If you look around for open-source code editors, a couple of promising new projects may challenge the likes of Visual Studio Code.
Sure, that may not happen anytime soon. But it does not hurt to be optimistic about supporting new projects.
We recently covered some of those options here:
Sourav Rudra
Now, I have stumbled upon another editor, "ecode". The project's author mentions that it takes inspiration from editors like Lite XL.
What's different?
- It is built on top of its new GUI framework eepp which focuses on providing a rich user interface.
- While it aims to use minimal resources, ecode's philosophy targets modern hardware with systems that have SSDs, high cores count, and decent GPU acceleration.
- The code editor can be compiled to run in any modern browser. However, the current focus is not on the development of the web version.
That sounds good. So, let us take a look.
Features of ecode
ecode is a capable editor with all the essentials loaded from the start.
Sure, it has plans to add more stuff as the development progresses. As it stands, here are some of the key highlights:
- Portable
- Syntax highlighting
- Terminal support
- Auto-completion
- Customizable color schemes
- Customizable keyboard bindings
- LSP Support
- Minimap
- Plugin manager
- Dark and light mode
- Various types of split views to adapt to different workflows
I tried the editor briefly on Linux Mint, and it sure looks like a work in progress.
But, even in its early stages, it supports the essentials to support a wide range of languages and syntax highlights accordingly.
You can customize the editor's theme quickly from a set of pre-defined themes.
The minimap will be handy for users who write a lot of code (lengthy snippets) and need to navigate it quickly.
The app crashed for me initially as I performed a right-click in a blank area. But, it was quickly fixed with the next version update, 0.4.1 (at the time of publishing this). So, I would say the development progress seems promising.
Codeanywhere
Download ecode
You can try the live demo available to test-drive some options quickly.
An AppImage file is available for all Linux distributions. Packages for macOS and Windows are also available.
You can get these packages from its GitHub releases section or explore its source code.
💬 With so many promising new code editors in development, do you think we'll have a good competition to Microsoft's VS Code?
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