# A GOOD text editor for iOS?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-text-editor-for-ios/632077
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 20, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-text-editor-for-ios/632077 "2012-08-20T17:45:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-text-editor-for-ios/632077/1 "2012-08-20T17:45:25Z")
There are dozens of text editors out there for iOS devices. And every one I’ve tried has sucked. As soon as I load in a reasonably large file in my iPod Touch, it bogs down. The simple act of selecting a block of text to delete, can take minutes!
Why?
This tiny computer in my pocket is a lot faster than half the computers I’ve used 3D animation! Is everyone using some mediocre Apple toolkit that sucks at handling text in any quantity? Is the memory management just that bad?
Where are the serious text editors? Where is the iOS equivalent of my beloved UltraEdit? Hell, I’d re-learn vi if it got me some speed!
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-text-editor-for-ios/632077/2 "2012-08-20T20:28:50Z")
69 views and _nothing_?
Is the Apple playground just that heavily regulated that nobody could write a decent text editor? I mean, a freaking 286 edits a megabyte text file faster than this thing!
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### Author:  [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-text-editor-for-ios/632077/3 "2012-08-21T06:57:03Z")
> **[iOS text editor that handles LARGE files?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=635297)**
>
> I have tried a dozen or more different iOS text editors for my 2nd generation iPod Touch, and every one I’ve tried bogs down to unusability when a text file gets above a certain size. The thing is, the processor and the memory in my iPod Touch is far...
> **[iTextEditors - iPhone and iPad text/code editors and writing tools compared](https://brettterpstra.com/ios-text-editors/)**
>
> Comparison chart of iPad and iPhone (iOS) text editing applications.
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### Author:  [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-text-editor-for-ios/632077/4 "2012-08-21T08:12:44Z")
I suspect the number of people who edit large text files on an ipod touch is rather small.
I regularly write text on an ipad with the built-in Notes app, and it’s fine. But each one is a few pages long at most. And I don’t do much editing.
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### Author:  [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-text-editor-for-ios/632077/5 "2012-08-21T08:45:43Z")
I’ll note that iOS seems to have not figured out memory management for some reason. If you need more memory for an app, double click the home button to get to the recent apps dock, then hold down on one of the apps til it jiggles. Then delete all the apps in that dock to free up their memory. If an app is crashing or being slow I find this helps (rebooting also helps). I have no idea why iOS can’t do this automatically.
The native Apple pro text editing app for iOS is Pages. Have you tried that?
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### Author:  [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-text-editor-for-ios/632077/6 "2012-08-21T08:55:07Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#):
>
> If you need more memory for an app, double click the home button to get to the recent apps dock, then hold down on one of the apps til it jiggles. Then delete all the apps in that dock to free up their memory.
[myth](http://speirs.org/blog/2012/1/2/misconceptions-about-ios-multitasking.html):
> [@](#):
>
> If someone tells you that all the apps in the multitasking bar are running, using up memory or sucking power, they are wrong.
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-text-editor-for-ios/632077/7 "2012-08-21T14:33:02Z")
> [@xash](#):
>
> [iOS text editor that handles LARGE files? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=635297)
Yeah, I’ve asked before.
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2012, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-text-editor-for-ios/632077/8 "2012-08-21T15:26:17Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#):
>
> The native Apple pro text editing app for iOS is Pages. Have you tried that?
No, could someone who owns it load a large file into it and check the level of suckitude?