How to Install Kate Editor on Ubuntu 20.04

Wondering how to install Kate Editor on Ubuntu 20.04? 

You may come across tasks that require you to view source text, like source codes, documents, datasheets, program files, data logs, and many more.

To make changes to these pieces of plain text, we require modern tools with advanced features. Kate is one such tool.

Kate, namely KDE advanced text editor, is a nifty tool that comes packed with several features which could explain its rising popularity. It is based on the KDE framework and has been an integral part of the KDE software compilation for a long time. 

The text editor is programmed in C++ and has undergone various stages in development due to its popularity. It is available in Various Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, Kali, Fedora to name several more. It provides various advanced features at no cost.

This guide will help you understand how to install kate Editor on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

So without further ado, let us dive into the process of its installation.

Install Using Ubuntu repository.

This is a straightforward process of downloading Kate, and the process assumes you have the basic knowledge of the Ubuntu shell and how it uses commands to install packages.

1. First, open the Terminal using the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T or type ‘Terminal‘ in the search menu.
2. Once in the Terminal, type the commands:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

This command updates all available packages to the latest version, thereby making it easier to install applications requiring the latest version of certain packages on your operating system.

3. Once done, we download the package from the Ubuntu repository using the apt command:

$ sudo apt install kate

This will have installed the kate editor on your system along with additional packages. The Terminal will prompt you to confirm installation by pressing ‘Y‘ and then pressing Enter to confirm the installation.

Once downloaded, you can open Kate by searching in the Show Application section and searching ‘Kate‘.

Install Using the Snap Store.

Alternatively, if the apt command does not work for you, another option is the snapd installation. There are times when a package you want to install is not yet present on the Ubuntu package repository.

Snapd enables you to download “snaps” of desired applications. These snaps contain all necessary dependencies of applications to run on the notorious Linux distributions using a singular build. Resultantly, their updates are also automatic.

The snap packages will get you your desired application. However, you may need to tweak certain application parameters to optimize it with your operating system. This is because, as stated before, snapd has applications with a single build for various Linux distributions.

To install Kate using snap, we first install the snapd using the following commands:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install snapd

And finally, install kate using:

$ sudo snap install kate --classic

Once again, you should see the Kate text editor icon once you search ‘Kate‘ in the ‘Show Applications‘ menu or type ‘kate‘ in the Terminal.

Once installed, you can check the version using:

$ kate --version

If you followed the steps correctly, then congratulations! you’ve learned how to install Kate Editor on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.

Features of Kate.

The Kate editor comes with a wide variety of editing tools to facilitate the user as much as possible. For instance, some of its features include advanced search, multiple options for code folding and word wrapping, tool view along with the split view. 

It also includes toggle orientation and flexibility options like window tabbing BOM and custom language indentation. Adding further to its versatility and ease of use is the terminal-document synchronization, filtering, and encoding with a wide variety of data options.

Applications of Kate.

Here are a few reasons why you should have Kate installed on your Linux system.

Make your code brim with color.

Kate understands up to 300 programming languages and facilitates reading your code in almost any language. It can help understand brackets for various languages and work through long and tedious codes. It also features spell check and Find and Replace expressions to make corrections easily.

Additional Plugins.

By default, Kate comes packed with numerous plugins that can help you achieve much more using a text editor. Examples include GDB debugging, a SQL extension to read databases and execute SQL queries, and a Terminal emulator to execute commands directly using Kate.

Efficient Projects and Applications.

Working on projects or applications can be a hassle when running and debugging multiple files simultaneously. Fortunately, Kate offers users the option of split windows to efficiently monitor your project, and it’s working.

You can also use the sidebar that allows smart navigation of directory structures. You also have access to recent documents using smart tabs.

Moreover, you can complete various objects in different languages. Kate includes LSP (language server protocol) that assists with the auto-completion of languages. It also aids in smart indentation, selection modes, commenting, and optimized editing.

However, if Kate doesn’t turn out to be your cup of tea, then you can always uninstall it. Let’s see how.

Uninstall Kate.

To uninstall Kate, you can use the following commands:

For apt users,

$ sudo apt remove kate

For snap users,

$ sudo snap remove kate

To completely remove Kate and its dependencies, type the following command.

$ sudo apt-get purge kate

The aforementioned commands will remove Kate from your system.

Kate is a powerful tool that enables the user to have full control over the script handling. It can be used efficiently in completing projects in various languages and offers a multitude of features when compared with other text editors.

Another text editor we recommend is the gedit text editor, the default text editor for editing scripts. However, dark mode users may face some highlighting features that don’t help text visibility. Learning how to fix highlighted text in gedit in dark mode will save you lots.

In this article, we learned how to install Kate Editor on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and its features and applications. We hope we were able to address your queries and effectively resolve them. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments.

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