Raiden's Realm: The Text Editors of KDE

The Text Editors of KDE (Page 2 of 5)

Written by Steve Lake
Posted on: May 02, 2007 at 11:00am
Section: Tutorials
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Kate

Kate is somewhat of the all in one "Swiss army knife" of basic text editors. It's got a little bit of everything for everyone that you'd need in a basic text editing interface. The next step up is to go directly to a full blown word processor. There really is a fascinating number of things you can do with Kate, not the least of which is to use it to do basic perl and php coding. A lot of people wouldn't ever consider using it for such a thing as that, mostly because they consider vi or some other editing interface to be superior to a graphical text editor. I used to think the same thing, but after a few days in Kedit, that all changed. But since we're focusing on Kate right now, we'll go over Kedit later in this overview. For now, let's look at what advantages Kate can offer you in a variety of areas, including coding.

The first thing you're greeted with when you open the program is a session chooser. It's a rather uninformative screen that really doesn't explain what it's asking. The "session" in Kate essentially is a snapshot of where you were, what you were doing, what files you had open, and saves them as a session where you can reopen them again at a later date, all with one click, and immediately get to work. Once inside you're greeted with an interface something similar to this:

In the example picture above I've opened three documents just to show you what the left side window is for. Essentially what Kate does is it stores all of your open documents in a long list on the left side that tells you if a file is open, has been saved, needs to be saved, its name, and even if it's the active one you're working on. The advantage of this is that Kate allows you to have up to 100 different documents and files open at the same time (I suspect it can do more, but I only dared go up to 100) all in the same window. So you only need to keep track of one window on your desktop, rather than separate windows for each open document. While this can be a blessing for those desiring a clutter free desktop, it may present some issues for some people who prefer to keep each file in a separate window. It could also cause issues for you later on should you want to separate out the documents onto different desktops. To do that you'd need to have separate copies of Kate open on different desktops with each of the different files you need on each desktop, effectively killing one of the benefits of Kate, that being it's "all in one" interface and all the benefits that go along with that.

Another thing that makes Kate so appealing is its file system browser. With it you can browse over to any directory on your machine and open a file all without having to click the open dialog. This works well in large directories full of many files you need access to. The tab is available on the left side of the open file window. As you see in the example I've got a directory full of work files. Even though it took me a couple clicks to get there, once I'm in it's only a matter of double clicking each file to open them, or single clicking the black X on the toolbar to close them. You can also "bookmark" that directory, allowing you to instantly browse to it with two quick clicks of your mouse, regardless of where that directory is on your machine. Once you're done, you simply switch back to the "documents" tab on the left and you can then see the list of all the files you currently have open.

So some might ask, "alright, so how does this help me with my coding?" The answer to that would be simple. Color coding. Now that might not sound like much, but you'd be amazed at how much easier your coding becomes when all the sections of your code are broken down by color. Subs are one color, variables another, commands another, etc. The above image should give you a general idea of how that's laid out color wise. It allows you to "at a glance" determine what you're looking at and how it relates to your code. It makes finding and debugging, and even raw coding a lot easier than if they weren't color coded. Another thing that can be a blessing or a bane (depending on your preferences) is the word wrap function. And your word wrap can be static or dynamic, or you can turn it completely off. The advantages behind turning it off are most evident when you're coding. I prefer to have it off simply because it allows me to see the code exactly as it exists line upon line in the file itself. Few other text editors do this much in such a small and compact program. But Kate definitely does. It's got a complete cut, copy, paste and basic editing package, a simple export feature (export to HTML or an email), view settings, a long list of tools and a number of other user configurable options that will speed your user experience.

Kate also has two other unique features you wouldn't expect in a text editor. It's got a file finder and a built in terminal program. Yes, it's got terminal access built in. That takes some getting used to, but you can run a variety of console commands right from Kate on the fly whenever you need to. It's quite handy for a variety of different things. While Kate isn't my preferred text editor in KDE, it's definitely got a lot to offer everyone. One word of warning though. The way it handles text navigation within the document is a bit weird, so be aware of that. It may suit you just fine once you try it, but it felt clumsy to me.