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Geany fills this niche, and is close to being feature complete. It could use help and attention as well, it unfortunately doesn't get enough imho. Also on git

Geany fills this niche, and is close to being feature complete. It could use help and attention as well, it unfortunately doesn't get enough imho. Also on github: https://github.com/geany/geany https://github.com/geany/geany

themodelplumber 5y ago
Geany is great. I have 200+ files open in it most of the time and it's been really nice to use all along.
WD-42 5y ago
Geany was the first editor I used to write code. It has just the right balance of features to make editing code productive while keeping it simple enough for beginners.
qbasic_forever 5y ago
I have a container I setup with XFCE and this awesome Windows 95 theme: https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 Geany works perfectly inside it for a little retro dev environment. It looks and feels just like old Visual Studio versions, but I can code any modern thing I want.
- xmonkee 5y ago
  What kind of container?
  - qbasic_forever 5y ago
    distrobox to manage the container: https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox Then just install XFCE and tiger VNC server inside it. Using VNC makes it easy to connect into a little isolated session that has its own theming, etc. vs. trying to send geany to my native X11/wayland server (which wouldn't theme it like windows 95). You could also just run it in a browser window with a VNC HTML bridge, this would be a good base for that: https://github.com/accetto/ubuntu-vnc-xfce-g3 https://github.com/accetto/ubuntu-vnc-xfce-g3 The easiest way to get Chicago95 setup is to run its GUI installer python script. I don't try to script it in a dockerfile or container setup.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
Geany drove me insane when I tried it. The horrific font rendering that turned underscores into spaces, the obtuse as hell format for custom syntax highlighting... No thanks man.
- digisign 5y ago
  A Scintilla bug fixed five years ago? Hex digits in a text file is obtuse? No software is perfect but there's probably better criticism out there.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    The issue was closed, but that is not the same as being fixed.
    - digisign 5y ago
      The root problem it seems is that some fonts are out of spec, and there's a workaround: [styling] line_height=0;2; I recommend Source Code Pro which is a great programming font and apparently doesn't have the problem, since I've never actually seen it.
      - kzrdude 5y ago
        if the often-default font is "out of spec" then the software has a problem they should mitigate somehow. Maybe pick a different default font if they can. I saw this underscore problem as soon as I installed Geany.
        digisign 5y ago
        Was a problem for a few years on some Linux distros, should all be fixed now. Wasn't even their bug. Workaround was trivial, increase the line height. Let's focus on something slightly more interesting.
sergiotapia 5y ago
Wow that takes me back! I learned how to code with Geany!
syntaxfree 5y ago
Can you define custom syntax highlighting as easily as in notepad++? My use case was that I had one big text file for everything with some ad hoc format.
- digisign 5y ago
  You have to write hex codes into a text file in your config folder, there is no GUI for it. They have themes for a few years now. You copy one and edit. Not hard but not effortless either. One interesting thing is that you can do it in Geany, there is a little plugin to show a color square when you hover over a #hex string. I remember npp having a GUI, but from memory it was old-school, in the clunky sense and not in the simple one. It didn't have a little window showing code with the updates for example. Now that you bring it up, that's an area where a developer could make a helpful contribution.
ZoomZoomZoom 5y ago
Geany is mature and solid, and I like it a lot, especially on Windows. However, I personally bump into some uncomfortable limitations with it. The pace of the development, including just reacting to issues or PRs is rather slow. Basic editing functions are few (just compare the contents of the "Edit" submenu with Notepad++). This is partially mitigated by "Send selection to", but a text editor without a simple line sorting?.. The settings for the "Build" submenu is artificially limited. Why just 3 filetype and 3 shared commands? Why not allow changing the keyboard shortcuts for those right in the same window? No macro or scripting at all. In my view, such programs benefit a lot from having all their actions available as a list of commands which can be used to construct custom chains and scripts or be used setting the keybindings. Somehow, not all the lexers from lexilla are available? For example, Nim lexer is more than 3 years old (5, if you count lexer for an earlier version then called Nimrod), but Nim settings for Geany still uses the Python lexer.
- digisign 5y ago
  Hmm, I don't do most of those things. Or, I use external tools/pre-commit/terminal so not a big issue for me. For example, a tool like "black" or "prettier" has outsourced a lot of the manual formatting work I'd have done before. I "write ugly" and save the file. For sorting I do in fact use the "Send selection to" to sort, bound to Ctrl+1, but I never got around to binding anything to Ctrl+2. There were tons of little fiddly things in Notepad++ I never used because the things they fixed they never came up often enough to build up muscle memory to remember them. YMMV.
  - ZoomZoomZoom 5y ago
    Sometimes it's just more convenient when all the little things are already in place, even if you're not using them frequently enough to build muscle memory. Also, for reasons described in the comment by @AdmiralAsshat below.
account-5 5y ago
I've never been able to get on with geany, compared to np++ it comes a very distant second.
- digisign 5y ago
  I use Linux and grudgingly Mac now, so np++ is not even in the race. ;-)
mrtweetyhack 5y ago
zozbot234 5y ago
These light IDE editors should really be including some support for modern features like LSP, Tree-Sitter parsers and the Debug Adapter Protocol. Modern development flows have come to rely on this stuff. This also goes for terminal-based editors, BTW. The old RHIDE is in many ways still unsurpassed in the intuitiveness and inherent extensibility of its text-based interface. A modern *nix-based equivalent would find plenty of use for light development work over SSH. (You could even ssh in and develop from an Apple iPad with keyboard addon!)
- digisign 5y ago
  I used this Jedi plugin for Python for a while, but didn't need it too often and didn't install it the next system refresh. Might be out of date now. https://github.com/notetau/geany-jedi-complete https://github.com/notetau/geany-jedi-complete

themodelplumber 5y ago

Geany is great. I have 200+ files open in it most of the time and it's been really nice to use all along.

