# What if I want a simpler IDE for Julia?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142>\
**Category:** Juno\
**Created:** [November 16, 2019, 2:15am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142 "2019-11-16T02:15:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![anon97116444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon97116444](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon97116444)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 2:15am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/1 "2019-11-16T02:15:49Z")

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I am a simple fellow and, coming from the simplicity of Idle3 for python, the Atom juno seems to be too cluttered for my taste. SO is there a simpler way to develop Julia. I am looking for an Idle3 experience where I enter code in one window and run/compile it in another. I tried to install Juno and run some cut and pasted code and it really was a poor experience. With Python, first time using, I was up and running with Idle3 in 1 hour.

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**Author:** ![xiaodai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/xiaodai/32/15937_2.png) [@xiaodai](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/xiaodai)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/2 "2019-11-16T02:42:05Z")

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I have switched to Sublime Text 3. It’s not free and the setup is not as convenient as Juno, but it’s snappy and almost satisfy all my needs [Sublime Text 3: Worth a look!](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/sublime-text-3-worth-a-look/17142)

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**Author:** ![anon97116444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon97116444](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon97116444)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:06am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/3 "2019-11-16T03:06:31Z")

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only do free BUT thanks for the heads up on sublime. One of the reasons I have a problem with JUNO is the MOMENT I added a component the darn thing failed with the REALLY helpful  
“Julia has exited” press enter to start a new session. I’m pretty sure I know how to fix it BUT it doesn’t bode well for the future as I had JUST installed what I THOUGHT was the latest and greatest of Julia, ATOM and Juno.  
Oh joy.

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**Author:** ![Amin\_Yahyaabadi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/amin_yahyaabadi/32/9826_2.png) [@Amin\_Yahyaabadi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Amin_Yahyaabadi)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:08am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/4 "2019-11-16T03:08:42Z")

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> [@What if I want a simpler IDE for Julia?](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/3):
>
> only do free BUT thanks for the heads up on sublime. One of the reasons I have a problem with JUNO is the MOMENT I added a component the darn thing failed with the REALLY helpful “Julia has exited” press enter to start a new session. I’m pretty sure I know how to fix it BUT it doesn’t bode well for the future as I had JUST installed what I THOUGHT was the latest and greatest of Julia, ATOM and Juno. Oh joy.

You need to specify Julia path in the julia-client package

> go to Packages \> Julia \> Settings and in the first box for “Julia Path” insert the path to your Julia installation (example: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Julia-1.0.0\bin\julia.exe)

[https://docs.junolab.org/latest/man/installation/](https://docs.junolab.org/latest/man/installation/)

Also, here in discourse people speak with friendly tone.

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**Author:** ![anon97116444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon97116444](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon97116444)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:14am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/5 "2019-11-16T03:14:39Z")

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Sorry I wasn’t aware I was speaking in an unfriendly tone BUT I will make sure I think before I type next time.  
Thank you for the guidance BUT those are the instructions that I followed to get JUNO installed and it resulted in the error. Also I am running Ubuntu not windows. I forgot to mention that.

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**Author:** ![Amin\_Yahyaabadi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/amin_yahyaabadi/32/9826_2.png) [@Amin\_Yahyaabadi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Amin_Yahyaabadi)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:19am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/6 "2019-11-16T03:19:11Z")

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You should either add Julia to the environment variables or specify the path to Julia.

On Windows, you need to specify the `julia.exe` inside the setting

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/6/4/645f71786e18f8ec67225c82de2233502ca1d2e1.png)

> [@What if I want a simpler IDE for Julia?](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/2):
>
> I have switched to Sublime Text 3. It’s not free and the setup is not as convenient as Juno, but it’s snappy and almost satisfy all my needs [Sublime Text 3: Worth a look!](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/sublime-text-3-worth-a-look/17142)

IMO, referencing to a 90 post thread isn’t the best guide for a beginner.

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**Author:** ![anon97116444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon97116444](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon97116444)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:21am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/7 "2019-11-16T03:21:07Z")

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Hi there  
I am running ubuntu, sorry I really should have mentioned that. Also I have already specified ./julia which is the correct call to the program. Thank you for helping.

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**Author:** ![Amin\_Yahyaabadi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/amin_yahyaabadi/32/9826_2.png) [@Amin\_Yahyaabadi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Amin_Yahyaabadi)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/8 "2019-11-16T03:29:18Z")

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Could you post a screenshot of the console when you press Enter in?

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**Author:** ![anon97116444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon97116444](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon97116444)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:35am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/9 "2019-11-16T03:35:37Z")

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Hey Amin  
it is wonderful of you to want to help BUT I found a solution on these forums. I just don’t want to use JUNO. I was looking for a simpler world. Programming in Python I liked to use an simple IDE called IDLE3 no bells or whistles. Here’s the solution to the error I see ( sorry I am NOT on the machine with Juno loaded so I can’t put up the error. )

[https://docs.junolab.org/latest/man/faq/#Juno-doesn’t-work-properly-after-some-Atom-packages-were-updated.-What-do-I-do?-1](https://docs.junolab.org/latest/man/faq/#Juno-doesn't-work-properly-after-some-Atom-packages-were-updated.-What-do-I-do?-1)

Again thank you so much for following up and I will watch my posting tone in the future, the heads up was most appreciated.

