AI tools

Comparison of text editors

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article provides basic comparisons for notable text editors. More feature details for text editors are available from the Category of text editor features and from the individual products' articles. This article may not be up-to-date or necessarily all-inclusive.

Feature comparisons are made between stable versions of software, not the upcoming versions or beta releases – and are exclusive of any add-ons, extensions or external programs (unless specified in footnotes).

Overview

More information Name, Developer ...
List of text editors
Name Developer Initial release Latest release Program­ming language Cost (US$) License GUI TUI or CLI
Version Date
Acme Rob Pike 1993 Plan 9 and Inferno C No cost MIT
GPL-2.0-only
LPL-1.02		 Yes No
AkelPad Alexey Kuznetsov
Alexander Shengalts		 2003 4.9.9[1] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-10-16 C No cost BSD-2-Clause Yes No
Alphatk Vince Darley 1999 8.3.3[2] Edit this on Wikidata 2004-12-10 $40 Proprietary, with BSD components Yes No
Atom GitHub 2014 1.63.1[3] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-11-23 HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C++ No cost MIT Yes No
BBEdit Rich Siegel 1992 15.0.3[4] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-04-08 Objective-C, Objective-C++ No cost for most features, $49.99 for full version Proprietary Yes No
Bluefish Bluefish Development Team 1999 2.2.16[5] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-09-22 C No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
Brackets Adobe Systems 2012 2.2.1[6] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-03-22 HTML, CSS, JavaScript, C++ No cost MIT Yes No
Coda Panic 2007 2.7.7[7] Edit this on Wikidata 2020-11-05 Objective-C $99 Proprietary Yes
ConTEXT ConTEXT Project Ltd 1999 Object Pascal (Delphi) No cost BSD-3-Clause Yes
Crimson Editor Ingyu Kang 1999 3.72-r286m[8] Edit this on Wikidata 2011-10-01 C++ No cost Proprietary Yes
CudaText UVViewSoft[a] 2015 1.217.5.1[9] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-09-05 Object Pascal (Lazarus) No cost MPL-2.0 Yes No
ed Ken Thompson 1970 unchanged from original C No cost ? No Yes
Editra Cody Precord 2007 0.7.20 2013-01-05 Python No cost wxWindows license Yes No
EmEditor Emurasoft, Inc. 1997 21.3.0 2021-11-24 C++ $39.99 Shareware Yes No
epsilon Lugaru Software 1984 14.00[10] 2020-10-20 C $250 Proprietary
FeatherPad Pedram Pourang 2016 1.4.1[11] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-06-12 C++, Qt No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
FocusWriter Graeme Gott 2008 1.8.11[12] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-03-07 C++, Qt No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
gedit GNU Project 2000 48.0[13] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-09-14 C No cost GPL-3.0 Yes No
Geany Enrico Tröger 2005 2.0.0[14] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-10-19 C, GTK+ No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Yes No
GNU Emacs Richard Stallman 1984 30.1[15] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-02-23 C, Emacs Lisp No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes Yes
GNU nano Chris Allegretta 1999 8.4[16] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-04-02 C No cost GPL-3.0-or-later No Yes
IA Writer Information Architects 2010.09.22 5.6 2020-12-07 Objective-C (iOS), Objective-C (macOS), C# (Windows), Java (Android) $29.99 Proprietary Yes No
JED John E. Davis 1992 0.99-19 Edit this on Wikidata 2009-12-13 C, S-Lang No cost GPL-2.0-or-later No Yes
jEdit Slava Pestov 1998 5.7.0[17] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-08-03 Java No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Yes No
JOE Joseph Allen 1988 4.6[18] Edit this on Wikidata 2018-01-09 C No cost GPL No Yes
JOVE Johnathon Payne 1983 4.17.5.3[19] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-03-21 C No cost JOVE license No Yes
Kate KDE Project 2000-12 24.12.3[20] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-03-06 C++ No cost LGPL, MIT Yes No
KEDIT Mansfield Software Group, Inc. 1983 1.6.1 2016-12-05 C $129 Proprietary No Yes
Komodo Edit Activestate 2007 12.0.1[21] Edit this on Wikidata 2020-02-10 Python, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, PHP, Ruby No cost MPL, GPL, LGPL Yes No
Komodo IDE Activestate 2001 Python, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, PHP, Ruby $295 Proprietary Yes No
KWrite KDE Project 2000 24.12.1[22] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-01-09 C++ No cost LGPL Yes No
LE Alexander V. Lukyanov 1997 1.16.8[23] Edit this on Wikidata 2021-02-05 C++ No cost GPL-3.0-or-later No Yes
Leo Edward K. Ream 1996 6.7.6[24] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-12-19 Python No cost MIT Yes No
Light Table Chris Granger 2012 0.8.1[25] Edit this on Wikidata 2016-01-22 ClojureScript No cost MIT Yes No
mcedit Miguel de Icaza 1994 4.8.33[26] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-01-23 C, Python, PHP, Javascript, Perl, Tcl, Ruby No cost GPL-3.0-or-later No Yes
Metapad Alexander Davidson 1999 3.6[27][28] Edit this on Wikidata 2011-05-28 C No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
mg Dave Conroy 1986 current[b] 2020-07-22 C No cost Public domain No Yes
MinEd Thomas Wolff 1992 2022.27 2022-12-23 C No cost GPL No Yes
MS-DOS Editor Microsoft 1991 2.0.026 Bundled with MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows Proprietary No Yes
ne Sebastiano Vigna
Todd Lewis
Daniele Filaretti		 1993 3.3.4[30] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-02-06 C No cost GPL-3.0-or-later No Yes
NEdit Mark Edel 1991 5.7[31] Edit this on Wikidata 2017-02-08 C No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Yes No
Notepad Microsoft 1985 11.2302.16.0 MASM (originally) Bundled with Microsoft Windows Proprietary Yes No
Notepad++ Don Ho 2003-11-25 8.7.9[32] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-04-02 C++ No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
nvi Keith Bostic 1994 1.81.6[33] Edit this on Wikidata 2007-11-18 C No cost BSD-3-Clause No Yes
Pico University of Washington 1992 4.64 C No cost Apache-2.0 No Yes
PimNote Pimtel 2023 1.2.0[34] 2023-04-22 C# No cost Proprietary Yes No
PolyEdit PolySoft Solutions 1998 5.4 2010‑04‑07 $27.95 Shareware Yes No
PSPad Jan Fiala 2002 5.5.1[35] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-02-05 Object Pascal (Delphi) No cost Proprietary Yes No
RJ TextEd Rickard Johansson 2004 15.63[36] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-09-29 Object Pascal (Delphi) No cost Proprietary Yes No
Sam Rob Pike 1980s (early) stable C No cost LPL (OSI approved) No Yes
SciTE Neil Hodgson 1999 5.5.4[37] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-12-18 C++ $41.99 for macOS. No cost for others HPND Yes No
SlickEdit SlickEdit, Inc. 1988 28.0.1 2024-01-21 C, Slick-C $299 Proprietary Yes No
Smultron Peter Borg 2004 12.0.6 Edit this on Wikidata 2020-01-03 Objective-C $7.99 Proprietary Yes No
SubEthaEdit TheCoding­Monkeys 2003 5.2.4[38] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-01-08 No cost MIT Yes
Sublime Text Jon Skinner, Sublime HQ 2008 4 (Build 4192)[39] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-01-20 C++, Python $99 Shareware Yes No
TED Notepad Juraj Simlovic 2001 6.3.1[40] Edit this on Wikidata 2021-12-01 C No cost Proprietary Yes No
Textadept Mitchell 2007 12.6[41] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-02-01 C, Lua No cost MIT Yes Yes
TextEdit Apple Inc. 2001 1.18 Edit this on Wikidata 2022-10-24 No cost (also bundled with macOS) BSD-3-Clause Yes No
TextMate MacroMates 2004-10-10 2.0.23[42] Edit this on Wikidata 2021-10-12 Objective-C++ No cost GPL-3.0-or-later Yes No
TextPad Helios Software Solutions 1992 9.3.0[43] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-08-01 $30.00 (£16.50) Shareware Yes No
TextWrangler Bare Bones Software 2003 5.5.2 2016-09-20 No cost Proprietary Yes
The SemWare Editor Sammy Mitchell 1985-11 4.49[44] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-01 C, SAL No cost BSD-2-Clause
UltraEdit IDM Computer Solutions 1994 25.0 2018-03-12 C++ $99.95 Proprietary Yes No
VEDIT Ted Green, Greenview Data 1980 6.24.2 2015-01-12 Assembly, C $89 standard, $239 Pro64 Proprietary Yes Yes
vi Bill Joy 1976 3.7 C No cost BSD-4-Clause or CDDL No Yes
Vim Bram Moolenaar 1991 9.1[45][46] Edit this on Wikidata 2024-01-02 C, Vim script No cost Vim Yes Yes
Visual Studio Code Microsoft 2015 1.99.3[47] Edit this on Wikidata 2025-04-17 JavaScript, TypeScript No cost Source code: MIT[48]
Binaries built by Microsoft: Proprietary[49][50]		 Yes No
XEmacs Lucid Inc. 1991 21.4.22[51] Edit this on Wikidata 2009-01-30 C, Emacs Lisp No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Yes Yes
XNEdit Olaf Wintermann 2018 1.5.2 2023-10-05 C No cost GPL-2.0-or-later Yes No
Close

