Ask HN: Best web text editor?
Hi HN. Does anyone use web-based editors? Is there a good online equivalent of TextMate / Notepad++ / Redcar (with Python support, code folding, etc) that I can access from anywhere? Perhaps with git support? Anyone making such a thing?
30 comments
Out of curiosity, why would you want a web-based text editor?
If you're frequently on-the-go, without your own laptop?
If you're on a restricted machine where you can't install anything, or have other install restrictions (hello, iPad! ;-))?
If you're on a shared computer where it wouldn't be nice to overwrite someone else's config files?
If you're on a mobile device?
If it allowed you do stuff that would be difficult or impossible to do with a local text editor? Like editing and testing web code live, without even perhaps a "save" command?
[Note: I'm not the OP and I don't actually want a web-based text editor for myself, but these are reasons that came to me in the first 2 minutes of thinking about it.]
If you're on a restricted machine where you can't install anything, or have other install restrictions (hello, iPad! ;-))?
If you're on a shared computer where it wouldn't be nice to overwrite someone else's config files?
If you're on a mobile device?
If it allowed you do stuff that would be difficult or impossible to do with a local text editor? Like editing and testing web code live, without even perhaps a "save" command?
[Note: I'm not the OP and I don't actually want a web-based text editor for myself, but these are reasons that came to me in the first 2 minutes of thinking about it.]
I rolled my own little web IDE back in the day so that I could build out a PHP project while backpacking around the world. Part of that was a text editor that handled block indenting correctly and corrected for TEXTAREA's annoying way of dealing with doubleclicks to select text.
It was actually pretty nice, traveling without a laptop and simply dropping into an internet cafe and firing up any browser to get to work.
Naturally, the main issue was that you could only use interpreted languages like PHP with it. Django and Rails weren't even on the horizon at that point, so once I conclusively proved to myself that PHP is just not worth the hassle, I picked up a fast laptop and a copy of VS.NET and haven't looked back.
It was actually pretty nice, traveling without a laptop and simply dropping into an internet cafe and firing up any browser to get to work.
Naturally, the main issue was that you could only use interpreted languages like PHP with it. Django and Rails weren't even on the horizon at that point, so once I conclusively proved to myself that PHP is just not worth the hassle, I picked up a fast laptop and a copy of VS.NET and haven't looked back.
Out of curiosity, why wouldn't you? We don't think twice about Google docs being a good idea, or a thousand other things that were once thought to be purely desktop applications, why should coding be any different? I think it's very striking how few good editors there are on the web, and no real IDEs (that I know of).
I wouldn't because:
1. You need a lot of computing power for editors/IDEs. You want things to happen instantly, and that usually isn't the case with web-based stuff.
2. Browsers haven't reached the point where you can make really great editors in them.
3. You're usually dealing with local files, and browser-based editors wouldn't do well with that (you have to have local files because there are a lot of files, you need to compile them, etc.).
4. When I sit down to program, I usually sit down on a computer I own which has a lot of very specific programs and a very specific environment. This includes, but is not limited to, the editor. I can't do web dev these days without having Firefox + Firebug installed, not to mention having Python/Django installed for most of my projects, etc. So having a web-based editor won't help me in programming on other machines anyway.
1. You need a lot of computing power for editors/IDEs. You want things to happen instantly, and that usually isn't the case with web-based stuff.
2. Browsers haven't reached the point where you can make really great editors in them.
3. You're usually dealing with local files, and browser-based editors wouldn't do well with that (you have to have local files because there are a lot of files, you need to compile them, etc.).
4. When I sit down to program, I usually sit down on a computer I own which has a lot of very specific programs and a very specific environment. This includes, but is not limited to, the editor. I can't do web dev these days without having Firefox + Firebug installed, not to mention having Python/Django installed for most of my projects, etc. So having a web-based editor won't help me in programming on other machines anyway.
Thanks for sating my curiosity! Some interesting points.
1. Not sure I agree here, I'd have to see some benchmarks of similar types of operations in local editors and javascript, but I think it should be roughly equivalent to, say, Eclipse's java-driven interface.
2. I think this is a good point, but I wonder what it is they don't yet have. "Can make really great editors in them" is a pretty vague requirement.
