Editing Bluefish (software) (section)

== Features ==
Bluefish is not a complete IDE, but more than an advanced text editor.<ref name="roblimo">{{cite web|url=https://www.linux.com/news/bluefish-my-favorite-linux-html-editor/ |title=Bluefish: My favorite Linux HTML editor |date=10 September 2002 |access-date=3 May 2024 |author=Robin (Roblimo) Miller |publisher=Linux.com}}</ref> Compared to an IDE Bluefish lacks functionality like an integrated [[debugger]].<ref name="bestcodeeditors">{{cite web |url=https://linuxiac.com/best-free-linux-gui-code-editors/ |title=6 Best Free Linux GUI Code Editors for Programming |date=1 November 2023 |website=Linuxiac}}</ref> It is better described as an advanced code editor<ref name="htmlcenter"/> with many web specific features.<ref name="blre1">{{cite web |url=http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/linux/Bluefish-52329.shtml#sgal_0 |title=Bluefish Review |author=Mihai Marinof |date=18 April 2007 |work=Softpedia |access-date=7 December 2016 }}</ref><ref name="thegeeksclub"/> Some call this a web IDE,<ref name="openforyou"/> but it does not feature a [[WYSIWYG]] web design component.<ref name="troubleshooters" /><ref name="blre1"/>

Bluefish's features include [[syntax highlighting]]<ref name="jumpstart">{{cite book |title=Linux for Developers: Jumpstart Your Linux Programming Skills |author=William Rothwell |date=2017 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=9780134657288}}</ref> and [[auto-completion]] for 47 different markup and code languages (including Mediawiki syntax<ref>[[Wikipedia:Text editor support#Bluefish|Wikipedia:Text editor support § Bluefish]]</ref>), customizable via an XML language definition format.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://bfwiki.tellefsen.net/index.php/Writing_language_definition_files |title=Writing language definition files |date=5 January 2023}}</ref> It furthermore features [[code folding]], auto-recovery,<ref name="zdnet5tools" /> upload/download functionality (on systems where [[GVfs]] is available), a code-aware spell-checker,<ref name="openforyou">{{cite news |url=https://www.opensourceforu.com/2015/05/popular-open-source-ides-for-web-development/ |title=Popular Open Source IDEs for Web Development |date=9 May 2015 |newspaper=Open Source for You}}</ref><ref name="zdnet5tools" /> a Unicode character browser, project support,<ref name="lifeofageekadmin"/> code navigation and bookmarks.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/features.html |title=Bluefish features |access-date=2024-05-03}}</ref> It has some advanced search and replace functionality<ref name="blre1"/> with [[regular expression]] support, and multi-file search and replace support. It has a [[multiple document interface]]<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2005/54/Bluefish/ |magazine=Linux Magazine |date=May 2005 |title=The Bluefish HTML editor and integrated IDE |author= Andreas Grytz}}</ref> that can quickly load large (hundreds of files) codebases or websites,<ref name="htmlcenter">{{cite web|url=https://www.htmlcenter.com/blog/bluefish-editor/ |title=Bluefish Editor, HtmlCenter blog |author=Curtiss |date=22 April 2012 |website=HTMLCenter}}</ref><ref name="lifeofageekadmin">{{cite web |url=https://lifeofageekadmin.com/using-bluefish-web-editor/ |title=Using Bluefish as Your Web Editor |date=2 November 2016 |access-date=2 May 2024 |author=Mark Harris}}</ref> and features full screen editing.<ref name="bestcodeeditors"/>

For web development it has many a toolbar with specific dialogs and [[wizard (software)|wizard]]s to automatically insert the correct HTML tags.<ref name="jumpstart"/> Furthermore, autocompletion for all tags and their attributes<ref name="blre1"/> together with [[Emmet (software)|Zencoding/emmet]]<ref>{{cite mailing list|url=https://bluefish-dev.ems.narkive.com/pRS3jp5d/bluefish-2-2-1-released |title=Bluefish 2.2.1 released |date=2012 |mailing-list=bluefish-dev |author=Olivier Sessink}}</ref> helps for quick web development.<ref name="troubleshooters">{{cite web|url=http://www.troubleshooters.com/lpm/201308/201308.htm |title=Bluefish: Quality and Speed |author=Steve Litt |publisher=Linux Productivity Magazine |date=2013}}</ref>

Bluefish is extensible via plugins and external tools and scripts.<ref name="lifeofageekadmin"/><ref name="zdnet5tools" /><ref name="bestpgpeditors">{{cite web |url=https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/websites/web-development/php-editors/ |title=The best PHP editors and PHP IDEs |publisher=Ionos |date=2023}}</ref> Many scripts come preconfigured, including statical code analysis, and syntax and markup checks for different markup and programming languages such as lint or weblint.<ref name="linuxandubuntu">{{cite web |url=https://www.linuxandubuntu.com/home/8-best-ides-or-code-editors-for-linux/ |title=Best Linux IDEs Or Code Editors |author=Sohail |date=16 March 2016}}</ref> Also a simple marco-like feature called "custom menu" helps to speed up repeating actions.<ref name="roblimo"/><ref name="gradelinuxeditorsa">{{cite web |url=https://www.computerworld.com/article/1579151/linux-text-editors-do-any-make-the-grade.html |website=Computerworld |title=Linux text editors: Do any make the grade? |date=17 August 2007}}</ref> A large set of macro's for PHP and HTML come preconfigured.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.opensourceforu.com/2013/12/bluefish-feature-rich-editor/ |title=Bluefish-The Feature Rich Editor |website=OpenSourceForU |date=11 December 2013}}</ref>