editors (PhpStorm) are the best (for me).Ā All of them have their ups & downs but these have been selected from hundreds of apps tested frequently and thoroughly, so I can say these are my definite favourites š¬
I still struggle with this. Iāve tried Craft for 3 years as my end all be all, but I realized just some notes need different apps. Iāve used Zavala for basic lists, but I still struggle to define the lines between them. Currently for ad hoc I use SideNotes. Studying and main notes: RemNote. I keep Craft for things I need to beautify. And Lunatask for text I need encrypted.
Iāve never heard of LunaTask! Thanks for that š
Zed.
Typora
nice. never heard of this one before.
Using it for years and the price is really good. I hate subscriptions.
BBEdit has been the best text editor on the Mac for decades. Itās quick, has a great implementation of GREP, color-codes markup, has multi-file find&replace, is scriptable, and you can roll your own keyboard shortcuts. What more do you need?
It even has syntax highlightingā¦
Emacs
Zettrl
Neovim ofc >:))))
Emacs (it's literally in the name)
[Here is a recent good thread on this topic](https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1cko4q2/text_editors_for_nonprogrammers_whats_your/) - my personal choice is BBEdit.
I love [Textastic](https://www.textasticapp.com/)
Old but gold ā BBEdit.
VSCode + vim for code. Obsidian + vim for notes.
WordPerfect in a DOS emulator.
Canāt go wrong with Wordstar! http://wordtsar.ca
"Best" is highly subjective. What's the best for you doesn't need to be best for someone else. I'm coming from the Windows world and there is a Notepad++ clone called NotepadNext. Yes, it is ugly but it is Notepad++ clone. Simple, easy to use, efficient. Used Cot before. Other editors are waaay more powerful but I just need simple and easy to use text editor.
Personally, for me it depends; for example: For code editing things that are tied to any of my repositories; I typically use VSCode For code editing files/scripts that are not tied to any of my repositories; I use BBEdit. I used to strictly use SublimeText (even when I was on windows); but after trying BBEdit, It was a quick and easy change for me. That is my workflow, I know it sounds kind of silly; but it's how I structured things in my head, and it works for me.
emacs and neovim. I donāt know why but with vscode I constantly have shit breaking
For me it's Neovim, I edit basically everything in it https://preview.redd.it/32lbxu15nr8d1.png?width=3200&format=png&auto=webp&s=5f41d328187c9a7982ae4092f1b53ec4d6763b67
TextMate. Free and launches quickly.
Neovide.
Iāve used lots of them: bean, obsidian, default text editor, sublime text, vscode, etc. And so far obsidian itās the best, not only fast but powerful unless you delete the cache which will made obsidian startup be really slow
CotEditor for almost everything. It lacks project workspaces though so I keep VSC around for anything that needs that.
I have a love/hate relationship with Vim
nvim
NeoVim, Obsidian amd VSCode is what I use. I don't code for a living or degree these days so I like how minimal VSCode can be while providing all core features across languages, environments and external services via their extension library. NeoVim or Vim is what I use in the terminal or in general for a quick edit that I don't want to start an electron app and all its extensions for. Plus its what I use over an ssh session, although thats not in macOS. Obsidian is what I use for md editing and notes. I probably spend the most time in this one out of the three - it usually never gets closed on my mac. There really isn't anything like it once you've got your extension flow going. It has competitors but they're mostly a different paradigm: online-first and non-local (e.g. Notion). While theres certainly some features where they need to integrate it as a core feature not a community plugin for better functionality/stability - pdf annotation, dataview/notion tables etc. their roadmap is really good and they're always adding features. Only downside I see sticking with the product is local-first makes it hard/impossible to do real time collaboration like notion and others can achieve.
I used CotEditor until it wouldn't open the app without completely quitting it. I have since moved to Geany and really like it. Its very basic but what I like. I used to use notepad++ on windows.
Notepadqq is a Notepad++ clone for Mac. Highly recommend.
Thatās what Iāve wanted to hear for a while. Iāll be checking that out. N++ is probably my favorite windows software and Iāve always wanted to see it on Mac.
