[fretlessjazz]

"If a programmer tells you to use vim or emacs tell them no. These editors are for when you are a better programmer. All you need right now is an editor that lets you put text into a file."

Ha! When I started to program, everyone told me the opposite. After weeks of head scratching and spending more time learning editors than coding, I secretly switched to Pico. But man could I use the hell out of Pico.

[phren0logy]

This is exactly why I have such a soft spot in my heart for TextMate. I used it like Notepad until I knew what I was doing, and although I'm far from an expert I'm still pulling new tricks out of it.

I'm sure there are other, similar options but TextMate has been good to me.

[zedshaw]

I'm actually looking for a simple editor that works on all platforms, doesn't look totally like ass, and is easy to use. I'll then change things up so people just install that. Basically a GUI cross platform pico would be perfect.

[isthisaquestion]

gedit is cross-platform and pretty easy to use. I never tried the windows port though. It doesn't look totally native on OSX but it's not bad.

[gtt]

windows version as good as the linux one

[kingkilr]

It's my primary editor on all 3 platforms, I'd definitely recommend it for beginners.

[frio]

There's TextMate on Mac, and e-texteditor for Windows (which is a port of TextMate)... but that leaves Linux high and dry until the developers finish porting it there too. It requires cygwin under Windows too :/.

Other than that, there's SciTE, which is quite nice. Notepad++ on Windows is a derivative thereof.

[chbarts]

Nedit http://www.nedit.org/ might be too much like ass for you, but it's pretty simple in the default state and isn't just a GUI wrapper around a character-terminal editor.

[grncdr]

I second gedit, just installed it on my Mac, and it doesn't look like complete ass. (It does however use GTK for file open dialogs etc. so that might put other people off?)

[Tichy]

Hasn't Apple somehow killed GTK on Snow Leopard? There was something that made gvim stop working, so I had to switch to mvim. Sorry can't remember the details, but gedit might be hurt, too? Or was that just a MacPorts problem?

[dchest]

gedit works well on Snow Leopard.

[jules]

I recommend Scite. It has syntax highlighting and runs the program and displays output when you press F5, and the UI is very similar to notepad.

[Adrock]

I second Scite. My favorite features are the ability to print with syntax highlighting and copy to the clipboard as RTF with syntax highlighting.

[earcar]

What about Komodo Edit? http://www.activestate.com/komodo_edit/

[bwh2]

Wing IDE 101 might work: http://www.wingware.com/wingide-101

[nfnaaron]

evim (vim in -y easy mode) is cross platform and simple (as I mentioned in an email I just sent to you).

[Flow]

Won't Idle work for that?

[bcl]

gvim

no, really.

The basic vim commands are easy. As with python you can ignore the more advanced topics until you are ready to take advantage of them. It has a GUI interface so users used to pointing and clicking will feel comfortable.

[code_duck]

I agree, vim is overwhelming at first. It simply does not work like a new user expects... i.e., you can just start typing and using arrow keys.

Nano is much more straightforward.

What these people should really be using, though, is Kate on Linux, or Notepad++ in Windows. I gather that Textmate is the equivalent for Macs, but I've never used that personally.

Syntax highlighting and a multiple document interface goes a long way.

[steveklabnik]

I'm a huge vim advocate, but you're spot on. It's like giving a high powered rifle to a new recruit.

Get used to programming first, then use better tools.