Operating system support

Summarize
Perspective

This section lists the operating systems that different editors can run on. Some editors run on additional operating systems that are not listed.

Cross-platform

More information Microsoft Windows, macOS ...
Text editor support for various operating systems
Microsoft Windows macOS Linux BSD Unix OpenVMS
Acme Partial
[c]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes No
AkelPad Yes No No No No No
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Atom Yes Yes Yes No No No
Arachnophilia Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
BBEdit No Yes No No No No
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Brackets Yes Yes Yes No No No
Coda No Yes No No No No
ConTEXT Yes No No No No No
Crimson Editor Yes No No No No No
CudaText Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
ed Partial
[d]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Editra Yes Yes Yes  ?  ?  ?
EmEditor Yes No No No No No
epsilon Yes Yes
[52]		 Yes Yes Yes No
Geany Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
gedit Yes Yes
[e]		 Yes Yes Yes No
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JED Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
JOE Yes[dubious – discuss] Yes Yes Yes Yes No
JOVE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Kate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
KEDIT Yes No No No No No
Komodo Edit Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?  ?
Komodo IDE Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?  ?
KWrite Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
LE Partial
[d]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Light Table Yes Yes Yes No No No
Metapad Yes No No No No No
mg No Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
MinEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
GNU nano Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
ne Partial
[d]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes No
NEdit Partial
[d]		 Yes
[f]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Notepad Yes No No No No No
Notepad++ Yes No No No No No
nvi No Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Pico Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PSPad Yes No No No No No
RJ TextEd Yes No No No No No
Sam Partial
[c]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes No
SciTE Yes Yes
[f]		 Yes Yes Yes No
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes No Yes No
Smultron No Yes No No No No
SubEthaEdit No Yes No No No No
Sublime Text Yes Yes Yes No No No
TED Notepad Yes No No No No No
Textadept Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
TextEdit No Yes No No No No
TextMate No Yes No No No No
TextPad Yes No No No No No
TextWrangler No Yes No No No No
The SemWare Editor Yes No No No No No
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes No No No
Ulysses (text editor) No Yes No No No No
vi Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Vim Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Visual Studio Code Yes Yes Yes No No No
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XNEdit Partial
[d][g]		 Yes
[f]		 Yes Yes Yes No
Close

Natural language (localization)

More information Languages supported, Acme ...
Available languages for the UI
Languages supported
Acme English
AkelPad English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish
Alphatk English
Atom English
BBEdit English
Brackets English, German, French, Polish(Outdated), Korean, Japanese, Italian, Czech, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish(Outdated)
Coda English, German, French, Spanish
ConTEXT English, German, French, Polish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish
Crimson Editor English
CudaText Main: English. Addons: Japanese, French, Polish, Korean, Hungarian (2018), Greek, German (2017), and 9 others
ed
Editra English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
EmEditor English, German, French, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish
epsilon English
Geany English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
gedit English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
GNU Emacs English
JED English
jEdit English
JOE[53] English, German, French
JOVE English
Kate[54] English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
KEDIT English
Komodo Edit English
KWrite English, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish
Metapad[55] English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
mined English
MS-DOS Editor English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Nano English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese
NEdit English
Notepad English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
Notepad++ English, German, French, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hindi
nvi English
Pico English, Italian
PolyEdit English
PSPad English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Czech, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
RJ TextEd English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Sam English
SciTE[56] English, German, French (Outdated (1.72)), Polish, Japanese (Outdated (1.62)), Italian, Dutch (Outdated (1.67)), Portuguese (Outdated (1.63)), Spanish, Swedish
SlickEdit English
Smultron English, German, French, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish
SubEthaEdit English
TED Notepad English
TextEdit English, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
TextMate English
TextPad English, German, French, Polish (Outdated (4.7.3)), Japanese, Italian(Outdated (4.7.3)), Dutch (Outdated (4.7.3)), Spanish (Outdated (4.7.3)), Portuguese (Outdated (4.7.3))
TextWrangler English
The SemWare Editor English
UltraEdit English, German, French, Korean, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese
VEDIT English
vi English
Vim Afrikaans, Catalan, Chinese(Simplified), Chinese(Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch, German, English(UK), English(US), Esperanto, Finnish, French, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian(Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese(Brazil), Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Visual Studio Code English, Bulgarian, Chinese, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish
XEmacs English
XNEdit English
Close

