6 ms·

Speaking with genuine interest... What would you expect the top (i.e. most popular) text editors to be?

atmosx 12y ago
1. VIM 2. Emacs 3. TextMate (free) 4. Sublime That's most probably the correct list. But again that's a perception. At least in the 'ruby' community 'vim' reigns supreme. Of course VIM and Emacs have ~20+ years of life, might not be exactly 'fair' for other editors. Now a dispute could be made about JavaScript developers, since you need really tons of plugins to make vim (jslint, syntax, etc.) and you always need a browser to test your code (most dev are interested in client-side JS development).
- ravitation 12y ago
  This is what I was expecting. And, I think this is very much just a perception, as you say. I think it's rather unlikely that VIM and Emacs are actually the most used editors, or even among the most used. I think it's interesting that you put quotes around both words surrounding community but not around the word community itself. I think what you perceive as the ruby community is actually a very small subsection of the actual ruby community and that is only a very small subsection of the entire community of people that use plain text editors. The learning curve for VIM and Emacs is so high as to almost be prohibitive for what is probably the vast majority of users. What I've seen from only a few minutes of googling is that, in the surveys I've found (https://blog.codeanywhere.com/most-popular-ides-code-editors/ https://blog.codeanywhere.com/most-popular-ides-code-editors... & http://www.sitepoint.com/best-php-ide-2014-survey-results/ http://www.sitepoint.com/best-php-ide-2014-survey-results/, for example), VIM and Emacs are really no where near the most used editors. And I think that should probably be expected. I just think that people in this community too often think of themselves as the norm, when our very presence on a site like Hacker News places us very much outside of the norm. Outside even the norm for people in the tech community.
  - qznc 12y ago
    It very much depends on the niche. Among C developers I would think vim does quite well. Among Java developers there is no vim usage to speak of.
    - ravitation 12y ago
      This is the exactly the problem though. We aren't speaking about niches, we're speaking about all text editor users. And in that case, I think Vim and Emacs don't do nearly as well as some may think.
  - gexla 12y ago
    > I think it's rather unlikely that VIM and Emacs are actually the most used editors, or even among the most used. Apparently there is enough demand for Vim key-bindings that it seems most text editors and IDE's have them available. > The learning curve for VIM and Emacs is so high as to almost be prohibitive for what is probably the vast majority of users. Vim is probably more widely used by developers and system admins than say... writers. If you have been able to tackle the learning curve of learning to program or learning to administer Linux then the VIM learning curve is just another day at the office.
    - ravitation 12y ago
      No one is saying that Vim key-bindings aren't incredibly useful, I'm saying that there is a reason those key-bindings are in most text editors and IDE's... because people are using those editors instead of Vim. Also, most developers are not Linux administrators... It's not that learning Vim or Emacs is hard, what's hard for most users is increasing one's productivity enough to warrant learning Vim or Emacs, especially in the short term. So most developers/users don't; they use text editors that have much more in common with word processors, which many have been using their entire lives.
  - atmosx 12y ago
    > I think it's interesting that you put quotes around both words surrounding community but not around the word community itself. I think what you perceive as the ruby community is actually a very small subsection of the actual ruby community and that is only a very small subsection of the entire community of people that use plain text editors. Your insights are spot on :-) ps. I thought being part of the 'HN community' is the norm for a but maybe it's not. I can't really tell without numbers...
- dagw 12y ago
  I very much doubt TextMate is anywhere near the top 4 if for no other reason that it is OS X only and most people use Not OS X.
blueskin_ 12y ago
1. Vim 2. Emacs/Nano 3. Notepad++
- necrodawg 12y ago
  Emacs is not very popular and is losing popularity as the years pass on: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=emacs%2C%20vim%2C%20sublime%20text&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=emacs%2C%20vim%2C%20s... I also believe there's a correlation between beard length and emacs usage.
  - blueskin_ 12y ago
    I'm not sure how relevant search traffic is for usage of an editor, since most people won't be googling most of those (unless it's "gvim installer", etc.) as most are mostly handled through package managers. Maybe in the best case for the search results argument, they google a wiki/blogs/etc a few times (to initially find, or if they are on an unfamiliar computer and have forgotten the URL), plus searches for an installer package where necessary, and the odd search for how to do an obscure or tricky operation, which still implies long periods of 'silent' use between.
CmonDev 12y ago
On Windows (which is most of developers): 1. Visual Studio. 2. Everything else.
- c0n5pir4cy 12y ago
  I develop mostly on Windows and I use Sublime Text and Eclipse. I can't stand Visual Studio, it feels to clunky for web stuff to me and I miss the Sublime Text command palette. I also can't easily integrate a lot of my toolchain into it; looks like that parts getting better from the current state of the extension gallery though.
- alphabetam 12y ago
  Tons of people use Eclipse.
- espadrine 12y ago
  Most programmers don't work on end-user software. They work on server code, libraries and embedded systems. Unsurprisingly, Visual Studio is therefore not at the top: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F07zh7%2C%20%2Fm%2F04t89l%2C%20%2Fm%2F01r_y0%2C%20%2Fm%2F01fs1d%2C%20%2Fm%2F01fchg&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F07zh7%2C%20%2F...
- atmosx 12y ago
  I don't know of any developer that developed using non-microsoft technologies that uses MS Windows. I understand that there are huge software houses that develop using MS Technologies, but I'm certain that it is not the majority.
  - blumkvist 12y ago
    So, according to you, if you don't develop for .NET, you don't use Windows. Nice. Such certainty. Many wow.
    - atmosx 12y ago
      Yes[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework
alandarev 12y ago
Let's use search queries statistics instead of using flawed perception of ours: 1. Notepad++ 2. Vim 3. Sublime 4. Emacs Haha, nobody might have guessed Notepad++ is the leader. Of course, we all are the Windows haters, and my post is so going to be downvoted for pointing this out. P.S. Its maximum of 5 search terms, but I tried different variations. Play around, google trends has many gems to be uncovered. (Thanks to @necrodawg for the google trends idea) Goolge Trends - http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F01yp0m%2C%20%2Fm%2F07zh7%2C%20%2Fm%2F0b6h18n%2C%20%2Fm%2F09gl10%2C%20%2Fm%2F04t89l&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F01yp0m%2C%20%2...
- 0942v8653 12y ago
  Let's not forget IDEs like Eclipse, which is much much higher than any of the text editors, and Visual Studio, which has recently become a close second.
- yAnonymous 12y ago
  People usually Google when they have some kind of problem with the software...
- protomyth 12y ago
  When you're at a "Windows-Only" place Notepad++ is not a bad choice. I still have a copy of PFE around and I must admit I do miss its easy macros, remove trailing spaces option, and templates on OS X.

