4 ms·

I use it as an advanced text editor on any Linux or BSD workstation I use. I'm not a developer so most of the IDE type stuff goes unused, but I do like having s

I use it as an advanced text editor on any Linux or BSD workstation I use. I'm not a developer so most of the IDE type stuff goes unused, but I do like having something as powerful as Notepad++ on Windows without resorting to cumbersome editors like Atom or VSCode. An alternative for people like me is SciTE. https://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html https://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html

JNRowe 6y ago
Perhaps you're aware, and I missed the nuance... but, geany uses the scintilla engine as its editor component¹. I was once a pretty heavy SciTE user, and it surprises me how often you can spot it in other tools when shoulder surfing or watching live demos. 1. https://github.com/geany/geany/tree/master/scintilla https://github.com/geany/geany/tree/master/scintilla
- morganvachon 6y ago
  I am aware. :-) In fact, I used SciTE for a long time until discovering Geany via Crunchbang Linux, it was the default text editor in that distro. I found I liked its look-and-feel better than SciTE so I switched.
aspyct 6y ago
It's a matter of perspective I guess. Where I'm from, VSCode is considered lightweight. Cumbersome would describe NetBeans and Eclipse in my mind.
- sigzero 6y ago
  I am not sure why VSCode is just as slow as the others you mentioned. I have them all installed.
- morganvachon 6y ago
  If it takes more than a second to load a text editor (or even a light IDE) I have no use for it. It's not just slow to load, it's also cumbersome to use compared to my preferred tools. Even on my old Core 2 Quad with a spinning hard drive, Geany loads in a split second with several tabs already queued up. As you said, perhaps it's perspective, but even on my latest build (Ryzen 3600/RX5600XT/NVMe SSD) VSCode is agonizing compared to Notepad++ on Windows and Geany on Linux.
  - g-b-r 6y ago
    > VSCode is agonizing compared to Notepad++ on Windows you're clearly not keeping 2793 files in your session.xml
    - morganvachon 6y ago
      No, generally no more than two dozen or so, and honestly that's pushing the limits of my sanity with a tabbed interface. Any more than that, and I'm switching to Geany and turning on the sidebar. I've tried the "Folder as Workspace" feature and the Explorer plugin in N++ and they aren't as user-friendly.
      - g-b-r 6y ago
        N++ has had for a few years its own internal sidebar (Setting -> General -> Document List Panel), but I've always used the Window Manager plugin, that for some reason I don't recall (probably the Path column and its handling of the two views that I always keep open) I always found more comfortable. That said, my usage is not sane and is just a reflection of my organization capabilities and the constant postponement of switching to a better editor (one with good multi-sessions management, for example). A large part of the files are RFCs by the way, that I need from time to time (or just don't care about closing). I wouldn't be surprised if Geany were much better by the way, there's a lot I dislike in N++.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
giancarlostoro 6y ago
There's also CudaText and KATE which are decent cross platform editors, they open up fast enough, of course Sublime Text is an option but the former two are free cost wise and close to ST's speed (especially CudaText). CudaText: http://uvviewsoft.com/cudatext/ http://uvviewsoft.com/cudatext/ KATE: https://kate-editor.org/ https://kate-editor.org/
- morganvachon 6y ago
  I haven't heard of CudaText before, I'll check it out, thanks! I'm familiar with Kate, and it works fine but I have to spend more time getting it the way I want it than I do with Geany so I usually just install the latter. My needs are modest compared to most sysadmin and developer types, so (as with Geany and N++) I don't use the bulk of its features. I tried out Sublime Text when I was using a Mac as my main workstation, but it didn't jive with my workflow so I stayed with TextWrangler on that platform. I've since stopped using my Mac for anything other than experimenting with music production (I don't like the direction the OS is going these days) so a text editor is less of a concern there.

JNRowe 6y ago

Perhaps you're aware, and I missed the nuance... but, geany uses the scintilla engine as its editor component¹. I was once a pretty heavy SciTE user, and it surprises me how often you can spot it in other tools when shoulder surfing or watching live demos. 1. https://github.com/geany/geany/tree/master/scintilla https://github.com/geany/geany/tree/master/scintilla

morganvachon 6y ago
I am aware. :-) In fact, I used SciTE for a long time until discovering Geany via Crunchbang Linux, it was the default text editor in that distro. I found I liked its look-and-feel better than SciTE so I switched.

aspyct 6y ago

It's a matter of perspective I guess. Where I'm from, VSCode is considered lightweight. Cumbersome would describe NetBeans and Eclipse in my mind.

sigzero 6y ago
I am not sure why VSCode is just as slow as the others you mentioned. I have them all installed.
morganvachon 6y ago
If it takes more than a second to load a text editor (or even a light IDE) I have no use for it. It's not just slow to load, it's also cumbersome to use compared to my preferred tools. Even on my old Core 2 Quad with a spinning hard drive, Geany loads in a split second with several tabs already queued up. As you said, perhaps it's perspective, but even on my latest build (Ryzen 3600/RX5600XT/NVMe SSD) VSCode is agonizing compared to Notepad++ on Windows and Geany on Linux.
- g-b-r 6y ago
  > VSCode is agonizing compared to Notepad++ on Windows you're clearly not keeping 2793 files in your session.xml
  - morganvachon 6y ago
    No, generally no more than two dozen or so, and honestly that's pushing the limits of my sanity with a tabbed interface. Any more than that, and I'm switching to Geany and turning on the sidebar. I've tried the "Folder as Workspace" feature and the Explorer plugin in N++ and they aren't as user-friendly.
    - g-b-r 6y ago
      N++ has had for a few years its own internal sidebar (Setting -> General -> Document List Panel), but I've always used the Window Manager plugin, that for some reason I don't recall (probably the Path column and its handling of the two views that I always keep open) I always found more comfortable. That said, my usage is not sane and is just a reflection of my organization capabilities and the constant postponement of switching to a better editor (one with good multi-sessions management, for example). A large part of the files are RFCs by the way, that I need from time to time (or just don't care about closing). I wouldn't be surprised if Geany were much better by the way, there's a lot I dislike in N++.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

giancarlostoro 6y ago

There's also CudaText and KATE which are decent cross platform editors, they open up fast enough, of course Sublime Text is an option but the former two are free cost wise and close to ST's speed (especially CudaText). CudaText: http://uvviewsoft.com/cudatext/ http://uvviewsoft.com/cudatext/ KATE: https://kate-editor.org/ https://kate-editor.org/

morganvachon 6y ago
I haven't heard of CudaText before, I'll check it out, thanks! I'm familiar with Kate, and it works fine but I have to spend more time getting it the way I want it than I do with Geany so I usually just install the latter. My needs are modest compared to most sysadmin and developer types, so (as with Geany and N++) I don't use the bulk of its features. I tried out Sublime Text when I was using a Mac as my main workstation, but it didn't jive with my workflow so I stayed with TextWrangler on that platform. I've since stopped using my Mac for anything other than experimenting with music production (I don't like the direction the OS is going these days) so a text editor is less of a concern there.