Document interface

More information Multiple instances, Single document window splitting ...
Text editor support for common document interfaces
Multiple instances Single document window splitting MDI: overlappable windows MDI: tabbed document interface MDI: window splitting
Acme Yes Yes No No Yes
AkelPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Atom Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Brackets No No No Yes Yes
Coda Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ConTEXT Yes No Yes Yes No
Crimson Editor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
CudaText Yes Yes No Yes Yes
ed Yes No No No No
Editra Yes Yes  ? Yes  ?
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 No Yes No
gedit Yes Yes
Plug‑in[h]		 Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in[i]
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes
[j][k]		 Yes
JED Yes Yes No No Yes
jEdit Yes Yes No Yes Yes
JOE Yes Yes No No
[l]		 Yes
JOVE Yes Yes No No Yes
Kate Yes Yes No Yes Yes
KEDIT Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Komodo Edit Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Komodo IDE Yes Yes No Yes Yes
KWrite Yes No No No No
LE Yes No No No No
Light Table Yes No No Yes Yes
Metapad Yes No No No No
mined Yes No No
[m]		 Yes No
MS-DOS Editor Yes Yes No No Yes
Nano Yes No No No No
NEdit Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Notepad Yes No No Yes No
Notepad++ Yes Yes No Yes Yes
2 windows
nvi Yes Yes No No Yes
Pico Yes No No No No
PolyEdit No No Yes Yes Yes
PSPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sam Yes No Yes No No
SciTE Yes No No Yes
[n]		 No
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Smultron Yes Yes No Yes Yes
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes No Yes No
TED Notepad  ?  ?  ? No  ?
TextEdit Yes No No No No
TextMate Yes No No Yes No
TextPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes No No Yes
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
vi Yes No No No No
Vim Yes Yes Yes
[o]		 Yes
[p]		 Yes
Visual Studio Code Yes Yes No Yes Yes
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XNEdit Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Multiple instances Single document window splitting MDI: overlappable windows MDI: tabbed document interface MDI: window splitting
Close

Notes

  • Multiple instances: multiple instances of the program can be opened simultaneously for editing multiple files. Applies both for single document interface (SDI) and multiple document interface (MDI) programs. Also applies for program that has a user interface that looks like multiple instances of the same program (such as some versions of Microsoft Word).
  • Single document window splitting: window can be split to simultaneously view different areas of a file.
  • MDI: Overlappable windows: each opened document gets its own fully movable window inside the editor environment.
  • MDI: Tabbed document interface: multiple documents can be viewed as tabs in a single window.
  • MDI: Window splitting: splitting application window to show multiple documents (non-overlapping windows).

Basic features

More information Spell checking, Regex-based find & replace ...
Text editor support for basic editing features
Spell checking Regex-based find & replace Encoding conversion Newline conversion Multiple undo/redo Rectangular block selection Virtual space support
Acme Yes
external[q]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes No  ?
AkelPad Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
Atom Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 No
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No  ?
Brackets Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 No Yes Yes  ?
Coda Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
ConTEXT No Partial
[r]		 Partial
[s]		 Yes Yes Yes  ?
Crimson Editor Yes
Instant/live (like Firefox)		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
CudaText No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
ed No Yes No No No No  ?
Editra Yes Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes  ?
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes
Plug‑in[t]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[58]
gedit Yes
[u]		 Yes
Plug‑in[v]		 Yes Yes Yes plug‑in
[59]		  ?
GNU Emacs Yes
Plug‑in[w]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[60]
JED Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
jEdit Yes
Plug‑in[x]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[61]
JOE Yes
Plug‑in[y]		 Partial
[z]		 No
[aa]		 Yes Yes Yes  ?
JOVE Yes Yes No No Yes Yes  ?
Kate Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
KEDIT No Yes No Yes Yes Yes  ?
Komodo Edit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?[ab]
Komodo IDE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?[ac]
KWrite Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
LE No Yes No
[ad]		 Yes Yes Yes  ?
Light Table Yes
Plug‑in[62]		  ? No No Yes  ?  ?
Metapad Partial
[ae]		 No Yes Yes Yes No  ?
mg No Yes
[63]		 No Partial Yes
[63]		 No  ?
MinEd No Yes
[af]		 Yes
[ag]		 Yes
[ah]		 No Yes  ?
MS-DOS Editor No No No Yes No No Yes
Nano Yes Yes No Yes Yes No  ?
Spell checking Regex-based find & replace Encoding conversion Newline conversion Multiple undo/redo Rectangular block selection Virtual Space Support
ne No Yes No No Yes Yes  ?
NEdit Yes
Plug‑in[64]		 Yes No Yes Yes Yes  ?
Notepad No No Partial Partial Yes No  ?
Notepad++ Yes
[65]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
nvi No Yes No No Yes  ?  ?
Pico Yes No No No No No  ?
PolyEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
PSPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
Sam Yes
external[ai]		 Yes No No Yes No  ?
SciTE No Limited
[aj]		 No Yes Yes Yes  ?
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[citation needed]
Smultron Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
[66]		  ?
Sublime Text Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No[67]
TED Notepad No No No Yes Yes No  ?
TextEdit Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
TextMate Yes Yes Partial Yes Yes Yes  ?
TextPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes  ?
UltraEdit Yes Limited
[ak]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
VEDIT Yes
[al]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
vi No Yes No No No No  ?
Vim Yes
[am]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No[69]
Visual Studio Code Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Limited
[an]		 No[70]
XEmacs Yes
Plug‑in[w]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
XNedit Yes
Plug‑in[64]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
Spell checking Regex-based find & replace Encoding conversion Newline conversion Multiple undo/redo Rectangular block selection Virtual Space Support
Close

