| ▲ | bluenose69 3 hours ago |
| The article starts out by saying that Notepad++ "is a text editor popular among developers". Really? |
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| ▲ | TingPing 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Literally yes: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/ |
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| ▲ | da_chicken 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | This might be a better link: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology#1-dev-id-es It's listed as the third most popular IDE after Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio by respondents to Stack Overflow's annual survey. Interestingly, it's higher among professionals than learners. Maybe that's because learners are going to be using some of those newer AI-adjacent editors, or because learners are less likely to be using Windows at all. I'm sure people will leap to the defense of their chosen text editor, like they always do. "Oh, they separated vim and Neovim! Those are basically the same! I can combine those, really, to get a better score!" But I think a better takeaway is that it's incredible that Notepad++, an open source application exclusive to Windows that has had, basically, a single developer over the course of 22 years, has managed to reach such a widespread audience. Especially when Scintilla's other related editors (SciTE, EditPlus) essentially don't rate. | | |
| ▲ | bee_rider an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | I think the argument you made for combining vim and neovim is pretty good actually. But it seems pretty unique to those two editors (well, throw vi in there if it ever shows up on the chart), so “worst” case notepad++ would be bumped down just one spot. | |
| ▲ | gruez 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | >Maybe that's because learners are going to be using some of those newer AI-adjacent editors, or because learners are less likely to be using Windows at all. You can use the 2022 (ie. pre-chatgpt) results for control for that. The results are basically the same. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2022/#most-popular-technolog... |
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| ▲ | billforsternz 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I enjoy coding something new up in Notepad++, without any annoying autocomplete and jank. I call it unplugged (acoustic?) mode. Jeepers Visual Studio these days starts autocompleting if and while for example and sometimes doesn't respect normal keystrokes because it expects me to complete these kind of interactions instead. |
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| ▲ | jamesfinlayson 42 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I don't do a whole lot of development with it but if I need to open a random code file then it's much better than plain old Notepad. |
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| ▲ | kotaKat 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| First three things I install on any machine - 7zip, Notepad++, alternate browser. |
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| ▲ | kbelder 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Same, but additionally Irfanview. And once upon a time, Media Player Classic used to be on that list. This train of thought made me go find https://www.oldversion.com/. For a while, that was invaluable. | |
| ▲ | whynotmaybe an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Same, I use ninite for that. | |
| ▲ | LostMyWords 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yes, but I start with the browser.
What are the Notepad++ alternatives on Linux and MacOS, for those times when I have to use them? | | |
| ▲ | dizhn 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | I love a feature of notepad++ where when you have documents open and exit, it won't bother you with a save dialog and when you open it again the previous state will be there. I found that mousepad on linux can do this. For something functionality close I would look at Kate. | | |
| ▲ | netsharc 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | I love and hate it at the same time, just like my browser tabs hoarding, it means I currently have 218 open documents on Notepad++ (and 96 browser tabs). I might not even need them anymore, but it's always "I'll look at them... later". |
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| ▲ | nosrepa 39 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Geany. Both npp and geany use the same editor component. | |
| ▲ | bigstrat2003 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Sublime Text. I think it's better than Notepad++ and is available for all computer platforms, not just Windows. | |
| ▲ | paffdragon an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Sublime maybe? | |
| ▲ | GuinansEyebrows 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | vim :) |
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| ▲ | maxpert 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| LOL I guess the editors using Notepad++ downvoted you :P |
