Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

SlickEdit VS Vim

Compare SlickEdit VS Vim and see what are their differences

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.

Vim logo Vim

Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing
  • SlickEdit Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-14
  • Vim Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-23

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.

Vim features and specs

  • Efficiency
    Once learned, Vim can significantly speed up text editing with its modal editing, keyboard shortcuts, and commands that allow for quick navigation and manipulation of text.
  • Lightweight
    Vim is a very lightweight editor, consuming minimal system resources, making it highly performant even on systems with lower specifications.
  • Customizability
    Vim is highly configurable and extensible through plugins and user-defined settings, allowing users to tailor the editor to their specific needs.
  • Ubiquity
    Vim is available on almost every Unix-like system and even on Windows, making it a ubiquitous tool that you can rely on being available in most environments.
  • Support for Multiple Programming Languages
    Vim supports a wide range of programming languages out of the box and offers syntax highlighting, which can be enhanced through plugins.
  • Powerful Search and Replace
    Vim offers robust searching and replacing functionalities, including support for regular expressions, which can be a powerful tool for developers.

Possible disadvantages of Vim

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Vim's modal editing and extensive set of commands can be daunting for new users, requiring significant time and effort to master.
  • Minimal Default Config
    The default configuration of Vim is quite minimalistic, which may necessitate additional setup and customization to meet modern development needs.
  • Limited GUI
    Vim primarily operates in a terminal, and while there are graphical variants like GVim, they are not as feature-rich or user-friendly as modern GUI editors.
  • Plugin Management
    While Vim is highly extensible, managing and configuring plugins can be cumbersome compared to more modern editors that offer integrated plugin management.
  • Inconsistent Behavior Across Platforms
    There may be inconsistencies in behavior or available features of Vim across different operating systems, which can complicate its use in certain environments.
  • Lack of Integrated Modern Features
    Vim lacks some modern IDE features like integrated debugging, advanced code introspection, and refined autocompletion, which often require third-party plugins to achieve.

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.

Analysis of Vim

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Vim is a good text editor, especially for users who invest the time to learn its powerful commands and features. Its steep learning curve may be challenging initially, but once mastered, it significantly enhances productivity.

Why this product is good

  • Vim is considered a powerful text editor because of its efficiency and versatility. It offers extensive features, such as syntax highlighting, a robust plugin system, and support for numerous programming languages. Vim is highly configurable, enabling users to customize its environment to fit their needs. It is particularly appreciated for its speed and the ability to perform complex text manipulations using simple commands.

Recommended for

    Vim is recommended for programmers, developers, and system administrators who require a highly efficient and customizable text editing experience. It is especially useful for those who work extensively in terminal environments or need a quick, resource-light text editor for remote systems.

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

Vim videos

What Vim Is and Why You Should Learn It

More videos:

  • Review - JAC Vapour VIM Review - JAC does a side by side mod...
  • Review - Jac Vapour VIM - Quick Look

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to SlickEdit and Vim)
Text Editors
8 8%
92% 92
IDE
9 9%
91% 91
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
Software Development
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 SlickEdit and Vim

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

Vim Reviews

Boost Your Productivity with These Top Text Editors and IDEs
Vim offers a variety of features like split windows, macros, and extensive customization options. It has a steep learning curve, but once you master it, you’ll be amazed at the speed and productivity it brings to your coding workflow. Vim is a favorite among experienced developers who value speed and efficiency above all else.
Source: convesio.com
13 Best Text Editors to Speed up Your Workflow
It’s tough to say which developers would enjoy Vim as a text editor. It’s an old system with an outdated interface. Yet, it still has the charm and powerful feature-set that the average developer needs. I would recommend it to more advanced developers who enjoy using open source software and being a part of a community–like the one you can find behind Vim.
Source: kinsta.com
12 Best LaTeX Editors You Should Use
The entire installation process is perfectly documented on their Sourceforge page, which you must definitely pay a visit. There is another standalone Vim software, known as the gVim that brings a GUI-based interface to the Vim document editor. Vim-LaTeX has been developed specifically for the programmers and it is so highly configurable that it can function anyway, ranging...
Source: beebom.com
The Top 7 Notepad++ Alternatives for You
Vim is a totally free Notepad++ alternative. It is available to use on Windows, Mac and Linux computers and it is very powerful. I was able to customize Vim to get it to look and function just how I want it. There is really good help support with Vim so if you are new to programming it will get you through most issues.
10 Best Notepad++ Alternatives in 2020
Vim is an advanced text editor open source tool which is also considered to be an IDE in its way. This tool allows managing your text editing activities with vim editors and UNIX System which can be used on-premise or online.
Source: www.guru99.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Vim seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 10 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.

SlickEdit mentions (0)

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

Vim mentions (10)

  • regular Vim has lua?!
    Lua is quite small, encouraging distros to include it. The ubuntu gvim has, and the gvim AppImage linked from vim.org does. The default Makefile from github is set up to not include it, but you can uncomment one line there to get it. Source: over 2 years ago
  • is there a way to make highlighted text persistent after quit when using something like [match Search /\%'.line('.').'l/] ?
    I've not used vimwiki locally (tho I'm old enough to remember the Vim wiki on vim.org :), but I think what you are wanting to do is extend vimwiki's syntax file. I presume it installs one at $VIMRUNTIM/syntax or or ~/.vim/syntax. If this sounds right, then create a ~/.vim/after/syntax/vimwiki.vim file and place your match command in there. Then everytime you open a vimwiki file it should apply your... Source: over 2 years ago
  • vim.org - Is there a reason for this 1800s-esque design?
    Vim.org has 242k total visitors, tailwindcss.com has 4.4m, planetscale.com has 412k, jpl.nasa.gov has 2.6m, all built with Tailwind, all several years younger than Vim's website. Unnecessary comparison, unnecessary defence. It's a valuable tool, fine, but a complete disregard for anyone who doesn't love a crappy website and would like to navigate a website like a normal human is not something to be defended. Maybe... Source: over 2 years ago
  • What is YOUR process of writing ?
    I write in Vim with some customizations in my vimrc to gear it more towards prose writing than code editing. It's not pretty, but Normal Mode and Ex commands are the most powerful text editing tools out there, so that means I spend less time on making corrections and other edits. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Why developers need to know about Vim
    If you are open minded and would like to try it out, click me for more information! Cheers. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing SlickEdit and Vim, 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.

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

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

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

UltraEdit - UltraCompare is the name of an advanced level of file and folder comparison platform that is loaded with an advanced level of features and functions.