I sometimes use gedit, for a means of quick coding as my IDE.

Here is some tips that may make your life easier.

1. Run gedit.
2. Open Preferences from the gedit menu and select the Editor tab.
3. Change Tab width: to 2.
4. Select (make sure a check mark is in) Insert spaces instead of tabs.
5. Turn on "Automatic indentation" as well.
6. Open the View tab and turn on "Display line numbers".

HTH

Brent