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I'm looking for VIM replacement. My key points are:

  1. Extensible in sane language (such as Python, Ruby, or even Lua, after vimscript everything will do). Also GUI part should be extensible too, so no SublimeText2.
  2. GUI. Preferrably GTK+.
  3. Lightweight. I don't understand IDEs like Eclipse/NetBeans consuming up to 1G of RAM.
  4. File browser panel.
  5. Splits, tabs and windows. There should be ability to split views tabs infinite number of times (or while they fit to screen).
  6. VCS support (optional: especially Git)
  7. Snippets & autocompletion (not mandatory, but I would very love to have those)

Any ideas?

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I'd start looking here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_text_editors – mcalex Dec 1 '12 at 3:57
been there, googled, asked at irc – Daniel Dec 1 '12 at 3:58
I'm not looking for a vim replacement since I love vim so much, but I'm really interested in reading the (good and constructive) answers you might have regarding all the points you mentioned. Thanks for asking! +1 – gniourf_gniourf Dec 1 '12 at 12:27

3 Answers

up vote 0 down vote

The classic answer is, of course, emacs. You can do everything you asked for in emacs with a bit of tweaking. 

1. **Extensible in sane language**

emacs uses emacs-lisp

2. GUI. Preferrably GTK+.

yup

3. Lightweight.

ditto

4. File browser panel.

you can get this using ECB, maybe other ways too.

5. Splits, tabs and windows.

Easy, Ctrl+X+2 (splits) and see here for tabs.

6. VCS support (optional: especially Git)

Absolutely, see here.

7. Snippets & autocompletion

Use yasnippet.

As an added benefit, if you switch from vim to emacs you will almost certainly win the lottery and are guaranteed a place in the heaven of your religion of choice. Everyopne knows emacs is way better than vim, that's why all real programmers use it :).

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Lisp is definitely not a common language and for me its hard to call it sane. Single threaded, no access to GTK+ from plugins (look at the speedbar implementation), finger-breaking combinations (m-x m-c and lots typing to finally do somehthing), VCS support is not integrated with file browser (at least it wasn't last time when I've tried ECB). Lightweight? Definitely not. Very poor support of mixed modes, autocompletion recommended by emacs wiki is buggy, I can't call it convinient tool. I've tried Emacs, spent lots of time and got same result as VIM. Thats definitely not an option. – Daniel Dec 3 '12 at 11:48
But @Daniel, what about your place in heaven? Joking apart, I have to say I agree with you about lisp but others, more knowledgeable than I, seem to think it is wonderful so, since your coding-foo is likely more than mine, I mentioned it. Personally, I like that I can do things in emacs without using the mouse but to each their own. – terdon Dec 3 '12 at 16:20
up vote 0 down vote

I use geany and jedit. The first is faster and more user-friendly. Jedit is more powerful but the user-interface is not so user friendly.

Geany is also easier to install if you want the latest version. Jedit is a java program, so you would need java too.

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I've been trying to use geany, but it has no scripting extensions. Only C plugins. I've even tried to create a wrapper plugin to support python extensions, but that was a failure because program must be designed with plugins in mind, thats can't be bolted on later. Also geany has no splits (plugin splits window 2 times max, also its unstable and has bad usability). jEdit is a heavy java solution. It indeed has lots of plugins, but extensible only in java (unless you drop in something like jRuby or kind of). jEdit UX is not just "not so user friendly", its even worse than emacs (IMHO) – Daniel Dec 3 '12 at 11:52
up vote -1 down vote

The answer, of course, is Emacs.

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see the answer by terdon and my comments about it – Daniel Dec 4 '12 at 8:06

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