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I continue to use Notepad++ despite having tried every other editor and IDE under the sun. This, of course, drives every person completely insane when I explain
by kevinsync 2y ago
I continue to use Notepad++ despite having tried every other editor and IDE under the sun. This, of course, drives every person completely insane when I explain that my "IDE" is:
- Notepad++ for editing, pretty much stock, no plugins
- command line for git and grep (Console2 or Git Bash)
- File Explorer alongside Everything [0] for navigating files
- Beyond Compare [1] for visual diff/merge
- WinSCP/PuTTY for SFTP/SSH (usually to Linux)
- Synergy [2] for sharing keyboard and mouse between Windows and MacOS
I personally enjoy being in all 3 major OS's at the same time, and find it helpful to separate concerns to their respective applications/interfaces -- it helps me keep a mental geography of "where things are" and "what tool is used for which purpose", rather than being beholden to a IDE-dictated workflow or tool that's obscured behind specific UI patterns.
That said, I'll happily use Handbrake over command-line ffmpeg for a lot of things, so obscuring behind UI isn't always a bad thing.
Anyways, HUGE RESPECT to Notepad++!
[0] https://www.voidtools.com https://www.voidtools.com
[1] https://www.scootersoftware.com https://www.scootersoftware.com
[2] https://symless.com/synergy https://symless.com/synergy
- SoftTalker 2y agoI certainly respect that. Mine is emacs, pretty vanilla. I do use magit for git operations. find/xargs/grep for exploring code, finding definitions, etc. standard utilities (ls, cp, mv, etc.) in the shell for file management
- ryangs 2y agoWhat is your pattern for navigating to a function definition (as an example of a basic IDE operation that doesn't seem supported)? Grep?
- angra_mainyu 2y agoBefore I learned the holy ways of g->d, that was essentially what I did (grep -nr).
- EasyMark 2y agowhat is g->d?
- embeng4096 2y agoVim keybind for jumping to the definition of the symbol under your cursor, I believe
- angra_mainyu 2y agoExactly! Neovim really changed my workflow.
- kevinsync 2y agoFrom NP++, you could just ctrl-shift-f to "find in files" and it'll be quick about it, but I personally would grep from the root of the project. I usually keep a handful of command line tabs open in Console2, one for git, one for grep, one for build commands, others that are running local services etc. Anyways, the reason for this is the mental map / spatial geography of a project .. enough repetition cd'ing through folders and seeing file paths while grepping helps me visualize actual locations of things, which helps me grasp the entire structure of a project. Meanwhile, in VS Code etc you can just hover over something and click to go directly to it, which is cool, but it's kind of like teleporting instead of actually driving to the destination enough to learn the roads. I do a similar thing with git PRs -- for example, if you build something that follows a bundled pattern (ex. a component that has frontend, backend and data-related files, plus naming conventions), having a clean + complete reference PR to revisit when you make new components helps ensure I don't miss anything and stay consistent. I usually view these in-browser since Github/Bitbucket/Gitlab all have nice interfaces to see what files you need, where they go, how they're named, etc.
- freedomben 2y agoI do the same thing (though with Vim as my editor instead of NP++). Grep is seriously underrated. (well technically I use my own grep replacement[1] instead for a few reasons, but plain old grep can get the job done very well) [1]: https://github.com/FreedomBen/findref https://github.com/FreedomBen/findref
- jbritton 2y agoctags plugin
- EasyMark 2y agoctags + cscope can take you far
- EasyMark 2y agoI can't live without ripgrep, it's so much faster than grep it's not even funny, especially if working with very large code bases with 100,000+ files
- SoftTalker 2y agoWhy is that? Does it build an index so later searches are fast?
- petepete 2y agoNo, I just think every last part of ripgrep has had the shit optimised out of it. Plus it's written in rust and as we know, it's blazingly fast.
- burntsushi 2y agoNo. I've written about why: https://blog.burntsushi.net/ripgrep/ https://blog.burntsushi.net/ripgrep/ That blog is eight years old now, but still pretty accurate. For more details at the level of the regex engine, see: https://github.com/BurntSushi/rebar https://github.com/BurntSushi/rebar
- B1FF_PSUVM 2y ago> That said, I'll happily use Handbrake over command-line ffmpeg for a lot of things, so obscuring behind UI isn't always a bad thing. My cli bogeys are pdftk and imagemagick - both wonderful achievements, but I rarely need them, and they get "paged out". So there I am using web services that probably are just a GUI with pdftk and imagemagick underneath ... Ah, also a Notepad++ user. Happy 21, time to buy it a (another, shh) beer.
