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I had a 4gb textfile I wanted to open. Vim choked while Scite handled it like it was no big deal. Later I configured vim to handle it okay but Scite still is th

I had a 4gb textfile I wanted to open. Vim choked while Scite handled it like it was no big deal. Later I configured vim to handle it okay but Scite still is there in my toolbox if I need it.

rkrzr 11y ago
You can temporarily turn off all syntax-highlighting and line wrapping in vim by opening a file like this: vim -u NONE big_file.txt This works very well for very large files.
spatulon 11y ago
Turning off line wrapping and syntax highlighting before loading a large file seems to help enormously in Vim.
- RBerenguel 11y ago
  And on emacs. I have "turn on/off syntax highlighting" as a shortcut. Specially useful for largish JSON files, for some reason emacs chokes easily on them
  - kuschkufan 11y ago
    I like how you say "on emacs". Makes it sound like "on Windows", i.e. Emacs the OS... ;)
    - RBerenguel 11y ago
      Well, I'm not native so on and in are somehow hard to pinpoint. Quite likely I'd have said also on vim :) (I use emacs+evil by the way)
  - weinzierl 11y ago
    Emacs has (or maybe had, I didn't check for a few year) a hard limit which is 512 MiB on 32 bit platforms.
- JupiterMoon 11y ago
  One can turn off syntax highlighting only for long lines in vim. set synmaxcol=N_characters
- hackuser 11y ago
  Here's my list of commands for large files in Vim, but I'm no Vim guru: set nobackup set nowritebackup set noswapfile Also, from the Vim Tips wiki: "Faster loading of large files" http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/VimTip611 http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/VimTip611
moonshinefe 11y ago
Interesting. I've found Geany (UI) and the ubiquitous `less` pretty effective at handling very large files in my experience. I might try Scite out to see how it compares.
JulianMorrison 11y ago
Try "joe". (Force the syntax highlighting off though. I wish they had never added it.)
- jhallenworld 11y ago
  Syntax highlighting was the number one most requested feature before it had it :-)
  - JulianMorrison 11y ago
    It drags things to a crawl and there's no global off switch or command line off switch. Having to edit distro provided .rc files makes me grumpy :-(
    - jhallenworld 11y ago
      You should submit a bug for this. You can say: joe --highlight foo.c for one file, but you're right, it's not global. Maybe better to auto-disable if it finds long lines or large files. On the other hand, I submit that JOE's highlighter is the fastest available (someone should test this- I've not done it recently).
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
hackuser 11y ago
> I had a 4gb textfile ... A few years ago I had to research text editors designed to handle files >200 MB. Vim, which I love, wasn't up to the job. Here's what I found (sorry, I don't seem to have the links at my fingertips; also this is partly based on 4-year old memories): ---- * EmEditor: This was very impressive. The speed is breathtaking for what it does, and it can handle advanced functions such as column operations on the full file with ease. We chose this and users were very happy; it transformed their abilty to work with large text files. ---- THese were on our shortlist to test next but we didn't get to them due to available time and EmEditor's fantastic results: * VEDIT: Designed for large files. They charge for it, IIRC, but based on its reputation it is worth the investment. * The Semware Editor (TSE): Also a great reputation * 010 Editor: http://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/ http://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/ * PilotEdit: http://www.pilotedit.com/ http://www.pilotedit.com/ ---- Also of interest: * File Query: Treats file as a database, enabling parsing, queries; very flexible and powerful, per reviews: http://www.agiledatasoftware.com/ http://www.agiledatasoftware.com/ * PDT-Windows: A database editor which reputedly has a max filesize of 18 EB (exabytes) * bvi: Binary VI ---- Finally, , some excellent resources * http://texteditors.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?CategoryLargeFileHandling http://texteditors.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?CategoryLargeFileHand... * http://www.knudvaneeden.com/links/file/addactivity/computer/editor/if_you_want_to_regularly_work_with_very_large_files_which_microsoft_windows_programmer_text_editor_to_possibly_choose/01/01.htm http://www.knudvaneeden.com/links/file/addactivity/computer/...
vram22 11y ago
On some older Unixes I've used, there was a command called bfs, for big file scanner. It could open text files in read-only mode and you could move around in them like in an editor.
- vram22 11y ago
  Also, for files too large for an editor, Unix split and csplit commands can help break it into chunks; edit them, then join back with cat.
EdiX 11y ago
I've opened text files twice that size with vim. Unless it got much worse in the last 10 years the problem you had is that vim was trying to count how many lines are in your file, abort the operation pressing ^C and it will work fine.

