Text Editors and Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

One needs to use a tool to enter and modify source code. On this page we discuss the different tools and their pros and cons.

Command-Line Text Editors

nano

To start nano on a Research Computing system:

$ nano

nano is easy to learn and widely available. Do not use nano if you regularly write code. Instead, use a more advanced tool.

vim

To start vim on a Research Computing cluster:

$ vim

vim has a scripting language that allows for plugin-like extensions to enable IDE behavior, syntax highlighting, colorization as well as other advanced features. With vim and emacs you keep your hands on the keyboard and rarely use the mouse. Some find this helpful not only for productivity but to reduce repetitive strain injury (RSI) such as carpal tunnel syndrome. vim takes some time to learn. Visit the vim website.

In January 2026, look for the Wintersession workshop Intermediate vim. See a vim configuration file for macOS on iscinumpy.dev.

neovim

Neovim is a fork of vim with refactoring and modernizing the codebase and feature set. See an overview of Neovim on YouTube in 100 seconds. Plugins in Neovim are written in Lua. LazyVim is a Neovim setup powered by lazy.nvim to make it easy to customize and extend your config. Read about Vim versus Neovim.

Neovim offers these benefits:

• plugins written in Lua
• built-in language server protocol (LSP) for code completion
• scriptable terminal emulator
• telescope: a fuzzy file finder plugin
• treesitter for syntax highlighting

On Della and Tiger, one can install Neovim by running these commands:

$ wget https://github.com/neovim/neovim/releases/download/v0.11.2/nvim-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
$ tar -C . -xzf nvim-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
$ cd nvim-linux-x86_64/bin
$ ./nvim

One can also install it using conda:

$ conda create --name nvim-env nvim -c conda-forge -y

On Stellar and older systems, you may need to use an older version or build from source.

emacs

To start emacs on a Research Computing system:

$ emacs

emacs can be used for many tasks beyond text editing. It can be configured to mimic an IDE. Some find that a finely-tuned emacs configuration can outpace any IDE for software engineering. Visit the emacs website. emacs takes some time to learn.

IDEs

What is an IDE? An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that helps programmers develop software code efficiently. It increases developer productivity by combining capabilities such as software editing, building, testing, and packaging in an easy-to-use application.

VS Code

Visual Studio Code or VS Code is a popular IDE for Python and several other languages. After installing, see the getting started materials.

Upcoming workshop Connecting Visual Studio Code to the Research Computing Clusters Thursday, June 26, 2025 at 2:30-4:00 PM Location: Lewis Library 121 Instructor: Mattie Niznik, Research Software & Programming Analyst, Research Computing

Remote development is possible on the Research Computing systems. This allows you work with files on a remote system with VS code installed locally on your laptop.

Another way to use VS Code on the Research Computing clusters is via Open OnDemand. In the main menu, choose "Interactive Apps" then "CodeServer on Vis Nodes".

vim users should be aware of VSCodeVim which is an extension that provides vim emulation for Visual Studio Code.

Users can work on a GitHub repo in a browser-based VS Code environment. To do this just browse to a GitHub repo and press the period key on your keyboard.

PyCharm

JetBrains provides IDEs for Python, Java, JavaScript, .NET, and more. See PyCharm for Python. Get the Professional edition by using your princeton.edu email address. With the professional version you can do remote development.

Recommendations

Princeton Research Computing encourages researchers using the high-performance computing clusters to know one or more tools for simple editing and IDE-like work for software engineering. Here are some good possibilities:

• VS Code and nano/emacs/vim
• vim (fully configured as an IDE)
• emacs (fully configured as an IDE)
• PyCharm and nano/emacs/vim

The general idea is to know a simple text editor and something with IDE features. It is a good idea to use the same tools as your research group.

Authorship

This page was created by Jonathan Halverson and members of Princeton Research Computing.