
Geany – A flyweight IDE - notRobot
https://www.geany.org/
======
saagarjha
I remember using Geany throughout high school for our Java/AP Computer Science
classes, where it was the editor you were required to use. While I had it
customized as much as the system would allow me, calling it an “IDE” is being
a bit generous: my Sublime Text can do much, much more than Geany possibly
could, and I’m not sure I would call even that an IDE. Geany is basically just
a simple, slightly mediocre GUI text editor-which might be what you’re looking
for in some cases-but do note that most people’s command-line text editor
setups are generally more advanced than it. (If I could compare it to an
editor, I’d say it’s just slightly more advanced than nano.)

~~~
pszndr
It can write, build and debug code. It's an IDE.

~~~
capableweb
And just like Sublime, Geany also have an API that third-parties can use for
developing their own plugins/extensions. Since Geany is open source, might
have even more plugins than Sublime, although I doubt that, Sublime has been
way more popular than Geany for as long as I can remember.

------
bityard
A quick lesson about tone and documentation.

I'm always on the lookout for a good lightweight code editor to try out. I
looked into Geany once and was excited to see that it had a Vim plugin.
Unfortunately, reading the docs for it turned me away from it very quickly.

The first thing the author of the Vim plugin for Geany says in the FAQ is that
plugin is written by a guy who doesn't use Vim. Which sounds a little strange
but I kept reading. Later in the FAQ, he implies that the plugin sucks, Vim
sucks, and that he only wrote it to quell the "constant whining of Vim users."

Needless to say, I will not be trying (let alone using) Geany as long as the
prevailing attitude of the author of one of the plugins I _would_ use the most
holds users in this level of sheer disdain.

~~~
notRobot
Sure, but that's no fault of the Geany devs, only of one plugin author. Seems
unfair to judge an IDE based on the documentation for a volunteer-written
plugin that you haven't even tried.

Edit: Also, while the dev admits that they don't use vim, they also say that
they enjoy working on the plugin and repeatedly ask users to submit bug
reports so that they can patch the plugin.

They're also really open to patches and contributions. IMO, this is a perfect
example of the true FOSS spirit.

I think you're being unjustly harsh:
[https://plugins.geany.org/vimode.html#why-does-vimode-
suck-s...](https://plugins.geany.org/vimode.html#why-does-vimode-suck-so-much)

~~~
jachee
Counterintuitively, a dev supporting a feature about which they care, but
without any particular zealous dedication may well produce a more universally
appealing product for its audience.

------
morganvachon
I use it as an advanced text editor on any Linux or BSD workstation I use. I'm
not a developer so most of the IDE type stuff goes unused, but I do like
having something as powerful as Notepad++ on Windows without resorting to
cumbersome editors like Atom or VSCode.

An alternative for people like me is SciTE.

[https://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html](https://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html)

~~~
aspyct
It's a matter of perspective I guess. Where I'm from, VSCode is considered
lightweight. Cumbersome would describe NetBeans and Eclipse in my mind.

~~~
morganvachon
If it takes more than a second to load a text editor (or even a light IDE) I
have no use for it. It's not just slow to load, it's also cumbersome to use
compared to my preferred tools. Even on my old Core 2 Quad with a spinning
hard drive, Geany loads in a split second with several tabs already queued up.

As you said, perhaps it's perspective, but even on my latest build (Ryzen
3600/RX5600XT/NVMe SSD) VSCode is agonizing compared to Notepad++ on Windows
and Geany on Linux.

~~~
g-b-r
> VSCode is agonizing compared to Notepad++ on Windows

you're clearly not keeping 2793 files in your session.xml

~~~
morganvachon
No, generally no more than two dozen or so, and honestly that's pushing the
limits of my sanity with a tabbed interface. Any more than that, and I'm
switching to Geany and turning on the sidebar. I've tried the "Folder as
Workspace" feature and the Explorer plugin in N++ and they aren't as user-
friendly.

~~~
g-b-r
N++ has had for a few years its own internal sidebar (Setting -> General ->
Document List Panel), but I've always used the Window Manager plugin, that for
some reason I don't recall (probably the Path column and its handling of the
two views that I always keep open) I always found more comfortable.

That said, my usage is not sane and is just a reflection of my organization
capabilities and the constant postponement of switching to a better editor
(one with good multi-sessions management, for example). A large part of the
files are RFCs by the way, that I need from time to time (or just don't care
about closing).

I wouldn't be surprised if Geany were much better by the way, there's a lot I
dislike in N++.

------
zoom6628
I’ve been using Geany for very long time as my go to casual editor for any
type of text. I can install on all my platforms, all my OS, it’s fast and
doesn’t gag on huge log files. Same experience in all platforms which is why
it’s one of first installed tools. I’m not a prof dev but at home on macOS,
pi, beagle, arduino, Win10 the sheer time saving of having something work same
across platforms for projects I get to only when work, family, time allows
makes it a winner.

When in full on coding mode I prefer vi, rest of the time use Geany. Have
tried regularly most other IDEs and text editors and none as fast, reliable,
easy to install and use as Geany.

It’s perfect for me. YMMV.

