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Ask HN: Why is Notepad++ not ported to mac yet?

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Re: Ask HN: Why is Notepad++ not ported to mac yet?

#26
post #24

Notepad++ is pretty great for Windows. On the Mac, BBEdit (paid) and TextWrangler (free, more or less a light version of BBEdit) are both fantastic. Some people like TextMate too.

This: TextMate is basically the Notepad++ equivalent for macOS. CotEditor[0] isn't bad either, it all depends on what your needs are

[0] https://coteditor.com/

Re: Ask HN: Why is Notepad++ not ported to mac yet?

#29
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If speed (editor performance) is key, then VIM ... jump the first learning curve... and feel free to use neovim or the mac gui for neovim ( https://github.com/rogual/neovim-dot-app ) When it comes to actual editor performance, you dont get much better than VIM or Emacs... either of which perform well enough to load GB size files and not die on their face...

Have you ever tried hex fiend? That thing can load 20Gb files and allow you to scroll through it easily...How does it do it and why doesn't everyone copy them?

I've never used hex fiend (and have only needed that type of tool a handful of times), but from my understanding the reason this can be so much faster than a text editor is seeking for new lines. If you need to jump 50% through the file, with a hex editor you look at the size of the file and jump to the middle. For a text file you have to count all of the newlines (seek the entire file). Even if the text editor does clever things, many times plugins (like syntax highlighting) do things in naive ways.

Vim is /fairly/ fast even with very large files.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Notepad++ not ported to mac yet?

#30
post #8

We have Vim installed by default.

While I don't think most people (or even many) would agree with you. As someone who uses Vim pretty much exclusively (and has a Mac), I kind of had to smile at this. For most people though, Notepad++ and Vim are not the same type of animal.

Are they really, though? If you've put in the effort to learn Vim's command system (big if there), then they provide mostly the same things:

- heavily centered around document editing - encourage plugins over embedded features - very good regex find/replace - very good at editing massive files (the main failing of most other editors)

They both have syntax highlighting for most languages. I admit that some features of N++ need plugins in vim, of course, like spellcheck. I generally do use them for pretty interchangable situations.

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