IDE and editor preference in 2024 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Picuino
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 06:08:33 pm
content: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2024/technology#1-integrated-development-environmentI prefer Notepad++. Surprisingly high in the list.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 06:23:26 pm
content: I mainly use Geany - I see that it's 1%.It's pretty much similar to Notepad++ in spirit, I think better, but that's me. Now if you're strictly on Windows, I understand you'd favor Notepad++. Geany works on Windows, but it looks nothing like "native" on it.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 07:35:54 pm
content: They all suck so much I developed my own.But, if I have to vote: geany on GNU/Linux.Just, I doesn't run on pseudo color xterminals.It's very annoying, gtk no more supports it.It did, back to 2004.

author: Karel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 08:39:30 pm
content: https://kate-editor.org/

author: djacobow
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 09:44:12 pm
content: I've been using vim more or less exclusively for 15 years now. Because of Moolenaar's demise, I've been experimenting with neovim.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 10:32:34 pm
content: Quote from: djacobow on July 31, 2025, 09:44:12 pmWhat's your cofeflow?

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 31, 2025, 11:32:09 pm
content: Geany all the way!Good:* Fast & stable* A single key shortcut takes you to the definition of something (like a struct or func). All without needing to have an external "server" to work out how things reference each other (Kate requires this IIRC) and without needing to define a "project". It just works.* Find & replace supports wildcards, regex and escape codes (all togglable)* Block operations (un/indent multiple rows at once, type on multiple rows at once, etc)* Sidebar document list, tree view or list.Complaints:* Spellchecker addon sometimes misbehaves, requires toolbar to be enabled to toggle on/off* Moving to GTK3 provided no benefits but made the UI slightly worse

author: cfbsoftware
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 03:07:28 am
content: Astrobeof courseWe started with TextPad, toyed with customising Visual Studio and ended up developing our own.

author: John B
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 04:12:14 am
content: VSCodium is working pretty well for me across Fedora and Arch. I guess that is being lumped in with one of the first two?I also like Geany, another similar one is KDE Kate.Thonny gets an honourable mention when you just need to test some python code without setting up folders, or even saving a file.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 04:31:15 am
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on July 31, 2025, 06:23:26 pmoooh looks nice! i'll give it a try later . I'm still stuck with notepad++ on windows and kate on debian, good enough but still sucks as it has the "old" kde look and feel

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 05:30:29 am
content: Nedit + atagsPros: based on *motif, so it runs on pseudo color xterminalsCons: needs to be hacked, needs external programs like "atags" to "jump" to the definition of something

author: Karel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 06:39:20 am
content: Quote from: JPortici on August 01, 2025, 04:31:15 amKate is also available for windows(not that I would recommend windows anyway...)

author: radiolistener
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 06:50:10 am
content: This ranking appears quite odd - the popular and lightweight Geany is near the bottom, while bloated and sluggish editors dominate the top positions.

author: DimitriP
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 06:55:40 am
content: Quote from: radiolistener on August 01, 2025, 06:50:10 amOne word: stackoverflow

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 07:54:26 am
content: Another alternative to Visual Studio, VScode, or VScodium, is Pulsar IDE.The team from Atom IDE discontinued Atom and moved to develop VScode instead, which VScode has Microsoft telemetry. VScodium (not VScode) is a re-build of VScode, but without the Microsoft customization (which customizations are added on top of the open source part of VScode). Or so I've understood from random online reads.Pulsar IDE is community maintained fork of Atom before it was discontinued.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 07:54:56 am
content: Quote from: Karel on August 01, 2025, 06:39:20 amI know, i've been using okular as a pdf reader for some time. I'm using kate on debian because it's the most similar to notepad++, not the other way around.I tried geany. Uninstalled ten minutes later. Having to mess with the command line to change the languageit's the posix way they say, you must call the binary with an argument. I say it's bullshit. There is nothing stopping you to read the locale from a file and pass it as an argument, and having a setting in preferences to change the locale to that file. Also, it doesn't seem to have the couple of bits i'm really used to from notepad++/kate.Also the vanilla GTK look, no thanks.Too bad, it looked promising from the previews

author: Karel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 09:01:16 am
content: Choice is always good

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 12:13:51 pm
content: Geanyis "ok".There are a few things to be fixed, like how it handles files in a C-project.Only absolute path? That makes it very annoying - because you lose the project references - when you move the project. I fixed/hacked to relative path.Code:current_page=3FILE_NAME_0=/mnt/src/machine/platform/arm/zaurus/bootloader/src/v5/app.c(not modified version of geany)Code:current_page=3FILE_NAME_0=./app.c(modified version of geany)The geany project file needs to be autogenerated in order to have the right directives { all, clean, clean_all, interfaces, run, test, ... } to your Makefile.Code:[build-menu]CFT_00_LB=_CompileCFT_00_CM=makeCFT_00_WD=CFT_01_LB=_BuildCFT_01_CM=make clean_all; make interfaces; makeCFT_01_WD=filetypes=C;EX_00_LB=_ExecuteEX_00_CM=make runEX_00_WD=Not a problem, you just need to write a script for this.The real big problem is how the geany interface is written: gtk-xml is very complex if you need to add/remove/change a button, e.g. { dobg, ice, autoindent, coverage, ... }.Plus, seehere, supporting Markdown needs external plug-in, which are problematic to be compiled, especially on { mips32, hppa, ppc32 ... }

