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GNU Emacs VS SlickEdit

Compare GNU Emacs VS SlickEdit and see what are their differences

GNU Emacs logo GNU Emacs

GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more.

SlickEdit logo SlickEdit

SlickEdit is a cross-platform, multi-language source code editor text editor that allows programmers to developer in over 40 languages on seven platforms.
  • GNU Emacs Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-19
  • SlickEdit Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-14

GNU Emacs features and specs

  • Highly Extensible
    GNU Emacs is highly customizable, allowing users to configure nearly every aspect using Emacs Lisp. This makes it remarkably adaptable for various workflows.
  • Rich Plugin Ecosystem
    There is a wide array of plugins available for Emacs, extending its functionality for programming, text editing, project management, and more.
  • Versatile
    Aside from text editing, Emacs can function as an email client, web browser, terminal emulator, and more, making it a powerful multi-purpose tool.
  • Free and Open Source
    GNU Emacs is free to use and modify, with source code available under the GNU General Public License, encouraging collaborative improvement and transparency.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Emacs runs on many different operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and various Unix-like systems, ensuring a wide reach and consistent experience across platforms.

Possible disadvantages of GNU Emacs

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its vast array of features and unique keybindings, new users often find Emacs difficult to learn initially.
  • Performance
    Emacs can be slower compared to more lightweight text editors, especially when heavily customized or handling large files.
  • Keyboard-Centric Interface
    Emacs relies heavily on keyboard shortcuts, which can be overwhelming and complex, leading to potential finger strain from extensive use.
  • Complex Configuration
    While its customizability is a strength, configuring Emacs to fit personal needs can be time-consuming and complex, requiring knowledge of Emacs Lisp.

SlickEdit features and specs

  • Versatility
    SlickEdit supports over 70 programming languages, making it an extremely versatile editor for multi-language development environments.
  • Customization
    It offers extensive customization options, including customizable key bindings, menus, toolbars, and a powerful macro language for automation.
  • Speed
    The editor is optimized for speed and performance, even when working with large files and complex projects.
  • Code Navigation
    Enhanced code browsing features, such as symbol referencing, syntax expansion, and context tagging, make navigating and reviewing code more efficient.
  • Debugging Support
    It includes robust debugging features like integrated debuggers for various languages, which streamline the debugging process.
  • Cross-Platform
    SlickEdit is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, allowing developers to maintain a consistent workflow across different operating systems.
  • Integrated Version Control
    Supports version control systems like Git, Subversion, and Mercurial, providing seamless integration for code management.

Possible disadvantages of SlickEdit

  • Cost
    Unlike many other text editors and IDEs, SlickEdit is a paid product, which could be a barrier for independent developers and small teams.
  • Complexity
    Its extensive feature set can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a steep learning curve to fully utilize its capabilities.
  • User Interface
    Some users find the user interface to be less modern and intuitive compared to other contemporary editors and IDEs.
  • Limited Plugins
    Compared to other popular editors like VS Code or IntelliJ IDEA, SlickEdit has a limited ecosystem of third-party plugins and extensions.
  • Resource Intensive
    Despite being known for performance, some users report that it can be resource-intensive, particularly when loading large projects.

Analysis of GNU Emacs

Overall verdict

  • GNU Emacs is widely considered to be a powerful and versatile text editor, especially among programmers and developers.

Why this product is good

  • Highly Customizable: Emacs can be extensively customized with Emacs Lisp, enabling users to tailor the editor to fit their specific workflow.
  • Rich Ecosystem: There is a large variety of plug-ins and extensions available, which can transform it into much more than just a text editor.
  • Built-in Tools: Emacs includes numerous built-in tools such as a debugger, calendar, email client, and file manager, making it a comprehensive development environment.
  • Cross-Platform: Emacs runs on multiple platforms, which makes it accessible to a broad audience.

Recommended for

  • Programmers and developers who appreciate a customizable and extensible tool.
  • Users who want to integrate various development tools into a single environment.
  • Individuals comfortable with learning Emacs Lisp to create and understand custom scripts and configurations.
  • People interested in a text editor that has a strong and supportive community.

Analysis of SlickEdit

Overall verdict

  • SlickEdit is a powerful and highly versatile code editor, particularly favored by developers who require extensive customization and advanced features. Its steep learning curve and premium pricing might be a drawback for some, but for those who need its specialized capabilities, it's often deemed worth the investment.

