Bluefish vs RJ TextEd

Bluefish is a free, open-source desktop editor for programmers and web developers. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and supports more than 30 markup and programming languages. The editor is designed for websites, scripts, and programming code, with project support for working across multiple projects while restoring each project’s settings. Bluefish can load and save remote files through FTP, SFTP, HTTP, HTTPS, WebDAV, and CIFS via gvfs. Editing tools include regular-expression search and replace, snippets, unlimited undo and redo, crash recovery for modified documents, code folding, bracket and tag highlighting, autocompletion, and automatic tag closing for many languages. It can open more than 1,000 documents, with the features page reporting tests above 10,000 simultaneously. External programs and custom scripts can be integrated. The official Flatpak’s strict security blocks some system-tool and browser integrations.

RJ TextEd is a code and text editor for many programming languages, with tools aimed particularly at web development. It can work with Unicode text, source code, ASCII, and binary files. For HTML and CSS, it offers an integrated preview, spell checking, auto completion, validation, and templates. A document map, code explorer, TODO lists, symbols, and fast search help navigate projects. Its language-server client provides code completion, hover information, diagnostics, and symbol search; FTP and SFTP support lets users upload and edit remote files. Themes, colors, and panels can be customized. RJ TextEd is freeware, including for commercial use, and donations are welcome. It is listed for Linux and Windows; the maker says it has been tested on Windows 7, 8, 10, and 11, and that Linux use may work through Wine. Downloads include 32-bit, 64-bit, and portable versions, plus a version for Windows XP and Vista. Online help and a forum are available.