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 01, 2025, 12:58:26 pm
content: Quote from: radiolistener on August 01, 2025, 06:50:10 amHow is that odd? It's the same thing for programming languages and a lot of other stuff.

author: eugene
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2025, 05:27:58 pm
content: Who the hell uses Jupyter Notebook to write code?Anyway, I use Geany for most things. I've tried to become fond of VSCode, but we just don't get along. Mostly I miss a customizable ribbon bar. Yeah, I'm the guy that can never remember shortcut key combinations. A tool ribbon is my crutch.

author: bingo600
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2025, 05:36:48 pm
content: @linux mintMy favourite is Code::Blocks - Mostly because it's fasthttps://www.codeblocks.org/And it's in the reposBut i also have VScodium installed.And Sublime , for those odd' jobs.

author: djacobow
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2025, 08:46:09 pm
content: Not sure I entirely understand the question, but I use LSPs to give me all the auto complete and syntax checking goodies. The LSPs get the build information from a compile_commands.json that is prior as a side effect of my build system, which at my current employer is Cmake, which I don't love, but it's okay. At other recent orgs I have used bazel or scons. For bazel, there is an add on that can make the json file. For scons, I used a build wrapper called near for that.In almost all circumstances, I have a need to build a bunch of artifacts from the same source: targeting different hardware versions, or simulators, and different variations with experimental features, etc. Scons really handles that the best, IMHO, since basically it is just letting you use python to generate the dependency tree.Quote from: DiTBho on July 31, 2025, 10:32:34 pm

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2025, 08:51:30 pm
content: I really liked ultraedit, but there is no way I am paying +100$ a year to use a text editor

author: Picuino
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 03, 2025, 09:49:39 pm
content: Quote from: eugene on August 03, 2025, 05:27:58 pmhttps://allendowney.github.io/ThinkPython/"The book is now entirely in Jupyter notebooks, so you can read the text, run the code, and work on the exercises – all in one place."

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 09:20:19 am
content: So… language-specific and language-agnostic IDEs are being rated on the same scale?Hmmph.I’m still using EMACS.

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 09:43:10 am
content: Quote from: westfw on August 07, 2025, 09:20:19 amI think people is only considering { C, C++ }At least, I am using { nedit+atags, geany } for C/89.DunnoQuote from: westfw on August 07, 2025, 09:20:19 amWhat's your workflow with EMACS? Do you have an code-beautifier? built-in? external?Do you have support for the debugger? Coverage?

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 10:31:21 am
content: I'm enjoying these apples and oranges comparisons. Like, who would have guessed thatRaspberry Piis a more popularembedded technologythanGNU GCC?

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 01:44:21 pm
content: Yeah, and in terms of "popularity", keep in mind the more "vocal" people (those who leave a lot more material for online statistics) are not necessarily the more "relevant" people nor even the majority.

author: ejeffrey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 04:37:04 pm
content: Quote from: radiolistener on August 01, 2025, 06:50:10 amIt's not odd at all. Geany is nice but it's a very niche choice. It only really makes sense on Linux, pretty much anyone on Windows is going to use notepad++ for a similar experience but more native. I tried it a while back and it was fine but I went back to emacs.On the other hand, VSCode is definitely bloated compared to geany or whatever. But I don't really care. My computer is fast enough to run it with no significant latency. At least in the base configuration. Plugins can make it slow, but if you are using plugins presumably you want that plugin.

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 07:37:41 pm
content: I don't undertand why VS Code is so popular.The interface has the usability of a brick, and it's all made of patched patches patching patches.I know Eclipse is heavy, being java-based it's a resource hog, but hey, so many features...!

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 09:59:03 pm
content: Eight megs and constantly swapping. Been using emacs since long before 8MB was a lot of memory.

