Gedit, surprisingly great editor (just some thoughts)

[Micah Carrick <email micahcarrick com>]

If y'all recall, I wrote an article a few weeks ago called Customizing 
gedit as a Web Developer’s IDE ( 
http://www.micahcarrick.com/09-29-2007/gedit-html-editor.html ). The 
amount of feedback I've gotten is pretty remarkable. Not only that, but 
the amount of traffic my blog gets on it is pretty surprising. I'm 
coming up #8 in google for a search for "gedit". A lot of people email 
me and are very grateful for the article--they had no idea Gedit could 
do so much.

Just yesterday I released Gedit Symbol Browser Plugin ( 
http://www.micahcarrick.com/11-14-2007/gedit-symbol-browser-plugin.html 
). I've already gotten numerous emails. As a user who just a couple of 
years ago was a complete "newbie" (and still is in many respects), I 
understand the surprise of learning what Gedit can do. I spent a year or 
so trying various programs and combinations there of for my web 
development work. I loved Gedit's stability, ease of use, and 
simplicity. But it didn't have the features I wanted. An entire year of 
using Gedit before I learned that through just a couple plugins, it was 
a far more suitable to my needs as an IDE than just about anything else 
I've used.

Just today at work I wowed the whole web development team showing them 
what the "default text editor" for GNOME is like compared to Notepad.

The point is, I think some attention to getting the word out and 
simplifying things for new Linux users might be a good idea. I can't 
tell you how many hours I would have saved had I but known. I read posts 
all the time where people want to know what editor is preferred, and 
Gedit so rarely gets it's well-deserved mention. Some ideas I have had 
(and I can perhaps help):

1. Graphical plugin installer or detailed article describing methods of 
installation and why any oddities occur. I was frustrated early on 
trying to figure out how to get a tarball full of C code to compile and 
install. A graphical plugin installer wouldn't be too hard to implement. 
It could read the plugin file to determine if it's Python or C, download 
latest gedit sources if necessary, edit necessary make files, etc. 
However, detailed installation instructions at the very least. I'd be 
willing to help there for sure.

2. The website shows screenshots of a very nice looking plain text 
editor. It look nothing like the powerful yet simplified IDE that is the 
Gedit I use. I offered to update the GtkSourceView website (and forgot 
until today) and I'll do the same for Gedit. More emphasis should be 
placed on the power of the plugin system.

Just some thoughts.

Cheers,

--
- Micah Carrick

 Developer - http://www.micahcarrick.com
 GTK+ Forums - http://www.gtkforums.com