Chapter XXX: Picking a text editor / programming environment to learn.

One of the main things that you will be doing with this book is to read, write and edit text files. These might be code, documentation and data. You can get away with choosing almost any tool for editing code, but I encourage you to follow my lead and pick an editor that will work with you for many years to come. You will invariably be forced to use other tools for editing from time to time, but if you primarily work with a powerful editor that can grow with you, your productivity will be higher.

Back in the olden days, there was the great debate between people who used the vi and emacs editors. In the end, both can get the job done and both are still around today. There are now thousands of editors in use. Editors might seem simple, but a good editor will work with you get your job done. Most editors get the job done without being overly helpful. Some editors are a part of Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and some can become IDEs.

Here are a few things to consider when picking an editor/IDE:

• Is it cross platform (Linux/Mac OSX/Windows)?
• How likely is the editor to be around for years to come?
• What range of languages can it support? (LaTex, C/C++, python, bash, etc)
• How much does it cost?
• How extensible is the editor? (Note: you can pay people to add features to some editors if you are not up to it yourself)
• Does the editor support working with version control software, compilers, editors, and terminal shells?
• Does it provide ways to merge differences between files?
• Is this a comfortable environment to write text in? (e.g. you do not need MS Word to write a book)
• Can the editor work efficiently with many files at the same time?