Some people say it is closer to an IDE than a text editor since it provides many features that you will typically find in an IDE.
#Sublime text 3 pug syntax highlighting code
VS Code is more than just a basic text editor. Visual Studio Code just edged out Visual Studio as the most popular developer environment tool for web developers Although it is relatively young compared to other popular editors, it has improved in leaps and bounds over the years so much that it was listed as the most popular text editor amongst web developers in the latest Stack Overflow survey. Visual Studio Code, not to be confused with Visual Studio, is the best text editor for JavaScript developers right now. This ranking is subjective so I encourage you to draw your own conclusions after trying each one out.Īll the editors listed here are cross-platform across Windows, macOS and Linux so you don’t have to worry about compatibility with your favourite operating system. To make it easier for you to pick one, I have ranked them from most recommended to least recommended. With these considerations in mind, let’s look at a few options that you can use if you’re just getting started with JavaScript and web development in general. Support for ES2015+ as well as popular frameworks and librariesĪ good editor should also provide support for the latest JavaScript features soon after they are released, and have a strong plugin ecosystem so you can get support for the most popular frameworks and libraries. Auto complete becomes invaluable at this point. However, once you’ve got a grip on all the basic keywords and built-in methods, I do not see much value in typing everything out by yourself. If you’re just starting out, I recommend turning off auto complete in your editor and type everything out manually instead so that you can memorise the syntax much quicker. This improves readability and helps you spot syntax errors much quicker.įor example, here’s a code snippet without syntax highlighting:įunction handleSubmit ( event ) Auto CompletionĬode auto completion is a feature offered by many code editors that helps to accelerate the editing process and reduce typos by completing the names of variables, keywords, classes, and methods within the scope of your program or project.Ĭode auto completion in Visual Studio Code Literally all code editors support highlighting source code in different colours based on the language you’re working with. That said, there are a few things that your editor must have for it to be considered good enough for developing in JavaScript. Beyond that, the type of editor you choose will come down purely to your personal preference. What to look for in a Code EditorĪll code editors can write text and save it to a file. The goal of this article is to help you decide what text editor to use when learning to code with a specific emphasis on programming in JavaScript, although most of the editors discussed here can be used for other languages as well. Learning to code is already hard enough so you can use all the help you can get. If you’re just starting out, you need to choose an editor that supports you as a beginner. Ask five people, and you’re likely to get five different answers. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when looking at the options out there as they’re so many. However, if you want to take your coding to the next level, you need to consider looking at a desktop editor which goes above and beyond the level of most web based tools.
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You may already be familiar with some of these web based editors since many online coding programs like freeCodeCamp recommend their use. CodePen, Web Maker, and Plunker are prominent examples.
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We also have code editors that live in the browser. A code editor maybe a standalone program or built into an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). There are some text editors that are designed specifically for writing and editing source code. Not all text editors are great for programming like the aforementioned Notepad since it does nothing to ease or automate the editing of source code. This is why it is necessary to pick one that works for you and supports your learning effort. A good example is the Notepad editor on Windows.Īs you start your coding journey, you will quickly discover that the text editor is where you’ll spend most of your time since the fundamental job of any programmer is to write and edit source code. One of the first things you need to do after deciding what programming language to learn, is choosing a text editor for writing code.Īn editor is a program that helps you write plain text (without any formatting) and save it to a file. There are a lot of options out there as far as text editors go, but I’m here to help you traverse the wide landscape of coding editors for JavaScript. Published on ApHow to choose an editor for JavaScript