5 ms·

Scintilla is a free source code editing component with a permissive license

108 points by mariuz 4y ago

PBondurant 4y ago
For those who weren't aware, scintilla forms the basis of the popular Notepad++ Windows text editor.
- vitorsr 4y ago
  The Qt port of Scintilla is also used by a number of projects as a lightweight editor component: $ lsb_release -d && apt rdepends libqscintilla2-qt5-15 Description: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS libqscintilla2-qt5-15 Reverse Depends: Depends: libqscintilla2-qt5-dev (<< 2.11.6+dfsg+1~) Depends: sqlitebrowser (>= 2.11.2) Depends: sonic-pi (>= 2.11.2) Depends: qgis-providers (>= 2.11.2) Depends: python3-qgis (>= 2.11.2) Depends: python3-pyqt5.qsci (>= 2.11.2) Depends: openscad (>= 2.11.2) Depends: octave (>= 2.11.2) Suggests: libqscintilla2-qt5-l10n Depends: libqscintilla2-qt5-dev (>= 2.11.6+dfsg) Depends: juffed (>= 2.11.2) Depends: libqscintilla2-qt5-designer (>= 2.11.2) Depends: libqgis-gui3.22.4 (>= 2.11.2) Depends: libqgis-app3.22.4 (>= 2.11.2)
  - hesdeadjim 4y ago
    It feels like an eternity ago, but an editor I wrote in Qt for a game did exactly this so you could write Lua inline on objects.
  - Narishma 4y ago
    Doesn't Qt already have an editor component?
    - lmm 4y ago
      It does, but IIRC Scintilla is more full-featured (e.g. I think it has better syntax highlighting support).
- signaru 4y ago
  and Notepad++ itself sometimes gets bundled with other software.
- anta40 4y ago
  Whenever I work on Windows machines, Notepad++ is a must to have. But usually, SciTE is more than sufficient: https://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html https://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html and also works fine on Linux.
  - wink 4y ago
    I remember using SciTE in the early 00s. Apart from some oddities of displaying italic text in a weird way it was a perfectly cromulent editor and you could start it, do your task, and close it before eclipse had even finished the loading screen :P
lycos 4y ago
Now there's a name I haven't heard much in the last decades. Before I switched from Windows to MacOS I used their demo editor SciTE as my text editor of choice and was very happy with it.
- mdp2021 4y ago
  > a name I haven't heard much Probably you never had to develop specialized text editors - the Scintilla library is very precious.
  - themodelplumber 4y ago
    Is it still the only library for such that lets developers easily set code comments in a completely different font? I remember wondering why it wasn't a widespread feature, and then realizing that the common ingredient in all the editors I was looking at was s Scintilla.
    - pabs3 4y ago
      Being able to use non-monospace fonts is another great feature too.
zeroonetwothree 4y ago
I love SciTE. Have been using it for 20+ years as my lightweight editor of choice on Windows.
delvinj 4y ago
SciTE has been my notepad replacement for twenty years. I love its speed, simplicity, and lua scripting. I only wish there were an easier way to add syntax highlighting for new languages.
bdeshi 4y ago
reminds me about Akelpad which was my preference over notepad++/scintilla editors. It feels similar to Scintilla but uses an allegedly more performant editing component called AkelEdit. It has lots of interesting plugins and easily editable GUI. it was fun to tinker with. https://akelpad.sourceforge.net/en/index.php https://akelpad.sourceforge.net/en/index.php
StevePerkins 4y ago
I would love for there to be a Mac equivalent of Notepad++ (i.e. Scintilla). I miss that editor every day. The Mac world has many advantages, but in terms of text editors all your options are either: 1. Electron-based, and take forever to launch (even if they are "fast for an Electron app"). 2. Little to no plugin ecosystem whatever. No Vim mode, etc (yes there's Vim itself, but that's not a great choice for a GUI window editor). 3. Commercial, and costs nearly as much as a full-blown IDE. Notepad++ was (is) pretty much perfect. Sadly, its default look-and-feel is "light mode" and "Courier New", rather than dark mode and Menlo/Consolas, so I don't think it even exists for the newer crowd.
- madduci 4y ago
  What about Sublime Text? It's always been fast and have lots of plugins
- indymike 4y ago
  The answer used to be TextWrangler. I'm not sure how BBEdit 14 is.
  - thibautg 4y ago
    I really like Notepad++ on Windows but BBEdit Free Mode does the job for me on macOS.
