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List of text editors

List article

The following is a list of notable text editors.

Graphical and text user interface

The following editors can either be used with a graphical user interface or a text user interface.

Name	Description	License
Elvis	A vi/ex clone with additional commands and features.	ClArtistic
Extensible Versatile Editor (EVE)	Default under OpenVMS.	?
GNU Emacs ¹ ² ³ ⁴ ⁵/XEmacs ⁶ ⁷	Two long-existing forks of the popular Emacs programmer's editor. Emacs and vi are the dominant text editors on Unix-like operating systems, and have inspired the editor wars.	GPL-3.0-or-later / GPL-2.0-or-later
Language-Sensitive Editor (LSE)	Programmer's Editor for OpenVMS implemented using TPU.	?
Textadept	A modular, cross-platform editor written in C and Lua, using Scintilla.⁸	MIT
vile (vi like Emacs)	A vi work-alike which retains the vi command-set while adding new features: multiple windows and buffers, infinite undo, colorization, scriptable expansion capabilities, etc.	GPL-2.0-only
vim ⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹ ¹²	A clone based on the ideas of the vi editor and designed for use both from a command line interface and in a graphical user interface.	Vim

Graphical user interface

Name	Description	License
Acme	A User Interface for Programmers by Rob Pike.	MIT
Alphatk		Proprietary
Apache OpenOffice Writer	Word processor and text editor of the Apache OpenOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite.	Apache-2.0
Arachnophilia	A source code editor which is successor to another HTML editor, WebThing.	Free software
Atom	A modular, general-purpose editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of Chromium and Node.js.	MIT
BBEdit	A proprietary text editor originally developed for Macintosh System Software 6	Proprietary
Bluefish	A source code editor with web development features.	GPL-2.0-or-later
Brackets	A modular, web-oriented editor built using HTML, CSS and JavaScript on top of the Chromium Embedded Framework.	MIT
CodeWright	An editing system or source code editor which can be configured to work with other integrated development environment (IDE) systems.	Proprietary
Crimson Editor	A text editor which is typically used as a source code editor and HTML editor.	Freeware
CygnusEd (CED)		Proprietary
E Text Editor	Default under IBM OS/2 versions 2-4.	Proprietary
Eddie	An editor originally made for BeOS and later ported to Linux and macOS.	Freeware
EmEditor	extensible commercial text editor which supports Unicode, syntax highlighting and vertical selection editing, editing of large files (up to 248 GB or 2.1 billion lines)	Proprietary
Epsilon	A programmer's text editor modelled after Emacs.	Proprietary
FeatherPad	A lightweight editor based on Qt.	GPL-3.0-or-later
Geany	A fast and lightweight editor – IDE, uses GTK+.	GPL-2.0-or-later
gedit	Former default under GNOME until GNOME 42.¹³	GPL-2.0-or-later
GNOME Text Editor	Default under GNOME from GNOME 42 onwards¹⁴	GPL-3.0-or-later
GoldED (text editor of Cubic IDE)		Proprietary
HxD	An editor for huge files, working with both binary data and texts.	Freeware
iA Writer	A multi-platform Markdown text editor with writing focused feature set	Proprietary
jEdit	A free cross-platform programmer's editor written in Java, GPL licensed.	GPL-2.0-or-later
JOVE	Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs	JOVE
Kate	A basic text editor for the KDE desktop.	LGPL, GPL
Kedit	An editor with commands and Rexx macros similar to IBM XEDIT.	Proprietary
Kile	A user friendly TeX/LaTeX editor.	GPL-2.0-or-later
Komodo Edit		MPL-1.1
KWrite	A default editor on KDE.	LGPL
Lapis	An experimental text editor allowing multiple simultaneous edits of text in a multiple selection from a few examples provided by the user.	GPL-2.0
Leafpad	Default under LXDE.¹⁵	GPL-2.0-or-later
Leo	A text editor that features outlines with clones as its central tool of organization and navigation.	MIT
LibreOffice Writer	Word processor and text editor of the LibreOffice Suite, based on StarOffice's suite.	MPL-2.0
Light Table	A text editor and IDE with real-time, inline expression evaluation. Intended mainly for dynamic languages such as Clojure, Python and JavaScript, and for web development.	MIT / GPL-3.0-only
mcedit	A text editor provided with Midnight Commander.	GPL-3.0-or-later
Metapad	Windows Notepad replacement, GPL licensed.	GPL-3.0-or-later
MicroEMACS	JASSPA MicroEMACS	GPL-2.0-or-later
Mousepad	The default under Xfce.¹⁶	GPL-2.0-or-later
Multi-Edit		Proprietary
NEdit – "Nirvana Editor"		GPL-2.0-or-later
Notepad	Default under Microsoft Windows.	Proprietary
Notepad++	A tabbed text editor.	GPL-3.0-or-later
Pe	A text editor for BeOS.	MIT
pluma	The default text editor of the MATE desktop environment for Linux.	GPL-2.0-or-later
PolyEdit	Proprietary word processor and text editor.	Proprietary
Programmer's File Editor (PFE)		Freeware
PSPad	An editor for Microsoft Windows with various programming environments.	Freeware
RJ TextEd		Freeware
Sam		MIT
SciTE	Cross-platform, multi-user, multi-codepage, multi-language syntax highlighting, area selector, RE find/replace, and very customisable, allowing different font configurations for each syntactic group, user-defined menus and abbreviation expansion.	HPND
SimpleText	Default under Classic Mac OS from version 7.5.¹⁷	Proprietary
SlickEdit		Proprietary
Smultron	A macOS text editor.	Proprietary
SubEthaEdit(formerly named Hydra)		Proprietary
Sublime Text		Proprietary
TeachText	Default under Classic Mac OS versions prior to 7.5.¹⁸	Proprietary
TED Notepad		Freeware
Tex-Edit Plus		Proprietary
TextPad		Proprietary
TeXnicCenter		GPL
TeXShop	TeX/LaTeX editor and previewer.¹⁹ ²⁰ ²¹ ²²	GPL-2.0
TextEdit	Default under macOS,²³ NeXTSTEP, and GNUstep.	BSD-3-Clause
TextMate		GPL-3.0-or-later
TextWrangler	Mac-only editor by Bare Bones Software, sunsetted. Final version released 09/20/2016,²⁴ replaced by free tier of [BBEdit].²⁵	Freeware
The Hessling Editor		GPL-2.0-or-later
The SemWare Editor (TSE)(formerly named QEdit).		Freeware
UltraEdit	Text and source code editor with syntax highlighting, code folding, FTP, etc., handles multi-gigabyte files.	Proprietary
Ulysses		Proprietary
VEDIT		Proprietary
Visual Studio Code ²⁶	An extensible code editor with support for development operations like debugging, task running and version control.	MIT
WinEdt		Proprietary
X11 Xedit		MIT
XEDIT	Default under VM/CMS.	Proprietary
Yudit		GPL-2.0-only
Xed		GPL-2.0-or-later

