Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux

sagarika has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by Old_Gray_Bear (Bishop) on Sep 08, 2011 at 11:08 UTC
Vim is one of the better Perl editors, in my opinion, but then I am a trifle 'old school'. "Best" of anything is always a subjective matter. ---- I Go Back to Sleep, Now. OGB	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by flakmagnet (Initiate) on Sep 08, 2011 at 20:06 UTC
I second OGB's recommendation for Vim as a Perl editor. With the vim plugin "perlsupport" and the Perl modules Perl::Critic and Perl::Tidy it's a pleasure to use. GVim (GUIVim) can help ease the learning curve until you've learned Vim well enough that you don't need it anymore. -Flak	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by LanX (Saint) on Sep 08, 2011 at 21:44 UTC
> but then I am a trifle 'old school'. Plz correct me, but isn't "vi" w/o "m" supposed to be "old school"? =) Cheers Rolf	[reply]
Re^3: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by andreas1234567 (Vicar) on Sep 12, 2011 at 09:37 UTC
Methinks `vi` is way too feature rich. Ed is proper old school. -- No matter how great and destructive your problems may seem now, remember, you've probably only seen the tip of them. [1]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by LanX (Saint) on Sep 12, 2011 at 11:12 UTC
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by chrestomanci (Priest) on Sep 08, 2011 at 10:54 UTC
In times past that kind of question would have started a flame war. There are many to choose from and many people use more than one editor depending on what they are doing. For myself, I tend to use eclipse (with the EPIC plug-in) for large projects, and one of Padre, gedit, kate for simpler scripts. For quick edits I often dive in with nano. Don't take my choices as gospel, there are plenty of other alternatives. Listen to the other suggestions here, and try many different editor before you make up your mind.	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by Solo (Deacon) on Sep 08, 2011 at 13:00 UTC
Along with EPIC, there's Perl TT Editor and YAML Editor for Eclipse.	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by Anonymous Monk on Sep 08, 2011 at 10:53 UTC
Perl Development Tools http://perlide.org/	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by zentara (Archbishop) on Sep 08, 2011 at 11:00 UTC
They will have to pry mcedit, the built-in editor of the great mc (Midnight Commander), from my cold fingers. F4 all the way! It isn't the best, but it is the easiest. It is a commanline port of Cooledit The Perl syntax highlighting is very nice. I don't know if Cooledit is in the Ubuntu repository, but to try mc, sudo apt-get install mc I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Old Perl Programmer Haiku ................... flash japh	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by jwkrahn (Abbot) on Sep 08, 2011 at 19:53 UTC
zentara++	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by DanielSpaniel (Scribe) on Sep 08, 2011 at 11:18 UTC
From a command line I prefer to use vi/vim, but if working with a GUI then I like to use Geany, which is very comprehensive, with some nice features.	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by DanielSpaniel (Scribe) on Sep 08, 2011 at 11:21 UTC
I should add that Geany isn't specific to editing only Perl. It also supports a variety of other languages to greater or lesser degrees.	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by luis.roca (Deacon) on Sep 08, 2011 at 11:30 UTC
perlfaq3: Is there an IDE or Windows Perl Editor? Has a a pretty good list that, while not Linux specific, many of the entries are available to you. There's never a shortage of vim or emacs users, support or documentation so either of those are always a safe bet. It would help if we knew more about what you were looking for in an editor. So much is about personal preference and habit that you just have to pick a few and see how they feel. "...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." � Don Quixote	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by pvaldes (Chaplain) on Sep 08, 2011 at 12:04 UTC
I don't know what is the best editor for perl, I use emacs in either the old perl-mode or the sepia-mode `"much is about personal preference and habit"` That's exactly the point, with emacs or vim you will need to learn only once, thus if you have several things to do, it's better than pick a bunch of tools and study how to use all	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by luis.roca (Deacon) on Sep 08, 2011 at 14:26 UTC
"That's exactly the point, with emacs or vim you will need to learn only once, thus if you have several things to do, it's better than pick a bunch of tools and study how to use all" I'm not suggesting to try and master many editors but to simply pick a few the OP thinks they might like, try them out via their tutorials over a weekend and then � yes � pick one. Unless they have that experience of tinkering around they wont know if it's for them. That goes for emacs, vim or any editor. :) "...the adversities born of well-placed thoughts should be considered mercies rather than misfortunes." � Don Quixote	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by Anonymous Monk on Sep 08, 2011 at 11:17 UTC
Hi, Can anybody tell me the best perl editor that can be used on Ubuntu/Linux ? Sure, as soon as you define your terms, best, perl editor, can be used :) These are your choices: emacs, vim, other I use scite, but I like nano/pico, or vim Oh, and super search for this FAQ	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by herveus (Prior) on Sep 08, 2011 at 13:07 UTC
Howdy! I'm with OldGrayBear. vim? is a fine place to start. Nedit is another one I've used, although I'm assuming that it works on Linux. Mostly, it's what ever works well for you. yours, Michael	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by johngg (Canon) on Sep 08, 2011 at 14:41 UTC
I use nedit on Solaris and various flavours of Linux and it also works under Cygwin so I can use it in the Windows environment. There don't seem to have been any updates for some time but since it does the job nicely that's not really a problem. Cheers, JohnGG	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by blue_cowdawg (Monsignor) on Sep 08, 2011 at 13:14 UTC
