It takes a bit of getting used to; it isn't as hard initially as Vi (and is modeless), but it is of course more than a text-editor. It has a reputation for such... It's basically a Lisp interpreter, meaning that with a bit of work you can get it to do anything, really.
My C/C++ setup has semantic-aware auto-completion, on-the-fly compilation (wavy-underline code errors), deep integration with Make, GDB, it looks nice (after a lot of tweaking), code snippets, and a ton of other stuff which escapes me.
This is basically the closest approximation to a IDE that a text-editor ever can be. It is quite fantastic in that it has far, far more capability than everything else, including the $13000 editions of Microsoft Visual Studio, which I have used (not on my own dime).
The default distribution ships with a ton of stuff you may or may not use (e.g., a Tetris clone), but since there are no menus and no UI other than the keyboard, this extraordinarily bloated piece of software manages to carry all of those features without them getting in the way at all.
It's very strange because at the same time I like it more than everything else I've tried, I still don't really like it. (I have tried a lot of text-editors).
Still, I edit extremely quickly using it. If a feature doesn't exist, it can be added with no trouble. Chances are, it's already there, or it's done already.
One tip to you:
If you use a laptop keyboard (as I am on this computer), remap control to caps-lock. Else your hands will feel as if they have been stuck in a meat grinder.
Well text editors like Sublime Text also runs on Linux, but most Linux users prefer to use text editors from the terminal. If you are referring to this second choice then start with "nano" and then keep up with Vi/VIm or Emacs
Individual preferences dictate decisions, and can be strong: for many, it's just
between Vim and emacs. For Lisp and Scheme code, I prefer Dr. Racket, and I notice
that many Java and some Haskell users use Eclipse. But I prefer gedit for most coding, which is very plain except for syntax coloring. People differ.
>
> John (gnujohn@gmil.com)
EMacs. VI is a pain in the *** to use.
I would say it is between Vi/Vim and Emacs.
Vi is my favorite