Programming features

More information Syntax highlighting, Function list ...
Text editor support for programming features (see source code editor)
Syntax highlighting Function list Symbol database
(ctags or equiv.)		 Brace matching Auto indentation Auto completion Code folding Text folding Compiler integration
Acme No Yes
external[q]		 Yes
external[q]		 Yes Yes Partial
[ao]		 No No Yes
external[q]
AkelPad Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes
Plug‑in		 No Yes
Plug‑in
Alphatk Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Atom Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
[ap]
Brackets Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in
Coda Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
ConTEXT Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
Crimson Editor Yes No Partial
[aq]		 Yes Yes No No No Yes
CudaText Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in
ed No No No No No No No No Yes
external[ar]
Editra Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes  ? Yes  ?  ?
EmEditor Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in[as]		 Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes Yes Yes
[at]		 Yes Yes Yes Partial No Yes
gedit Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 No Yes
Plug‑in[au]		 Yes
[av]
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JED Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
jEdit Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in
JOE Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes  ? No No Yes
JOVE No No No Yes Yes No No No Yes
Kate Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in
KEDIT Yes No Yes
Macro		 Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes
Komodo Edit Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Komodo IDE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
KWrite Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
LE Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No
[aw]
Light Table Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No Partial
[ax]
Metapad No No No No Yes No No No No
mined Yes
[ay]		  ? Yes Yes Yes No No No No
MS-DOS Editor No No No No No No No No No
Nano Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No
Syntax highlighting Function list Symbol database
(ctags or equiv.)		 Bracket matching Auto indentation Auto completion Code folding Text folding Compiler integration
ne Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No No
NEdit Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 No No Yes
Notepad No No No No No No No No No
Notepad++ Yes Yes
[az]		 Yes
[71][72]		 Yes Yes Yes
[ba]		 Yes Yes Yes
nvi No  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Pico No No No No No No No No No
PolyEdit Yes No No No No No No No No
PSPad Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes No No Yes
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sam No No No No No No No No Yes
external[ai]
SciTE Yes No
[bb]		  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Smultron Yes No No Yes Yes Yes  ?  ?  ?
SubEthaEdit Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TED Notepad No  ?  ? No Yes Yes No No No
TextEdit No No No No No No No No No
TextMate Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes
[bc]		 Yes Yes No
TextPad Yes No Yes
Plug‑in[bd]		 Yes Yes No No No Yes
TextWrangler Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in[be]
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in[73]		 Yes Yes Yes
[bf]		 Partial
[bg]		 No Yes
UltraEdit Yes Yes Partial
[bh]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
<[bi]		 No No Yes
vi No No Yes Yes No No No No Yes
Vim Yes Yes
Plug‑in[74]		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Visual Studio Code Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XEmacs Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
XNEdit Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 No No Yes
Syntax highlighting Function list Symbol database
(ctags or equiv.)		 Bracket matching Auto indentation Auto completion Code folding Text folding Compiler integration
Close

Notes

  • Syntax highlighting: Displays text in different colors and fonts according to the category of terms.
  • Function list: Lists all functions from current file in a window or sidebar and allows user to jump directly to the definition of that function for example by double-clicking on the function name in the list. More or less realtime (does not require creating a symbol database, see below).
  • Symbol database: Database of functions, variable and type definitions, macro definitions etc. in all the files belonging to the software being developed. The database can be created by the editor itself or by an external program such as ctags. The database can be used to instantly locate the definition even if it is in another file.
  • Bracket matching: Find matching parenthesis or bracket, taking into account nesting.
  • Auto indentation: May refer to just simple indenting to the same level as the line above, or intelligent indenting that is language specific, e.g., ensuring a given indent style.
  • Compiler integration: Allows running compilers/linkers/debuggers from within editor, capturing the compiler output and stepping through errors, automatically moving cursor to corresponding location in the source file.

Extra features

Summarize
Perspective
More information Text shell integration, Graphical shell integration ...
Text editor support for other programming features
Text shell integration Graphical shell integration Macro language Collaborative editing Large file support Long line support Multi-line regex support[bj] Search in files
Acme Yes Yes Yes
Extensible		 No  ?  ? Yes  ?
AkelPad Yes Yes Yes No memory Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes
[bk]		 No  ?  ?  ?  ?
Atom No
[75]		  ? Yes
Plug‑in[76]		 Yes No ~27 MB Soft-wrapping No
[77]		 Yes
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes
[bl]		 No memory
[78]		 Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish No Yes  ? Yes  ?  ? Yes  ?
Brackets Yes Yes Yes
Extensible		 No No  ? Partial Yes
Coda Yes No Yes
[bm]		 Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes
ConTEXT No Yes Yes No memory
[bn]		  ? No  ?
Crimson Editor No Yes Yes No No  ? No  ?
CudaText No No Yes
Plug‑in		 No  ?  ? Yes Yes
Plug‑in
ed Yes No Yes Yes
via mkfifo		  ?  ?  ? Yes
Editra  ?  ?  ?  ? Yes
2 GB		  ?  ?  ?
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes No Yes
16TB		  ? Yes Yes
Geany Yes  ? Yes
Plug‑in		  ?  ?  ? Yes Yes
gedit Yes Yes Yes
[bo]		 Yes
Plug‑in		 No  ? Yes Yes
Plug‑in[79]
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes 2.3 EB[80][81][82][83] Yes Yes Yes
JED Yes No Yes No memory
[84]		 Yes No Yes
Plug‑ins
jEdit Yes No Yes No No (heap)[bp]  ? Yes Yes
JOE Yes No Yes No Yes[citation needed]  ?  ? Yes
[86]
JOVE Yes No No No memory  ? No No
Kate Yes Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 No No
[87]		 Maybe
[bq]		 Yes Yes
Plug‑in
KEDIT Yes Yes Yes No Yes[citation needed] 10Kb Yes No
Komodo Edit  ?  ? Yes
[89]		 No  ?  ? Yes Yes
Komodo IDE  ?  ? Yes
[89]		 Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes
KWrite No No No No No
[87]		 No
[90]		 No  ?
LE Yes No No No
[br]		 memory
[bs]		  ? Yes  ?
Light Table No Yes No No  ?  ? No Yes
Metapad Yes Yes No No memory
[91]		  ? No No
mined  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ? Yes  ?
EDIT (MS-DOS) No No No No No (64~300 KB) No No No
EDIT (DR-DOS) No No No No 2 GB, for as long as there is disk swap space for two temporary files Yes No No
Nano Yes No No No  ?  ?  ?  ?
Text shell integration Graphical shell integration Macro language Collaborative editing Large file support Long line support Multi-line regex support Search in files
NEdit Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes  ?
Notepad Yes Yes No No memory  ? No No
Notepad++ Yes Yes Yes Yes
[92]		 Yes
2GB[93]		 Yes
[94]		 Yes Yes
nvi Yes No No  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Pico  ?  ?  ? No  ?  ?  ?  ?
PolyEdit Yes Yes No No Yes[citation needed]  ? Yes  ?
PSPad Yes Yes Yes No memory
[95]		  ? Yes
with plug‑in		 Yes
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes No No  ? Yes  ?
Sam Yes No Yes No  ?  ? Yes Yes
external[ai]
SciTE  ?  ? Yes No No  ? No Yes
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes No Yes
2 TB		 Yes Yes Yes
Smultron  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes No Yes  ?  ? Yes  ?
TED Notepad Yes Yes No No No  ?  ?  ?
TextEdit Yes Yes No No  ?  ?  ?  ?
TextMate Yes Yes Yes No No  ? Yes  ?
TextPad No Yes Yes No memory
[96]		  ? Yes Yes
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes No memory
[97]		 Yes Yes  ?
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes Yes Yes Only in special DOS multi-user version Yes
2 GB		 Yes  ? Yes
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes No Yes
[bt]		 Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes No Yes[citation needed] Yes Yes Yes
vi Yes No Yes No No ~65 MB  ? Yes Yes
Vim Yes Yes Yes Yes
with plug‑in[98]		 memory
[bu]		 Yes Yes Yes
Visual Studio Code Yes Yes Yes Yes
with plug‑in[99]		  ?  ? Yes Yes
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes Yes on 64-bit OS
[bv]		  ? Yes Yes
XNEdit Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes  ?
Text shell integration Graphical shell integration Macro language Collaborative editing Large file support Long line support Multi-line regex support Search in files
Close

