PS-Pad is a free programming editor for Windows only which, like Notepad++ for Windows only, includes advanced features for programmers. which I absolutely need.
Among other things, I need the diff comparison between directories with multiple files.
PS-Pad then shows me the changes between versions.
I briefly tried Bracket, which exists for both Windows and Mac, but it can't compare files, let alone entire directories.
Which cross-platform free programmer editor (with diff comparisons) can you recommend?
have you considered using the cygwin environment? it provides an shell based environment with linux tools. specific tools need to be selected and installed and can be done incrementally as needed.
i've been comfortable using "vi", now 'vim" for decades. there is diff as well as a visual diff, "vimdiff".
vi allows the use of a mouse as well as keys for moving within the window and allows the screen to be split both vertically and horizontally to view other parts of the same or different files at the same time. of course you can open multiple shell windows to view different files or to have a separate file for builds using make or other tasks.
cygwin includes various gnu compilers (c++, fortran) and scripting languages (python, javaj, perl)
like linux, cygwin also has git for version control locally and works with remote repositories such as in github
and while there is a cygwin version of xgraph for viewing x,y data you can download the original
The Notepad++ snap package uses an embedded version of Wine that helps it run on Linux. So basically, you’re running Notepad++ through Wine, but without setting up Wine first.
I used to use Notepad++ as my general purpose editor and when I ran into the problem of it not being cross-platform I evaluated the possibility of using Notepadqq on my Linux machine. Unfortunately I found there were significant differences between which made it not possible for me to seamlessly transition back and forth between development on Windows and Linux.
I also evaluated Geany at that time, which I found to be excellent. However, I decided that if I was to go though the disruptive process of switching to a completely different editor, VS Code was the obvious choice. In addition to the huge ecosystem that results from its popularity, Arduino IDE 2.x shares some design philosophies and code, so gaining proficiency in one application improves proficiency in the other, and switching back and forth between the two is relatively painless.
But does Geany do a Diff between two folders?
I program usually on Arduino IDE an have quite a lot of code distributed over ten files (tabs) in the Arduino folder. Now I have a glitch in my new program version and need to recapitulate all my changes.
I must admit I use Dr Java (runs on Widows, Linux, MACs, Raspberry Pi, etc) for implementing small Java programs and move to Netbeans when developing Java GUI interfaces
Netbeans is like all sophisticated and complex IDEs with a steep learning curve
I would rank Android Studio as the most difficult IDE I have ever used
