best text editor for programming Python on a Mac

[Michael Torrie]

On 06/18/2016 06:12 PM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Sunday, June 19, 2016 at 11:07:23 AM UTC+12, Michael Torrie
> wrote:
>> 
>> On 06/17/2016 05:52 PM, Chris via Python-list wrote:
>>> 
>>> Any suggestions for a good open source text editor for the Mac
>>> out there?  For now, I am going to stick with vim.
>> 
>> Good choice.
> 
> The trouble with vim/vi/whatever, is that it doesn’t work like any
> other editor on Earth.

The fact that the OP is using vim would suggest this doesn't really
matter to him all that much.

> Pull up any old GUI-based editor you like, for example Windows
> (shudder) Notepad. If there are N characters in your file, then the
> insertion point can be placed at N + 1 positions: in-between two
> adjacent characters, or before the first character, or after the last
> character. And this makes sense: anything you type is inserted at the
> insertion point. All rational text editors (and word processors) work
> this way.

Indeed, so does vi/vim.  Why do you think otherwise?

> But not vi/vim. It only lets you place your cursor *on* a character,
> not *in-between* characters. That’s why you need two separate
> insertion commands, insert-before and insert-after. And one of those
> has the interesting side effect where, if you exit insertion mode
> without inserting anything, it doesn’t put you back in the same
> position as before. Why?
> 
> As to why you need insertion commands at all, that’s another
> thing...

Having used vim for years and also normal editors including word
processors, I have no idea what you're talking about by how insert
works.  It works the exactly the same.  I put my cursor under a letter,
hit insert, and I am inserting text before that letter, just like any
other text editor.