Large file support:

Yes = Larger than 4 GiB (LFS) Yes2 GB = Larger than 1 GB, not limited by memory
memory = Limited by available memory    No (64 KB) = Some limit less than available memory (give max size if known)

In general, most text editors do not support large text files. Some restrict themselves to available in-core RAM while others use sophisticated virtual memory management techniques and paging algorithms.[100]

Search in files: Perform search (and possibly replace) in multiple files on disk, for example on a sub-directory and recursively all the directories below it. Similar to grep.

Key bindings

Summarize
Perspective

Support for custom key bindings.

More information Dynamically customizable, IBM CUA ...
Text editor support for key bindings.
Dynamically customizable IBM CUA macOS Vi Emacs Pico WordStar WordPerfect Brief
Acme No No No No No No No No No
AkelPad Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Alphatk  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Atom  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
BBEdit[101][102] Yes  ? Yes  ? Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?
Bluefish Yes  ? Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Brackets Yes Partial Yes Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes
Plug‑in		 No No No No
Coda Yes  ? Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
ConTEXT  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Crimson Editor  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
CudaText Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
ed No No No No No No No No No
Editra No No No Yes No No No No No
EmEditor Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
epsilon Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes
Geany Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
gedit Yes
[bw]		  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial
[103]		 Yes
[104]		 Yes
[105]		 Yes
[105]
JED Yes Partial
[bx]		  ? Yes Yes  ? Yes  ? Yes
jEdit Yes  ? Yes Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
JOE[106] Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes No No
JOVE Yes No No No Yes No Yes
[107]		 No No
LE Yes  ?  ? No  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Light Table Yes Partial  ? Yes
Plug‑in		 Yes
Plug‑in		  ?  ?  ?  ?
Kate Yes No No Yes
[108]		 No No No No No
KEDIT Yes Yes No No No No No No No
Komodo Edit Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?
Komodo IDE Yes  ? Yes Yes Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?
KWrite Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Metapad  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
mg Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?
mined  ?  ?  ?  ? Yes Yes Yes  ?  ?
MS-DOS Editor No No No No No No No No No
Nano Yes No No No Partial
[109]		 Yes No No No
NEdit Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Notepad No Yes No No No No No No No
Notepad++ Partial Yes No No No No No No No
nvi  ?  ?  ? Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Pico No No No No Partial
[109]		 Yes No No No
PolyEdit  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
PSPad Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
RJ TextEd Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Sam No No No No No No No No No
SciTE Partial
[by]		  ?  ? No No No  ?  ?  ?
SlickEdit Yes
[bz]		 Yes Yes
[ca]		 Partial
[cb]		 Yes No No No Yes
Smultron  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
SubEthaEdit No No Yes No No No No No No
TED Notepad  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
TextEdit No No Yes No No No No No No
TextMate No No Yes No No No No No No
TextPad Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
TextWrangler[101][110] Yes  ? Yes No Yes No  ?  ?  ?
The SemWare Editor Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
UltraEdit Yes  ? No  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
VEDIT Yes Yes No No
[111]		 No No Yes Yes Yes
vi Yes No No Yes No No No No No
Vim Partial Yes
Plug‑in[112]		 Yes
Plug‑in[113]		 Yes
[cc]		 Yes
Plug‑in[cd]		  ? Yes
Plug‑in[115]		 No Yes
Plug‑in[116]
Visual Studio Code Yes No Yes Yes
Plug‑in[117]		 Yes
Plug‑in[118]		 No No No Partial
Plug‑in[119]
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial
[103]		 Yes
[104]		 Yes
[105]		 Yes
[105]
XNEdit Yes  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
Dynamically customizable IBM CUA macOS Vi Emacs Pico WordStar WordPerfect Brief
Close

Notes, bugs

  • Vim: custom maps of Ctrl-1 .. Ctrl-9, Ctrl-0 cannot be set, nor is Control-Shift-<char> distinguished from Ctrl-<char>.[120][121]
  • Notepad++: custom shortcuts of Shift-<char> cannot be set, they need an added modifier such as Ctrl or Alt. i.e. SCI_LINESCROLLUP cannot be bound to "Shift-I"as the "Add"button is greyed out.
  • Emacs and Pico: pico uses most of Emacs's motion and deletion commands: ^F ^B ^P ^N ^D etc.

Protocol support

Summarize
Perspective

Support for editing files over a network or the Internet.