1. VIM 2. Emacs 3. TextMate (free) 4. Sublime That's most probably the correct list. But again that's a perception. At least in the 'ruby' community 'vim' reigns supreme. Of course VIM and Emacs have ~20+ years of life, might not be exactly 'fair' for other editors. Now a dispute could be made about JavaScript developers, since you need really tons of plugins to make vim (jslint, syntax, etc.) and you always need a browser to test your code (most dev are interested in client-side JS development).

ravitation 12y ago
This is what I was expecting. And, I think this is very much just a perception, as you say. I think it's rather unlikely that VIM and Emacs are actually the most used editors, or even among the most used. I think it's interesting that you put quotes around both words surrounding community but not around the word community itself. I think what you perceive as the ruby community is actually a very small subsection of the actual ruby community and that is only a very small subsection of the entire community of people that use plain text editors. The learning curve for VIM and Emacs is so high as to almost be prohibitive for what is probably the vast majority of users. What I've seen from only a few minutes of googling is that, in the surveys I've found (https://blog.codeanywhere.com/most-popular-ides-code-editors/ https://blog.codeanywhere.com/most-popular-ides-code-editors... & http://www.sitepoint.com/best-php-ide-2014-survey-results/ http://www.sitepoint.com/best-php-ide-2014-survey-results/, for example), VIM and Emacs are really no where near the most used editors. And I think that should probably be expected. I just think that people in this community too often think of themselves as the norm, when our very presence on a site like Hacker News places us very much outside of the norm. Outside even the norm for people in the tech community.
- qznc 12y ago
  It very much depends on the niche. Among C developers I would think vim does quite well. Among Java developers there is no vim usage to speak of.
  - ravitation 12y ago
    This is the exactly the problem though. We aren't speaking about niches, we're speaking about all text editor users. And in that case, I think Vim and Emacs don't do nearly as well as some may think.
- gexla 12y ago
  > I think it's rather unlikely that VIM and Emacs are actually the most used editors, or even among the most used. Apparently there is enough demand for Vim key-bindings that it seems most text editors and IDE's have them available. > The learning curve for VIM and Emacs is so high as to almost be prohibitive for what is probably the vast majority of users. Vim is probably more widely used by developers and system admins than say... writers. If you have been able to tackle the learning curve of learning to program or learning to administer Linux then the VIM learning curve is just another day at the office.
  - ravitation 12y ago
    No one is saying that Vim key-bindings aren't incredibly useful, I'm saying that there is a reason those key-bindings are in most text editors and IDE's... because people are using those editors instead of Vim. Also, most developers are not Linux administrators... It's not that learning Vim or Emacs is hard, what's hard for most users is increasing one's productivity enough to warrant learning Vim or Emacs, especially in the short term. So most developers/users don't; they use text editors that have much more in common with word processors, which many have been using their entire lives.
- atmosx 12y ago
  > I think it's interesting that you put quotes around both words surrounding community but not around the word community itself. I think what you perceive as the ruby community is actually a very small subsection of the actual ruby community and that is only a very small subsection of the entire community of people that use plain text editors. Your insights are spot on :-) ps. I thought being part of the 'HN community' is the norm for a but maybe it's not. I can't really tell without numbers...
dagw 12y ago
I very much doubt TextMate is anywhere near the top 4 if for no other reason that it is OS X only and most people use Not OS X.

