Every year, many new Code Editors are launched, and the developer finds it challenging to choose one. Following is a curated list of Top 15 source code and text editor software for Windows and Mac platforms. All the editors in the list are Free to use. The code editor could be standalone or integrated into an IDE.

1. Free Java Download For Mac

Best Free Code Editors for Windows & Mac


• 1) Notepad++

  Notepad++ is a popular free to use code editor written in C++. It uses pure win32 API which offers greater execution speed and small program size. It runs only in the window's environment, and it uses GPL License.

  Platform: Windows

  Price: Free

  Features:

  • Support syntax highlighting for languages like PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
  • Auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion
  • Macro recording and playback
  • User-defined Syntax highlighting and folding
  • Entirely customizable GUI
  • Multi-view and Multi-Language support

  Download link: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

• 2) Atom

  Atom is useful code editor tool preferred by programmers due to its simple interface compared to the other editors. Atom users can submit packages and them for the software.

  Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux

  Price: Free

  Features:

  • Package Manager Integrated for Plugins support
  • The feature of smart autocompletion
  • Supports Command Palette
  • Multiple panes
  • Allow cross-platform editing

  Download link:https://atom.io/

• 3) Visual Studio Code [VS Code]

  Visual Studio Code is an open source code editor software developed by Microsoft. It offers built-in support for TypeScript, JavaScript, and Node.js. It's autocompleted with IntelliSense features provides smart completions based on variable types, essential modules, and function definitions.

  Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux

  Price: Free

  Features:

  • Easy working with Git and other SCM (Software Configuration management) providers
  • Code refactoring & debugging
  • Easily extensible and customizable

  Download link:https://code.visualstudio.com/

• 4) Brackets

  Brackets is a lightweight tool developed by Adobe. It is best text editor that is open source. It allows you to a toggle between your source code and the browser view.

  Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux

  Price: Free

  Features:

  

  • Quick Edit UIfeature puts context-specific code and tools inline
  • Offers live preview, preprocessor support, and inline editors
  • Pleasant looking UI
  • Especially developed tool for macOS
  • It comes with the inbuilt extension manager for fast & effective extension management.

  Download link:http://brackets.io/

• 5) NetBeans

  NetBeans is an open-source code editor tool for developing with Java, PHP, C++, and other programming languages. With this editor, code analyzers, and converters. It allows you to upgrade your applications to use new Java 8 language constructs.

  Platforms: Mac Windows Linux

  Price: Free

  Features:

  • Easy & Efficient Project Management
  • Offers fast & Smart Code Editing
  • Rapid User Interface Development
  • Helps you to write bug-free code

  Download link:https://netbeans.org

• 6) Bluefish

  Bluefish a is a cross-platform editor is a speedy tool which can handle dozens of files simultaneously. The tool allows developers to conduct remote editing. This code editor tool offers many options to s programmers and web developers, to write websites, scripts, and programming code.

  Price: Free

  Platforms: Mac Windows Linux

  Features:

  • Loads hundreds of files within seconds
  • Auto-recovery of changes in modified documents after a crash, kill or shutdown.
  • Project support feature helps you to work efficiently on multiple projects.
  • Unlimited undo/redo functionality.

  Download link: http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html

• 7) VIM

  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.

  Price: Free

  Platform: Linux

  Features:

  • Extensive plugin support
  • Powerful search and replace
  • Integrates with many tools
  • Macro recording and playback
  • Support for hundreds of programming languages and file formats

  Download link: https://www.vim.org/

• 8) Geany

  Geany is a text editor which uses GTK+ toolkit. It also has certain basic features of an integrated development environment. The tool supports many filetypes and has some nice features.

  Price: Free

  Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux

  Features:

  • Allows you to add a note for applying the indent settings in the project preferences
  • Navigating through the source code
  • Allows popup menu on message window notebooks and sidebar
  • Show status message on attempt to execute empty context action

  Download link: https://www.geany.org

• 9) Komodo Edit

  Komodo edit is an easy to use and powerful code editing tool. It allows you to do debugging, unit testing, code refactoring. It also provides code profile, plus integrations with other technologies like Grunt, PhoneGap, Docker, Vagrant and many more.

