I’m very new to the world of coding and programming. I’ve just finished the HTML and CSS modules on the curriculum. I realised Codepen makes everything very easy and have seen a lot of devs all use github for their work and projects.
I’m making the switch and moving all my pens over to Github to create a nice looking portfolio and for version control.
Which code editor do you use primarly and why? I’ve been looking into Notepad++ and Atom but I’m unsure which one to commit to and learn.
Hello @ElliottRB.
I mostly use VS Code (Visual Studio Code). It’s very good for beginners, very light-weight, fast, easy to use, and has a really cool UI.
Another choice is Brackets. It is optimized for web development and can only support HTML, CSS & JS.
Visual Studio Code is the one i recommend its simple & powerful out of the box but you can make it even more awesome by adding some useful extensions to it.
Oh boy, asking programmers what editor to use is like starting a war 
At the end of the day an editor is just a tool, use whatever makes you feel productive.
These days the most popular seems to be VS Code.
(relevant xkcd)
Ah brillant! I wasn’t expecting so many replies so quickly.
@paulsonstech VS code seems to pop up a lot in a few of the articles I have read so far, web development isn’t an area I’m really interested in but HTML is a great starting point.
@mdshariq Thanks for your reply, any extensions you recommend?
@Marmiz Ha, I wasn’t aware of that, although it’s great to see everyones preference!
I use these:
These :
Hi @mdshariq. Please edit your post and include the extension name only, not the package name. It’s very much difficult to understand which extensions you’re using.
Searching using package name is more specific but yes might be confusing to see as well. I’ve edited it also i have not added description to everyone of them as their names are pretty self explanatory plus installation page gives the complete description and use of them. I hope you find some of these extensions useful.
Don’t want to steal this thread but I don’t understand this statement. Brackets is written in JS, HTML and CSS.
I’ve used it for front-end (HTML, CSS & JS) and back-end including, JavaScript, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Mongo, MySQL, etc.
VS Code is versatile, as is Atom, which is expandable with extensions like VSCode is, but as you are not interested in web development, wouldn’t you be better off learning a coding language that is used for what you are interested in? You could be spending your time on what is related to your interests rather than something that is not, and using the tool for that kind of coding.
Once you know what you want to achieve, search forums for that purpose.
But, isn’t Brackets built for the purpose of front-end development? I read it in a SitePoint article:
It’s worth pointing out that Brackets is primarily aimed at front end developers and web designers. Although it’s essentially a text editor and therefore suitable for coding pretty much anything, it’s optimized for HTML, CSS, and JS (as well as derivatives such as SASS, Less, CoffeeScript, and so on). Ruby, Python, PHP developers, and the like might be better served looking elsewhere, whether that be for a fully-fledged IDE or something more lightweight such as Sublime or, indeed, Atom.
Or, can it be used for backend as well???
I use Repl it is better than Github for coding.
VS code is a best choice as a beginner, it’s light weight and it provides a nice UI to interact and there are lots of useful plugins that you can make use of.
VS Code will give you everything you need.
Personally I use Webstorm but I’m a Jetbrains fan.
Oh no what have I started! Ha.
Thanks for all the replies, VS code seems like a winner for me, I really like the design and the ease of use. It’s a nice transition from Codepen.
@leebut, I wanted to follow the course through its entirety. HTML and CSS have been a really good starting point for me and I’ve enjoyed it, I didn’t really want to jump right in and learn Python.
I see. Then the Javascript sections may be more useful as you will learn more about logic, variables, functions, objects and more aspects of a programming language. Python is not all that hard after installing the server, and some people even recommend Python as starting coding language.
several months ago I would have recommended Atom, but some time ago I have switched to VS Code and no regrets since then
You can use Visual Studio Code, Brackets or Repl.it to edit your projects. I recommend using Visual Studio Code because Brackets only supports HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and there are many limitations in repl.it.