More information FTP, HTTP ...
Text editor support for remote file editing over network protocols
FTP HTTP SSH WebDAV
Acme No No No No
AkelPad No No No No
Alphatk Yes No No Yes
Atom  ?  ?  ?  ?
BBEdit Yes No Yes No
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes
Brackets Yes
Plug‑in		 No No No
Coda Yes Yes Yes Yes
ConTEXT No
[122]		  ? No
[122]		  ?
Crimson Editor Yes No No No
CudaText Yes No No No
ed No No No No
Editra  ?  ?  ?  ?
EmEditor No No No No
Geany No No No No
gedit Yes Yes Yes Yes
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes
JED No No No No
jEdit Yes
plug‑in[123]		 Yes
[124]		 Yes
plug‑in[123]		 Yes
plug‑in.
JOE No No No No
JOVE No No No No
LE No No No No
Kate Yes Yes Yes Yes
KEDIT No No No No
Komodo IDE Yes
FTP, FTPS, SFTP		 No Yes No
KWrite Yes Yes Yes Yes
Metapad No No No No
mined  ?  ?  ?  ?
MS-DOS Editor No No No No
Nano No No Yes No
FTP HTTP SSH WebDAV
NEdit No No No No
Notepad No No No No
Notepad++ Yes
Plug‑in for FTP, FTPS, FTPES, SFTP		 No Yes
Plug‑in		 No
nvi No No No No
Pico No No No No
PolyEdit No No No No
PSPad Yes No No No
RJ TextEd Yes
FTP, SFTP		 No Yes No
Sam No No No No
SciTE No No No No
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes No
Smultron Yes  ?  ?  ?
SubEthaEdit Yes No No No
TED Notepad No
[125]		  ? No
[125]		  ?
TextEdit No No No No
TextMate Yes No No No
TextPad No No No No
TextWrangler Yes
FTP, SFTP[126]		 No Yes No
The SemWare Editor No No No No
UltraEdit Yes No Yes No
VEDIT Yes No No No
vi No No No No
Vim Yes
[127]		 Yes
[127]		 Yes
[127]		 Yes
[127]
Visual Studio Code Yes
Plug‑in[128]		 Yes
Plug‑in (limited?)[128]		 Yes
Plug‑in[128]		 Yes
Plug‑in[128]
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes  ?
XNEdit No No No No
FTP HTTP SSH WebDAV
Close

Unicode and other character encodings

Summarize
Perspective

To support specified character encoding, the editor must be able to load, save, view and edit text in the specific encoding and not destroy any characters. For UTF-8 and UTF-16, this requires internal 16-bit character support.

Partial support is indicated if: 1) the editor can only convert the character encoding to internal (8-bit) format for editing. 2) If some encodings are supported only in some platforms. 3) If the editor can only display specific character set (such as OEM) by loading corresponding font, but does not support keyboard entry for that character set.

More information ASCII, ISO-8859 ...
Text editor support for some of the most common character encodings
ASCII ISO-8859 DOS (OEM) EBCDIC UTF-8 UTF-16
Acme Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes  ?
AkelPad Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Alphatk Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes Yes
Atom  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Brackets Yes No No No Yes No
Coda Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes
ConTEXT Yes Yes Partial
[ce]		 No No No
Crimson Editor Yes Yes Partial
[ce]		 No Partial No
CudaText Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes
ed Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes No
Editra Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes
gedit Yes Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes
GNU Emacs Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
[cf]		 Yes
[cg]
JED Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Partial
[ch]
jEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
JOE Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes No
JOVE Yes No No No No No
LE Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes No
Kate Yes Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes
KEDIT Yes Yes Partial
[ce]		 No No No
Komodo Edit Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
Komodo IDE Yes Yes No No Yes Yes
KWrite Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes Yes
Metapad Yes Yes Partial
[ce]		 No No No
mined Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
MS-DOS Editor Yes  ? Yes  ?  ?  ?
Nano Yes Yes  ?  ? Yes No
NEdit Yes  ?  ?  ? No No
Notepad Yes Yes Partial
[ce]		 No Yes Yes
Notepad++ Yes Yes Yes plug‑in? Yes Yes
nvi Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes
[ci]		 No
Pico Yes No No No Yes No
PolyEdit Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes Yes
PSPad Yes Yes Yes  ? Yes Yes
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Sam Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes No
SciTE[cj] Yes No No No Yes Yes
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Smultron Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes Yes
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TED Notepad Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes Yes
TextEdit Yes Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes
TextMate Yes Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes
TextPad Yes  ?  ?  ? Partial
[ck]		 Partial
[ck]
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes
[cl]		 Partial
[ce]		 Yes
Plug‑in		 No No
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial
[cm]		 Partial
[cm]
vi Yes  ?  ?  ? Yes No
Vim Yes Yes Yes Partial
[cn]		 Yes Yes
Visual Studio Code Yes Yes Yes No
[130]		 Yes Yes
XEmacs Yes Yes  ?  ? Yes
[co]		 Yes
XNEdit Yes Yes  ?  ? Yes Yes
Close

Right-to-left and bidirectional text

Summarize
Perspective

Support for Right-To-Left (RTL) texts is necessary for editing some languages like Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, and Yiddish and the mixture of left to right (LTR) and RTL known as bi-directional (BiDi) support.

Depending on the algorithm used in the programs it might only render the bidirectional text correctly but may not be able to edit them. (e.g. Notepad++ 5.1.3 shows bidirectional texts correctly but cannot edit it and user should change the text direction to RTL to be able to edit RTL texts correctly.)

More information Right-to-left (RTL), Bi-directional (Bidi) ...
Right to left (RTL) & bidirectional (bidi) support
Right-to-left (RTL) Bi-directional (Bidi)
Acme No No
AkelPad No No
Alphatk  ?  ?
Atom No No
BBEdit Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes Yes
Brackets  ?  ?
Coda  ?  ?
ConTEXT  ?  ?
Crimson Editor  ?  ?
ed  ?  ?
Editra  ?  ?
EmEditor No No
Geany  ?  ?
gedit Yes Yes
GNU Emacs Yes Yes
[cp]
JED  ?  ?
jEdit No No
JOE  ?  ?
JOVE No No
LE  ?  ?
Kate Yes Yes
KEDIT No No
Komodo Edit No No
Komodo IDE No No
KWrite  ?  ?
Metapad  ?  ?
MS-DOS Editor  ?  ?
mined Yes
[cq]		 Yes
[cq]
Nano  ?  ?
RTL Bidi
NEdit No No
Notepad Yes Yes
Notepad++ Yes Partial
[cr]
nvi  ?  ?
Pico  ?  ?
PolyEdit  ?  ?
PSPad  ?  ?
RJ TextEd Yes Yes
Sam No No
SciTE No No
SlickEdit  ?  ?
Smultron  ?  ?
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes
TED Notepad  ?  ?
TextEdit Yes Yes
TextMate No No
TextPad  ?  ?
TextWrangler Yes Yes
The SemWare Editor No No
UltraEdit No No
VEDIT  ?  ?
vi  ?  ?
Vim Yes Yes
through terminal support
Visual Studio Code No Yes
XEmacs  ?  ?
XNEdit No No
RTL Bidi
Close

