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Ask HN: Sublime Text vs. Notepad++ which do you prefer? Why the hype for Sublime?

by nanospeck on 8/3/17, 10:07 AM with 14 comments

I switched to Sublime text recently but found its licence pop-up and download update pop in Mac very annoying. I had no such problems when I used Notepad++ why is there so much hype for Sublime as a text editor (there is even a Udacity course for sublime)? What am I missing?

  • by drKarl on 8/3/17, 10:30 AM

    Well for starters, Notepad++ is only for Windows while Sublime is for Windows, Linux and MacOs X.

    I guess the fact that you can customize it with Python (it has an embedded Python console) and write plugins in python makes it easier for many developers to write their own plugins, while for Notepad++ you would have to write plugins in C/C++ and use DLLs which is more cumbersome.

    In any case, in my opinion nothing beats Vim (well, emacs might be close, but I prefer Vim). When I need to use an IDE like IntelliJ Idea or Eclipse I install a Vim plugin. Some time ago I was using Sublime with Vintage mode, but then I improved my Vim knowledget past basic Vim and I now I prefer Vim to any other text editor.

  • by saluki on 8/3/17, 11:04 AM

    I used to be a notepad++ user.

    Sublime is way faster to use and better all around and saves me tons of time(money) over using notepad++.

    As far as the nag screen, I endured it for a while but I make money using sublime and enjoy using it want it to stay around so I purchased a license.

    If the cost seems high, add the cost in to your next fixed cost project, typically clients aren't going to decline a proposal +/- $100. (don't list as a line item btw, just increase your quote by $100 to cover it).

    You could also think about raising your rates. So you have more revenue for equipment/software.

    Sublime has great time savers you might not have discovered yet.

    This article is a little dated but covers some of the best things about sublime.

    https://scotch.io/bar-talk/best-of-sublime-text-3-features-p...

    This is a great series that shows off what Sublime can do: https://laracasts.com/series/sublime-text-mastery

    Speaking of raising rates. A great way to get better higher paying projects is to learn Rails or Laravel.

  • by mtmail on 8/3/17, 10:39 AM

    The daily reminder to pay for the software you're using for free is annoying?

  • by heldrida on 8/3/17, 11:01 AM

    It's very fast and never crashed! I don't know for how long I use it for, but probably since release. The minimap was the first feature I noticed, the default theme and the package manager.

    I decided to use it based on my own experience, not sure if it'll help you opt for it if you need other people to tell you so. Experience it first!

    If you feel annoyed about the popup, pay for the license, it's cheap and you probably make 1000000x more from it in terms of profit over the investment you put.

  • by Rjevski on 8/6/17, 6:26 PM

    Sublime is beautiful. I'm sure you can make Notepad++ look the same with tweaking, but Sublime is beautiful by default (and extra color schemes are one click away on Package Control). Also, it's cross-platform which is important given that I'm on a Mac.

  • by anzoxe on 8/3/17, 1:26 PM

    I've been using vscode for the past year at least.

    Can someone describe the benefits of sublime over vscode or even atom(I find atom to be a lot slower than vscode)?

    So many people swear by sublime so I assume there must be something I'm missing. At the same time I love the simplicity of adding plugins in vscode, and sharing settings through a git gist is great as well.

  • by wingerlang on 8/3/17, 10:41 AM

    Speed, the package manager and the multi cursor made me fall in love with it.

    And if you're annoyed by the popup, then just pay for it. It's not /that/ expensive if you use it daily. That being said I have not paid for it and the popup is just one click to dismiss. My CMD+S is essentially CMD+S+SPACE (to remove the popup should it appear).

  • by eb0la on 8/3/17, 12:25 PM

    I really love the multicursor feature is Sublime.

    In fact I use it a lot to monkey patch CSV files after searching for a regexp.

  • by NetStrikeForce on 8/4/17, 9:07 PM

    I can open 1-2GB files with Sublime. I can't with Notepad++

    But most of the time I use Notepad++ for quick notes, dumping clipboard contents, parse logs, ... Pretty much everything except coding (I only do small scripts and the odd tiny utility).

  • by Petrakis on 8/3/17, 12:10 PM

    Ive used notepad++ but recently I found Visual Code and it replaced np++