Text user interface

System default

Name	Description	License
E	is the text editor in PC DOS 6, PC DOS 7 and PC DOS 2000.	Proprietary
ed	The default line editor on Unix since the birth of Unix. Either ed or a compatible editor is available on all systems labeled as Unix (not by default on every one).	Free software
ED	The default editor on CP/M, MP/M, Concurrent CP/M, CP/M-86, MP/M-86, Concurrent CP/M-86.	Free software
EDIT	The default on MS-DOS 5.0 and higher and is included with all 32-bit versions of Windows that do not rely on a separate copy of DOS. Up to including MS-DOS 6.22, it only supported files up to 64 KB.	Proprietary
EDIT	The text editor in Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01, DR-DOS 7.02 and higher. Supports large files for as long as swap space is available. Version 7 and higher optionally supports a pseudo-graphics user interface named NewUI.	Proprietary
EDIX	The text editor in Concurrent DOS, Concurrent DOS XM, Concurrent PC DOS, Concurrent DOS 386, FlexOS 286, FlexOS 386, 4680 OS, 4690 OS, S5-DOS/MT.	Proprietary
EDITOR	The text editor in DR DOS 3.31 through DR DOS 6.0, and the predecessor of EDIT.	Proprietary
EDLIN	A command-line based line editor introduced with 86-DOS, and the default on MS-DOS prior to version 5 and is also available on MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows NT.	Proprietary
ee	Stands for Easy Editor, is part of the base system of FreeBSD, along with vi.²⁷	Free software
nvi	(Installed as vi by default in BSD operating systems and some Linux distributions) – A free replacement for the original vi which maintains compatibility while adding some new features.	BSD-3-Clause
vi ²⁸ ²⁹ ³⁰	The default for Unix systems and must be included in all POSIX compliant systems³¹ – One of the earliest screen-based editors, it is based on ex.	BSD-4-Clause or CDDL