WD-42 5y ago

Geany was the first editor I used to write code. It has just the right balance of features to make editing code productive while keeping it simple enough for beginners.

qbasic_forever 5y ago

I have a container I setup with XFCE and this awesome Windows 95 theme: https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 Geany works perfectly inside it for a little retro dev environment. It looks and feels just like old Visual Studio versions, but I can code any modern thing I want.

xmonkee 5y ago
What kind of container?
- qbasic_forever 5y ago
  distrobox to manage the container: https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox Then just install XFCE and tiger VNC server inside it. Using VNC makes it easy to connect into a little isolated session that has its own theming, etc. vs. trying to send geany to my native X11/wayland server (which wouldn't theme it like windows 95). You could also just run it in a browser window with a VNC HTML bridge, this would be a good base for that: https://github.com/accetto/ubuntu-vnc-xfce-g3 https://github.com/accetto/ubuntu-vnc-xfce-g3 The easiest way to get Chicago95 setup is to run its GUI installer python script. I don't try to script it in a dockerfile or container setup.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

Geany drove me insane when I tried it. The horrific font rendering that turned underscores into spaces, the obtuse as hell format for custom syntax highlighting... No thanks man.

digisign 5y ago
A Scintilla bug fixed five years ago? Hex digits in a text file is obtuse? No software is perfect but there's probably better criticism out there.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  The issue was closed, but that is not the same as being fixed.
  - digisign 5y ago
    The root problem it seems is that some fonts are out of spec, and there's a workaround: [styling] line_height=0;2; I recommend Source Code Pro which is a great programming font and apparently doesn't have the problem, since I've never actually seen it.
    - kzrdude 5y ago
      if the often-default font is "out of spec" then the software has a problem they should mitigate somehow. Maybe pick a different default font if they can. I saw this underscore problem as soon as I installed Geany.
      - digisign 5y ago
        Was a problem for a few years on some Linux distros, should all be fixed now. Wasn't even their bug. Workaround was trivial, increase the line height. Let's focus on something slightly more interesting.

sergiotapia 5y ago

Wow that takes me back! I learned how to code with Geany!

syntaxfree 5y ago

Can you define custom syntax highlighting as easily as in notepad++? My use case was that I had one big text file for everything with some ad hoc format.

digisign 5y ago
You have to write hex codes into a text file in your config folder, there is no GUI for it. They have themes for a few years now. You copy one and edit. Not hard but not effortless either. One interesting thing is that you can do it in Geany, there is a little plugin to show a color square when you hover over a #hex string. I remember npp having a GUI, but from memory it was old-school, in the clunky sense and not in the simple one. It didn't have a little window showing code with the updates for example. Now that you bring it up, that's an area where a developer could make a helpful contribution.

ZoomZoomZoom 5y ago

Geany is mature and solid, and I like it a lot, especially on Windows. However, I personally bump into some uncomfortable limitations with it. The pace of the development, including just reacting to issues or PRs is rather slow. Basic editing functions are few (just compare the contents of the "Edit" submenu with Notepad++). This is partially mitigated by "Send selection to", but a text editor without a simple line sorting?.. The settings for the "Build" submenu is artificially limited. Why just 3 filetype and 3 shared commands? Why not allow changing the keyboard shortcuts for those right in the same window? No macro or scripting at all. In my view, such programs benefit a lot from having all their actions available as a list of commands which can be used to construct custom chains and scripts or be used setting the keybindings. Somehow, not all the lexers from lexilla are available? For example, Nim lexer is more than 3 years old (5, if you count lexer for an earlier version then called Nimrod), but Nim settings for Geany still uses the Python lexer.

digisign 5y ago
Hmm, I don't do most of those things. Or, I use external tools/pre-commit/terminal so not a big issue for me. For example, a tool like "black" or "prettier" has outsourced a lot of the manual formatting work I'd have done before. I "write ugly" and save the file. For sorting I do in fact use the "Send selection to" to sort, bound to Ctrl+1, but I never got around to binding anything to Ctrl+2. There were tons of little fiddly things in Notepad++ I never used because the things they fixed they never came up often enough to build up muscle memory to remember them. YMMV.
- ZoomZoomZoom 5y ago
  Sometimes it's just more convenient when all the little things are already in place, even if you're not using them frequently enough to build muscle memory. Also, for reasons described in the comment by @AdmiralAsshat below.

account-5 5y ago

I've never been able to get on with geany, compared to np++ it comes a very distant second.

digisign 5y ago
I use Linux and grudgingly Mac now, so np++ is not even in the race. ;-)

mrtweetyhack 5y ago

zozbot234 5y ago

These light IDE editors should really be including some support for modern features like LSP, Tree-Sitter parsers and the Debug Adapter Protocol. Modern development flows have come to rely on this stuff. This also goes for terminal-based editors, BTW. The old RHIDE is in many ways still unsurpassed in the intuitiveness and inherent extensibility of its text-based interface. A modern *nix-based equivalent would find plenty of use for light development work over SSH. (You could even ssh in and develop from an Apple iPad with keyboard addon!)

digisign 5y ago
I used this Jedi plugin for Python for a while, but didn't need it too often and didn't install it the next system refresh. Might be out of date now. https://github.com/notetau/geany-jedi-complete https://github.com/notetau/geany-jedi-complete