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 10:06:27 pm
content: 8MB isn't so much memory these days.

author: John B
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 10:40:33 pm
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on August 07, 2025, 07:37:41 pmIt's a modular ecosystem. I'm using VSCodium rather than VSCode, with a handful of the open/ non-MS extensions (I think ms-python is the only exception)The real time syntax checking is handy, especially in python where white space is critical. Also real time accessing of imported libraries, with documentation of functions and their parameters, and the subsequent code completion on-screen formatting helps speed up workflow.It's a bit heavyweight in terms of RAM, but it's also far more than a text editor with syntax highlighting. The oldest computer I run it on is a 14 year old laptop, and it's performance is fine.

author: bson
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 07, 2025, 11:14:17 pm
content: Quote from: ledtester on August 07, 2025, 10:06:27 pmYes, the irony. People complained how emacs was so difficult to run. These days in fits in the cache.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2025, 02:28:25 am
content: QuoteThere is something of code formatting (and coloration) built into the individual language modes.TAGS are helpful, and I use the "gnu ID utils" (externally) to do some of the cross-reference stuff that happens in modern IDEs.It'll run customizable compile/build commands, although I'm usually content to run Make in a shell window (in EMACS, or externally.)It has support for gdb, so you can debug pretty much anything that gdb debugs.And if course it's all infinitely customizable, using it's LISP-like implementation language.I've been using it since the implementation language was TECO, and MINCE ("Mince Is Not Complete EMACS") was available for CP/M. Also worked on FINE internals (for TOPS-10), and modified Tops20's "texti" system call to better support its EMACS (at least, theoretically.)

author: Cyclotron
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 08, 2025, 02:33:09 am
content: VIM is what I use the most because I am often just tossing something together.VSCode is next on my list due to company plugins, and I used to use PyCharm a good bit.

author: Siwastaja
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2025, 07:01:11 am
content: Quote from: DavidAlfa on August 07, 2025, 07:37:41 pmChoice of tools is mostly non-technical. It suffices that it gets the job done - maybe even just barely. Popularity drives popularity: when people have to downloadsomething, they remember the name they heard somewhere and use that. I also happen to use VS Code due to laziness of trying out different options.What gave it the initial push is an interesting question. Maybe MS guerilla marketing? It remember how it popped out of nowhere and suddenly everyone was "oh this new VS Code is the greatest thing since sliced bread, don't worry even if it comes from Microsoft it's good and runs on linux, and it has nothing to do with Visual Studio, it's great!" I heard it many times from different mouths in nearly exact same words which suggests it was planted by marketing. And it was true enough, maybe just only exaggerating the greatness.

author: Tation
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2025, 11:37:10 am
content: Quote from: John B on August 07, 2025, 10:40:33 pmA question from the ignorance. Can MS plugins/extensions be run on VSCodium? I'm currently using the C/CPP/Python/CMake/Serial monitor MS extensions, but on VSCode.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2025, 12:46:55 pm
content: Yes.

author: John B
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2025, 09:04:43 pm
content: Quote from: Tation on August 08, 2025, 11:37:10 amGenerally yes, though there was some news a few months ago about some MS extensions not working outside of VSCode, as in they were intentionally disabled in VSCodium.For C or C++ stuff, I use some of the extensions by franneck94 and clangd by llvm-vs-code-extensions.

author: Rafiki
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 11, 2025, 11:36:27 am
content: Visual SlickEdit.Probably cause I'm used to it since decades. And I like to have same/similar functionality on different OSes.Eclipse would be fine for me if it wasn't that resource hungry and available on all my OSes.

author: artag
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 11, 2025, 11:54:37 am
content: Quote from: westfw on August 07, 2025, 09:20:19 amAnd the IDE to go with it is Unix. Alternative editors exist. It was the original extendable IDE and IMHO still the best. You have a vast yet extensible toolset, the flexibility of the shell (or emacs lisp, other scripting languages, or compiled code), a choice of intercommunication methods, a windowing system, everything.If you think it's not an IDE because it isn't a GUI, you#'re thinking on too parochial a scale. The whole system is the development environment, integrated not just with a limited tool subset but with everything from web browsers to text processing to graphics editing to remote control by the facilities of the OS itself. You can have a GUI or not. You can have a choice of window managers, multiple consoles, multiple displays.Hosting a small-scale GUI on top - whether it's arduino, vscode or Eclipse - is just silly. It limits the scope, it squeezes everything pointlessly into a tiled subwindow, every extension has to be custom-built instead of using small, often perfect tools that already exist. They come from a wrong-headed development route where they were originally intended to support a limited environment in a consistent way across multiple OSs and then extended to be multipurpose.If single-purpose IDEs have anything better to offer the only one I can see is easy learning - which Arduino achieves but VScode fails at miserably. And they get that by limiting their scope so there's less to learn - a pretty short-term solution, as VScode's bloat illustrates perfectly. . Unix, on the other hand leverages your existing toolchain experience and is not only extensible but also simplifiable - you can build a system with as little or as much as you want.If they have any other advantages I'd like to know what they are. I have little doubt that a Unix tool to provide them would be easy enough to build.

author: artag
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 11, 2025, 12:26:06 pm
content: Quote from: Rafiki on August 11, 2025, 11:36:27 amThe exact same reason I'm using Emacs (or micro-emacs on small systems, no longer needed since 8 megs is no longer large).