Why this product is good

  • SlickEdit is recognized for its robust features tailored for professional developers. It offers extensive language support, powerful debugging tools, customizable workspaces, and efficient code navigation. The editor is designed to handle large codebases with ease and provides advanced editing capabilities like macro scripting and version control integration.

Recommended for

    SlickEdit is ideal for professional developers and software engineers who work on complex projects and large codebases. It's particularly beneficial for those who need support for multiple languages, advanced debugging tools, and customizable environments. It's also suitable for developers who value speed and efficiency in their editing workflow.

GNU Emacs videos

Switching to GNU Emacs

SlickEdit videos

SlickEdit - Why Should I Use SlickEdit?

More videos:

  • Review - SlickEdit - Emulations
  • Tutorial - SlickEdit - How to Orgainze the Projects Tool Window - Directory View
  • Tutorial - SlickEdit - How to Use the Class Browser

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GNU Emacs and SlickEdit)
Text Editors
81 81%
19% 19
IDE
81 81%
19% 19
IDEs And Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GNU Emacs and SlickEdit

GNU Emacs Reviews

14 BEST LaTeX Editor for Mac & Windows in 2022
Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It is one of the best LaTeX editor for Mac that allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.
Source: www.guru99.com
The Top 7 Notepad++ Alternatives for You
Emacs has been around in its various forms since 1976 and is another very worthy Notepad++ alternative. When I first started using Emacs I have to admit that I didn’t find it the easiest to use. But once I got used to it I realized just how powerful Emacs is for the programming community.
10 Best Notepad++ Alternatives in 2020
Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.
Source: www.guru99.com
7 open source alternatives to Dreamweaver
Vim or Emacs. Without participating in the holy war between these two traditional text editors, I can safely say that there are a number of enhancements for web editing available for both. So if you're already a terminal junkie, take your pick. Or, if those don't satisfy, try one of these Emacs/Vim alternatives.
Source: opensource.com
10 Best Sublime Text Alternatives in 2019
Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.
Source: www.guru99.com

SlickEdit Reviews

Top 10 Notepad++ Alternatives for Mac in 2022
Here we have discussed more Notedpad++ Mac alternatives. We discussed that it is actually not available on Mac. However, we have discussed different alternatives you can choose with your computer. These include Atom, Sunset Code, Brackets, BBEdit, SlickEdit, Komodo IDE, Coderunner, and Coda, among others. All of these have their own limitations, capabilities, and features,...
Source: www.imymac.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GNU Emacs seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 6 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GNU Emacs mentions (6)

  • Emacs daemon as sytemd service in debian 12 (gnome)
    Cat .config/systemd/user/default.target.wants/emacs.service [Unit] Description=Emacs text editor Documentation=info:emacs man:emacs(1) https://gnu.org/software/emacs/ [Service] Type=notify ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/emacs --fg-daemon # Emacs will exit with status 15 after having received SIGTERM, which # is the default "KillSignal" value systemd uses to stop services. SuccessExitStatus=15 # The location of the... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Why does emacs exec path variable not just copy the users path variable?
    ## If your Emacs is installed in a non-standard location, you may need ## to copy this file to a standard directory, eg ~/.config/systemd/user/ . ## If you install this file by hand, change the "Exec" lines below ## to use absolute file names for the executables. [Unit] Description=Emacs text editor Documentation=info:emacs man:emacs(1)... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Hi DM's, what medium do you use to organise your campaign?
    For gathering notes, writing and organizing, Org-Roam which implies Org and Emacs. Source: over 2 years ago
  • This Guy is getting out of control at this point.
    I was heading to gnu.org/software/emacs to prove my point and it said:. Source: over 3 years ago
  • opam doesn't see emacs?
    <><> Version-specific details <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 🐫 Version 1 Repository default Homepage: "http://gnu.org/software/emacs" Bug-reports: "https://github.com/ocaml/opam-repository/issues" Authors: "anil@recoil.org" Maintainer: "anil@recoil.org" License: "GPL-1.0-or-later" Flags: conf Synopsis Virtual package to install the Emacs editor Description This... Source: over 3 years ago
View more

SlickEdit mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of SlickEdit yet. Tracking of SlickEdit recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GNU Emacs and SlickEdit, you can also consider the following products

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

Sublime Text - Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, html and prose - any kind of text file. You'll love the slick user interface and extraordinary features. Fully customizable with macros, and syntax highlighting for most major languages.

Vim - Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing

Notepad++ - A free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment.

Microsoft Visual Studio - Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft.

Light Table - Light Table is a new interactive IDE that lets you modify running programs and embed anything from...