Topic awaiting preservation: Text editor recommendation (Page 1 of 1)

If you're as picky as I am about text editors, check out text pad ( www.textpad.com ). I recently discovered it, and it's really, really good. I strongly recommend it. Its default settings are a little weird (F5 for searching, for instance), but nearly everything can be changed in the preferences. You can set up color coding for literally any language you want (although XML color coding is a little difficult to set up, but still sort of possible) - including JavaScript, CSS, or whatever language you most often work in. You can choose between a tabbed or MDI interface (which is a big thing for me, personally). There is literally no feature that I want in a text editor that it doesn't have - and I'm *extremely* picky about this sort of thing.

There are only about three shortcomings that I've found, and they're all really small. (They have to do with the behavior of the carot and selection when using arrow keys or undo, but they're minor.)

So, anyway, if you're looking for a good text editor, this is worth a look. Just letting you know.

If you download it, make sure to spend some time going through the preferences (in the configure menu), or you won't discover many of its features.

Looks real promising, Slime, but I'm sticking with Ultraedit for now.

If you're picky, them I must be downright anal.

Text pad was one of the first text editors I took for a spin back in 1999. It was nice, but not nice enough for me.

I used it for about a year then I wsitched to editPlus 2, mainly because 90% of the work I do programming wise is web based so it makes sense for my text editor to be HTML orienteted. That being said, editPlus is basically a text based HTML editor on steriods. Regexp find and replace on all open docs, clip text libraries, completly custom syntax highlighting for any language, including custom sub syntax highliting for inline CSS, Javascript, PHP, Could Fusion, ASP etc ect. Custom menus and the whole shebang.

But the best things for me about editPlus are a couple of the shortcut buttons that realy save time. Like an insert image (Brings up a window and you just select the image file -- I've just always hated typing in the HTML images) and preview in browser button. Another hany feature is it's ability to preview the page you're working on in a browser and have it run off a locally installed web server. Just specify the running server's root directory and it take care of the rest. Makes developing PHP a lot easier.

My only gripe with editPlus is that it doesn't insert a trailing slash for the insert image shortcut for XHTML compliance. Normally you could set ths up in the syntax andsettings files but for some reason this particular section was hard coded into the program. Although, if you subscript you can grab the latest beta off of the developer from the support newsgroup which fixes this.

Although, whilst editPlud is HTML orienteted, if you install 'flush' it intergrates very well with flash for actionscripting and I've used it a lot when writing Lingo scripts for director. Lastly, you can easily backup all of your settings and custom syntax highlighting files so that when you need to do a format -> reinstall (which I do about every year) it only takes seconds to setup again.

Although, I've been using this for so long I doubt I'll ever switch. It's just too comfy now. =)

See also:

:FAQ: Can you recommend a code editor?

___________________
Emps

FAQs: Emperor

I use something called Aranae, even though I can never spell it right
http://www.araneae.com/

It's pretty basic, but then again that's why I like it (I had been using notepad).
It has it's own set of quirks, but I'm sticking with it until something better comes along...


[ - ozphactor - ]

Lately, I've been using syn as a general purpose text editor. One of the strongest syn features is Active Scripting, you can extend its functionality by writing scripts in any language supported by Windows Scripting Host (i.e. VBScript, JScript, Phyton, etc.)

*gasp*

No HTML Beauty plug?

:::11oh1:::

Well, I thought that we are talking about general purpose text editors...

As far as HTML (and everything WWW related) editing is concerned, there's no match for HTML Beauty!

you may also check out editplus 2. thats the one i am currently using. it's cool because you can download these nifty user files for free.

elysiumart

I use WinSyntax...it's just good...good all round

I'm with silence. It's all about UltraEdit-32.

Slime - I also use textpad, and I love it. Been using it for close to two years I think now. I haven't used an editor that i like better so fra (including HTML Beauty - sorry Max..).

I've never used a couple of the ones mentioned here, though I have generally atemptt o check out all the editors mentioned when one of these threadds comes up...

Text pad has a lot of the features you mention, Dracusis, though admittedly not quite all of them. The support for *inline* CSS and Javascript sounds nice....

I really like UltraEdit as well. Full regex support, context highlighting, etc.

Full search & replace functions across all open files (and I've had 100+ open at one time).....

Although I can't wait for the XHTML compliant version of HTML Beauty!

btw, Textpad is great for Java, not sure about other compilers but its great for java oh and its awfull for JavaScript because it colors everything inside tags green, so it makes it trickier to read.

It has nice features for adding such programs like compilers, we use it in college, this put me off it at first because whoever set up the colleges computer system was a nob end.

I however have stuck with www.editpadlite.com as its a tiny program loads fast on any machine , its basically notepad 2 , very basic, you can change colours(no syntaxery) and have mulitple files open, search&replace etc..
Everything I want.

and yea, Textpads shortcuts are a bit unusual , can't remember any off hand but I think save_as is an odd one too.

quote:

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...because it colors everything inside tags green

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Only if that's what you tell it to do It's all customizable...
Textpad also has full support for search/replace across all open files.

I will have to check out editplus. So far though, I haven't found anything I like better than Textpad.

I still use HomeSite for HTML because it gets all the sub-language highlighting right (JavaScript, PHP, etc). But as HomeSite gets closer and closer to losing all support in the face of Dreamweaver, I might be looking for something new... TextPad does the same thing, you say?

For Java, I've been using JEdit. Extremely full-featured, and runs completely Java-native, so you can take everything cross-platform at any time. What's more, it has a lot of plugins which (at least for Java) turn it into a full-scale IDE. Searches the Java docs for a word if I right-click on it, built-in compilation, that sort of thing.

