Dmitry Kalashnikov

Dmitry November 26th, 2006

If you're a big emacs fan like me, and you like good things, then you should check out jEdit. Is an open-source editor written in Java that is super-fast (unlike most of Java software that is typically bloated). I am a very long-term emacs fan. I've written emacs modes, and all kinds of elisp tools for me in the past. The way that I look at it, jEdit is just the next Emacs. It takes all of the things we love about emacs a step further. Why try jEdit?

• Super fast and responsive, unlike most java software
• Modern interface with Java5/Swing!
• Modern language with much larger (lang) user base
• An easy-to-use Plugin system that actually works! It can do self-updates, checks dependencies, versions.
• Code completion, "intelli-sence" popup helpers ... etc, modern IDE stuff!
• Code Folding and Comment Folding
• XML for configs, instead of elisp (trust me, I love elisp more then you do)
• Multiplatform
• Unified Development (like FreeBSD haha, there is only one jEdit. Penguins make tasty snacks.)

I loved the default jEdit functionality, but emacs key bindings are so engraved in my head, I can't use anything else. By the way, Mac OS X uses emacs shortcut keys on all of the programs! I love OSX. Anyway, back to the topic.So, with a little bit of customization you can make jEdit behave just like Emacs. On the mac, there is a weird meta keys are bound to Opton key by default. I don't particularly like that. So, what I did is I rebound Meta-key to Command key ("Mac" symbol key).LooksBeing emacs fans, we don't like to use mouse and click buttons more then necessary. So, I don't need a permanent button bar that just takes up my screen realestate. OK, my mac laptop screen is like 17 inches but thats not really the point. You can go to preferences to remove it. To do the same in emacs, add this to your .emacs:

Remote EditingWhen I use Emacs, I pretty much always have "dired" mode open, angle-ftp, and TRAMP mode. With tramp, you can remotely edit files over top of ssh, ftp, sftp, webdav and emacs transparently handles saving changes, uploading files and other operations. jEdit actually has the same feature that works even better. Its faster and it doesn't hang on sftp sessions at random times. Its called 'FTP' plugin, and it also works over sftp. One nice thing about it, is that it remembers your username/password and the last files you accessed.Language SupportIt has support for over 150 languages, including folding of comments, heredocs, weird language constructs parsing etc. In emacs a lot of things originate from cc-mode, which explains why syntax coloring doesn't render correctly. Oh, if you're into ruby, it has a super-nice ruby plugin you should check out.Screen Shots

• Software Development