If you ever need to work with your code on multiple platforms, you should consider employing one of these 5 most popular cross-platform code editors.
If you're a developer, you probably selected your platform of choice a long time ago. You may have decided on Linux, macOS, or Windows as your operating system for your career and life.
That doesn't mean it will be the only platform you'll use. Or, the operating system you choose for your personal development projects may not be the same one you were given at work. Or, you can collaborate with other developers and may need to work with similar tools.
Fortunately, there is something called cross-platform, which means that an application is not limited to a single operating system. These days, however, an app almost has to be cross-platform for greater flexibility.
Let's take a look at some of the most popular cross-platform code editors that you can install on all your systems.
Visual Code
Visual Studio Code de Microsoft it tends to always rank near the top of each list of code editors. There's a good reason for that. VS Code comes with all the features you need (like debugging, syntax highlighting, built-in Git control, and code refactoring) and some that you might not even have known about, but will eventually depend on. One such feature is IntelliSense, which provides intelligent completion based on imported variable types, function definitions, and modules.
VS Code supports Python, C/ C++, C#, Java (via an extension pack), Go, Dart, PHP (via an extension pack), HTML, JSON, Julia, Less, Markdown, PowerShell, SCSS, T-SQL and Typing. If you don't find the language of your choice in the list, you can always check the VS Code Marketplace to see if there is an extension available.
Outside of the extensive features, VS Code has one of the best user interfaces available. Not only is it very well designed, but it is also easy to use. And, to make this editor even more attractive, it's free.
Atom
Atom is another free cross-platform code editor that is also open source. Before it became available to the public, Atom served as GitHub's in-house editor. However, in 2014, the company decided to launch the tool to the public and it has had a great acceptance around the world.
Atom offers another exceptional user interface that makes it possible for developers to split the view into separate panels to ease the differences. Other features include a built-in package manager, intelligent auto-completion, file system scanning, search and replace, Git and GitHub integration, plugins and themes, and various customizations so you can customize Atom.
Atom is a great publisher for those who are new to software development, as well as those who have been around the block several times. And with its huge library of available settings, you can make Atom do whatever you want however you want. Atom also supports many popular languages and frameworks, such as Node.js, CSS, and JavaScript.
Sublime Text
Sublime Text is another highly customizable code editor that can be used on most platforms. Unlike VS Code and Atom, Sublime Text has an associated cost. For a single user, Sublime Text costs $99.00 per license. However, many consider Sublime one of the best in the business. It's also a bit more complex than the other options. All of this adds up to Sublime being one of the most capable editors available.
With split screen, simultaneous editing, file navigation, adaptive matching for quick keyboard command invocation, GPU processing, Apple Silicon support, multiple tab selection, contextual autocomplete, TypeScript and TSX support, an updated Python API, super-powerful syntax highlighting/definitions, auto-saving, spell checker, macros, and support for tons of programming languages (such as such as AppleScript, C, C++, CSS, Diff, Erlang, Go, Groovy, HTML, Java, JavaScript and lisp).
UltraEdit
UltraEdit is another cross-platform code editor that requires the purchase of a license. You can purchase an annual license for $99.95 or a perpetual license for $119.95. UltraEdit is another highly customizable editor that includes an extensive library of themes and even lets you create your own.
Key features of UltraEdit include a column mode (for editing along the Y axis anywhere in a document), multi-brand/multi-select, built-in FTP and SSH support, 4k UHD support, one of the fastest search functions on the market, fully integrated file comparison, integration with the operating system, excellent handling of large files (more than 10 GB and more), hexadecimal editing, XML and JSON support, syntax highlighting for almost any language, layouts, smart templates, feature list, macro and script support, and a complete HTML toolkit.
Brackets
Brackets was designed specifically for web and front-end developers. So if your job consists primarily of front-end development (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), this could be the ideal code editor for you.
Brackets can be divided into vertical or horizontal planes, but they also include an online editing feature that allows you to see all the selectors that belong to a specific ID. For example, you can select a specific CSS ID and open the online editor to see only the selectors that belong to that ID.
Brackets also includes features such as preprocessor support, browser synchronization (via Live Preview), a wide range of extensions, JSLinut, LESS support, and Quick Edit. Just make sure you understand that you won't be doing any back-end development with this editor.
Conclusion
If you have a need, there is a cross-platform code editor to meet it. Any of the 5 most popular cross-platform code editors above would be a great tool for you to think about using. Just make sure the editor you choose is suitable for the job at hand. Fortunately, it won't matter what operating system you use, because these editors will install and work perfectly on the platform you choose.
