There are a lot of really amazing tools that are needed for a developer, some of these tools are compulsory while others are optional. In the midst of this variety of tools, a code editor stands out to be extremely important. A code editor is literally the notebook and pen needed to write and edit code. It is simply a text editor that is specially built and designed to help developers write code. Unlike an ordinary text editor that only just helps you to write and edit text, a code editor is a text editor that specializes in helping you write code.

Code Editors have one and a million features that make them stand out for the purpose of writing code. These features help to make writing code easier for a developer thereby increasing productivity and accuracy.

Few features of a code editor

Auto-code complete

This feature helps to complete a code that is being currently typed. During the process of typing some code, this feature enables a prediction of the code the user is typing in form of a small drop-down list that gives a list of codes to choose from. Consequently, the developer doesn’t have to complete typing the code but can just choose his/her preferred choice. This feature can be enabled with different commands in different code editors.

Syntax Highlighting

Syntax highlighting is one of my favorite features of code editors. This feature displays code in different colors and fonts according to the category of terms. This is the feature responsible for giving different colors to keywords, strings, comments, and variable names.

Line Numbers

This feature is really useful for reference, it is however not added to our code but it’s very essential for tracking lines of code.

Window Preview

Some code editors enable a feature in which you can get to see what your webpage looks like instead of going back to the browser. Isn’t that so cool and convenient?

Multiple Views

Here, some code editors give you the chance to view and compare two pages of codes in the same window.

Code Block Tracking

Does your code ever get so complex that it becomes so difficult to track and line numbers are not really helping as much?😥 Well, this feature is for you😋. This feature enables the code editor to track blocks of code which in turn informs you of where a code block starts and ends

How do I know which code editor to use?😤

Choosing a code editor is not a black and white process, there are a lot of criteria to be considered.

• Your programming Language

  In my blog about my transition into tech, I wrote about deciding on a track to choose in tech. I’d say the same process is involved here; Research and decide which track you’ll like to go for, what programming language you’ll like to use, and what code editor fits that programming language best. A frontend developer may use a different code editor from a backend developer and a mobile developer can use a totally different one.

• Your Experience

  There are a lot of code editors out there and there are a lot of developers out there too. A lot of developers with years of experience mostly stick to a code editor that they have used for years while newbie developers tend to play around with a few more code editors.

• Cost of Code Editors

  Some text editors are free to use while others are paid. Free editors are really nice and amazing but in most cases paid editors triumph free editors in handling complex tasks and big workflows. Choosing either a free or paid editor is a personal choice that requires more evaluation on your part before deciding which to go for. Free or paid? It’s up to you!😐

• Operating System Platform

  Some commonly used OS today are macOS, Microsoft Windows, Google's Android OS, Linux Operating System, Apple iOS, and many more. Your OS platform is one important factor to consider when choosing a code editor. Choose the editor that works best for your operating system platform.

5 common Code Editors today

Visual Studio Code

VS Code supports macOS, Linux, and Windows, and it's totally free. It is a simple and fast code editor with mind-blowing tools and features. VS Code has IntelliSense code completion and debugging and features like syntax highlighting, bracket-matching, auto-indentation, box-selection, snippets, and more.

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is a paid editor that supports Windows, Mac OS, Linux and it’s really lightweight. It has a unique responsiveness feature. It now includes native support for Apple Silicon processors. It has tab multi-select, auto-complete, revamped UI, syntax definition, and many more. It is mostly used for large projects.

Notepad++

It is open-source and free, it’s not really cool-looking but fast and lightweight. It is mostly used for basic code like HTML and CSS.

Vim

Vim is known to be the oldest editor and it supports Windows, Mac OS, Linux. It doesn’t have a well navigated and fancy-looking UI but it's known to be so seamless and cross-platform. It takes to learn to use but once you hit the learning curve, it is highly configurable and rock stable.

Atom

Atom is a free editor with a nice UI and it supports Windows, Mac OS, Linux. It launches more slowly but it’s reliable and quick to use once it's running.

Code Editors are really important in writing codes because of the amazing superb features they offer. Due to the large number of code editors that we have today, it is important to evaluate each and decide on which is best to use for every situation and person.