reading-notes

Reading notes for Code Fellows!

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Text Editors

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A text editor is one of a coder’s most important and used tools. There are a variety of choices for a text editor, each with differing pros and cons. By and large however, the choice of which text editor a developer uses to write their code is largely a matter of personal preference. But there are some features that are routinely looked for by developers.

Desirable Features in a Text Editor

There are several features that text editors may possess, including live view (which provides a constant view of the webpage as code is entered and saved), zooming in and out and even which operating systems they will function on. However, the four most sought after features seem to be:

• Code Completion

  • The editor displays possible suggestions when the beginnings of words are typed and/or closing tags or brackets when either are opened. This feature makes coding more efficient by speeding up entry and reducing the opportunities to make typos.

• Syntax Highlighting

  • The editor colorizes portions of the text entered, coloring elements, attributes, etc. differently within the text. This makes the code simpler to read and errors easier to find.

• Variety of Themes

  • Having a number of themes available allows for the background and text colors to be altered to ease strain on the eyes and fatigue.

• Large Extension Library

  • Extensions are like plug-ins for the text editor that provide customization and functionality for a variety of different situations or needs.

Types of Text Editors

There are three basic divisions of text editors. They consist of:

• Preloaded text editors that come as part of an Operating System. These are typically bare-bones text editors that have few-to-no added features to make writing code easier and more efficient. Examples are:
  • Text Edit -Mac
  • Notepad -Windows
  • Gedit (for instance) -Linux
• Third-Party text editors downloaded (often for free) from the web. The grand majority of these are free to download. Though, some do require purchase. They will most usually have most, if not all, of the more desirable features. Examples are:
  • VS Code
  • Brackets
  • Atom
  • BB Edit
• Integrated Development Environments (IDE). These are not just text editors, but are rather suites of software. They will usually include file managers, compiling programs and debugger programs in addition to a text editor. Examples are:
  • Microsoft Visual Studio
  • NetBeans
  • PyCharm

Some developers may chose one text editor and remain with it monogamously, and some may change text editors with each new season.

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Basic Terminal Usage

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Command	Effect
cd	Change directories
ls	List contents of directory
touch	Creates empty file
mkdir	Creates a directory
mv	Moves a file
cp	Makes a copy of a file
rm	Removes a file
rmdir	Removes a directory

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