Joe's Own Editor

Spec sheet

Product

JOE is a full featured terminal-based screen editor distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Audience

SourceForge lists the intended audience as developers, desktop end users, and system administrators, with a console or terminal user interface.Read 11 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net

Free plan

YesRead 24 Sep 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Integrations

The site lists spell-check commands invoking aspell or ispell and says JOE can run UNIX commands such as grep and find from within the editor.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Build

JOE is written in C, lists libc as its only dependency, and can be built with configure and make install.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Column editing

YesRead 24 Sep 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Download integrity

The SourceForge download page displays a SHA-256 checksum and says the JOE 4.8 archive was scanned for malware.Read 11 Oct 2026 · sourceforge.net

Editing styles

The site describes JOE as combining WordStar-like editing keys and feel with some GNU-EMACS key bindings and features.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Editing tools

Features listed include multi-file search and replace, regular expressions, unlimited undo and redo, keyboard macros, and block operations.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

History

The site says JOE has been around since 1988 and comes standard with many Linux distributions.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Macro recording

YesRead 24 Sep 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Maintainer

The site says JOE is maintained by its original author Joseph Allen, along with people who submit bug reports, feature suggestions, and patches.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Notable limits

The site says JOE does not have vertical windows, folding, built-in FTP, an X-Window version, or a debugger interface.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Spell checking

Its spell-check commands invoke aspell or ispell; the site says background spell checking is not available.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Supported platforms

Linux,macOS (Unix-like systems)Read 24 Sep 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Syntax and text support

JOE supports UTF-8, optional UTF-8 file auto-detection, and syntax highlighting for more than 40 languages.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Terminal features

JOE supports mouse input, shell windows, multiple windows, pipes, and termcap or terminfo terminal capabilities.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Windows download

The official site links to a JOE for Windows 4.6 download.Read 11 Oct 2026 · joe-editor.sourceforge.io

Plans and prices

Every Joe's Own Editor plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• Text Editors#62 of 827.7