Every year, many new Code Editors are launched, and the developer finds it challenging to choose one. Following is a curated list of Top 15 source code and text editor software for Windows and Mac platforms. All the editors in the list are Free to use. The code editor could be standalone or integrated into an IDE.
30 best free Mac programs Creative apps, system tools and more There's something exciting about buying a new piece of software, unwrapping the packaging and slipping the disc into your Mac ready. But first break down programming in following sections. (i) Coding Language (C, C, Python, Java and so on) There are many languages to choose when you start coding, it can be any language and since there are a plethora of IDE platforms for Linux based distribution, Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s Mac. Dec 18, 2019 This Mac dev tool has been recommended for its ease of use as well as its integration into the command line. Xcode is an integrated development environment that offers a comprehensive set of Mac developer tools - everything programmers need to build great applications for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Apple Watch.
- Best Free Code Editors for Windows & Mac
1) Notepad++
Notepad++ is a popular free to use code editor written in C++. It uses pure win32 API which offers greater execution speed and small program size. It runs only in the window's environment, and it uses GPL License.
Platform: Windows
Price: Free
Features:
- Support syntax highlighting for languages like PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
- Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion
- Macro recording and playback
- User-defined Syntax highlighting and folding
- Entirely customizable GUI
- Multi-view and Multi-Language support
Download link: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
2) Atom
Atom is useful code editor tool preferred by programmers due to its simple interface compared to the other editors. Atom users can submit packages and them for the software.
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux
Price: Free
Features:
- Package Manager Integrated for Plugins support
- The feature of smart autocompletion
- Supports Command Palette
- Multiple panes
- Allow cross-platform editing
Download link:https://atom.io/
3) Visual Studio Code [VS Code]
Visual Studio Code is an open source code editor software developed by Microsoft. It offers built-in support for TypeScript, JavaScript, and Node.js. It's autocompleted with IntelliSense features provides smart completions based on variable types, essential modules, and function definitions.
Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux
Price: Free
Features:
- Easy working with Git and other SCM (Software Configuration management) providers
- Code refactoring & debugging
- Easily extensible and customizable
Download link:https://code.visualstudio.com/
4) Brackets
Brackets is a lightweight tool developed by Adobe. It is best text editor that is open source. It allows you to a toggle between your source code and the browser view.
Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux
Price: Free
Features:
- Quick Edit UIfeature puts context-specific code and tools inline
- Offers live preview, preprocessor support, and inline editors
- Pleasant looking UI
- Especially developed tool for macOS
- It comes with the inbuilt extension manager for fast & effective extension management.
Download link:http://brackets.io/
5) NetBeans
NetBeans is an open-source code editor tool for developing with Java, PHP, C++, and other programming languages. With this editor, code analyzers, and converters. It allows you to upgrade your applications to use new Java 8 language constructs.
Platforms: Mac Windows Linux
Price: Free
Features:
- Easy & Efficient Project Management
- Offers fast & Smart Code Editing
- Rapid User Interface Development
- Helps you to write bug-free code
Download link:https://netbeans.org
6) Bluefish
Bluefish a is a cross-platform editor is a speedy tool which can handle dozens of files simultaneously. The tool allows developers to conduct remote editing. This code editor tool offers many options to s programmers and web developers, to write websites, scripts, and programming code.
Price: Free
Platforms: Mac Windows Linux
Features:
- Loads hundreds of files within seconds
- Auto-recovery of changes in modified documents after a crash, kill or shutdown.
- Project support feature helps you to work efficiently on multiple projects.
- Unlimited undo/redo functionality.
Download link: http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html
7) VIM
Vim is an advanced text editor open source tool which is also considered to be an IDE in its way. This tool allows managing your text editing activities with vim editors and UNIX System which can be used on-premise or online.
Price: Free
Platform: Linux
Features:
- Extensive plugin support
- Powerful search and replace
- Integrates with many tools
- Macro recording and playback
- Support for hundreds of programming languages and file formats
Download link: https://www.vim.org/
8) Geany
Geany is a text editor which uses GTK+ toolkit. It also has certain basic features of an integrated development environment. The tool supports many filetypes and has some nice features.
Price: Free
Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux
Features:
- Allows you to add a note for applying the indent settings in the project preferences
- Navigating through the source code
- Allows popup menu on message window notebooks and sidebar
- Show status message on attempt to execute empty context action
Download link: https://www.geany.org
9) Komodo Edit
Komodo edit is an easy to use and powerful code editing tool. It allows you to do debugging, unit testing, code refactoring. It also provides code profile, plus integrations with other technologies like Grunt, PhoneGap, Docker, Vagrant and many more.