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**Author:** ![davidanthoff](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/davidanthoff/32/223493_2.png) [@davidanthoff](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/davidanthoff)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/10 "2019-11-16T03:42:00Z")

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You can also give the Julia extension for VS Code a try.

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**Author:** ![Amin\_Yahyaabadi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/amin_yahyaabadi/32/9826_2.png) [@Amin\_Yahyaabadi](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Amin_Yahyaabadi)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:45am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/11 "2019-11-16T03:45:34Z")

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Post the result when you get it working.

For the reference, I added an issue to provide all-in-one installer for Julia+Juno:  
[https://github.com/JunoLab/Juno.jl/issues/431](https://github.com/JunoLab/Juno.jl/issues/431)

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**Author:** ![xiaodai](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/xiaodai/32/15937_2.png) [@xiaodai](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/xiaodai)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/12 "2019-11-16T03:48:14Z")

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> [@Amin\_Yahyaabadi](#):
>
> IMO, referencing to a 90 post thread isn’t the best guide for a beginner.

Agreed. I had nightmares going through the Sublime Text installation instructions too. So I didn’t bother making it easier. Basically, I am saying that some effort is expected here because Juno is pretty easy to install.

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**Author:** ![anon97116444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon97116444](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon97116444)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 3:59am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/13 "2019-11-16T03:59:59Z")

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Hi David  
I will certainly look at that but I am REALLY hoping for a simple life. Just call me Frodo 🙂

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**Author:** ![anon97116444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon97116444](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon97116444)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:02am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/14 "2019-11-16T04:02:11Z")

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I got Juno installed then something broke so it’s NOT the installation that’s the issue. It’s just I don’t want the complexity that JUNO provides. I just want simple.

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**Author:** ![anon97116444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon97116444](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon97116444)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:05am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/15 "2019-11-16T04:05:21Z")

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Thank you for considering a really excellent approach to the installation. To be honest that wasn’t the problem I had. One minute it was working THEN it broke. My original question was for a simpler editor. I thought that the JUNO area would have people who came FROM less complex IDE’s to JUNO and could point me to the simpler ones. I have already posted the link to the fix that people seem to believe will work.

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**Author:** ![Yifan\_Liu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4da419/32.png) [@Yifan\_Liu](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Yifan_Liu)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:07am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/16 "2019-11-16T04:07:50Z")

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Speaking of simplicity, you can try geany or scite. They are editors but easy to work with Julia.

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**Author:** ![anon97116444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon97116444](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon97116444)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:20am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/17 "2019-11-16T04:20:51Z")

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have added to the list. Thanks for the heads up. I’m looking to go back to emacs, my first love.

[https://github.com/JuliaEditorSupport/julia-emacs](https://github.com/JuliaEditorSupport/julia-emacs)

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**Author:** ![Mason](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mason/32/2423_2.png) [@Mason](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Mason)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:25am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/18 "2019-11-16T04:25:53Z")

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I was going to refrain from suggesting emacs, but if you already know your way around it, I’d definitely recommend using emacs for julia development. The simplest setup is just using [GitHub - tpapp/julia-repl: Run an inferior Julia REPL in a terminal inside Emacs](https://github.com/tpapp/julia-repl) but I also find that once one sets up [https://github.com/dzop/emacs-jupyter](https://github.com/dzop/emacs-jupyter) its also a really great way to use julia (and other jupyter compatible languages) in emacs.

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**Author:** ![anon97116444](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@anon97116444](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/anon97116444)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:35am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/19 "2019-11-16T04:35:23Z")

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I love emacs and thank you SO much for the guidance with the setup. I’ll certainly get going on that when I get in front of the machine next week. I am ITCHING to get going on julia but don’t want to have a full blown IDE to get in the way. I just need a simple life. A deskful of jetson nanos, a fibreoptic backplane and a top notch language written by people who care. Thanks again for the excellent guidance.

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**Author:** ![davidanthoff](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/davidanthoff/32/223493_2.png) [@davidanthoff](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/davidanthoff)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2019, 4:44am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142/20 "2019-11-16T04:44:07Z")

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I do think the VS Code extension is simple. All you do is install VS Code, then search inside VS Code for the Julia extension and install it from within VS Code. The extension finds your Julia installation automatically in most cases, and then it doesn’t need to install anything, i.e. it is not installing any further Julia packages or anything like that.

And VS Code itself is a pretty lean and simple code editor, that in particular has _nothing_ to do with the full fledged Visual Studio.

[Next page](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/what-if-i-want-a-simpler-ide-for-julia/31142.md?page=2)