If you need to work with your code across multiple platforms, consider employing one of these five popular cross-platform editors.
If you are a developer, you probably selected your platform a long time ago. You may have chosen Linux, macOS, or Windows as your operating system for your software engineering career.
This doesn't mean it will be the only platform you use. Or the operating system you choose for your personal development projects may not be the same as the one you received at work. Or you may collaborate with other developers and need to work with similar tools.
Fortunately, there is such a thing as cross-platform, which means that an application is not limited to just one operating system. In the past, this was less frequent. These days, however, an app almost needs to be cross-platform to be highly successful.
No user group achieves this more than developers. To this end, many of the most popular tools are available on operating systems. This goes for code editors. Some of the most used editors on the planet are multiplatform.
In short, a cross-platform editor helps developers work on different operating systems without having to switch from one editor to another. This streamlines the workflow and makes the process more efficient, while saving developers time and strengthening collaboration efforts.
Let's take a look at some of the most popular cross-platform code editors that you can install on all your systems.
1. Visual Studio Code
Microsoft's Visual Studio Code tends to always rank near the top of every code editor list. There's a good reason for that. VS Code comes with all the features you need (like debugging, syntax highlighting, built-in Git control, and code refactoring) and some you might not even know about but will eventually depend on. One such feature is IntelliSense, which provides intelligent completion based on variable types, function definitions, and imported modules.
VS Code supports Python, C/C++, C#, Java (through an extension pack), Go, Dart, PHP (through an extension pack), HTML, JSON, Julia, Less, Markdown, PowerShell, SCSS, T-SQL and Typescript. If you don't see the language of your choice listed, you can always check the VS Code Marketplace to see if there is an extension available.
Outside of the extensive features, VS Code has one of the best UIs available. Not only is it very well designed, but it is also easy to use. And, to make this editor even more attractive, it is free.
2. ATOM
Atom is another free and cross-platform code editor that is also open source. Before being publicly available, Atom served as GitHub's internal editor. In 2014, however, the company decided to release the tool to the public and it was warmly accepted around the world.
Atom offers another excellent user interface that allows developers to split the view into separate panes to make diffs easier. Other features include a built-in package manager, smart autocomplete, file system navigation, find and replace, Git and GitHub integration, add-ons and themes, and various customizations so you can customize Atom.
Atom is a great editor for those who are new to software development, as well as those who have been around a few times. And with its huge library of available tweaks, you can make Atom do what you want, how you want. Atom also supports many popular languages and frameworks, such as Node.js, CSS, and JS (learn the most common uses of JavaScript).
3. Sublime Text
Sublime Text is another highly customizable code editor that can be used on most platforms. Unlike VS Code and Atom, Sublime Text has an associated cost. For a single user, Sublime Text costs $99.00 per license. However, many consider Sublime to be one of the best in the business. It's also a little more complex than the other options. All of this makes Sublime one of the most capable editors available.
With split screen, simultaneous editing, “Goto Anything” file browsing, adaptive matching for quick invocation of keyboard commands, GPU rendering, Apple Silicon support, multi-tab selection, context-aware autocomplete, TypeScript and TSX support, an updated Python API, super-powered syntax highlighting/definitions, auto-save, spell checking, macros, and support for tons of programming languages (like AppleScript, C, C++, CSS, Diff, Erlang, Go, Groovy, HTML, Java, JavaScript and Lisp).
4. UltraEdit
Ultra is another cross-platform code editor that requires license purchase. You can purchase an annual license for $99.95 or a perpetual license for $119.95. UltraEdit is another highly customizable editor that includes a vast library of themes and even allows you to create your own.
UltraEdit's key features include a column mode (to edit along the Y axis anywhere in a document), multi-caret/multi-select, built-in FTP and SSH support, 4k UHD support, one of fastest localization on the market, fully integrated file comparison, operating system integration, excellent handling of large files (10+ GB and larger), hex editing, XML and JSON support, syntax highlighting for virtually any language, layouts, templates features, function listing, macro and script support, and a complete HTML toolkit.
5. Brackets
Brackets was designed specifically for web and front-end developers. So, if your work mainly consists of front-end development (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), this could be the ideal code editor for you.
Brackets can be divided into vertical or horizontal planes, but they also include an inline editing feature that allows you to view all selectors belonging to a specific ID. For example, you can select a specific CSS ID and open the built-in editor to view only the selectors belonging to that ID.
Brackets also includes features such as preprocessor support, browser synchronization (via Live Preview), a wide range of extensions, JSLinut, LESS and Quick Edit support. Just make sure you understand that you won't be doing any backend development with this editor.
Conclusion
If you need it, there is a cross-platform code editor to serve you. Any of the above editors would be a great tool for you to adopt. Just make sure the editor you choose is suitable for the work at hand. Fortunately, it doesn't matter which operating system you use, because these editors will install and work perfectly on the platform of your choice.
Source: BairesDev
