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Programmer's text editor (was: Saving)

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  Programmer's text editor (was: Saving) Ben Finney <ben@benfinney.id.au> - 2014-07-07 15:29 +1000

#74076 — Programmer's text editor (was: Saving)

<mrwhackadoo1@gmail.com> writes:

> I need to know how to save my code and save as programs because I
> write code and I run it but then I cant save it for later.

You can write Python code using any text editor.

You will do well to use a text editor which is deliberately designed for
programming and other related editing tasks.

I would also recommend that a programmer's text editor should:

* Be licensed as free software — the tool should be able to be improved
  and maintained and distributed to you by any party sufficiently
  motivated, not locked up by any single party.

* Work the same on all major platforms — you should not need to abandon
  a tool you like merely because you switch to a different machine for a
  while.

* Be mature with a strong track record — a text editor which has been
  around for some decades, and still has a large following, has
  demonstrated it can survive many different trends in programming
  tools.

* Well-supported with its own vibrant community — you don't necessarily
  need to join such a community, but you will greatly benefit from the
  fact that a tool has robust community support. That the tool is free
  software is a significant contributor to this.

* Be indefinitely customisable to meet new needs — this ensures that
  anyone sufficiently motivated can allow you to use the tool you
  already know for new tasks that come along. Having a strong community
  of support will mean that most tasks are already supported in the tool
  by people who came before you.

* Properly support many programming languages and related formats — this
  is an outcome of the tool being community-supported, mature, and
  highly customisable. The tool should, in its standard installation,
  already support major programming languages and formats, and have a
  simple way to add supporting plug-ins as you need them.

I know of two obvious text editors that meet these criteria:

* Vim <URL:http://www.vim.org/>
  <URL:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vim_%28text_editor%29>

* Emacs <URL:https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/>
  <URL:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs>

If you're using a *nix style operating system such as GNU+Linux, you
will have both of these available for installation from the operating
system.

> Please help and thank you for your time.

I hope that helps. Familiarising yourself with a strong, free-software,
cross-platform text editor is an essential investment in programming.
Good hunting!

-- 
 \           “We have clumsy, sputtering, inefficient brains…. It is a |
  `\     *struggle* to be rational and objective, and failures are not |
_o__) evidence for an alternative reality.” —Paul Z. Myers, 2010-10-14 |
Ben Finney

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