- thinkingemote 4y ago
  Take a look at Geany https://www.geany.org/ https://www.geany.org/ which uses scintilla under the hood and is blisteringly fast and lightweight and plugin friendly as well as FOSS.
  - 2devnull 4y ago
    I don’t understand why geany isn’t more popular.
    - Octoth0rpe 4y ago
zozbot234 4y ago
Notepad++ or SciTE have no support for LSP, tree-sitter parsers or the new debug adapter protocol, which are table-stakes requirements for serious development nowadays. So you're pretty much limited to quick and dirty editing of single-file scripts or configs. Meanwhile both Neovim and emacs are getting support for this stuff.
- userbinator 4y ago
  I do Win32 development almost exclusively using regular Notepad (not even the ++). IMHO codebases that nearly require the use of complex tools to work with are a bad thing as they may contain lots of unnecessary complexity, and the accompanying probability of bugs.
- kalekold 4y ago
  Please stop mentioning neovim as if it's a defacto replacement for vim. The original vim is very much alive and much more popular than neovim. Neovim is a cash grab by developers who forked the repo and demanded patreon payments etc. with wild claims that it will replace vim. Neovim doesn't support vim's development it only takes from it. It never pushes anything back upstream and most importantly, never contributes to Bram's charity, ICCF Holland.
  - kelnos 4y ago
    > demanded patreon payments etc. I've been using neovim for years and have never heard of this, and have never paid them anything. I'm not saying you're incorrect that they've asked ("demanded" feels a bit strong?) for patreon payments or other forms of compensation, but a) that is their prerogative, and b) as a user, I haven't felt pressured into contributing at all. > Neovim doesn't support vim's development it only takes from it. It never pushes anything back upstream I suspect at this point they've diverged enough that doing so would be infeasible. And yes, by definition, a fork "takes" from the original parent project. Neovim is not obligated (legally or morally) to contribute back to vim. That's the -- brilliant -- nature of open source & permissive licensing. > ... and most importantly, never contributes to Bram's charity, ICCF Holland. Why is this a requirement? I'd been using vim for at least a decade prior to switching to neovim, and never donated. I think charitable donations are a very personal thing; people can donate to whatever causes they feel like, and pressuring someone to donate to a charity just because it's linked to a piece of software they use (or have forked from) sounds awfully similar in tone to your "demanded patreon payments" rant above. > Please stop mentioning neovim as if it's a defacto replacement for vim. I don't think the GP was trying to do that. They merely pointed out that neovim (and emacs) has built-in support for LSP (etc.), which I believe vim does not? So vim isn't really relevant to the point being made. I think perhaps you should step back a little and ask yourself why this topic seems to be so emotionally charged for you. It's just a text editor; let people use and promote whatever editor they like.
tguvot 4y ago
Relatively unknown Eric Python IDE using scintilla as editor component https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/ https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/
jpe90 4y ago
There’s a related project that’s really cool called scintillua that lets you use lpeg lexers for scintilla. It supports over 120 languages and it’s super easy to add new ones. https://github.com/orbitalquark/scintillua https://github.com/orbitalquark/scintillua You can also use it as a standalone lua library. I packaged it up to make a faster (but much less feature full) alternative to bat. https://github.com/jpe90/clp https://github.com/jpe90/clp
mrtweetyhack 4y ago
[dead]
sigzero 4y ago
Probably one of the best for macOS: https://cudatext.github.io/ https://cudatext.github.io/
pabs3 4y ago
I love SciTE/Scintilla's column selection feature. SciTE's recent find/replace panel is excellent too.
npteljes 4y ago
I upgraded from Notepad++ to Geany when I switched to Linux. Fantastic editor, and while it didn't have all the plugins I used, I can run a Linux command on the selected text, and it subtitutes the text with the output. Very useful to sort, count uniques, format JSON and such.