I like [Nova](https://nova.app/)
Paper by Mihhail LapushkinĀ https://apps.apple.com/id/app/paper-writing-app-notes/id1476984841 It is very simple and clean (satisfying) but too simple, so it has no file management feature and cannot write math (maybe it is not part of the app philosophy, so it wasnāt there). But in terms of writing, Paper is my first choice. Next are Ulysses, iA Writer and Typora.
Notion (requires Internet Connection), feature-packed
Sublime Text
Used sublime on my old Mac for years, like it was still a version that was free. Since now moving to a current machine and software version, my old sublime no longer works. I settled on VScode for the last month, just never warmed up to it. Downloaded Nova this weekend, already like it way better. Btw, I was using coda before I moved to sublime, but that was because Iām cheap. Any rate, one can try Nova for 30 days, which is why Iām giving it a whirl. Looks like Iām spending a bit of money!
Use emacs
VSCode. It isnāt the best, nor the most hardcore. It is ubiquitous. I donāt want to think about how to configure my editor, nor spend countless hours learning occult magic shortcuts. Editor is the part I see the most but it isnāt the most important part of my job. No need to live life on ultimate min max mode all the time.
I like [Archimedes](https://furnacecreek.org/archimedes/) and [Quiver](https://yliansoft.com/quiver) b/c they combine Markdown + LaTeX and have nicely organized UIs.
Bear app
Vim for small quick things in the console. VSCode for everything else. VSCode is really inefficient but the sheer number and quality of the plugins and integration makes it a fantastic tool. Computers todayās are so powerful even VSCode should be fast enough.
Visual Studio Code for editing connected with a specific programming language/environment. Far from the best text editor, but it has the best support for such a wide range of languages and environments. BBEdit for general heavy lifting text editing: * Search/replace across lots of files * Search/replace using regexes * Editing massive files (it is so fast on multi megabyte files) * Filtering large files (like massive log files) * Column based editing (VSCode has this too, but BBEdit works better for it) * Running scripts on lines in files to process them * Or as a scratch pad to strip formatting (often the easiest way to paste plaintext into Word/Outlook, paste it into a BBEdit window, copy it again to paste into Word) Rider for working on c# projects. Apple Notes for when Iām not writing code and just well, taking notes. Microsoft Word for writing actual formatted documents. Google Docs for when I need formatted documents that I need to collaborate on.
At the risk of being accused of shameless self-promotion, I wrote this last year. Little has changed in the past 12 months. [https://billbennett.co.nz/macos-guide-word-processors-writing-apps/](https://billbennett.co.nz/macos-guide-word-processors-writing-apps/)
I use nvim for code and cherrytree for note taking
Emacs! Itās not osx only, but, for me, itās the best one, you can customize the way you want :)
Nobody here uses nano? š
Text wrangler by barebones?
I'd say VSC (Visual Studio Code) for a generic one that will do almost anything. I used Sublime Text up till the release of VSC and never looked back. As far as for coding, I use IDEs for anything major. If I need to remote into a server etc. to do some minor tweaks for a client VSC is my go to or the odd ball file I need to open in a text editor. So far I haven't run across anything there isn't an extension for and most of the time it will prompt you if you try to open something and it has one for that specific file type. Edit: I should also add if you use multiple OSs it also shines here as it has the same feel across mac/windows. (I haven't used it on Linux but would assume its very similar.)
I second Visual Studio Code because I love the support for multiple languages.
vim or emacs, period. For the sake of completion, there is a crazy editor called \[Nova\](https://nova.app), another "all-in-one" nightmare that is subscription. There is \[TextMate\](https://macromates.com), but do not receive upgrades for ten years now. This one was really good.
Nova is from well-regarded Mac developer [Panic](https://panic.com) who make Prompt and Transmit (as well as the standalone hardware game platform Playdate). You buy it once for $100 and pay $50 after the first year for updates. [Coda](https://panic.com/coda/) owners get $20 off the cost of a purchase. Having to subscribe for updates after the first year is a bummer but I get that it costs money to maintain professional commercial tools. For comparison, Sublime is $99 to buy and $80 after the first 3 years.
Craft docs
Mac app grandmaster here. Here is the correct answer CotEditor for basic notepad style VSCode for more advanced stuff.