A text editor is software that opens, changes and saves plain text files. Plain text holds characters only, without fonts, colors or page layout. Programmers use a text editor to write source code. Web designers use one to write web page markup and style sheets.
History of Text editor
Creator: Bill Joy (vi, 1976); Richard Stallman (GNU Emacs, 1984); Richard Brodie (Windows Notepad, 1983). Year: 1976.
Early programmers punched code into cards. A keypunch machine made the holes. A card reader then loaded the deck into the computer. Editing meant punching new cards. Some early operating systems included batch text editors. These editors changed card image files. Each record often held 80 characters.
The first interactive editors were line editors. They ran on teletype printers. Commands worked on one line at a time. The user had to track the insertion point, called the cursor, in memory. Edits were checked by printing part of the file.
Screen editors came when video terminals became common. The 1977 Commodore PET was the first mass-market computer with a full-screen editor. Bill Joy added a visual mode to the ex editor in 1976. The result was vi. Joy's ex 1.1 shipped in the first Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) release in March 1978.
Richard Stallman began GNU Emacs in 1984. GNU is a recursive name that stands for GNU's Not Unix. GNU Emacs became a central part of the GNU Project. Its first release was on March 20, 1985. Its tagline is the extensible self-documenting text editor.
Microsoft released Windows Notepad in 1983 as Multi-Tool Notepad. Richard Brodie is listed as its original author. Notepad is a simple editor for plain text. Many programmers choose other editors with more features. Microsoft released Visual Studio Code (VS Code) on April 29, 2015.
Changelog and latest update
Text editors added features over time. Early editors worked one line at a time. Full-screen editors then showed the whole file. Later editors stored text in gap buffers, piece tables or ropes. These structures make inserts, deletes and undo steps faster.
Programmer editors added syntax highlighting and automatic indentation. They also added plug-ins. GNU Emacs grew through Emacs Lisp packages. Its built-in tools include a file browser, a calculator and an email client. GNU Emacs 28.1 on April 4, 2022 added native compilation of Lisp files. Version 29.1 on July 30, 2023 added Tree-sitter parser support.
GNU nano is a smaller editor for terminals. Its homepage lists version 9.2 as the latest release, modified on July 31, 2026. Nano shows its key commands at the bottom of the screen.
Visual Studio Code adds agent sessions. An agent is an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that works on code tasks. Microsoft lists version 1.141 as the current stable release. Its highlights include worktree cleanup, sandboxing of agent terminals on Windows, macOS and Linux, and a grid view for sessions.
Latest update: Visual Studio Code 1.141.0, 2026-10-07
Microsoft released Visual Studio Code 1.141 on October 7, 2026. The release lets users reclaim disk space from inactive agent worktrees. Agent terminals can be sandboxed on Windows, macOS and Linux. Users can compare several agent sessions in a grid.
Usage examples
A text editor opens a plain text file, changes its characters and saves it. Web pages, style sheets and source code are plain text, so any text editor can open them. Developers choose an editor with search, syntax highlighting and remote file access. The examples below show a terminal editor, a scripted edit, a package install, a remote command and an editor setting. Each command runs in a Linux or macOS terminal.
vi notes.txt
i
Hello, world.
<Esc>
:wqThis sequence opens notes.txt in vi. The i key enters insert mode, and the typed line is saved to the file. The Esc key returns to command mode. The :wq command writes the file and quits the editor.
printf '%s\n' a 'Hello, world.' . w q \
| ed -s notes.txtThe printf command sends editor commands to ed in batch mode. The a command appends the next line. A single period ends the input. The w command writes the file, and the q command quits the editor.
sudo apt install nano
nano --version
nano /etc/hostsThe first command installs nano on Debian and Ubuntu systems. The second command prints the installed version. The third command opens the hosts file for editing. Editing system files needs administrator rights.
ssh user@example.com
nano public_html/index.htmlSecure Shell (SSH) opens a session on a Server. The nano command then edits a web page on that server. The file path is relative to the home folder of the account. Changes take effect when the file is saved.
git config --global \
core.editor "code --wait"
code -g index.html:12The first command sets Visual Studio Code as the editor for Git commit messages. The --wait option holds the terminal until the file closes. The second command opens index.html at line 12 in the editor.
References
These sources are outside Websnoogie and were checked on 2026-10-12.
Text editor
Wikipedia
Explains what a text editor is. Compares plain text with rich text. Covers the history of line and screen editors and common features such as syntax highlighting.
Visual Studio Code release notes
Microsoft
Lists the stable and Insiders releases of Visual Studio Code. Version 1.141 is listed with its release date of October 7, 2026 and its release highlights.
About Vim
Vim project
States that Vim is an improved version of the vi editor. It describes Vim as a configurable editor for programming, configuration files and email composition, and lists its main advantages over earlier versions.
vi (text editor)
Wikipedia
Describes vi as a screen editor for Unix. Records that Bill Joy added visual mode in 1976. Records the name vi in Second BSD, May 1979.
GNU Emacs
Wikipedia
Covers the GNU Emacs history from 1984, its release history by version, its Emacs Lisp extensions and its built-in tools such as Dired and Calc.
GNU nano
GNU nano project
The official nano homepage. It lists version 9.2 as the latest release, modified on July 31, 2026. It links to the news, documentation and download pages for the editor.
Notepad (software)
Wikipedia
Describes Windows Notepad as a simple text editor included with Microsoft Windows. It records its first release in 1983 as Multi-Tool Notepad and lists its original author, Richard Brodie.
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