Text Editors for Kubuntu

[RealG187]

I usually use use Kate as KDE/Kubuntu uses that as default. I like how it has the thing at the side so you can have multiple files open.. The thing I find it that it takes longer than MS Notepad to load, would Kate be the Linux equivelent of notepad, no rich text just a thing to type plain text quickly? Cuz on my Pentium MMX versues Pentium 3 the MMX would load notepad faster than the P3 would load kate.. I also use a program called Beyone Compare too and that takes longer does it take more time for Wine than Windows to run it?

But to the main topic Kate gives me "Backup Files" for a file named ex.txt there is also a file named ex.txt~, it has the same content, is it safe to delete this file after I close Kate? Is is like a temporary file that Kate needs?

See the attachment for the icon of the file...

[Snowhog]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

is it safe to delete this file after I close Kate? Is is like a temporary file that Kate needs?

If you don't want the backup file, yes, delete it.

[myNigga]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

Hard to compare an app loading in windows and a different app loading in linux. BTW, Kate is much more of a notepad because it has syntax highlighting as you already know, it supports many encodings and many more features. It's more of a programmers editor than a simple plain text writer, for this matter you have KWrite.

does it take more time for Wine than Windows to run it?

We don't know since we don't have the app. Depending on what it does, a performance hit may go unoticed.
And no, the content of file.txt is not the same as file.txt~, because this one has the content immediately before the last save. You choose if you delete it or not.

[RealG187]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

I will do a file compare...

Anyways, "does it take more time for Wine than Windows to run it?" was a general statement. Kate takes longer than notepad, I need somethign faster, I dont need formatting for what I use it for, if I want formatting I will use Office Software...

[DMurray]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

Anyways, "does it take more time for Wine than Windows to run it?" was a general statement.

You explicitly mentioned a program (Beyone Compare), so it was not a general statement. And even if it was, how are people supposed to know the performance if they don't have such a program? Running something emulated is necessarily slower, the quantification varies (0.5%, 0.1%, 20%), but it will be slower since the OS needs to pretend to be something it is not.

I need somethign faster

Use "vi".

if I want formatting I will use Office Software

Kate doesn't format anything.

[Snowhog]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

I'd be wondering 'how fast is fast enough' for this argument? If I select Kate from K Menu | Utilities | Kate, it loads and is ready for use in under 1 second. That isn't fast enough

[RealG187]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

What kind of Computer do you have, I am running a Pentium 3 at 6xx MHz (I think 677, its been a while...)

[Snowhog]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

Okay, I'm running a newer, faster PC - Toshiba Satellite P105-S6147, Intel dual-core 1.6Ghz with 1Gb of RAM. Still, on your P3, Kate should launch in under 3 (?) seconds If it does take significantly longer for you, then I might opt to leave it open and minimized. Then it's just a mouse-click away for use. Just my suggestion.

[RealG187]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

Kate: 17 seconds
Gedit: 13.5 seconds

By seconds I mean me counting, not fast either...

[Fenyx]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

Comparing Kate with Notepad is hardly fair, considering Notepad does not offer even half of Kate's features. Which is reasonable since Kate is the "KDE Advanced Text Editor". The 3.5 second delay (how were you able to count half a second?!) is, in my IMHO, worth it for the features.

However, hope is not lost. If you absolutely don't need something as "big" as Kate, but don't want to miss out on most of its greatest features, there is KDE's default text editor: KWrite (type "kwite" in Alt+F2 or in the command line). KWrite is like a stripped down version of Kate, loads faster, simpler (no multiple documents sidebar), and still more powerful than Notepad can ever dream to be. Yes, it is KDE's default text editor, not Kate, which is what Kubuntu changed it be the default. If you want to change the default text editor, go to Konqueror -> Settings menu -> Configure Konqueror -> File Associations -> text and change the order (put KWrite up).

Btw, Kate doesn't have rich text formatting as you seem to misunderstand (neither does Notepad). What you see as bold or colored text is part of Kate's (and KWrite's) syntax highlighting. These two text editors don't produce rich text formats at all. Whatever color or formatting you see there is only for display/reading purposes.

[RealG187]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

Why is Kate advanced, what does it do?

Anyways, it came up after I said 13 but before I said 14 so I put 13.5...

[Snowhog]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

Kate - Get an Edge in Editing

[Fenyx]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

Why is Kate advanced, what does it do?

Some "advanced" things that both Kate and KWrite have:
1. Syntax highlighting (you can setup different schemes for text colors)
2. Code folding
3. Smart indent
4. Spell check
5. Accessing remote files the same way as local files (this is actually common to all of KDE)
6. Encoding support (for different languages/characters)
7. Extensible with plugins

Features only in Kate (making it advanced)
1. Multiple document handling
2. Session management
3. Embedded Konsole (terminal), Find file utility,
And more (see the site Snowhog gave)

Just a note regarding that site:
KatePart is the sort of "base" text editing part which both Kate and KWrite, as well as some other text editing related apps (like programming IDE's, web authoring apps) use. This makes it possible to have important powerful features to be available to as many apps as possible. Kate and KWrite themselves are graphical "wrappers" around KatePart, with KWrite being the simplistic alternative and Kate the more powerful one.

[bailout]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

kedit is faster and simpler than kate or kwrite and should be in the repos.

I don't think the extra features of kate are of interest to the vast majority of kubuntu users and hence it shouldn't be included by default. Those who need more advanced features could install it. Having both kate and kwrite is a waste of space and increases impressions of bloat.

I would be interested to know why kwrite is used for "edit as root" from the context menu rather than kate which seems to be the default kubuntu editor. Is there a technical reason why kate won't run as root?

[Fenyx]

Re: Text Editors for Kubuntu

1. Kedit is practically dead. It is no longer maintained and doesn't have some encoding support which users from other countries need. I think there were other technical reasons why Kedit was replaced. And Kedit and KWrite are equally fast. Besides, how would you know that the "extra" features of kate, or more importantly, of kwrite are not of interest to the "vast majority" of Kubuntu or KDE users?

2. KWrite/Kate is the default text editor for KDE, that is why it is included by default in all KDE installations. In KDE 4, only KWrite will be the default.

3. As I mentioned earlier, KWrite is the default text editor for KDE, but Kubuntu changed that to Kate. I don't think they changed that for the Edit as Root service menu. There is no technical reaso why Kate won't run as root.