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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Code Collaboration
  4. Text Editor
  5. Atom vs Notepad++ vs Vim

Atom vs Notepad++ vs Vim

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Vim
Vim
Stacks27.9K
Followers22.8K
Votes2.4K
Notepad++
Notepad++
Stacks20.4K
Followers16.8K
Votes422
Atom
Atom
Stacks16.9K
Followers14.5K
Votes2.5K
GitHub Stars60.8K
Forks17.3K

Atom vs Notepad++ vs Vim: What are the differences?

<Write Introduction here>
  1. Customization: Atom offers a high level of customization with its built-in package manager and a wide variety of plugins and themes that users can easily install. Notepad++, on the other hand, has limited customization options compared to Atom. Vim also supports a high level of customization with its scripting language, allowing users to create custom commands and functions tailored to their workflow.

  2. User Interface: Atom has a modern and user-friendly interface that includes features like split panes and a file system browser. Notepad++ has a more traditional interface that may feel outdated to some users, lacking modern design elements. Vim follows a minimalistic approach with a command-line interface, which may have a steeper learning curve for beginners.

  3. Cross-Platform Support: Atom is a cross-platform text editor that works on Windows, macOS, and Linux systems, providing a consistent experience across different operating systems. Notepad++ is only available for Windows, limiting its usability for users on other platforms. Vim, although originally developed for Unix-based systems, has versions available for various platforms, making it versatile in terms of cross-platform support.

  4. Collaboration Tools: Atom offers features like real-time collaboration and integration with Git for version control, making it suitable for collaborative work environments. Notepad++ lacks these collaboration features, limiting its use in team settings. Vim can be extended with plugins for collaborative editing, but it requires additional setup compared to Atom's native support for such features.

  5. Extensibility: Atom's plugin system allows users to extend the functionality of the editor with thousands of community-created packages. Notepad++ also supports plugins but has a smaller ecosystem compared to Atom. Vim, known for its extensibility, offers a vast library of plugins that can enhance its capabilities in various ways, making it a favorite among power users.

  6. Learning Curve: Atom is designed to be user-friendly with an intuitive interface, making it easier for beginners to start using the editor without much prior knowledge. Notepad++ also has a relatively low learning curve compared to Vim, which has a steep learning curve due to its modal editing style and command-driven interface, requiring users to invest time in learning its unique features and commands.

In Summary, the key differences between Atom, Notepad++, and Vim lie in their levels of customization, user interfaces, cross-platform support, collaboration tools, extensibility, and learning curves.

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Advice on Vim, Notepad++, Atom

Walter
Walter

Jan 12, 2021

Review

Neovim can basically do everything Vim can with one major advantage - the number of contributors to the code base is just so much wider (Vim is ~100% maintained only by B. Mooleanaar). Whatever you learn for Neovim you can also apply to Vim and vice versa.
And of course there is the never ending Vim vs Emacs controversy - but better not get into that war.

162k views162k
Comments
Rogério
Rogério

Software Developer

Jan 9, 2021

Needs adviceonVisual Studio CodeVisual Studio CodeAtomAtomNode.jsNode.js

For a Visual Studio Code/Atom developer that works mostly with Node.js/TypeScript/Ruby/Golang and wants to get rid of graphic-text-editors-IDE-like at once, which one is worthy of investing time to pick up?

I'm a total n00b on the subject, but I've read good things about Neovim's Lua support, and I wonder what would be the VIM response/approach for it?

372k views372k
Comments
Andrey
Andrey

Managing Partner at WhiteLabelDevelopers

May 18, 2020

Decided

Since communication with Github is not necessary, the Atom is less convenient in working with text and code. Sublim's support and understanding of projects is best for us. Notepad for us is a completely outdated solution with an unacceptable interface. We use a good theme for Sublim ayu-dark

539k views539k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Vim
Vim
Notepad++
Notepad++
Atom
Atom

Vim is an advanced text editor that seeks to provide the power of the de-facto Unix editor 'Vi', with a more complete feature set. Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems. Vim is distributed free as charityware.

Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

At GitHub, we're building the text editor we've always wanted. A tool you can customize to do anything, but also use productively on the first day without ever touching a config file. Atom is modern, approachable, and hackable to the core. We can't wait to see what you build with it.

Vertically Split Windows;Vimdiff;Folding;Plugins;Flexible Indenting;Unicode
Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding;User Defined Syntax Highlighting and Folding: screenshot 1, screenshot 2, screenshot 3 and screenshot 4;PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) Search/Replace;GUI entirely customizable: minimalist, tab with close button, multi-line tab, vertical tab and vertical document list;Document Map;Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion and Function parameters hint;Multi-Document (Tab interface);Multi-View;WYSIWYG (Printing);Zoom in and zoom out;Multi-Language environment supported;Bookmark;Macro recording and playback;Launch with different arguments
Atom is a desktop application based on web technologies;Node.js integration;Modular Design- composed of over 50 open-source packages that integrate around a minimal core;File system browser;Fuzzy finder for quickly opening files;Fast project-wide search and replace;Multiple cursors and selections;Multiple panes;Snippets;Code folding;A clean preferences UI;Import TextMate grammars and themes
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
60.8K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
17.3K
Stacks
27.9K
Stacks
20.4K
Stacks
16.9K
Followers
22.8K
Followers
16.8K
Followers
14.5K
Votes
2.4K
Votes
422
Votes
2.5K
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 347
    Comes by default in most unix systems (remote editing)
  • 328
    Fast
  • 312
    Highly configurable
  • 297
    Less mouse dependence
  • 247
    Lightweight
Cons
  • 8
    Ugly UI
  • 5
    Hard to learn
Pros
  • 104
    Syntax for all languages that i use
  • 60
    Tabbed ui
  • 56
    Great code editor
  • 54
    Fast and lightweight
  • 38
    Plugins
Cons
  • 3
    No default plugin manager
  • 2
    Can't install more advanced packets
Pros
  • 529
    Free
  • 449
    Open source
  • 343
    Modular design
  • 321
    Hackable
  • 316
    Beautiful UI
Cons
  • 19
    Slow with large files
  • 7
    Slow startup
  • 2
    Most of the time packages are hard to find.
  • 1
    Can be easily Modified
  • 1
    Cannot Run code with F5
Integrations
No integrations availableNo integrations available
GitHub
GitHub

What are some alternatives to Vim, Notepad++, Atom?

Sublime Text

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is available for OS X, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses. Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit, optimized for speed and beauty, while taking advantage of native functionality on each platform.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications. Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

Emacs

Emacs

GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language with extensions to support text editing.

Brackets

Brackets

With focused visual tools and preprocessor support, it is a modern text editor that makes it easy to design in the browser.

Neovim

Neovim

Neovim is a project that seeks to aggressively refactor Vim in order to: simplify maintenance and encourage contributions, split the work between multiple developers, enable the implementation of new/modern user interfaces without any modifications to the core source, and improve extensibility with a new plugin architecture.

VSCodium

VSCodium

It is a community-driven, freely-licensed binary distribution of Microsoft’s editor VSCode.

TextMate

TextMate

TextMate brings Apple's approach to operating systems into the world of text editors. By bridging UNIX underpinnings and GUI, TextMate cherry-picks the best of both worlds to the benefit of expert scripters and novice users alike.

gedit

gedit

gedit is the GNOME text editor. While aiming at simplicity and ease of use, gedit is a powerful general purpose text editor.

Kakoune

Kakoune

Kakoune is a code editor heavily inspired by Vim, as such most of its commands are similar to vi’s ones. Kakoune can operate in two modes, normal and insertion. In insertion mode, keys are directly inserted into the current buffer. In normal mode, keys are used to manipulate the current selection and to enter insertion mode.

Adobe Dreamweaver

Adobe Dreamweaver

It gives you faster, easier ways to design, code and publish websites and web applications that look amazing on any size screen. Create, code and manage dynamic websites easily with a smart, simplified coding engine. Access code hints to quickly learn and edit HTML, CSS and other web standards. And use visual aids to reduce errors and speed up site development.

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