I had a 4gb textfile I wanted to open. Vim choked while Scite handled it like it was no big deal. Later I configured vim to handle it okay but Scite still is there in my toolbox if I need it.

rkrzr 11y ago

You can temporarily turn off all syntax-highlighting and line wrapping in vim by opening a file like this: vim -u NONE big_file.txt This works very well for very large files.

spatulon 11y ago

Turning off line wrapping and syntax highlighting before loading a large file seems to help enormously in Vim.

RBerenguel 11y ago
And on emacs. I have "turn on/off syntax highlighting" as a shortcut. Specially useful for largish JSON files, for some reason emacs chokes easily on them
- kuschkufan 11y ago
  I like how you say "on emacs". Makes it sound like "on Windows", i.e. Emacs the OS... ;)
  - RBerenguel 11y ago
    Well, I'm not native so on and in are somehow hard to pinpoint. Quite likely I'd have said also on vim :) (I use emacs+evil by the way)
- weinzierl 11y ago
  Emacs has (or maybe had, I didn't check for a few year) a hard limit which is 512 MiB on 32 bit platforms.
JupiterMoon 11y ago
One can turn off syntax highlighting only for long lines in vim. set synmaxcol=N_characters
hackuser 11y ago
Here's my list of commands for large files in Vim, but I'm no Vim guru: set nobackup set nowritebackup set noswapfile Also, from the Vim Tips wiki: "Faster loading of large files" http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/VimTip611 http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/VimTip611

moonshinefe 11y ago

Interesting. I've found Geany (UI) and the ubiquitous `less` pretty effective at handling very large files in my experience. I might try Scite out to see how it compares.

JulianMorrison 11y ago

Try "joe". (Force the syntax highlighting off though. I wish they had never added it.)

jhallenworld 11y ago
Syntax highlighting was the number one most requested feature before it had it :-)
- JulianMorrison 11y ago
  It drags things to a crawl and there's no global off switch or command line off switch. Having to edit distro provided .rc files makes me grumpy :-(
  - jhallenworld 11y ago
    You should submit a bug for this. You can say: joe --highlight foo.c for one file, but you're right, it's not global. Maybe better to auto-disable if it finds long lines or large files. On the other hand, I submit that JOE's highlighter is the fastest available (someone should test this- I've not done it recently).

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

hackuser 11y ago

> I had a 4gb textfile ... A few years ago I had to research text editors designed to handle files >200 MB. Vim, which I love, wasn't up to the job. Here's what I found (sorry, I don't seem to have the links at my fingertips; also this is partly based on 4-year old memories): ---- * EmEditor: This was very impressive. The speed is breathtaking for what it does, and it can handle advanced functions such as column operations on the full file with ease. We chose this and users were very happy; it transformed their abilty to work with large text files. ---- THese were on our shortlist to test next but we didn't get to them due to available time and EmEditor's fantastic results: * VEDIT: Designed for large files. They charge for it, IIRC, but based on its reputation it is worth the investment. * The Semware Editor (TSE): Also a great reputation * 010 Editor: http://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/ http://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/ * PilotEdit: http://www.pilotedit.com/ http://www.pilotedit.com/ ---- Also of interest: * File Query: Treats file as a database, enabling parsing, queries; very flexible and powerful, per reviews: http://www.agiledatasoftware.com/ http://www.agiledatasoftware.com/ * PDT-Windows: A database editor which reputedly has a max filesize of 18 EB (exabytes) * bvi: Binary VI ---- Finally, , some excellent resources * http://texteditors.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?CategoryLargeFileHandling http://texteditors.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?CategoryLargeFileHand... * http://www.knudvaneeden.com/links/file/addactivity/computer/editor/if_you_want_to_regularly_work_with_very_large_files_which_microsoft_windows_programmer_text_editor_to_possibly_choose/01/01.htm http://www.knudvaneeden.com/links/file/addactivity/computer/...

vram22 11y ago

On some older Unixes I've used, there was a command called bfs, for big file scanner. It could open text files in read-only mode and you could move around in them like in an editor.

vram22 11y ago
Also, for files too large for an editor, Unix split and csplit commands can help break it into chunks; edit them, then join back with cat.

EdiX 11y ago

I've opened text files twice that size with vim. Unless it got much worse in the last 10 years the problem you had is that vim was trying to count how many lines are in your file, abort the operation pressing ^C and it will work fine.