Can anybody tell me the best perl editor that can be used on Ubuntu/Linux ? I prefer emacs myself, but I've used vi, vim, Eclipse and a few others. I hate the term "best" in the context you've used it. "Best" for me is likely to be uncomfortable at the least for at least one other person. It all boils down to personal preference and how much hand holding you want when you are coding. If by some bizarre quirk of fate my wife was to write a program in Perl she'd probably try to write it using OpenOffice writer. :-) Peter L. Berghold -- Unix Professional Peter -at- Berghold -dot- Net; AOL IM redcowdawg Yahoo IM: blue_cowdawg	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by CountZero (Bishop) on Sep 08, 2011 at 13:33 UTC
If you want to have an IDE rather than a simple editor, think of Activestate's Komodo. It is not for free, however. I like it because it also works on Windows, so I do not have to change my habits when switching between different OS, and it is multi-language so it can also be used for other programming languages. If you are happy with an "editor only", there is the free Komodo Edit. Another nice alternative is Padre. CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by cjb (Friar) on Sep 08, 2011 at 12:37 UTC
Like many have said above, it comes down to personal choice. I personally tend to use emacs when in the command line, and geany when I'm in a gtk GUI. Neither are perl specific, but are both good text editors with syntax highlighting and other useful features.	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by sagarika (Novice) on Sep 08, 2011 at 13:00 UTC
Thanks guys. The SCITE and PADRE seems to be very good. SCITE seems easy and fast. while PADRE supports features like: DEBUG and keyboard short-cuts. good stuffs.	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by itsscott (Sexton) on Sep 08, 2011 at 19:59 UTC
Personally I have been using Komodo for quite some time. I did buy their commercial version as it has a nice runtime debugger. I like it as it is cross platform (windoze/mac/linux) and has a long list of supported languages. I first started using it years ago when it was one of the few that supported XUL for a Firefox plugin I was building for a customer. There is an open source version http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit and as I stated, the license was well worth the investment for my needs. Good luck in finding one, I've changed editors a few times over the years, and it's painful! I like to have a nice IDE I can stick with, for 3 or 4 years now it's been Komodo. On another note, it's built on the Mozilla engine and supports plug-ins just like firefox et all	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by Anonymous Monk on Sep 08, 2011 at 13:31 UTC
Looks like nobody has yet mentioned cat and butterflies	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by RichardK (Parson) on Sep 08, 2011 at 13:50 UTC
Your link didn't work. try this one xkcd://378 ( BTW you can link to xkcd directly with `[xkcd://378]` )	[reply] [d/l]
What are the criterias of a "good" Perl IDE? by LanX (Saint) on Sep 08, 2011 at 19:54 UTC
> Can anybody tell me the best perl editor ... What are the criterias of a "good" Perl IDE? Cheers Rolf	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by DrHyde (Prior) on Sep 09, 2011 at 10:04 UTC
Whether you use vim or emacs is a matter of individual conscience in our order. Anything else is wrong.	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by Anonymous Monk on Sep 09, 2011 at 11:11 UTC
vim is the best! All others suck.	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by Anonymous Monk on Sep 09, 2011 at 11:21 UTC
Actually, make that a "personal idiosyncratically tuned vim" instead of unadorned "vim".	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by Anonymous Monk on Sep 08, 2011 at 19:15 UTC
The new Kate is buggy.. Ultraedit isn't Perl friendly. I would advise for Eclipse, as long as Padre is not fixed. For something more direct, Jedit is the best.	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by jassics (Initiate) on Sep 11, 2011 at 09:51 UTC
If it's only editor not IDE then I would vote for Vim and Emacs. I personally use Vim and it's easy, very effective to use. I can edit multiple files. I can use tabbed features in it. can set environment color and many things :). It supports too many languages and its very fast. Emacs is of course very fast and too good editor for Linux environment	[reply]
Re: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by jdrago999 (Pilgrim) on Sep 08, 2011 at 18:49 UTC
gEdit (it is right there under Applications->Accessories->"Text Editor") It's simple, does not crash and has syntax highlighting for everything. gEdit correctly handles encodings (utf8, utf16, etc) and different line-endings. MOST IMPORTANTLY: when I hit the "tab" key I can have gEdit give me SPACES. Not TABS.	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by elTriberium (Friar) on Sep 08, 2011 at 19:23 UTC
MOST IMPORTANTLY: when I hit the "tab" key I can have gEdit give me SPACES. Not TABS. Nearly every slightly advanced editor can do that.	[reply]
Re^2: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by cjb (Friar) on Sep 09, 2011 at 13:01 UTC
How is incorrectly encoding tabs as spaces an advantage? I know this is probably a holy war, but I have a huge SPACE bar on my key, it's sole job is to insert spaces. I have a tiny little (by comparison) tab key which is supposed to insert tabs, anything else is surely broken behaviour?	[reply]
Re^3: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by jdrago999 (Pilgrim) on Sep 09, 2011 at 17:47 UTC
I know this is probably a holy war, but I have a huge* SPACE bar on my key, it's sole job is to insert spaces.* Precisely. If I want to indent/outdent an entire block of code, I prefer to select multiple lines all at once then press the "tab" key (or shift+tab) until the indentation for that block of lines is to my liking. If this behavior were somehow tied to the space bar, that would be weird.	[reply]
Re^3: Best perl editor on Ubuntu/Linux by PrakashK (Pilgrim) on Sep 13, 2011 at 20:05 UTC
How is incorrectly encoding tabs as spaces an advantage? It is not that TAB character (that is equivalent to ascii 0x09) is being encoded as spaces, but think of it as binding the function of "inserting the appropriate number of spaces" to the TAB key. At least in emacs, the functionality can be bound to any key that one prefers, not necessarily the TAB key. The advantage is that a single keypress of TAB would indent the line as needed, instead of entering the correct number of multiple space characters.	[reply]


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