I really like Kate! Been my text editor for what 20 years now?
this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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I feel kind of lame saying so, but I just use Kate for taking notes.
I only realised it was supposed to be for editing code when it gave me a debug error when I wrote something with parentheses (what do you mean there's an error in line 43!? That sentence makes perfect sense!)
That's what I've been doing too LOL. It's basically just my Notepad replacement.
I'm a programmer and I still use Kate mostly for notetaking and configuration editing. I tend to use other editors like VS Code when I'm doing more involved stuff.
I love Kate! It’s so lightweight compared to other heavy ass IDEs. Just hook up an LSP and you’re good to go. I use it to manage 3 simultaneous HUGE projects, plus a configured build & run command for them, instead of 3 CLions. It’s just an awesome editor all around.
Why not directly use https://kdevelop.org/ instead? It's basically Kate with all the dev plugins enabled by default.
I didn't know this. Would it be possible to run multiple projects as 42yeah said above, with kdevelop too?
Neat. I've been using kate as my standard text editor for years, mostly because of the session management and because you can give it a pretty minimalist interface with some configuration (something that similar editors like Geany tend to struggle with). I honestly didn't know that there was a searchable tab list, I've been using ~~alt+tab~~ ctrl+tab (which already has a much better UI than many other editors) but that definitely gets unwieldy when you have a ton of tabs open (which is always ... don't even ask how many browser tabs I have).
*Ctrl+tab for those that don't know.
Thanks, not sure where I got alt+tab from - I think ctrl+tab is actually the more common shortcut for tab switching nowadays.
This is great. This dude should write the Kate manual. I’ve always struggled to set it up the way I need.
😎
After reading this, I'm kinda curious how it compares to JetBrains. It's becoming more and more VSCode like and I'm not a fan.
Does Kate support or have plugins for renaming symbols, presenting documentation, formatting files, showing code diagnostics beyond syntax errors (for example code smells or so), have AI integration (explain this, rewrite this, replace this with prompt output, ...), specific framework integrations (reactjs, django, actix, ...), and stuff like expanding macros in C/C++ and Rust?
renaming symbols, presenting documentation, formatting files,
Yes, these are supported via the Language Server Protocol (LSP). I've mostly been using it with the Rust LSP server (rust-analyzer) and well, it typically works, but sometimes you have to tell it to restart the LSP server and stuff (which isn't a huge ordeal, but don't expect everything to always work as well as in a full-fledged IDE).
I believe, for formatting, there's also some non-LSP support.
showing code diagnostics beyond syntax errors (for example code smells or so),
This is supported in principle via LSP, too, but it depends on the specific LSP server, how much info it provides. The Rust compiler gives out relatively much on its own, which is passed on by the LSP server, but you can apparently also configure it to use the linter on save.
have AI integration (explain this, rewrite this, replace this with prompt output, …),
Not out of the box. There's a way to define "External Tools", which basically allows you to run commands and pass arguments to them and then use their output. For example, you should be able to define an External Tool, where you can select some text, then press your keyboard shortcut for that tool, so it sends the selected text to that tool and then it takes the command output and inserts it instead of the selected text.
While this is a powerful concept, I don't know, if you hit limitations at some point.
specific framework integrations (reactjs, django, actix, …),
Nope, except where this might be covered by LSP. But there's no obvious way to just install additional plugins, for example. You get about thirty built-in plugins and that's it.
and stuff like expanding macros in C/C++ and Rust?
Well, expanding macros is also possible with the Rust LSP server. Don't know about other languages.
Thanks for the response. So there's a bunch of stuff to do myself but also surprisingly enough stuff for an editor.
I'll take a deeper look at it.
As a years-long Kate user, I'd assume the answer to most of those features is "no". It's still mostly a code editor, not an IDE.