~~~
bibinou
The lib it’s based on is called Scintilla. It is a gem.

------
zoomablemind
Not sure how important it is to emphasize IDE part, but it is lightweight for
sure.

It's a capable editor. GTK based, which means on Windows the UX is not native.
Still, it can be installed stand alone, GTK is packaged in.

It's not wise that they omitted including most of the plugins on Windows, as
it kills its main selling point. Noone is going to bother to build plugins
while on Windows. I hope it was just a recent packaging glitch, as MacOS
version comes with all plugins built along, which you can enable on demand.

It's a nice altenative for quick exploratory work on some unknown codebases,
as Geany extracts/indexes tags and allows one to jump to function defs, vars
and such. However you need to have the relevant files already opened,
otherwise you need to resort to Find in files to locate where function/ symbol
is defined. This may be tedious in heavily structured projects. That's where
an actual IDE excells.

But it works! It's a nice tool to have in a portable toolbox... However,
looking through its GitHub pages looks like the developers are tired.

By the way, on Windows a nice lightweight alternative is `notepad2-mod`, also
Scintilla based, needs no installation, native UI (a little bit too verbose
menus).

~~~
mixmastamyk
Ctrl+click is a shortcut to find defs although they need to be opened. Setting
up a project with the file sidebar available makes it easier.

------
rickspencer3
I use Geany as a code editor on my rpi hobby projects. The editor has been
around long enough that it is reasonably fast on under powered hardware. I
really appreciate having the option.

~~~
jennasys
The RPi is the only place I still use it, but on that platform it works great.
For Python programming on the RPi, Thonny is actually a bit better though.

------
timw4mail
Geany is probably the lightest IDE that works well with Rust. If you just
basically want an editor with shortcuts to run terminal commands, it's a great
solution.

~~~
tomrod
I didn't realize it would integrate with Rust

Back to geany!

------
_ZeD_
still, I always preferred kate[0] (I still use it everyday, even on windows
10) and kdevelop[1] (it had type guessing for python since 2011![2])

[0] [https://kate-editor.org/](https://kate-editor.org/)

[1] [https://www.kdevelop.org/](https://www.kdevelop.org/)

[2] [http://blog.svenbrauch.de/2011/09/09/kdev-python-argument-
ty...](http://blog.svenbrauch.de/2011/09/09/kdev-python-argument-type-
guessing/)

------
trefil
I wish I could use Geany, but I find the tree view plugin substantially
lacking and buggy. For example, there is no way to just open a directory in
Geany (the same way as in VS Code and Sublime Text) without creating a project
file.

~~~
app4soft
> _I find the tree view plugin substantially lacking and buggy_

Could you report issues to Geany devs?

------
maeln
I remember Geany, it was the first "IDE" I ever used :) . I really like that
the "build system" was pretty much just scripts that you could do yourself, it
made it pretty much usable for any workflow easily. Granted, you could not
customize it and integrate everything as much as VS Code, Atom and the likes,
but it is doing its job and run extremely good on very old computer.

------
interfixus
My editor and IDE of choice for the last 15 years or so.

I keep rushing out and trying newfangled wonderware for the alleged features
it will offer me and without which I cannot be supposed to live. And I keep,
regular as clockwork, coming back to sane and solid Geany with its speed,
straightforwardness, sanity, discoverability, and allround just-so
convenience.

~~~
dingdingdang
Agree, for the last couple of years Geany has been my primary dev environment
on Linux after migrating off Windows and Notepad++, and I'm super productive
on it, very stable and fast.

------
squid_demon
If you are looking for a lighter than flyweight editor check out
[https://github.com/rxi/lite](https://github.com/rxi/lite)

~~~
app4soft
Cute! Is it possible to use on Android in companion with Termux app?

------
agentultra
errichto [0] recommends this IDE/editor for competitive programming.

Cross-platform and lightweight (as in memory) is a nice feature to have,
especially if you want to get going really fast. Great for beginners too!

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBr_Fu6q9iHYQCh13jmpbrg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBr_Fu6q9iHYQCh13jmpbrg)

------
kiney
Geany is my favourite editor for many years. Blazingly fast and resource
friendly. Has most features I need but not bloated... Only thing I'm missing
is support for some newer languages (hcl/terraform comes do mind).

------
dragonsh
I have used it as IDE on Linux for Python development along with vi before
moving to emacs.

It was my choice as it was small lightweight and could open large csv and xml.

After that did not follow it, good to see it’s been constantly updated and
developed.

------
pamparosendo
I've been using Geany since I moved to Linux, is the fastest loading editor
I've found. Great editor!

------
mixmastamyk
Love geany, it does everything I want and nothing I don’t, fast. FLOSS, low
system requirements, and respects your privacy. Has project, terminal, and vcs
support, rectangular selections as well.

Lots of functionality is in plugins, such as highlight word and close
brackets/quotes, xml formatters I need for work, etc.

I often pair it with micro for consistent key bindings in the terminal if not
geany itself over sshfs.

