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CodeMirror vs Emacs: What are the differences?
Developers describe CodeMirror as "In-browser code editor used in the dev tools for both Firefox and Chrome, Light Table, Adobe Brackets, Bitbucket, and many other projects". CodeMirror is a JavaScript component that provides a code editor in the browser. When a mode is available for the language you are coding in, it will color your code, and optionally help with indentation. On the other hand, Emacs is detailed as "The extensible self-documenting text editor". GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language with extensions to support text editing.
CodeMirror and Emacs can be categorized as "Text Editor" tools.
Some of the features offered by CodeMirror are:
- Support for over 60 languages out of the box
- A powerful, composable language mode system
- Autocompletion (XML)
On the other hand, Emacs provides the following key features:
- Content-sensitive editing modes, including syntax coloring, for a variety of file types including plain text, source code, and HTML.
- Complete built-in documentation, including a tutorial for new users.
- Full Unicode support for nearly all human languages and their scripts.
"Integrable in your application" is the top reason why over 3 developers like CodeMirror, while over 57 developers mention "Vast array of extensions" as the leading cause for choosing Emacs.
CodeMirror is an open source tool with 18K GitHub stars and 3.92K GitHub forks. Here's a link to CodeMirror's open source repository on GitHub.
According to the StackShare community, Emacs has a broader approval, being mentioned in 99 company stacks & 73 developers stacks; compared to CodeMirror, which is listed in 24 company stacks and 11 developer stacks.
Pros of CodeMirror
- Integrable in your application6
- Better content manipulation methods4
- Easy Custom Mode3
- JavaScript based1
- Easy setup1
Pros of Emacs
- Vast array of extensions65
- Have all you can imagine44
- Everything i need in one place40
- Portability39
- Customer config32
- Your config works on any platform16
- Low memory consumption13
- Perfect for monsters11
- All life inside one program10
- Extendable, portable, fast - all at your fingertips8
- Enables extremely rapid keyboard-only navigation6
- Widely-used keybindings (e.g. by bash)5
- Extensible in Lisp5
- Runs everywhere important5
- FOSS Software4
- Powerful multilanguage IDE4
- Git integration4
- May be old but always reliable4
- Asynchronous3
- Powerful UI3
- Huge ecosystem1
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Cons of CodeMirror
Cons of Emacs
- So good and extensible, that one can get sidetracked4
- Hard to learn for beginners4
- Not default preinstalled in GNU/linux1
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What is CodeMirror?
What is Emacs?
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What companies use CodeMirror?
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What tools integrate with CodeMirror?
What tools integrate with Emacs?
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