Text Editor with Scripting…for Linux

Question

For a while now, I have been using UltraEdit on my Windows box. The ability to write scripts with a familiar language (JavaScript) has proved to be extremely useful. The only problem is that I cannot use it on my Linux box at work. Is there a comparable text editor that runs on Linux and has an integrated scripting engine?

Not breaking the bank and being cross-platform would be great.

EDIT:While recordable macros are great, I use the scripting engine much more.

Answer 1

It's kind of cliche, but emacs. Or am I misunderstanding what UE's script engine is?

Answer 2

I don't know what you're using the scripting capabilities in your editor for, but you may want to consider automating those tasks using Linux command-line tools such as sed or awk.

Answer 3

The traditional way for doing scripted text editing in Linux is to use the facilities that have (almost) always been available in *nixes: sed, awk, grep, things of that nature. Sure, they maybe don't appear to be as "handy" as one might find an integrated Javascript engine, but they are very mature and work well. If this scripting language MUST be inside the editor, Emacs is probably a good one here too.

You could use an "integrated" type solution to solve the problem, as lots of others have mentioned, but IMHO the commandline is more powerful in this regard.

Answer 4

It looks like Komodo Edit, SciTE, and Eclipse Monkey are the winners. Komodo Edit seems to be most similar to Ultra Edit. SciTE is something I've used before, and Lua is not that difficult; SciTE's API though does not seem as extensive as Komodo Edit's API. Eclipse Monkey is something I am definitely going to use, but it requires Eclipse, which is definitely not a text editor.

EDIT: UltraEdit is coming out for Mac and Linux Soon.

Answer 5

emacs is free and has its own embedded lisp dialect which can be used to write nearly anything, including light scripting as well as mail user agents and IRC clients ;-)

There's a bit of a learning curve, but my experience with emacs has been very positive. I don't like modal interfaces too much, and no other editor puts the navigation shortcuts right under your fingers.

Answer 6

Try Emacs, either XEmacs or GNU Emacs.