this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
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[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 10 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

I've been wanting something lighter than VSCodium, though I can't find anything else that also does active line-by-line comparison of 2 nearly identical files. Do any other custom-syntax-highlighting editors come to mind?

[–] MalReynolds@piefed.social 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Kate (the KDE GUI editor) is pretty light and surprisingly competent if you set it up right. It has diff capability including git diffing.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 3 points 3 weeks ago

Thanks, I'll give it a shot!

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Thanks, I'm trying Kate and I installed git to get the diff going, but I can't actually edit one doc live and see the change on the spot across the two docs. Is Kate capable of this?

Update: It appears incapable of live-editing docs. VSCodium wins again, unfortunately. I really wanna get away from VSC because it seems much heavier on the system than anything else I've found...

[–] mx_smith@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Trying this out next, thanks; it's a bit different but may be the one! It should get into the Software Manager...

[–] lastweakness@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Zed has AI features, but there's a config flag that disables all of them in one go. They also have collaboration features that you might want to disable as well... Also telemetry.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Lame, thanks! Edit: All telemetry and AI features were disabled by default in my installation. Was that not the case for you?

However, Zed still does not have side-by-side file comparison that involves live editing of one to instantly reflect changes on the other; I have to open the diff, and then find the contradictory spots separately in a third window. Why is it so hard to find an editor with live comparison-editing?

[–] Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Notepad ++ does that. It's syntax highlighting and does great comparison of two nearly identical files. I've never used it to code though. I just use it for comparing text. But it is syntax highlighting.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 2 points 2 weeks ago

Hmm, it doesn't seem to be natively available for Linux, and I'd like to not have to go through WINE every time for a heavily used program. Thanks, though! I did use this for a while on Windows before VSCodium (can't remember what led me to switch in the first place)...

[–] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

There is an issue open on Zed. You can do it from the CLI but the UI still needs an update.

Here is where my convo started: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/discussions/39869#discussioncomment-16534444

You can also use Difftastic as a plugin: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/issues/9721

[–] littleomid@feddit.org 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 2 weeks ago

I wanna be able to edit one side and see the other side react to the changes live. It seems that Kate, which seems to use git diff, is incapable of doing this. I'm trying Zed and may try Magit next if that doesn't work out, thanks!

[–] snw@feddit.nl 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I recently got into using NeoVim with LazyVim. It's honestly been my favorite IDE experience by far after using VSCode for ages and then trying Zed for a year. It's super light and has infinity features and plugins.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks, I'll try LazyVim. Kate and Zed still do not have live side-by-side comparing-and-editing, it seems. I did not realize how hard it is to find an editor other than VSCodium that has this feature.