------
victorbstan
So we have: Vim, Emacs, BBEdit, textmate, notepad++, SublimeText, Atom, Visual
Code, Geany... am I missing any?

~~~
reddotX
micro [https://micro-editor.github.io/](https://micro-editor.github.io/)

~~~
efrecon
micro is really good! It installs quickly and provides for just the minimal
set of features to be used as a goto editor for small tasks at the terminal.

------
nightowl_games
What are ya'lls thoughts on jucipp vs kdevelop vs vscode vs sublime text for
c++ development?

I've been using VSCode (& Codium on my linux machine) for c++ dev. I have the
debugger and build tasks all set up and feel happy about that. Wouldn't mind
having something a bit more reliable. I get this weird bug in VSCode where
CTRL+P doesnt index all the files in the project. I have to manually navigate
to the file, open it, and then CTRL+P can find it. I usually end up working
with both Sublime Text and VS Code open. Sublime for code reading, VS Code for
code writing.

I still feel like Sublime just dropped the ball with poor plugin support and
thats what gave VS Code its edge...

~~~
ridiculous_fish
C++ is hard to do well from a plugin because of its complexity. For example,
jump-to-definition requires resolving complex overloading rules. I have had
better luck with IDEs that treat C++ as first class: CLion, VC++, Xcode.

------
pachico
One of the first thing I install every time I install a OS. I've been using it
as default light notepad since I saw the light, I think. Split screen plugin
is probably my favourite.

------
notRobot
Thread from two years ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16557128](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16557128)

------
yummypaint
Geany is great. Never crashes when editing files mounted over ssh. Ive has
stability problems with other programs when the connection gets flaky, but
geany never needs a restart and immediately pops up a notification when the
mount is lost. One click in nemo to reconnect, one click in geany to reload
the file, and everything is back as it was. It certainly beats running vi in a
remote terminal and dealing with disconnects.

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ausjke
Used to be good, I used a lot in the past, nowadays I use vim for
everything(even after I purchased jetbrain whole bundle for years).

Geany is not improved fast enough these days, e.g. debugger was broken,
markdown support is not as good, etc. In the core, geany uses scintilla(which
is what is used by Notepad++), its capability is restricted by whatever
scintilla provides.

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mintyc
Geany was a useful tool a while back, but no longer is packaged for centos and
lost its key selling point for me which was a decent GDB plugin debugger at a
time where there weren't too many other UIs for GDB.

I'm not so bothered about lightweight as I need horsepower to build my
projects anyway.

The world has moved on from hand scripted build commands. (for better or
worse).

------
robochat42
I use Geany every day, I like how fast it is and that it has highlight of all
occurrences of the current variable. I'm a bit disappointed that it hasn't
implemented any of the language server protocol (LSP). I think that would be a
fast way to improve the intelligence of it's autocomplete for many languages.

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wackget
Just tried it on Windows; unfortunately the lack of native GUI is a huge turn-
off for me.

Software-drawn GUIs always stick out like a sore thumb and look/feel clunky;
it's the same reason I hate using anything built with Java as everything
always feels so emulated.

Also resizing Geany's window was incredibly laggy as the interface was re-
drawn.

~~~
reeeeee
I don't agree on the "Everything written in Java feels emulated" part. Have
you tried IntelliJ? It is completely written in Java and looks and feels as if
it is using native GUI (alhough it indeed isn't).

~~~
ubercow13
It's better than some older Java GUIs but still really doesn't feel native.

------
oblib
I've had Geany on my Mac since I found it while looking for an editor for the
Raspberry Pi. They include in their disk image now. I still use BBEdit but
Geany is the closest thing I've found to it that will run on a RPi. It's been
a long time since I've reviewed what's out there now though.

------
memexy
> Build system to compile and execute your code

How does a text editor also act as a build system? Do they mean dependencies
are automatically discovered and compiled? Or do they mean it integrates with
a makefile where you still need to specify the dependencies and the text
editor will automatically run it when files change?

~~~
mpol
You create a Project in Geany. It will then integrate with `make`, so when you
click `build` it will run make for you.

Myself I don't use this feature, I mostly use PHP code. I am very happy with
Geany as a lightweight IDE or texteditor and have been using it for years.

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tantalor
"Flyweight"?

~~~
jagger27
It's a boxing term.

~~~
stolen_biscuit
More specifically it's the lightest weight class in boxing. Lightweight is
actually about bang in the middle of typical weight classes

------
givan
[https://codelite.org/](https://codelite.org/) is another powerful IDE with
low memory footprint compared to modern IDEs and with more features like
workspace support.

------
ruffrey
I used this over a decade ago, and it was wonderful, a lot like VSCode or
Atom, but without debug support and fewer plugins.

------
laurentdc
Red Hat 5, Gnome 2.6 and Geany was the standard at my uni for C/C++ firmware
dev. Good times :)

------
jbverschoor
I use vscode for programming, but I went back to sublime for jotting down
notes.

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feralsky
Whenever I am in Linux, I use Geany mostly as text-editor.

------
pyuser583
Didn’t development stop on this?

~~~
bachmeier
Last commit was 11 days ago. That's probably a dead project in the Javascript
world, but I'd say it's still active.

------
Kenji
Last time I used Geany, the laptop fan spun up like crazy and my battery
drained like it's nobody's business. I quickly stopped using it.

