Software > Text editors >
(on Wikipedia)
Homebrew: geany
Chocolatey: geany
https://www.geany.org/
Geany is a GTK2 (GUI) text editor which is light and featureful. Here is a sampling of features from their about page:
- Syntax highlighting
- Code folding
- Symbol name auto-completion
- Construct completion/snippets
- Auto-closing of XML and HTML tags
-
Call tips
This is a editor that does such magical things as use control up/down to skip paragraphs. I love it for in-page bookmarking, code folding, search-replace, escaped-replaces and regular expressions for selections, documents and groups of documents.
- The package
geany-plugins
is important.. -
I also (sometimes) use Leafpad.
- For Mythryl, there is Geany Mythryl syntax highlighting
- Markdown support for the Markdown viewer plugin was forced to be removed. See #1062
-
Installations include the plugins.
- 2022-06-30 - 1.38.0 on Windows 10
-
2021-06-05 - 1.37.1 on Windows 10
- I had been using this version for some time.
- 2019-06-11 - 1.29-1 on Debian 9.9 (stretch) within VirtualBox within Windows 10.
- 2017-11-22 - 1.32 on Windows 10
- 2017-10-05 - 1.31 on Windows 10
- 2017-07-07 - 1.24.1 on Devuan-1.0.0-jessie-i386-DVD
- 2016-10-17 - 1.28 on Windows 10
- 2016-04-17 - 1.23.1 on Windows 10
- 2016-03-28 - 1.25 on Slackware 14.1
- 2016-03-26 - 1.23.1 on Lubuntu 14.04.4 LTS
- I had been using this for a very long time, even over multiple distributions.
- early to mid-2010 - (version not recorded) on (distribution not recorded)
- 2010-04-11 - 0.18.1 on Unity Linux (version not recorded)
-
2009-04-18 or earlier - I used to use Kate
2017-10-05 - 1.31 ∞
Installed using Chocolatey.
2016-03-28 - 1.25 ∞
GTK 2.24.20, GLib 2.36.4
On Slackware 14.1, I installed it with slpkg:
\slpkg -s sbo geany
2016-03-26 - 1.23.1 ∞
geany 1.23.1 (built on May 19 2013 with GTK 2.24.18, GLib 2.37.0)
On Lubuntu, this was installed using package management.
I had used this quite extensively.
Issues ∞
-
I want
home
/end
to go to the start/end of the display line and to usealt-home
/alt-end
to go to the true start/end of the line.- I can't do that because there is no keybinding for "go to start of display line". It's
alt-home
by default. - 2017-11-17 - I recently discovered this keybinding preference. I wonder when it got put in, or if I just never saw it..
- I can't do that because there is no keybinding for "go to start of display line". It's
early to mid-2010 - (version not recorded) ∞
As part of my exploration into The Chain of Trust with all the tools I use, I've been disconnecting myself from programs which have a large number of dependencies. I was originally very interested.. ok I'll admit that I had a piece of shit computer and that it was mandatory that I find light programs. So I did just that! I ended up needing to flee from bloated monstrosities like KDE, and consideration of dependencies was just the next step.
So here I was, going through my text editor notes, deciding that I'd try once more to find a text editor which suited me. I need crazy things like syntax highlighting, tabbed editing and code folding. I actually did find something nice I had stuck on Windows but I didn't remember its name so I decided to check out Geany. I'm glad I did!
I did later check out their dark theme, and it's just fine. I also did quite a lot of other customization and use some of their plugins too..
2010-04-11 - 0.18.1 ∞
WOW!!
ZOMG, I found a decent Linux GUI text editor! ∞
As part of my exploration into the chain of trust with all the tools I use, I’ve been disconnecting myself from programs which have a large number of dependencies. I was originally very interested.. ok I’ll admit that I had a piece of shit computer and that it was mandatory that I find light programs. So I did just that! I ended up needing to flee from bloated monstrosities like KDE, and consideration of dependencies was just the next step.
So here I was, going through my text editor notes, deciding that I’d try once more to find a text editor which suited me. I need crazy things like syntax highlighting, tabbed editing and code folding. I actually did find something nice I had stuck on Windows but I didn’t remember its name so I decided to check out Geany. I’m glad I did!
Geany is a GTK2 (GUI) text editor which is light and featureful. Here is a sampling of features from the Geany 'About' page.
