A few people asked about an alternate IDE to Visual Studio 2013.
I had mentioned that I used Notepad++ with some custom batch files.
I finally got around to updating these to work with the build of UE4 and have created a wiki page on the subject.
Wiki: Notepad++ as basic IDE.
It is not meant as a full on replacement for VS2013, but hopefully people will find it useful none the less.
why not use vs 2013?
loving it! I’ve been using notepad++ for years now, and it’s simply the best.
You just use your windows explorer to find the files you’re looking for, double click them and they open up in a fraction of a second, with correct highlighting and all. Furthermore it does not assume to be anything other than an editor. It does not auto correct, it does not complete your code. This makes it never lag, and you automatically become much more immersed in your code.
Now, I admit I use VS too, but if I’m just scripting on one or 2 classes, VS is just overkill.
VS2013 is mroe comfy but is pretty big
Why not use Notepad++? 
I still use VS2013 for debugging and such, but in general, am more comfortable with Notepad++.
I write a lot of scripts both in Python and Maxscript and definately I prefer notepad++, However for things like C++ (haven’t done since college) i would still go for writing code with notepad++ and debug with VS or something.
If I want to use Notepad++, can I uninstall Visual Studio?
You will need a compiler anyway 
For those willing to jump ship out of VS2013 (with the coughexcusecough of being slow), you can try using vimand YouCompleteMe.
Nothing really beats vim, if you’re brave enough to get started on it 
Thanks for this answer to a question I didn’t ask.
Oh man, regarding your question, I just answered that you will need a compiler - so, if it wasn’t clear enough, what I meant is: you can’t uninstall Visual Studio.
thanks. Now this is clear enough.
Totally noob in c++ things, so I need the most clearest answers.
So, VS acts as a compiler? But what about the compile function in the UE4 editor?
Do you still need full VS2013 installed to compile?, or can you use other compiler or other alternative?
The button invokes the VS compiler facility.
Think of the VS as two components. The IDE and the language compiler.
If you use VS and hit “build”, the IDE frontend starts the compiler. This compiler is a separate executable.
So it can also be run from commanline. That is what batch files are for.
Im not sure if you can separate the compiler from the IDE. They might use common code…
A different C++ compiler could theoretically work, unless the VS compiler has peculiar behavior that is exploited and the code would yield different results with a different compiler implementation.
Im not sure about C++, (still learning), but I remember from highschool C classes that some compiler behavior is undefined and the behavior is then implementation dependent…
: thanks, i understand things better.
So Notepad++ could be used to edit files, but you still have to use VS as a compiler.
I suggest that people use Sublime Text or Atom. For those people that don’t know, Sublime Text is not a free text editor; but Atom is.
Sublime Text plugins are written in Python and Atom’s plugins are written in Coffee Script.
Sublime Text Documentation
Atom Documentation
Do any of these support full syntax highlight and auto completion for C++ code? 
Check out CLion for a nice VS alternative, it’s auto complete is very nice. I prefer it over VS for writing code. But…
It uses CMake, and don’t know if that can be set up with UE4.
They both do support various programming language syntax highlighting, but I’m not sure about the auto completion.
A quick google search turned up this for Atom and Sublime Text (which is discontinued).
Epics Fricker implements CLang support for Windows, but even then you need Visual Studio w/ its C++ compiler installed (for headers, libraries and the linker).
Microsoft delievered the compiler toolchain with the Windows SDK in the past, now they don’t, but they might start doing so again.
But maybe not, I think they love the new information collecting VS-Online stuff too much.