blueskin_ 12y ago

1. Vim 2. Emacs/Nano 3. Notepad++

necrodawg 12y ago
Emacs is not very popular and is losing popularity as the years pass on: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=emacs%2C%20vim%2C%20sublime%20text&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=emacs%2C%20vim%2C%20s... I also believe there's a correlation between beard length and emacs usage.
- blueskin_ 12y ago
  I'm not sure how relevant search traffic is for usage of an editor, since most people won't be googling most of those (unless it's "gvim installer", etc.) as most are mostly handled through package managers. Maybe in the best case for the search results argument, they google a wiki/blogs/etc a few times (to initially find, or if they are on an unfamiliar computer and have forgotten the URL), plus searches for an installer package where necessary, and the odd search for how to do an obscure or tricky operation, which still implies long periods of 'silent' use between.

CmonDev 12y ago

On Windows (which is most of developers): 1. Visual Studio. 2. Everything else.

c0n5pir4cy 12y ago
I develop mostly on Windows and I use Sublime Text and Eclipse. I can't stand Visual Studio, it feels to clunky for web stuff to me and I miss the Sublime Text command palette. I also can't easily integrate a lot of my toolchain into it; looks like that parts getting better from the current state of the extension gallery though.
alphabetam 12y ago
Tons of people use Eclipse.
espadrine 12y ago
Most programmers don't work on end-user software. They work on server code, libraries and embedded systems. Unsurprisingly, Visual Studio is therefore not at the top: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F07zh7%2C%20%2Fm%2F04t89l%2C%20%2Fm%2F01r_y0%2C%20%2Fm%2F01fs1d%2C%20%2Fm%2F01fchg&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F07zh7%2C%20%2F...
atmosx 12y ago
I don't know of any developer that developed using non-microsoft technologies that uses MS Windows. I understand that there are huge software houses that develop using MS Technologies, but I'm certain that it is not the majority.
- blumkvist 12y ago
  So, according to you, if you don't develop for .NET, you don't use Windows. Nice. Such certainty. Many wow.
  - atmosx 12y ago
    Yes[1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework

alandarev 12y ago

Let's use search queries statistics instead of using flawed perception of ours: 1. Notepad++ 2. Vim 3. Sublime 4. Emacs Haha, nobody might have guessed Notepad++ is the leader. Of course, we all are the Windows haters, and my post is so going to be downvoted for pointing this out. P.S. Its maximum of 5 search terms, but I tried different variations. Play around, google trends has many gems to be uncovered. (Thanks to @necrodawg for the google trends idea) Goolge Trends - http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F01yp0m%2C%20%2Fm%2F07zh7%2C%20%2Fm%2F0b6h18n%2C%20%2Fm%2F09gl10%2C%20%2Fm%2F04t89l&cmpt=q&tz= http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=%2Fm%2F01yp0m%2C%20%2...

0942v8653 12y ago
Let's not forget IDEs like Eclipse, which is much much higher than any of the text editors, and Visual Studio, which has recently become a close second.
yAnonymous 12y ago
People usually Google when they have some kind of problem with the software...
protomyth 12y ago
When you're at a "Windows-Only" place Notepad++ is not a bad choice. I still have a copy of PFE around and I must admit I do miss its easy macros, remove trailing spaces option, and templates on OS X.