How to Install Editra (text editor for programmers!) in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal?

If you're a bit new to programming then you'd find that the "usual text editor" is an almost useless tool for computer programmers because most of the time they lack certain features such as syntax highlighting, code folding or code/symbols inserting, etc.

Although when it comes to being one of the best code editors for GNU/Linux nothing beats the GNU-Emacs!. But unless you're a bit familiar with its GUI and certain features are implemented as commands, etc then if you're looking for something that's more simple + less frighting ;-) then Editra is a pretty good one.

As with Emacs, Editra (written in Python) can also be used as a text editor as well but it's mainly aimed at programmers nonetheless.

Main features...

*. Auto completion support for languages such as XML, Python and HTML.

*. Change font and size.

*. Style editor.

*. Syntax highlighting for more than 60 programming languages.

*. FTP/remove file editing support.

*. Code folding.

*. Auto indent.

*. Save in according to your language container format.

*. Find and replace.

*. Zoom in and Zoom-out.

*. Plug-in support.

*. "Preference" window for additional settings editing.

*. HTML, LaTex and RTF generator (exporter).

*. Line edit.

*. Word wrap and Redo/Undo are just a very little of its main features to mention.

You can install Editra in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install editra

As said we can use it as a text editor but clearly we're not the targeted audience it seems. But if you're a programmer who's looking for a powerful yet a simple looking code editor, then Editra is an excellent little application.

Notepad++ - A GNU Licensed, Source Code Editor for MS Windows

If you're a computer programmer then having a fully featured source code editor is a must. Although all the IDE (Integrated Development Environment, heck, like you didn't know that :P) suits come with ones of their own yet if you use MS Windows while creating your programs, then Notepad++ is a pretty powerful utility nonetheless.

One other important thing about Notepad++ is that it uses less system resources still giving you the ability to edit a program with a larger source code. I'm not a programmer (although I've played very little with C/C++ in the past, well I just created a "hello world" :/) so other than using it for those type of purposes, I find Notepad++ is extremely helpful while editing XML files, which I usually have to do since I'm a bit of a nerdy blogger :P.

Main features...

*. It's a shame than it's a GNU licensed program yet only support MS Windows. No GNU/Linux support.

*. Written in C++ and as mentioned above uses a very little system resources.

*. Plugin support (by using which you can expand its features such as adding automatic spell checking, export the source code to RTF/HTML, etc).

*. Supports a lot of different computer languages such as C, Objective C, Assembly, Shell, SQL, etc.

*. Search and replace.

*. Auto completion of codes (pretty handy since you don't always have to retype the codes again and again).

*. Macro recorder support (playback, start recording, save, etc).

*. TextFX support.

These are just a very few to mention. But as said before, even if you aren't a programmer you can still use this as a powerful text editor ... but since the GUI is loaded with features, it can be a bit confusing for the everyday users, I think (including me:)).

Anyhow, for all ya MS Windows programming geeks, you can get the latest version of Notepad++ from this download page. Oh yeah, it's FREE!.