There have been so many over the years...
I am a quite firm believer in continuously trying different things to see if something works better for you then the previous thing.
This means that I might focus on other aspects of a tool then most - for instance, I do not really care about the plugin ecosystem all that much, as I think a great tool has to be great out of the box, not only after days, weeks or months of fine tuning.
Don't get me wrong, I do adapt tools over time, but I try to keep this to a minimum. Anyhow, I digress, and every rule has an exception (more on that in a minute).
I got into computers in the 90s and my first editor was Notepad. I first wrote some scripts and later I developed my schools website using it. Yup, it used <blink> and also <marquee>. Yup, on the same element. Apologies for anyone who ever saw that site.
I guess the line above answers the question, so feel free to stop reading here. If you are interested in the journey since, and on my thoughts on tools in general, please read on \o/
A few years later I went into DreamWeaver because a friend had a license and I thought it looked so professional. That did not last long ^^ Eclipse was next, and i actually wrote my first ever production code there. When I joined the first consulting company I worked in, I used Coda and later Brackets, JetBrains and Sublime. All of these were also relatively short journeys, because a colleague introduced me to Vim.
You probably guessed already that Vim is the exception to my 'rule' above. The Vim setup I use today is nothing like the out-of-the-box Vim experience (here is a shameless plug if you want to have a look at my configuration). Perhaps this is also because I have stuck with it for the longest time.
Either way, despite still using this tried and true tool from time to time, these days I have more or less switched entirely to VSCode (probably with less than 5 plugins) and I love it.
This all is just a really long winded way of saying:
Use what works for you, and always at least test drive things that look interesting. At the same time, I do not change just for the sake of change anymore, and any tool I use today has to at least meet these criteria...
Be local and available offline (I am not into browser based tools).
Have great search/file navigation and key based navigation.
Get out of my way.
I balance these and also my 'minimum customisation' rule in practise of course, since after all - a text editor is where i spend most of my time - so it has to be a place i enjoy and something that helps me be productive.
There have been so many over the years...
I am a quite firm believer in continuously trying different things to see if something works better for you then the previous thing.
This means that I might focus on other aspects of a tool then most - for instance, I do not really care about the plugin ecosystem all that much, as I think a great tool has to be great out of the box, not only after days, weeks or months of fine tuning.
Don't get me wrong, I do adapt tools over time, but I try to keep this to a minimum. Anyhow, I digress, and every rule has an exception (more on that in a minute).
I got into computers in the 90s and my first editor was Notepad. I first wrote some scripts and later I developed my schools website using it. Yup, it used
<blink>and also<marquee>. Yup, on the same element. Apologies for anyone who ever saw that site.A few years later I went into DreamWeaver because a friend had a license and I thought it looked so professional. That did not last long ^^
Eclipse was next, and i actually wrote my first ever production code there. When I joined the first consulting company I worked in, I used Coda and later Brackets, JetBrains and Sublime. All of these were also relatively short journeys, because a colleague introduced me to Vim.
You probably guessed already that Vim is the exception to my 'rule' above. The Vim setup I use today is nothing like the out-of-the-box Vim experience (here is a shameless plug if you want to have a look at my configuration). Perhaps this is also because I have stuck with it for the longest time.
Either way, despite still using this tried and true tool from time to time, these days I have more or less switched entirely to VSCode (probably with less than 5 plugins) and I love it.
This all is just a really long winded way of saying:
Use what works for you, and always at least test drive things that look interesting. At the same time, I do not change just for the sake of change anymore, and any tool I use today has to at least meet these criteria...
I balance these and also my 'minimum customisation' rule in practise of course, since after all - a text editor is where i spend most of my time - so it has to be a place i enjoy and something that helps me be productive.
Thanks for adding key values to your experience with code editor and your methods🔥.
I like yours trying new things and keeping minimal as possible🤩.
Your experience will help many others✨