Choosing a Text Editor (As Personal of a Preference as Knee Socks or No Shows)
An Exercise in Choosing What You Like vs What is “Right”
What is a text editor anyway?
- A text editor allows you to write and manage text, especially the text that you
write to build a website.
- Very likely one of the most important tools in the web devs arsenal.
- Some editors will even provide closing tags when you open a tag!
Are there certain features I should look for?
- Code Completion: You start typing and this feature displays predictive responses.
Kind of like texting on yoru smartphone.
- Syntax Highlighting: Literally highlights text as you type making it easier to spot
upon review. This really helps with review and error checks.
- Themes: Themes allow you to change the color display of the text editor. This can help
reduce eyestrain and make the work environment feel a bit more comfortable and cozy.
- Extensions: Allows you to add functionality and power within the text editor environment
as your skills and condfidence grow!
Great! That is really healpful…but don’t I already have Notepad or Text Editor?!
The simple answer is…Of Course! On a Windows device you will have Notepad and on Mac OS
you will have Text Editor. Side Note! Linux versions have different text editors for
different releases so you’ll have to find that based on your specific release.
- So why not use these text editors? I’m going to say the quiet part loud…They are pretty
basic stuff…nothing fancy and often without capabilities and features mentioned above!
- Can I still use them? Of course you can, but it is worth checking out other options at
the very least before you commit to the bare bones babies.
| Editor |
OS Environment |
Cost |
| Notepad++ |
Windows |
Free |
| TextWrangler |
Mac |
Retired (Undefeated) |
| BB Edit |
Win & Mac |
$49.99 |
| Visual Studio Code |
Win, Mac & Linux |
Free |
| Atom |
Win, Mac & Linux |
Free |
| Brackets |
Win, Mac & Linux |
DNK |
| Sublime Text 3 |
DNK |
$70 |
IDE vs Text Editor
IDE
- IDE is short for Integrated Development Environment
- Includes a text editor, compiler, debugger and file manager all in one
Text Editor
So What do the following commands even do?
- pwd: full path to the current working directory
- ls: lists information about directories and files in the working directory
- cd: changes the current directory of the terminal
- mkdir: make directory quite literally makes a new directory
- touch: commonly used for file creation this commands primary function is for timestamping
Explain What is happening in the following scenarios:
- cd projects: the directory is changed to projects
- mkdir new-projects: a new directory is created named new_project
- touch new-project/newfile.md: a new file, newfile.md is created within new-project directory
- cd ..: change to the parent directory of the current directory
- ls projects/new-project: returns information on directories and files within *projects/new-projects