108 points by mariuz 4y ago

PBondurant 4y ago

For those who weren't aware, scintilla forms the basis of the popular Notepad++ Windows text editor.

vitorsr 4y ago
The Qt port of Scintilla is also used by a number of projects as a lightweight editor component: $ lsb_release -d && apt rdepends libqscintilla2-qt5-15 Description: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS libqscintilla2-qt5-15 Reverse Depends: Depends: libqscintilla2-qt5-dev (<< 2.11.6+dfsg+1~) Depends: sqlitebrowser (>= 2.11.2) Depends: sonic-pi (>= 2.11.2) Depends: qgis-providers (>= 2.11.2) Depends: python3-qgis (>= 2.11.2) Depends: python3-pyqt5.qsci (>= 2.11.2) Depends: openscad (>= 2.11.2) Depends: octave (>= 2.11.2) Suggests: libqscintilla2-qt5-l10n Depends: libqscintilla2-qt5-dev (>= 2.11.6+dfsg) Depends: juffed (>= 2.11.2) Depends: libqscintilla2-qt5-designer (>= 2.11.2) Depends: libqgis-gui3.22.4 (>= 2.11.2) Depends: libqgis-app3.22.4 (>= 2.11.2)
- hesdeadjim 4y ago
  It feels like an eternity ago, but an editor I wrote in Qt for a game did exactly this so you could write Lua inline on objects.
- Narishma 4y ago
  Doesn't Qt already have an editor component?
  - lmm 4y ago
    It does, but IIRC Scintilla is more full-featured (e.g. I think it has better syntax highlighting support).
signaru 4y ago
and Notepad++ itself sometimes gets bundled with other software.
anta40 4y ago
Whenever I work on Windows machines, Notepad++ is a must to have. But usually, SciTE is more than sufficient: https://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html https://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html and also works fine on Linux.
- wink 4y ago
  I remember using SciTE in the early 00s. Apart from some oddities of displaying italic text in a weird way it was a perfectly cromulent editor and you could start it, do your task, and close it before eclipse had even finished the loading screen :P

lycos 4y ago

Now there's a name I haven't heard much in the last decades. Before I switched from Windows to MacOS I used their demo editor SciTE as my text editor of choice and was very happy with it.

mdp2021 4y ago
> a name I haven't heard much Probably you never had to develop specialized text editors - the Scintilla library is very precious.
- themodelplumber 4y ago
  Is it still the only library for such that lets developers easily set code comments in a completely different font? I remember wondering why it wasn't a widespread feature, and then realizing that the common ingredient in all the editors I was looking at was s Scintilla.
  - pabs3 4y ago
    Being able to use non-monospace fonts is another great feature too.

zeroonetwothree 4y ago

I love SciTE. Have been using it for 20+ years as my lightweight editor of choice on Windows.

delvinj 4y ago

SciTE has been my notepad replacement for twenty years. I love its speed, simplicity, and lua scripting. I only wish there were an easier way to add syntax highlighting for new languages.

bdeshi 4y ago

reminds me about Akelpad which was my preference over notepad++/scintilla editors. It feels similar to Scintilla but uses an allegedly more performant editing component called AkelEdit. It has lots of interesting plugins and easily editable GUI. it was fun to tinker with. https://akelpad.sourceforge.net/en/index.php https://akelpad.sourceforge.net/en/index.php

StevePerkins 4y ago

I would love for there to be a Mac equivalent of Notepad++ (i.e. Scintilla). I miss that editor every day. The Mac world has many advantages, but in terms of text editors all your options are either: 1. Electron-based, and take forever to launch (even if they are "fast for an Electron app"). 2. Little to no plugin ecosystem whatever. No Vim mode, etc (yes there's Vim itself, but that's not a great choice for a GUI window editor). 3. Commercial, and costs nearly as much as a full-blown IDE. Notepad++ was (is) pretty much perfect. Sadly, its default look-and-feel is "light mode" and "Courier New", rather than dark mode and Menlo/Consolas, so I don't think it even exists for the newer crowd.