Price: Free Trial
Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux
Features:
- Multi-Language Editor
- A lot of contemporary color schemes
- Native Unicode support and Unicode compatibility checking
- Easily integrates into the desktop environment.
Download link: https://www.activestate.com/products/komodo-edit/
10) Emacs
Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.
Price: Free
Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux
Features:
- Complete built-in documentation
- Full Unicode support for many human scripts
- Highly customizable, using Emacs Lisp code.
- A packaging system for installing and downloading extensions
Download link: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
11) jEdit
jEdit, a code editor program which is written in Java. This open source tool supports hundreds of plugins and macros. It offers a large collection of plugins maintained by a worldwide developer team.
Features:
- Built-in macro language & extensible plugin architecture
- Allows copy and paste with an unlimited number of clipboards
- You can download plugins with the help of the plugin manager.
- Register contents are saved across editing sessions.
- Allows auto indent, and syntax highlighting over 200 languages
Price: Free
Platform: Mac, Windows & Linux
Download link: http://www.jedit.org/
12) TextMate
TextMate is a versatile plain text editor for mac with unique and innovative features. The tool offers support for many programming languages, writing prose in structured formats such as blogging, running SQL queries, writing screenplays, etc.
Price: Free
Platform: MAC
Features:
- Auto-Indent for Common Actions
- CSS-like Selectors to find the Scope of Actions and Settings
- Dynamic Outline for Working With Multiple Files
- Function Pop-up for Quick Overview and Navigation
- Run Shell Commands from Within a Document
- Visual Bookmarks to Jump Between Places in a File
Download link: http://macromates.com/
13) gedit
Gedit tool is designed as a general-purpose text editor. It offers simple and eases to use GUI. It includes features for editing source code and structured text like markup languages.
Price: Free
Platforms: Mac & Windows
Features:
- Support for syntax highlighting for languages like C, C++, Java, HTML, XML, Python, etc.
- Editing files from remote locations
- Support for text wrapping and auto indentation
- Search and replace with the support of regular expressions
- A flexible plugin system which allows you to add new features
Download link: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gedit
14) Light Table
Light Table is an IDE and text editor tool for coding software. The tool offers fast feedback and allowing instant execution, debugging and access to documentation.
Price: Free
Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux
Features:
- Inline Evaluation
- Light Table is a lightweight, clean, and sleek interface.
- Powerful editing and plugin manager
- The feature of println to keep track of critical values in your code
Download link: http://lighttable.com/
15) Blue Griffon
BlueGriffon is an open source HTML editor powered by Gecko, which is Firefox's rendering engine. It has a simple interface and most usual features needed to create web pages that are compliant with W3C web standards.
Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux
Features:
- Easy to change the color of font or to adjust the border style
- Opens Tabs from Last Session
- Shortcuts for CSS Editing
- Multiple Themes for Source View
Download link: http://bluegriffon.org
When you tap into programming the operating system is an essential aspect you should not overlook. Even though an OS should not restrict you from using your preferred language it’s useful to read the options before you make your move.
Over the years people are so confused with all sides of this argument, saying that, “<platform name> is the best or that or this.” So this is an effort to clear the cloud abovve your what is best for your development purpose, this article poses the differences in each platform in relation to general web development.
The competing operating systems are these three: iOS, Linux, & Windows.
But first break down programming in following sections.
(i) Coding Language (C, C++, Python, Java and so on)
There are many languages to choose when you start coding, it can be any language and since there are a plethora of IDE platforms for Linux based distribution, Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s Mac OS. It doesn’t matter because people who used Windows for over 5 and more year are coding on Linux and don’t yearn Mac. When your focus is on programming and code writing, you probably won’t like the plethora of background services and multitasking makes it hard to focus on coding. When you use Linux the current app takes the whole place and somehow it manages to put all the focus on a single work; which is coding in your case. When you want a true, monolithic experience in programming, go for Linux. But why stick with Linux when you know coding is not dependent on operating system. You like Windows, use it. If you love Linux, chose any distribution. Do you have a Mac on your desk, nothing wrong to use it?
(ii) Operating System Level
For this category, you have to select dedicated Operating System.
When you’re developing a Windows program (.exe) you must go with Windows as you can test it and more importantly you’ll know how it will work.
Want to Develop Linux then go with Linux Distributions and there is also Many Distributions and their factors are different but target a distribution and learn all things and then Linux will be easy to use.
For developing Mac Apps, using Mac OS is advisable.
Choice That you have.