- Syntax highlighting
- Code folding
- Symbol name auto-completion
- Construct completion/snippets
- Auto-closing of XML and HTML tags
- Call tips
- Many supported filetypes including C, Java, PHP, HTML, Python, Perl, Pascal
- Symbol lists
- Code navigation
- Build system to compile and execute your code
- Simple project management
- Plugin interface
“Supported filetypes” means syntax highlighting at the least, and it looks like it’ll mean a bunch of other stuff. Ruby is in their list, yay!
I also found a dark colour scheme which I’ll definitely have to check out next.
There is a plugin system, and already there are a number of plugins which look interesting. Of note there is a tasks plugin included in their “addons” plugin which collects TODO and FIXME tags into a navigable list. I’ll with that too.
So I’m quite happy so far, even though I haven’t really started using this program yet. I’ll report back with anything else that’s interesting. I’m hoping that this can become my full-time editor of choice. Heck, it launches fast enough that it might replace stuff like mousepad/Leafpad. On that note, I checked out Beaver and I think it’s a nice little editor.
Usage and troubleshooting ∞
[unsolved] - Custom Filetypes ∞
I ended up doing some work for this for Mythryl. See Geany Mythryl syntax highlighting.
- https://www.geany.org/manual/dev/index.html#custom-filetypes
- https://www.geany.org/manual/hacking.html#filetypes-configuration-file
-
https://www.geany.org/manual/hacking.html#syntax-highlighting
/usr/share/geany/filetypes.* /usr/share/geany/filetypes.conf
.. uh, I have no clue.
Getting Geany spell checking working ∞
error saving file - error renaming temporary file: input/output error ∞
2020-10-18 - 1.35 on Windows 10
-
Edit > Preferences
- Various >
-- [x] gio_unsafe_save_backup
-- [_] use_atomic_file_saving
-- [x] use_gio_unsafe_file_saving
- Various >
See https://sourceforge.net/p/geany/bugs/643/
This look like a problem in GIO mishandling the VB share (or simply getting into trouble discovering the backend FS is actually MS-Windows, and then that it can't replace a file currently opened). Geany 0.21 adds an option (in the Various pref tab) named "use_gio_unsafe_file_saving" that allows to choose whether to use GIO for "unsafe" file saving (e.g. without disk space exhaustion recovery). Please try unchecking it.
Actually, there are 3 ways Geany can save a file (described roughly below):
1) the "unsafe" ways (may loose data in case write fails in the middle):
1.1) Direct overwrite of the data (use_atomic_file_saving=false, use_gio_unsafe_file_saving=false). This method is quite efficient, but cannot write on remote media and is "unsafe" as described above;
1.2) The GIO way, depends on the GIO backend (use_atomic_file_saving=false, use_gio_unsafe_file_saving=true). This method works on remote media, may be efficient (or not, depends on the backend) and allows for backup (gio_unsafe_save_backup=true). However, it tries to do some things to be more "safe" about data loss (though this isn't really working) and may even lead to write problems in some situation, like the discussed one;
2) the "safe" way (should never loose data) using g_file_set_contents() (use_atomic_file_saving=true). This method should handle disk space exhaustion gracefully, but looses files attributes (like permissions, executable bit, etc.).
As you see, each method has its own drawbacks; and we unfortunately don't know of a perfect solution. For now, we allow the user to configure file saving the way that better fits his/her needs, hoping it's enough.
Working with symlinks in Babun ∞
Played with for 2017-10-05 - 1.31
Yes, it's possible! I made the following:
geany() { string= for file in $*; do if [ -L "$file" ]; then string=${string}' '\"$( \cygpath --dos "$file" )\" else string=${string}' '\"$file\" fi done \cygstart '/c/Program Files (x86)/Geany/bin/geany.exe' "$string" & }
[unsolved] Geany overwrites symlinks ∞
Seen 2016-04-17 - 1.23.1 on Windows 10 Home.
This problem is documented in Windows 10 symlinks and is unsolved.
Alternatives ∞
(none, really)
-
Leafpad is nice
Last updated 2023-10-14 at 09:26:39
Added a solution for "error saving file - error renaming temporary file: input/output error"
I never bothered to make an entry for 1.37.1
moved spell checking into their own pages