Newline support

More information Windows (CR/LF), Classic Mac OS (CR) ...
Support for newline characters in line endings
Windows (CR/LF) Unix-like systems (including macOS)[131] (LF) Classic Mac OS (CR)
Acme Yes Yes Yes
AkelPad Yes Yes Yes
Alphatk Yes Yes Yes
Atom Yes Yes No
BBEdit Yes Yes Yes
Bluefish Yes Yes Yes
Brackets Yes Yes No
Coda Yes Yes Yes
ConTEXT Yes Yes Yes
Crimson Editor Yes Yes Yes
CudaText Yes Yes Yes
ed No Yes No
Editra Yes Yes Yes
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes
Geany Yes Yes Yes
gedit Yes Yes Yes
GNU Emacs[cs] Yes Yes Yes
JED Yes Yes Yes
jEdit Yes Yes Yes
JOE[132] Yes Yes No
JOVE Yes Yes Yes
Kate Yes Yes Yes
KEDIT Yes Yes Yes
Komodo Edit Yes Yes Yes
Komodo IDE Yes Yes Yes
KWrite Yes Yes Yes
LE Yes Yes No
Metapad Yes Yes  ?
MS-DOS Editor Yes No No
mined Yes Yes Yes
Nano Yes Yes Yes
NEdit Yes Yes Yes
Notepad Yes No No
Notepad++ Yes Yes Yes
nvi  ? Yes  ?
Pico Yes Yes Yes
PolyEdit Yes Yes Yes
PSPad Yes Yes Yes
RJ TextEd Yes Yes Yes
Sam  ?  ?  ?
SciTE Yes Yes Yes
SlickEdit Yes Yes Yes
Smultron Yes Yes Yes
SubEthaEdit Yes Yes Yes
Sublime Text Yes Yes Yes
TED Notepad Yes Yes Yes
TextEdit Yes Yes Yes
TextMate Yes Yes Yes
TextPad Yes Yes Yes
TextWrangler Yes Yes Yes
The SemWare Editor Yes Yes Yes
UltraEdit Yes Yes Yes
VEDIT Yes Yes Yes
vi No Yes No
Vim Yes Yes Yes
Visual Studio Code Yes Yes Yes
XEmacs Yes Yes Yes
XNEdit Yes Yes Yes
Windows (CR/LF) Unix-like systems (including macOS) (LF) Classic Mac OS (CR)
Close