Others

Name	Description	License
ECCE	ECCE (The Edinburgh Compatible Context Editor) is a text editor designed by Dr Hamish Dewar at Edinburgh University.	Free software
Emacs	A screen-based editor with an embedded computer language, Emacs Lisp. Early versions were implemented in TECO, see below.	Free software
JED	Multi-mode, multi-window editor with drop-down menus, folding, ctags support, undo, UTF-8, key-macros, autosave, etc. Multi-emulation; default is emacs. Programmable in S-Lang.	GPL-2.0-or-later
JOE	A modern screen-based editor with a sort of enhanced-WordStar style to the interface, but can also emulate Pico.	Free software
LE		GPL-3.0-or-later
mcedit	Full featured terminal text editor for Unix-like systems.	GPL-3.0-or-later
mg	Small and light, uses GNU/Emacs keybindings. Installed by default on OpenBSD.	Public domain
MinEd	Text editor with user-friendly interface, mouse and menu control, and extensive Unicode and CJK support; for Unix/Linux and Windows/DOS.	GPL
GNU nano	A clone of Pico GPL licensed.	GPL-3.0-or-later
ne	A minimal, modern replacement for vi.	GPL-3.0-or-later
Pico		Apache-2.0
SETEDIT	A clone of the editor of Borland's Turbo* IDEs.	GPL-2.0-or-later
The SemWare Editor	(TSE for DOS)(formerly called QEdit)	Proprietary

vi clones

Name	Description	License
BusyBox vi ³²	A small vi clone with a minimum of commands and features.	GPL-2.0-only
Elvis	The first vi clone and the default vi in Minix.	ClArtistic
ex	Or is vi an ex-clone? ex was an extended version of ed. It got a full-screen visual interface, thereby becoming the vi text editor.	Free software
Kakoune	An editor inspired by vi that makes use of multi cursor workflows and modal editing.³³	Unlicense
nvi	A new implementation and currently the standard vi in BSD distributions.	BSD-3-Clause
Stevie	STEVIE (ST Editor for VI Enthusiasts) for the Atari ST, the starting point for vim and xvi	Public domain
vile	Derived from an early version of Microemacs in an attempt to bring the Emacs multi-window/multi-buffer editing paradigm to vi users. First published 1991 with infinite undo, UTF-8 compatibility, multi-window/multi-buffer operation, a macro expansion language, syntax highlighting, file read and write hooks, and more.	GPL-2.0-only
vim ³⁴	An extended version of the vi editor, with many additional features designed to be helpful in editing program source code.	Vim

Sources:³⁵ ³⁶ ³⁷

No user interface (editor libraries/toolkits)

Name	Description	License
Cocoa text system	Supports text components of macOS.	Proprietary
Scintilla (software)	Used as the core of several text editors.	HPND
sed (stream editor)	The standard Unix stream editor based on the scripting features in ed. A utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language.	Free software
Text Processing Utility (TPU)	Language and runtime package, developed by DEC, used to implement the Language-Sensitive Editor and Extensible Versatile Editor, Eve.	Proprietary

ASCII and ANSI art

Editors that are specifically designed for the creation of ASCII and ANSI text art.

ACiDDraw – designed for editing ASCII text art. Supports ANSI color (ANSI X3.64)
TheDraw – ANSI/ASCII text editor for DOS and PCBoard file format support

ASCII font editors

FIGlet – for creating ASCII art text
TheDraw – DOS ANSI/ASCII text editor with built-in editor and manager of ASCII fonts

Historical

Visual and full-screen editors

Brief – a programmer's editor for DOS and OS/2
Edit application – a programmer's editor for Classic Mac OS
EDIT – a menu-based editor introduced to supersede EDLIN in MS-DOS version 5.0 and up and available in most Microsoft Windows
EDT – a character-based editor used on DEC PDP-11s and VMS
O26 – written for the operator console of the CDC 6000 series machines in the mid-1960s
Red – a VMS editor, written in Forth variant STOIC
se – an early screen-based editor for Unix
SED – cross-platform editor from the 1980s, ran on TOPS-10, TOPS-20 and VMS
SPMOL-II – editor used mostly for programming on IBM mainframes with the IBM 3270 terminal
STET (the 'STructured Editing Tool') – may have been the first folding editor; its first version was written in 1977
TeachText
TECO – a character-based editor, which included a programming language.

Line editors

Colossal Typewriter – an early editor thought to be written for the PDP-1
ed:
- Unix's early line editor
- CP/M's line editor
EDLIN – a line editor delivered with MS-DOS
EDT (Univac) – a line editor for Unisys VS/9 and Fujitsu BS2000 systems
ex – an EXtended version of Unix's ed, later evolved into the visual editor vi
fred – sed-like line editor used on the CDC 7600 at Los Alamos
GEDIT (aka George 3 EDITor) – a TECO-like editor including a programming language for the GEC 4000 series computers. GEDIT was originally written by David Toll of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and then adopted by GEC Computers for OS4000.
sed – a non-interactive programmable stream editor available in Unix
TECO – one of the most advanced character-based editors, which included a programming language
TEDIT – GEC 4000 series editor based on the Cambridge Titan EDIT
QED

Notes

References

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