Notepadqq is a version of notepad++ adapted for Linux. I love notepad++ for its powerful features and also because it’s free. Notepadqq has a ppa configured for easy installation for Ubuntu users, but for everyone else they must resort to compiling it. Fortunately it’s not too complicated. Thanks to linuxbabe for the guidance.

For Debian 8 users this is what you have to do:

sudo apt-get install qt5-qmake libqt5webkit5 libqt5svg5 coreutils libqt5webkit5-dev libqt5svg5-dev qttools5-dev-tools git
git clone https://github.com/notepadqq/notepadqq.git
cd notepadqq
./configure
make
sudo make install

After a bit of time notepadqq will be compiled and installed. That’s it!

If you are running gnome-shell or a derivative (such as cinnamon) then you can get your newly installed program to show up in the menu by pressing alt+f2, hitting r, and then hitting enter. This causes the shell to reload so it will pick up your newly installed program.