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 2y agoI think I'm one of the last people using WSL1. I think everyone jumped to WSL2 because 2 is bigger than 1, but they're really different things. WSL1 lets me keep my files on the Windows side, let's my IDE (PHP storm) remain performant with no Linux to Windows file system overhead, but I still get to use all the Linux CLI tools. I still pay some overhead for that, but it's better than doing it the other way around and paying for every keystroke in my IDE. What I really want is a damn good Terminal/Emulator for Windows AND Linux that can run the same set of tools with zero overhead. Boggles my mind that everything is slow and janky to this day.
- mrweasel 2y agoWait what? I'm not a Windows user, so I haven't used any version of WSL, but WSL 2 doesn't store the files on the Windows side? It seems to me that the whole "easy access to your Windows files in a Linux environment" was the point of WSL.
- roland35 2y agoWsl 2 can access files in windows, but it is very slow.
- nuancebydefault 2y agoWith the benefit of Linux and its filesystem being super (natively) fast in WSL2. What I've very often done is use command line tools like compilers, search&replace etc inside WSL2, in a Windows terminal. You have the benefits of speed and all the CLI tools of the Linux world. And then have the GUIs, like vscode, running on Windows. Vscode has its server running on the WSL side, so still very good performance. Best of both worlds, since the GUIs and the CLIs are tightly integrated.
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 2y agoThat's the crux of the issue. Vscode works ok because you can run it as a server, but other IDEs (yes there are others) are slow.
- dgfitz 2y agoCheck out MobaXterm, it has a phenomenal X implementation just built in.
- nullhole 2y agoIf you haven't already, you should try Total Commander for file navigation. It's similar to Notepad++ in that there's a long list of reasons why it's good at its task, but it's also just a very good example of what desktop Windows software can be like when it's done well.
- grujicd 2y agoTotalCommander is the first thing I install on every Windows, and main reason I can't get used to MacOs. Yes, there are some replacements, but nothing that's the same as TC.
- lowleveldesign 2y agoHave you tried running it on wine? [1] I use it this way on Linux and, after adjusting my commands for running editors and start menu tools, everything runs smoothly. [1] https://www.ghisler.ch/wiki/index.php/Total_Commander_under_Wine https://www.ghisler.ch/wiki/index.php/Total_Commander_under_...
- nullhole 2y agoI'm using it as 1/4 of a 4k screen lately, it's working well like that.
- jcul 2y agoBack when I had to develop on windows I used Far file manager. It was amazing. I've used midnight commander on Linux, but it isn't close to Far IMO.
- tveyben 2y agoTotalCommander with NP++ are such a performant combination, highly recommended!!!
- archon810 2y agoLifelong Total Commander user here as well. They're one of those few remaining legacy companies that haven't switched to subscriptions or jacked up prices, and continously release updates at their own pace without any drama. In fact, I think it's just one guy - Christian Ghisler. Kudos to you, sir.
- oefnak 2y agoWow, I use all those programs too!
- emeril 2y agoomg dude - you must transition to directory opus instead of file explorer the wildcard search alone is worth the entry price been using it for like 10+ years
- anthk 2y agoExcept for sbcl/stklos (Common Lisp/Scheme), my setup it's like that. Make, ccache + cc/c++, vi, and some graphical diff tool as it's better than plain diff(1). entr(1) to watch file changes on a directory and run make at every file saving.
- rjcrystal 2y agoI love how fast everything is, it's the best searching tool, very low overhead needs little resources.
- rawbot 2y agoVery similar to my setup, although I alternate between Notepad++ and Visual Studio Code. I do just stick with git-gui for easy chunk/line commit selection. Synergy and PBP (Picture-by-Picture) with an ultrawide monitor is great! I can split half my screen as Mac and the other as Windows, and the mouse and keyboard just seamlessly jump between the "gap" in the middle of the screen. I switched from a double screen setup (side by side) to an ultrawide and I've been happier than ever.
- Friedduck 2y agoVoidtools’s Everything is indispensable. Alas with no more admin rights on a corporate machine I’ve had to let it go.