madduci 4y ago
What about Sublime Text? It's always been fast and have lots of plugins
indymike 4y ago
The answer used to be TextWrangler. I'm not sure how BBEdit 14 is.
- thibautg 4y ago
  I really like Notepad++ on Windows but BBEdit Free Mode does the job for me on macOS.
thinkingemote 4y ago
Take a look at Geany https://www.geany.org/ https://www.geany.org/ which uses scintilla under the hood and is blisteringly fast and lightweight and plugin friendly as well as FOSS.
- 2devnull 4y ago
  I don’t understand why geany isn’t more popular.
  - Octoth0rpe 4y ago

zozbot234 4y ago

Notepad++ or SciTE have no support for LSP, tree-sitter parsers or the new debug adapter protocol, which are table-stakes requirements for serious development nowadays. So you're pretty much limited to quick and dirty editing of single-file scripts or configs. Meanwhile both Neovim and emacs are getting support for this stuff.

userbinator 4y ago
I do Win32 development almost exclusively using regular Notepad (not even the ++). IMHO codebases that nearly require the use of complex tools to work with are a bad thing as they may contain lots of unnecessary complexity, and the accompanying probability of bugs.
kalekold 4y ago
Please stop mentioning neovim as if it's a defacto replacement for vim. The original vim is very much alive and much more popular than neovim. Neovim is a cash grab by developers who forked the repo and demanded patreon payments etc. with wild claims that it will replace vim. Neovim doesn't support vim's development it only takes from it. It never pushes anything back upstream and most importantly, never contributes to Bram's charity, ICCF Holland.
- kelnos 4y ago
  > demanded patreon payments etc. I've been using neovim for years and have never heard of this, and have never paid them anything. I'm not saying you're incorrect that they've asked ("demanded" feels a bit strong?) for patreon payments or other forms of compensation, but a) that is their prerogative, and b) as a user, I haven't felt pressured into contributing at all. > Neovim doesn't support vim's development it only takes from it. It never pushes anything back upstream I suspect at this point they've diverged enough that doing so would be infeasible. And yes, by definition, a fork "takes" from the original parent project. Neovim is not obligated (legally or morally) to contribute back to vim. That's the -- brilliant -- nature of open source & permissive licensing. > ... and most importantly, never contributes to Bram's charity, ICCF Holland. Why is this a requirement? I'd been using vim for at least a decade prior to switching to neovim, and never donated. I think charitable donations are a very personal thing; people can donate to whatever causes they feel like, and pressuring someone to donate to a charity just because it's linked to a piece of software they use (or have forked from) sounds awfully similar in tone to your "demanded patreon payments" rant above. > Please stop mentioning neovim as if it's a defacto replacement for vim. I don't think the GP was trying to do that. They merely pointed out that neovim (and emacs) has built-in support for LSP (etc.), which I believe vim does not? So vim isn't really relevant to the point being made. I think perhaps you should step back a little and ask yourself why this topic seems to be so emotionally charged for you. It's just a text editor; let people use and promote whatever editor they like.

tguvot 4y ago

Relatively unknown Eric Python IDE using scintilla as editor component https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/ https://eric-ide.python-projects.org/

jpe90 4y ago

There’s a related project that’s really cool called scintillua that lets you use lpeg lexers for scintilla. It supports over 120 languages and it’s super easy to add new ones. https://github.com/orbitalquark/scintillua https://github.com/orbitalquark/scintillua You can also use it as a standalone lua library. I packaged it up to make a faster (but much less feature full) alternative to bat. https://github.com/jpe90/clp https://github.com/jpe90/clp

mrtweetyhack 4y ago

[dead]

sigzero 4y ago

Probably one of the best for macOS: https://cudatext.github.io/ https://cudatext.github.io/

pabs3 4y ago

I love SciTE/Scintilla's column selection feature. SciTE's recent find/replace panel is excellent too.

npteljes 4y ago

I upgraded from Notepad++ to Geany when I switched to Linux. Fantastic editor, and while it didn't have all the plugins I used, I can run a Linux command on the selected text, and it subtitutes the text with the output. Very useful to sort, count uniques, format JSON and such.