  Price: Free Trial

  Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux

  Features:

  • Multi-Language Editor
  • A lot of contemporary color schemes
  • Native Unicode support and Unicode compatibility checking
  • Easily integrates into the desktop environment.

  Download link: https://www.activestate.com/products/komodo-edit/

• 10) Emacs

  Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.

  Price: Free

  Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux

  Features:

  • Complete built-in documentation
  • Full Unicode support for many human scripts
  • Highly customizable, using Emacs Lisp code.
  • A packaging system for installing and downloading extensions

  Download link: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

• 11) jEdit

  jEdit, a code editor program which is written in Java. This open source tool supports hundreds of plugins and macros. It offers a large collection of plugins maintained by a worldwide developer team.

  Features:

  • Built-in macro language & extensible plugin architecture
  • Allows copy and paste with an unlimited number of clipboards
  • You can download plugins with the help of the plugin manager.
  • Register contents are saved across editing sessions.
  • Allows auto indent, and syntax highlighting over 200 languages

  Price: Free

  Platform: Mac, Windows & Linux

  Download link: http://www.jedit.org/

• 12) TextMate

  TextMate is a versatile plain text editor for mac with unique and innovative features. The tool offers support for many programming languages, writing prose in structured formats such as blogging, running SQL queries, writing screenplays, etc.

  Price: Free

  Platform: MAC

  Features:

  • Auto-Indent for Common Actions
  • CSS-like Selectors to find the Scope of Actions and Settings
  • Dynamic Outline for Working With Multiple Files
  • Function Pop-up for Quick Overview and Navigation
  • Run Shell Commands from Within a Document
  • Visual Bookmarks to Jump Between Places in a File

  Download link: http://macromates.com/

• 13) gedit

  Gedit tool is designed as a general-purpose text editor. It offers simple and eases to use GUI. It includes features for editing source code and structured text like markup languages.

  Price: Free

  Platforms: Mac & Windows

  Features:

  • Support for syntax highlighting for languages like C, C++, Java, HTML, XML, Python, etc.
  • Editing files from remote locations
  • Support for text wrapping and auto indentation
  • Search and replace with the support of regular expressions
  • A flexible plugin system which allows you to add new features

  Download link: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gedit

• 14) Light Table

  Light Table is an IDE and text editor tool for coding software. The tool offers fast feedback and allowing instant execution, debugging and access to documentation.

  Price: Free

  Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux

  Features:

  • Inline Evaluation
  • Light Table is a lightweight, clean, and sleek interface.
  • Powerful editing and plugin manager
  • The feature of println to keep track of critical values in your code

  Download link: http://lighttable.com/

• 15) Blue Griffon

  BlueGriffon is an open source HTML editor powered by Gecko, which is Firefox's rendering engine. It has a simple interface and most usual features needed to create web pages that are compliant with W3C web standards.

  Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux

  Features:

  • Easy to change the color of font or to adjust the border style
  • Opens Tabs from Last Session
  • Shortcuts for CSS Editing
  • Multiple Themes for Source View

  Download link: http://bluegriffon.org

Information and system requirements for installing and using Oracle Java on Mac OS X

Java programming language free download - iMaster Java, MacPerl, MagicDraw UML, and many more programs. If you downloaded the JDK with the NetBeans IDE, start NetBeans, and begin programming. You can also program using a simple text editor, and compile and run from the command line. Many text editors now come with the ability to run and compile Java files, but you may need to tell the program where javac.exe and java.exe reside on your computer. Java programming language free download - iMaster Java, MacPerl, MagicDraw UML, and many more programs. It also provides a step-by-step guide for creating, compiling, and executing a Java program using either DrJava or the Terminal. All of the software used is freely available. You will need an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) to Mac OS X 10.13 (High Sierra). You can defer steps 4–6 until Section 1.5 of the textbook.

• Platform(s): Mac OS X
• Java version(s): 7.0, 8.0

After I updated to macOS Sierra 10.12, El Capitan (OS X 10.11), or Yosemite (OS X 10.10), why am I told to install Java after I already installed the latest Java?

See information about Apple Java messages.

Can I restore Apple Java 6 after uninstalling Oracle Java?

Yes, see the instructions on the Apple website Restore Apple Java 6. If you have JDK 7 or later versions installed on your system and you want to restore Apple Java 6, then those JDK versions need to be uninstalled first. See the instructions to Uninstall JDK.