3. I personally think this is historical baggage. There is no reason the server hosting the editor (or another server communicated with that server) could not host your files. Hell, most open source projects are already done this way, hosted on github/sourceforge/etc. - downloading the project locally would be an unnecessary step if the code-hosters offered solid editing options.
4. This is probably the main point, to me. It's not enough to just edit through the web, because there are too many other things you need to do as well, which are even more difficult to detach from a local machine.
1. Not sure I agree here, I'd have to see some benchmarks of similar types of operations in local editors and javascript, but I think it should be roughly equivalent to, say, Eclipse's java-driven interface.
2. I think this is a good point, but I wonder what it is they don't yet have. "Can make really great editors in them" is a pretty vague requirement.
3. I personally think this is historical baggage. There is no reason the server hosting the editor (or another server communicated with that server) could not host your files. Hell, most open source projects are already done this way, hosted on github/sourceforge/etc. - downloading the project locally would be an unnecessary step if the code-hosters offered solid editing options.
4. This is probably the main point, to me. It's not enough to just edit through the web, because there are too many other things you need to do as well, which are even more difficult to detach from a local machine.
As alluded to in another comment, how about your favourite CLI editor accessed via SSH. There are a few web-based SSH clients out there, such as Ajaxterm, Anyterm, WebShell, GotoSSH, etc.
These are acceptable, but there's enough keystroke lag that using it for coding gets pretty annoying. Editing files locally fixes the most important latency issues.
Bespin by Mozilla Labs
Emacs!
No, wait - vi!
No, wait - what was the question again?
No, wait - vi!
No, wait - what was the question again?
I'm actually surprised that no one created a web fronted to either of them yet. Both of them support a multitude of interfaces anyway, so the hooks should be there. Running Emacs as a daemon would support simultaneous GUI and terminal editing too.
Yes, web-based VTxxx terminals would probably suffice, too, but I'd prefer a native interface.
Someone should do a EmacsHub, where you've basically got a little VPS running an emacs daemon, a web interface to it etc.
Yes, web-based VTxxx terminals would probably suffice, too, but I'd prefer a native interface.
Someone should do a EmacsHub, where you've basically got a little VPS running an emacs daemon, a web interface to it etc.
Right, I was about to say Vim myself. Especially with the project manager plugin and NERDTree - it works like charm. I am on Windows and Putty is always a life-saver for me.
editors that can be accessed from the shell, via ssh
web-based text editors feel like a solution in search of a problem, in a world where TextMate, Notepad, vi, emacs, ad infinitum exist
By that logic, so does Google docs.
* My projects are stored in the cloud at github. My servers are often too.
* I have to use different editors (or no editors at all) on different laptops and phones.
* Having multiple checkouts of my data seems a bit skilly when I could have one.
Appreciate there's a need where the aforementioned exist, just wondering if there's a cloud ver.
* My projects are stored in the cloud at github. My servers are often too.
* I have to use different editors (or no editors at all) on different laptops and phones.
* Having multiple checkouts of my data seems a bit skilly when I could have one.
Appreciate there's a need where the aforementioned exist, just wondering if there's a cloud ver.
Sub-question: Are there any good web text editors that support formatting and work with Mobile Safari?
Try http://kodingen.com/ - it seems to hit all your required features.
Edit: They say they support git, but I'm not seeing options for it anywhere. Blah.
Edit: They say they support git, but I'm not seeing options for it anywhere. Blah.
Squad, you're killin' me. Couldn't they figure out how to handle the tab key???
If you hit tab, it just eats it (which I guess is better than tabbing you out of the window), but why not simply insert a tab while you're at it? (or is it taking sides on the tabs vs. spaces debate?)
If you hit tab, it just eats it (which I guess is better than tabbing you out of the window), but why not simply insert a tab while you're at it? (or is it taking sides on the tabs vs. spaces debate?)
jsbin! jsbin.com for a demo and http://github.com/remy/jsbin for the source
second Bespin
stupid question, how to set ruby syntax highlighting on bespin?
Third question: 'save test.py' results in 'the current buffer is untitled, please enter a name' when I'm fairly sure I've just specified one.
ymacs looks pretty solid.