Kate 17.08.1

Kate is a text editor which history begins from the Unix-like operating systems. The program is distributed for free under the GNU GPL license and offers all the necessary options for everyday use to complete a wide range of tasks.

Kate allows to open and modify system, initial and text files that the standard notepad can’t handle. Using the program’s tools, you can easily find and replace frequent lexical expressions, parameters’ values in the service files, separation symbols in documents that were obtained after data export from third-party software in the TXT format.

The editor has the syntax highlighting function that supports different programming languages. Other options make coding easy as well, they include strings numbering, horizontal and vertical splitting of the working area, automatic download of repository from Git and Mercurial, capability of quick and slow increase or decrease of the font size.

Flexible system of options makes code display convenient and user can adjust programming process according to the latest rules and standards – change tabulation values, number of symbols in a string, etc.

The interface resembles other popular text editors and offers several design themes with mini maps for each active tab with code. Numerous toolboxes can be hidden and displayed with a single mouse click. The main window can be split horizontally and vertically for convenient allocation of the project files.

Pros

Free of charge.
Supports additional plugins and functions.
Simultaneous display of several documents due to the “Window Split” function.
Auto download of repositories from Git and Mercurial.
Built-in console.
Supports different charsets including UTF-8.
Capability to edit remote network files.
Tabs.
Syntax highlighting. Search for brackets correspondence. String numbering.
Words autocompletion function.
Quick comments creation.
Supports regular expressions.
Built-in intellectual search system.
Backup function.
Custom design that includes colors, fonts, indentations, etc.
Supports sessions technique.

Cons

Available design themes can be applied only to the chosen tab or area but not to the whole program.
Limited integration with Github, Gitlab and other similar services.