See also

Notes

  1. alexey_t, kvichans, matthias030.
  2. last update in OpenBSD repo[29]
  3. No native support, available as a part of the Inferno port for Windows or by using `plan9port` over the WSL.
  4. Requires Cygwin or the Windows Subsystem for Linux to run on Windows.
  5. GEdit, when installed from MacPorts, runs in X11 and, therefore, does not have a native look and feel. However, precompiled native macOS binaries for GEdit may be downloaded from the GEdit project page, or from the GEdit FTP download server.
  6. gedit, NEdit, and SciTE run in the X11 window environment, and therefore do not use the native Aqua look-and-feel when running on macOS.
  7. Stand alone NSIS installable package is available
  8. gedit supports single document window splitting via plug‑ins. Archived 2011-12-14 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. gedit supports multiple document window splitting via plug‑ins. Archived 2011-12-14 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. GNU Emacs 27.1 includes built-in support for tab bar (per-frame) and tab-line (per-window). Earlier versions of GNU Emacs can use a tabbed document interface in a non OS-native way using the Tabbar plug‑in.
  11. GNU Emacs can support a tabbed document interface modelled after GNU Screen using the elscreen Archived 2008-01-17 at the Wayback Machine package.
  12. JOE supports editing multiple files but only seeing one of them, and switching to others via Ctrl+K+N, which is functionally equivalent to having tabs but no visible tab bar.
  13. mined supports Copy/Paste between multiple documents in separate windows, when these documents are in separate terminal windows
  14. SciTE_max_buffers
  15. Vim Provided GVim is used.
  16. Vim version 7 supports a tabbed document interface. Earlier versions can emulate tabs through scripts, for example.[57]
  17. Acme can invoke external commands and display their return values in order to integrate additional functionality.
  18. ConTEXT does not support regular expression backreferences in its search and replace function. Archived 2007-12-18 at archive.today
  19. ConTEXT only supports converting text to UTF-16. Also, it can only use one type of new-line format if converting to UTF-16.
  20. Geany supports spell checking via a plug‑in
  21. gedit supports spell checking via a plug‑in, which is distributed with gedit.
  22. gedit supports Regex-based find & replace via plug‑ins ( Archived 2011-12-14 at the Wayback Machine).
  23. Emacs supports spell checking via the external programs ispell, aspell, or Hunspell.
  24. jEdit supports spell checking via an external plug‑in.
  25. JOE supports spell checking via the ispell or aspell external plug‑ins.
  26. JOE uses a non-standard regular expression syntax.
  27. JOE can easily pipe text through the GNU recode(1) utility; it detects locale settings and allows editing in any encoding set up by the environment.
  28. Komodo Edit is based on Scintilla and may support virtual space similar to Geany and Notepad++ ()
  29. Komodo IDE is based on Scintilla and may support virtual space similar to Geany and Notepad++ ()
  30. LE can pipe text through the GNU recode(1) utility
  31. Metapad spell checking by calling external program Aspell.
  32. mined supports multiple lines in search and replacement expressions.
  33. mined can convert the encoding format when using the Copy & Paste feature between multiple documents (that have different encodings).
  34. mined supports new-line conversion via a command-line option or from the menu. Files with mixed newline types can be edited transparently; different kinds of new-line have different visual indications.
  35. It is possible to start external applications from inside Sam and display their return values.
  36. Scintilla-based editors such as SciTE, Notepad2 and Notepad++ do not support alternation (
  37. UltraEdit uses the Boost C++ regex library. While Boost supports backreferences past \9 with \g{10}, UltraEdit has not yet implemented this feature.
  38. VEDIT 6.2 comes with Scribe spelling checker which has been written entirely in Vedit macro language. In addition, macro package for integrating Aspell can be downloaded here.
  39. Vim version 7 supports spell checking natively. Earlier versions require a script.[68]
  40. Visual Studio Code does not support virtual space, and rectangular selection beyond line endings is not possible.
  41. Acme's auto-completion only works on file names.
  42. bluefish: Configurable via the outputbox feature.
  43. With external tool OpenCTags
  44. ed can invoke external commands, like a compiler.
  45. EmEditor Professional supports Auto Complete via plug‑ins (32-bit or 64-bit).
  46. Geany uses its own tags file format, not compatible with ctags, see the manual.
  47. gedit-folding: Folding plug‑in for Gedit
  48. gedit: Compiler integration: Functionality in plug‑ins installed with gedit.
  49. make can be launched from the LE text editor, but the output is not captured
  50. Evaluates expressions in some dynamic languages such as Clojure, Python and Javascript in realtime
  51. mined: Syntax highlighting: HTML/XML, Javascript, JSP.
  52. Notepad++ comes with Function List support, and it can be enhanced via plugins.
  53. Notepad++ installs with auto complete list for multiple programming languages. Has user option to add additional personalized auto complete list(s).
  54. Function list (and stuff) available in Ru-Board build, ver 1.79.66Ru and later
  55. TextMate: Auto complete: Supported language bundles
  56. Textpad uses an add-on ()
  57. TextWrangler can integrate with a compiler if you write a shell script that takes flag input of the code and compiles it. You place this in ~/Library/Application Support/TextWrangler/Unix Support/Unix Filters/. It should show in the #! menu.
  58. The Semware Editor: Auto complete: Supported via supplied/user-created lists.
  59. The Semware Editor: Text folding: Compressed view possible.
  60. Not in the Linux version.
  61. Vedit: Auto complete: Template editing, plus 3rd party macro for expanding symbols from tags database.
  62. Multi-line regex support Support for expressions spanning several lines (e.g. "\n\n(.+)\n\n")
  63. Alpha Macro support via AppleScript, Tcl or text factories.
  64. BBEdit Macro support via AppleScript, Perl, Python, Lasso, shell scripts or text factories.
  65. Coda offers macros via AppleScript, text "clips,"or plug‑ins (Cocoa apps or any installed scripting language).
  66. name
  67. Cssed Macro support via Python.
  68. jEdit: Limited by Java heap size.[85]
  69. Kate: Line length is limited by default. The limit can be removed, but long lines may cause poor performance.[88]
  70. LE text editor locks the file and warns if someone else has changed the file
  71. LE text editor can view and edit large files or their parts in mmap-shared mode
  72. UltraEdit has no real limit on file size - and can easily open, edit, and save large text files in excess of 4 GB! .
  73. 2GB with 32 Bits, on a 64 Bit system it depends on the available virtual memory.
  74. Emacs: 64-bit compilation on 64-bit OS can handle 2 GB files, otherwise the limit is 512 MiB.
  75. It is possible to customize all Gedit shortcuts because it is Gtk based.
  76. The JED base release comes with a basic CUA emulation, but it doesn't bother to bind lots of useful editor features. Also, like some other editors, 1 side of a region must be at the cursor. The main extension collections jedmodes/jed-extra and the "Red Project" have improved versions, tackling the former problem in particular.
  77. In SciTE, custom keystrokes may be assigned to Lua scripts, external programs or lexers (highlighters).
  78. SlickEdit provides emulation of Visual Studio, Visual C++ 6, CodeWright, Epsilon and ISPF key bindings in addition to those given in the table.
  79. SlickEdit supports CodeWarrior, Xcode and BBEdit key binding emulation.
  80. SlickEdit includes support of vi key bindings, the ex command line and some, but not all Vim extensions.
  81. Vim emulates vi keys fully when in 'compatible' mode
  82. Vim With a script[114]
  83. when choosing e.g. Terminal font
  84. GNU Emacs: While GNU Emacs supports the UTF-8 encoding, it doesn't fully support the Unicode standard, since it doesn't fully support the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (see comment in the 'Right-to-left and bidirectional text' section below).
  85. GNU Emacs: While GNU Emacs supports the UTF-16 encoding, it doesn't fully support the Unicode standard, since it doesn't fully support the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (see comment in the 'Right-to-left and bidirectional text' section below).
  86. JEDs Windows version comes with a pair of scripts that can convert UTF-16 text files (actually anything iconv can convert) to and from JED's internal UTF-8. The Red Project releases include an enhanced version of these scripts.
  87. nvi Gentoo
  88. SciTE can open files in UTF or one single-byte encoding specified in a configuration file.
  89. TextPad can load and save UTF-8 and UTF-16 text files, but cannot use or even preserve characters outside of the system encoding.[129]
  90. when choosing e.g. New Courier font
  91. Vedit can convert UTF-8 and UTF-16 files to Windows character set and back. Characters not included in Windows charset can be preserved.
  92. Vim supports EBCDIC when compiled on a system that uses the EBCDIC character set.
  93. from version 21.5.29
  94. GNU Emacs

    (1) According to a comment in the source file where the bidi support is implemented (http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/tree/src/bidi.c accessed August 15, 2017), GNU Emacs doesn't fully conform to the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (Unicode Annex #9, a.k.a. UAX #9) in the way it wraps the lines of a bidi paragraph: "we are violating paragraph 3.4 of UAX#9. which mandates that line breaking shall be done before reordering each screen line separately."

    (2) According to the online GNU Emacs manual (section 22.19 Bidirectional Editing, accessed August 15, 2017), for the purpose of changing paragraph direction, "Paragraph boundaries are empty lines, i.e., lines consisting entirely of whitespace character". This contrasts with the otherwise ubiquitous convention of regarding the newline marker (LF on Unix derivatives, including macOS, and CR+LF on Windows) as the paragraph separator in plain text documents. However starting with version 26.0.50, the bidi paragraph separator can be customized.
  95. mined: supports bidi in cooperation with bidi terminal (mlterm, mintty); also supports "poor man's bidi mode"(automatic visual text order right-to-left input) in normal terminal
  96. Notepadpp: Scintilla (Notepad++'s Engine) does not really support bidirectional editing ... Some bidirectional text support added in 4.1.0. https://sourceforge.net/p/scintilla/bugs/757/#01c9
  97. GNU Emacs: GNU Emacs doesn't regard the newline marker as a paragraph separator in bidi texts. See comment in the 'Right-to-left and bidirectional text' section.

References

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