Editor with unlimited buffer size and functional macro

[Larz60+]

Hello,

I've been looking, without real success for an editor that is capable of:

• Being installed on Linux Mint 19.1
  
• Unlimited buffer size -- must be able to handle massive files on order of 400Gb or more
  
• Must have a fully functional macro capability, including use of search within macro that
  actually works -- This is most important capability to me.
  
• Preferably free, but I'm willing to pay one time fee
  
• Does not use cloud or require any internet access.
  
• Not as complicated as Emacs -- I may go this route, used Emacs for years, but have forgotten Lisp and general commands, mini editor, basically everything
  

I've tried:

• Sublime Text - can't use search in macro
  
• Notepadqq - Doesn't like file permissions, even if 777 if not on same drive as Home
  
• jEdit - apparently won't run is internet unavailable
  

Any suggestions (other than write my own (geting closer to this all the time, and actually
still have 'C' code editor which emulated 'Brief' mu favorite editor)

I haven't tried Vim yet mainly because I hated vi, but if has all of the requirements, I'll use it

[stullis]

Vim is your best bet. It can record macros and include a text/regex search in the macro, operates offline (no cloud), and is native to Linux.

The massive buffer size would be the only potential problem - except of course for Vim's learning curve. Although, if you're running Vim on a server, the server's hardware may overcome that issue.

[Larz60+]

Have thought about vim, but haven't tried it yet because, although I do know how to use it (vi), never really liked vi.
Guess it's time to give it a go, or maybe even go back to emacs, the learning curve may not be so bad for me as I used emacs for years.
Another alternative, since I like VSCode so much, is to find a macro extension for it.
so, I'll use the following priorities:

1. Extension for VSCode
   
2. Emacs
   
3. Vim