Once you learn how to code, you can start building great applications that solve a problem or join businesses and companies looking for those with stellar coding skills. An important tool you will need is a code editor. Code editors come with various features that make it easy to code, create great applications, debug code, deploy code and so much more. Today, we are going to focus on five of the best code editors for Linux users. Keeping with the theme of Linux, the code editors below are free, open-source, or both.
Eclipse
Eclipse is considered more as an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) than a code editor. Eclipse is a very advanced code editor built in the Java language and used mainly to build Java applications. As with many of the other code editors that we will look at below, the support for other languages can be added to eclipse by installing the necessary plugins.
These plugins allow developers to write code in COBOL, C, C++, Haskell, JavaScript, PHP, RUBY and many other languages. The Eclipse SDK (Software Development Kit) includes all the Java Development tools Java Developers require to create great applications.
Atom
Atom is a modern open-source code editor from Github. GitHub says that it developed the code editor to be hackable and its open-source nature means that users can submit feature requests and code to improve the code editor. Also, users can download the code editors code and change it to their liking.
Atom is such a great code editor that it became popular before its first stable release. Atom is cross-platform, meaning that it brings its excellence to other operating systems and can be installed by visiting https://atom.io.
Some key features of the Atom code editor include being easily and highly customizable, the ability to use split windows, embedded git support, smart autocomplete, a massive number of plugins available, command palette support, and so many others.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is perhaps the best thing to come from Microsoft in the past few years. Understandably, a lot of people have their qualms about Microsoft, but Visual Studio Code is open source. Visual studio code is so easy to use and extendable that it has become the go-to code editor for Linux users. Visual Studio Code is also cross-platform, meaning that Windows and Mac users can also get to enjoy it.
Another great thing about Visual Studio Code is that it is lightweight. This means you can use it on older devices without seeing a dip in performance. This makes it great for those who want to learn to code without investing in an expensive computer. Additionally, the huge selection of plugins means that you can enroll in one of the top 10 coding courses on https://www.top10.com/ and start learning whatever you wish to without installing an additional text editor.
It is important to note that Microsoft has added some features to Visual Studio Code that some users might not like. To remove features such as telemetry, Microsoft licensing and branding, you can install VSCodoum. This is the same code editor as Visual Studio Code with everything related to Microsoft stripped out.
Sublime Text
Sublime Text is arguably the lightest code editor for Linux available right now. Sublime Text is full of so many features that it is used professionally by a lot of developers around the world. Sublime Text also includes several features that allow developers to write code very fast.
Sublime Text comes with all tagged features you might expect including automation, auto-indentation, code highlighting and shortcuts for frequently used features.
Sublime Text also comes with a minimap, so you always know where you are in your code and it also allows you to select multiple pieces of code at once. Lastly, users can create their own snippets so they do not have to keep repeating the code that they use often.
All of the features discussed above, and that come with Sublime Text natively, can be extended using plugins which allows developers to create the best apps and websites.
Brackets
Brackets is a code editor that is best suited for developers who work on and with website designs. Brackets has several features that make it easy to open PSD (Photoshop Design) files, edit CSS inside your HTML (inline editing) and many other code editing features.
Bracket’s functionality can also be extended by using plugins and it is very easy to install them. Brackets also comes with a live preview feature built-in so you do not have to use a browser to inspect your websites. All you need to do is open the live preview window.
There are lots of code editors that developers who use Linux or those learning to code can choose from. They come with many of the same features, with the main difference being in how they run as well as subtle additional features that other code editors do not have.
