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Vim VS CotEditor

Compare Vim VS CotEditor and see what are their differences

Flagsmith
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Vim logo Vim

Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing

CotEditor logo CotEditor

Open Source Plain-Text Editor for OS X
  • Vim Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-23
  • CotEditor Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-20

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.

CotEditor features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    CotEditor has a clean and simple interface that makes it easy to use, even for beginners.
  • Lightweight
    CotEditor is lightweight compared to other code editors, ensuring that it does not consume too much system resources.
  • Syntax Highlighting
    It supports syntax highlighting for over 50 programming languages, which helps to improve readability and reduce errors.
  • Customizable
    Users can customize the appearance and behavior of CotEditor according to their preferences.
  • Auto-Backup
    CotEditor offers an auto-backup feature, which helps in preventing data loss.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, CotEditor allows for community contributions and transparency in its development.

Possible disadvantages of CotEditor

  • macOS Only
    CotEditor is available exclusively for macOS, limiting its accessibility to users on other platforms.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    It lacks some of the more advanced features found in other editors like Visual Studio Code or Sublime Text, such as integrated debugging tools.
  • Plugin Ecosystem
    CotEditor does not have as extensive a plugin ecosystem as some other editors, which can limit its functionality for specific workflows.

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.

Analysis of CotEditor

Overall verdict

  • CotEditor is highly regarded by many users for its balance between simplicity and functionality. It is particularly well-suited for those who need a no-frills text editor that starts quickly and performs smoothly without unnecessary complexity. However, it might not be suitable for users who require advanced features available in more complex Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). Overall, CotEditor is an excellent choice for anyone seeking a reliable and efficient text editor on macOS.

Why this product is good

  • CotEditor is a lightweight and straightforward text editor specifically designed for macOS. It is popular among users for its simplicity, speed, and ease of use. CotEditor is open-source and offers a clean and intuitive user interface with essential features for text editing, including syntax highlighting for over 50 programming languages, powerful find and replace options, and text manipulation tools. The application is also highly customizable, supporting scripts and macros to automate repetitive tasks, which is beneficial for developers and writers.

Recommended for

    CotEditor is ideal for developers, programmers, and writers who primarily work on macOS and need a lightweight and efficient text editing tool. It's also suitable for individuals who are looking for an open-source solution that can handle a broad range of programming languages and scripting needs without the overhead of a heavyweight IDE.

Vim videos

+ Add

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

CotEditor videos

No CotEditor videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Vim and CotEditor)

Vim

CotEditor

Text Editors
90 90%
Text Editors
10% 10
IDE
91 91%
IDE
9% 9
Software Development
89 89%
Software Development
11% 11
IDEs And Text Editors
100 100%
IDEs And Text Editors
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Vim and CotEditor

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.
Source: www.technize.com
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

CotEditor Reviews

We have no reviews of CotEditor yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CotEditor should be more popular than Vim. It has been mentiond 26 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.

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: about 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

CotEditor mentions (26)

  • Show HN: NotepadJs – A cross-platform love letter to Notepad
    I like Coteditor [1] as an open-source, minimal editor. TextEdit isn't even plain text by default, IIRC. [1] https://coteditor.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Bare Bones Software – BBEdit 15 is here
    I've been using CotEditor for a while and I really like it: https://coteditor.com Mac native and open source. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Reflections on a Month with BBEdit and Nova
    Thanks for writing this up so beautifully. I'm an old Mac user and user Nova daily, mostly for Playdate development. It has been very unstable/crash-prone recently, agreed. The major crasher that lost me much work was fixed in a recent update, so I no longer want to delete the app but I would still appreciate it if they could take the accelerator off and fix all the crashers. I also have the following installed... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • A collection of useful Mac Apps
    CotEditor - Price: Free Text editor for macOS that features syntax highlighting and a user-friendly interface. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Software Developer Mac Apps
    CotEditor, which is like TextEdit except actually useful for non-text documents (e.g. I write a lot of Markdown in it). Source: about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Vim and CotEditor, 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.

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.

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

Eclipse IoT - Eclipse IoT provides the technology needed to build IoT Devices, Gateways, and Cloud Platforms.

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

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