TranslateProject/sources/tech/20220413 Meet Lite XL- A Lightweight, Open-Source Text Editor for Linux Users.md

[#]: subject: "Meet Lite XL: A Lightweight, Open-Source Text Editor for Linux Users"
[#]: via: "https://itsfoss.com/lite-xl/"
[#]: author: "Marco Carmona https://itsfoss.com/author/marco/"
[#]: collector: "lujun9972"
[#]: translator: "geekpi"
[#]: reviewer: " "
[#]: publisher: " "
[#]: url: " "

Meet Lite XL: A Lightweight, Open-Source Text Editor for Linux Users
======

**Brief:** _Are you looking for a new _text editor_ alternative? You should try this lightweight, _simple_, fast, feature-filled, and extremely extensible one._

Sure, there are plenty of text editors or code editors that you can use. Some popular ones include Eclipse, [Visual Studio Code][1], [PyCharm][2], [Atom][3], [IntelliJ][4], and [Sublime Text][5].

But do you want to try something interesting that’s entirely focused on giving you a minimal experience?

Meet _**Lite XL**_ editor.

To be honest, I had no idea about it until last week. But, it managed to surprise me with its **minimalist design** and how **fast it was at coding**, but the most important fact was its similarity with Visual Studio Code.

So, before everything, let me tell you that if you’re a [Visual Studio Code fan][6], you should absolutely try _**Lite XL**_. It may not be an absolute replacement, but a lite edition of something that resembles the use-case.

![Showing how Lite XL looks][7]

### Lite XL: Lightweight Text Editor Written in Lua

Lite XL is an interesting open-source text editor written in Lua (particularly tailored to build lightweight applications).

It is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS as well. But, with all the available [modern text editors available][8], why Lite XL?

![Lite XL Customize Configuration][9]

Normally, we aren’t concerned about the resources that a text editor can consume on our system most of the time. However, at the time of creating bash, python, or any other type of script, you rely on a text editor, and the more resource-efficient it is, the better.

Of course, a text editor isn’t as resource-hungry as some other applications. But, if it matters to you, here’s what I observed:

Lite XL only uses **three megabytes** in your disk and consumes around **twenty megabytes** of physical memory, compared with the almost five hundred fifty megabytes (~550 MB) that Visual Studio Code uses.

**Can you see this wonderful difference between these similar editors?**

Not just the resource usage, it is highly customizable as well.

Note that the resource usage stats can vary for different system configurations.

### Features of Lite XL

![][10]

As per the official information available, some of its most popular features include:

  * __Cross-Platform_:_** It currently works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
  * **Lightweight: ****As we described before, its usage hardly ever exceeds 10 MB in RAM.
  * **Extensible**: Being a minimal offering doesn’t mean not being customizable. Lite XL can extend its functionalities thanks to several plugins available, for example, [VSC-like intellisense][11].
  * **Multi-cursor editing**: It’s as wonderful as it sounds, inside Lite XL you can work with multiple cursors.
  * **Integrated terminal**: Like Visual Studio Code, Lite XL implements its terminal.
  * High DPI display support.
  * Additional color themes are available.
  * Supports hardware-accelerated rendering.



### How to Install Lite XL in Linux

Lite XL offers an AppImage file for Linux distributions. You can follow our [AppImage guide][12] to get started.

You can find the AppImage file on its [GitHub repository][13].

Once you head to its GitHub releases section, go directly to the Assets section and download the _**LiteXL_x86_64.Appimage**_ file.

![Downloading Appimage file][14]

An AppImage file will be downloaded into your download directory, so, before double-clicking on the file, verify it is allowed to execute as a program.

![Verifying execution permissions][15]

That’s right! Now you can double-click on the file and start using _**Lite XL**_ in your system.

[Lite XL][16]

If you’re interested in exploring Lite XL, you can get involved in its [GitHub repository][13], visit the official website, or join its [Discord community][17].

_What do you prefer to edit text and code? Do you focus on using a lightweight program, or is it irrelevant for your use case? Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below._

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

via: https://itsfoss.com/lite-xl/

作者：[Marco Carmona][a]
选题：[lujun9972][b]
译者：[译者ID](https://github.com/译者ID)
校对：[校对者ID](https://github.com/校对者ID)

本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](https://linux.cn/) 荣誉推出

[a]: https://itsfoss.com/author/marco/
[b]: https://github.com/lujun9972
[1]: https://itsfoss.com/install-visual-studio-code-ubuntu/
[2]: https://itsfoss.com/install-pycharm-ubuntu/
[3]: https://itsfoss.com/install-atom-ubuntu/
[4]: https://itsfoss.com/install-intellij-ubuntu-linux/
[5]: https://itsfoss.com/sublime-text-3-linux/
[6]: https://itsfoss.com/visual-studio-code-vs-atom/
[7]: https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/lite-xl-editor-screenshot.png
[8]: https://itsfoss.com/best-modern-open-source-code-editors-for-linux/
[9]: https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/lite-xl-screenshot-2.png
[10]: https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/lite-xl-screnshot-1.png
[11]: https://github.com/lite-xl/lite-xl-lsp
[12]: https://itsfoss.com/use-appimage-linux/
[13]: https://github.com/lite-xl/lite-xl
[14]: https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Downloading_Appimage_file-800x447.png
[15]: https://itsfoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Verifying_execution_permissions-800x535.png
[16]: https://lite-xl.com/
[17]: https://discord.gg/RWzqC3nx7K