- Windows use IDEs like Net Beans, Visual Basic, Code Blocks, Dev C++ (and plenty of more to choose from)
- Linux (Ubuntu 18.04) use Code Blocks and Net Beans.
- Android Development is very easy with Android Studio both in Windows and Linux (Ubuntu) no problem there, both are flexible.
Operating System doesn’t matter for programming!
For example, you would be able to run all program including — whether it be C++, Python, Java, Pascal or anything else on every operating system. When you solely want to focus on programming you may want a simple lightweight Operating System and a compiler(or an interpreter) to run your program!
Cross-Platform Features
- Most languages can be developed on any platform
- Most IDE’s and other developer tools are cross-platform (within reason)
- All Platforms (that I know of) can use Git
- Most platforms have the ability to run another platform along-side or within themselves, in some way. (Usually via a 3rd party application)
iOS Features
- Almost everything is visually well polished
- Things are not free, you’ve got to pay
- You can use Photoshop
- Is POSIX
- Ability to install programs via GUI by default
- Useful apps are pre-installed
- Upgrades to major version every year
- Not large portion of Web servers use this platform, but it is closely related to the most commonly used platform.
Linux Features
- Most things are open source (aka free-for-developers)
- Has a “sink or swim” learning curve (aka not typical-user friendly)
- Has a dozen Photoshop alternatives, but no Photoshop
- Is POSIX
- Typically installs programs via CLI by default (fast)
- Some useful applications pre-installed with minimal bloatware, if any.
- Typically upgrades major version every 1 or 2 years, occasionally less. (easily installed)
- Most servers use some variation of this platform
Windows Features
- Most products/services are designed for this platform
- Has many security issues
- Can use Photoshop
- Is not POSIX
- Installs programs via GUI by default (slow)
- Few useful applications pre-installed. Unless you install the OS, it always has a lot of bloatware.
- Upgrades major version two or three times in a decade, occasionally more/less. (pain in the *** almost every time)
- Some servers use this platform
Features source.
Choose Linux to focus
If you choose Linux as your programming operating system then some best Linux distribution is as follows. It’s easy to setup C++ development environment to compile and run using Eclipse IDE. If you’re interested check the following guide.
You’ve seen it’s easy to setup Eclipse (pre-configured for Java) to work with C++ projects. Linux allows a wide range of IDE you can choose from, it all depends on your demands.
For that, you’ll need a Linux Distro that can download from Ubuntu Software store, so the working Distro is Ubuntu, Pop OS, elementary OS, Kubuntu, Lubuntu and so on. Moreover, you can always sideload your favorite IDE on most of the Linux distributions.
Pop! OS is developer focused
Pop OS is developer focused Linux based operating system. The interface is elegant and it’s easy to get used to it compared to Ubuntu or other distributions. It comes preloaded with so many tools for programming and coding that you’ll find yourself tinkering with. One solid pro is that the operating system is around developers, but in fact, anyone who can use Ubuntu would be happy to use this distribution as well.
Arch Linux is the all-you-do type.
The Arch Linux has a wide fan base, it comes with latest Linux Kernel and package manager. It’s easy to install apps using terminal from the app store. With arch Linux, you’ll have to gather things and choose components. You can customize it to make an operating system for programming and development purposes. The Arch community is consist of people having experience in programming, you get the company and help them so no worries.
the operating system is a one-time installation with always up to date bleeding edge distro repository. On every month (first week) you get system update, and you can choose to install them automatically letting you work more on the development and worry less about system stability and security.
Best Software For C Programming In Mac Computer
Penetration can also be done by converting Arch Linux into BlackArch installation with help of some instructions.
You should use Arch Linux because of its flexibility to adapt to your preference. Especially when you have used a Linux before, don’t you think it’ll be awesome to build a personal system?
Windows 10.. Errrr..
Windows is widely used, accepted and pirated operating system and you can use it for development and programming purpose. People who choose Linux over Windows always complain about the background process that it runs makes less resource available for programming apps. When you have to work with Visual Studio (Microsoft Azure) windows might be a better and suitable choice. A lot of developers first build Mac apps then make a version for Windows platform, so there is not a big learning curve when you shift from MAC to Windows, as Windows is widely available and you can install it on cheap machines, unlike MAC.
An operating system should not limit you in your coding and compiling tasks. Rather, now you have a better understanding that Linux may offer you a better platform for sharp coding and programming skills. If you’re a company or a team then you acknowledge building a cross-platform is essential for survival, in that case, divide your team to work on different operating system app versions.
Pc Or Mac For Programming
Contents
Mac Or Windows For Programming
- Choose Linux to focus