Free Java Download For Mac

For Java versions 6 and below, Apple supplies their own version of Java. For Mac OS X 10.6 and below, use the Software Update feature (available on the Apple menu) to check that you have the most up-to-date version of Java 6 for your Mac. For issues related to Apple Java 6 on Mac, contact Apple Support. Oracle and Java.com only support Java 7 and later, and only on 64 bit systems.

Mac OS X and Apple Java 6 End of Life

Apple has posted notice that Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) will be the last OS X release that supports Java 6, and as such, recommends developers whose applications depend on Java 6 to migrate their apps to a newer Java version provided by Oracle. » More info (apple.com)

Chrome browser versions 42 and above. Starting with Chrome version 42, Chrome has disabled the standard way in which browsers support plugins. More info

How do I get Java for my Mac?

You can download Java from java.com.

How do I know if I have Java installed on my Mac?

Mac OS X 10.6 and below: Apple's Java comes pre-installed with your Mac OS.
Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and above: Java is not pre-installed with Mac OS X versions 10.7 and above. To get the latest Java from Oracle, you will need Mac OS X 10.7.3 and above.
If you have Java 7 or later versions, you will see a Java icon under System Preferences.
Java versions 6 and below are listed in the Java Preferences.app located in the Applications > Utilities folder on your Mac.

How do I install Java for my Mac?

See Mac Java installation instructions.

How do I find out what version of Java I have on my Mac?

Mac OS X 10.7.3 and above: Under System Preferences click on the Java icon to access the Java Control Panel which will list your Java version.
If you do not see a Java icon under System Preferences, Java 7 or later versions is not installed.

How do I enable Java on my Mac?

When you install Oracle Java on your Mac (Lion and above), Java will be enabled by default.
If you are running a Java application in the browser, you will need to also check that Java is enabled in your browser.
For earlier versions of Java, check the Apple Support site.

How do I clear the Java cache on my Mac?

See How to clear the Java cache on Mac.

How do I update Java on my Mac?

See How to update Java on Mac.

How do I uninstall Java from my Mac?

See Mac Java uninstall instructions.

I do not have Mac version 10.7.3 (Lion) or higher. How do I get Java for other Mac versions?

For Java versions 6 and below, Apple supplies their own version of Java. Use the Software Update feature (available on the Apple menu) to check that you have the most up-to-date version of Apple's Java for your Mac.
Users of Lion Mac OS X 10.7.1 and 10.7.2 should upgrade to 10.7.3 or later versions, so you can get the latest Java version from Oracle.

Is it safe to install previous or older versions of Java?

Oracle highly discourages users from using older versions of Java. Installing old and supported versions of Java on your system presents a serious security risk. Upgrading to the latest version of Java ensures that Java applications will run with the most up-to-date security and performance improvements on your system. You can confirm that you have the latest version on the verification page. If installing an older version of Java is absolutely required, you must first uninstall the current version. See the instructions on the Mac uninstall Java FAQ.

Why will applets not run after getting Java through Apple Software Update?

Apple disables the Java plug-in and Webstart applications when the Java update is done using Software Update. Also, if the Java plug-in detects that no applets have been run for an extended period of time it will again disable the Java plug-in.

Why is Oracle Java available only for Mac OS X 10.7.3 and above?

The Java Runtime depends on the availability of an Application programming interface (API). Some of the API were added in Mac OS X 10.7.3. Apple has no plans to make those API available on older versions of the Mac OS.

Can I install Java on Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite)?

Yes. See Mac OS X 10.10 FAQ.

The installation hangs during an auto-update, what can I do to get the latest Java?

During an auto-update, Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) users might see the installation stall. Download the latest Java from the java.com web site.

When I try to use java from the command line, why doesn't it work? I have Oracle's version of the JRE installed.

Installing a JRE from Oracle does not update java -version symlinks or add java to your path. For this functionality, you must install the full JDK. See Mac command line info.

How do I get support or provide feedback on Java?

Provide us details on Feedback form for reporting issues or providing feedback for Java.

You might also be interested in:

• How do I install Java for my Mac?
• How do I uninstall Java on my Mac?
• Where is the Java Control Panel on Mac?
• How do I clear Java cache on my Mac?
• How do I Update Java for my Mac?
• How do I disable Java in my web browser?