# Sam text editor

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Sam text editor and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Fans of Rob Pike's editor praise its elegant design and structural regular expressions; no critical comments were recorded.

## Why people recommend it

- Admirers find it elegant and lovable (2 comments): "I'm starting to truly love sam" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47502820)) "far more elegant to my taste" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47491898))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Zed](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zed.md): 700 recommend
- [GNU Emacs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/emacs.md): 648 recommend
- [Vim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vim.md): 513 recommend
- [Visual Studio Code](https://hackerapproved.com/p/visual-studio-code.md): 485 recommend
- [Neovim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/neovim.md): 295 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Sam text editor", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sam-text-editor/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).