Cell 1250 :: alanmacdougall.com :: Illustrator tips

My editors of choice would be HTML Beauty, JCreator, and of course notepad.

I tried JEdit last semester when the professors finally decided to stop using MS J++ for the Java 1&2 classes (J++ = EVIL). JEdit didn't look too bad, but it was being a serious pain to install on the network. There were probably half a dozen others we tried also, but JCreator seemed the most user friendly.

Has anyone here tried Forte (Sun ONE Studio), and would you recommend it? If so, for what level of programmer?
One of the profs that 'runs' the lab wants to look into using it to replace MS J++, and I just had enough time to glance at it Thursday at work, but I wasn't too enthralled by it. Besides, it didn't look too "newbie" friendly, which it's mainly the Java 1&2 classes using it... Anyone who's in Data Structures, Info Systems, etc use whatever they like.

[edit: Also I should add, they would like to use the same Java IDE on the Sun machines as on the Windows, which is a plus towards Sun ONE Studio, because they want students to be able to have remote access from home without having to install whatever we use on their computer... Even though Sun ONE Studio comes with the book they're using to teach the classes...

[This message has been edited by Lord_Fukutoku (edited 07-19-2003).]

Heck, starting students should use Notepad and the command-line Java compiler. None of this "I drag in a few snippets and use the GUI builder and I have an app" business.

Cell 1250 :: alanmacdougall.com :: Illustrator tips

I think, for the most part, the text editor you use is more of a "I'm comfy with this one so I don't want to change" kind of deal than anythign else.

As long as it has *most* of the features that you require to work efficently then changing to something else is probably going to waste more time than you save, not to mention cause a lot of fustration.

Although, I would kill for a Mac OS text editor that made the home and end buttons work like a PC, and the shift button work for selecting text, but alas, I've found no love there so far. Word for Mac does it, but nothing else I've found does. This makes programming on a mac a complete nightmare for me (sometimes I can't avoid having to program certain things on a mac) as I use these keys to move around pages of code all the time. If anyone knows of an editor for the Mac that will let me set it up this way (I poked around the bbEdit settings a little but found nothing to let me do this), I'd love to hear about it. Even better if I can fit it on my USB driver with those settings pre-configured, so I can use it on any Mac I encounter, as the machines at University get formatted every weekend.

I use a pen and paper... then I get my mum to read it through for me... usually she spots all my errors

quote:

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Although, I would kill for a Mac OS text editor that made the home and end buttons work like a PC, and the shift button work for selecting text, but alas, I've found no love there so far. Word for Mac does it, but nothing else I've found does. This makes programming on a mac a complete nightmare for me

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That's one of the reasons I prefer a PC. Such a little thing, so little that I never mention it in the giant Mac vs. PC brouhahas (brouhahi?); but it's what tips the scales for me.

Cell 1250 :: alanmacdougall.com :: Illustrator tips

Yeah, that, the single button mouse and the god awful key tension on almost every mac keyboad I've ever used. You'd think a company that spends a bundle on usability designers for their OS would bother paying attention to the hardware they design in terms of usability too.

I guess it really is the little things that make the difference. They've recently changes all of the Mac's in the labs at university over to use three button wheel mice, and I even overheard the hardcore mac hards thanking the tech department for that one.

PT - Yea, I've mentioned that once or twice... Learning to navigate through the command prompt and use 'javac *.java' isn't rocket science, but I've increasingly found that it's hard to convince people that notepad is really all you need.

text pad (1.9 KB)
Ultra Edit (2.0MB)
editPlus 2 (1 MB)
Aranae (663 kb)
syn (1.6 MB)
WinSyntax (453 KB)
Editpad Lite (1.25 MB)
JEdit (1.4 MB)
JCreator (2 MB)

Any word on footprints? EditPad Classic (been with this since it was still 'Postcard-ware') has got to be the most oft-used app on my WinBoxes.. I want it on demand- if I have wait more than .5 seconds for it to load, I'ma chew my eyes out! Also, it's a tiny .exe file that I can replace for that 'notepad.exe'. I like my textapps as small as possible, If I wanted a heavy, Big Iron Word Processor, then I'd get one.... just text? fast and loose..

How do these text editors fare in the 'fast and light' department?

[This message has been edited by Petskull (edited 07-21-2003).]

Petskull, since you want a text editor with small footprint, take a look at EDXOR. It has an executable that's smaller than 30KB and yet it's still jam packed with features...

I'm using UltraEdit since years. It's full of extremely addictive and usefull features like:
.Column mode and operations
.Regex research and replacement
.Case toggle
.Bookmarks
.Extremely easy to enhance syntax coloring and tags auto completion
.Ftp connection
.Templates
.Maccros
.Font size shortcut ( CTRL+PLUS and CTRL+MINUS are my friends )
.Hex mode
...

The only times where I find it a little slow is when I re-indent a whole source code by selecting huge parts of it and press TAB or SHIFT+TAB instead of using REGEX replacements on the selection wich is ways faster. And it scrolls a little slowly when I open a file of 1.4 Mb including a line of 1.2 Mb. But, when I say it's slow, let me stress that I'm working on a P III 600Mhz with 256Mb under Win2k so it's no surprise if the things doesn't reach lightspeed.
More it can open anything whatever the size of the file. When some co-workers can't open a big file in EditPLus, or HomeSite they ask me to handle it for them. But they are used to their editor 'coz it does everything they need on a daily basis so they don't feel the need to switch to another one.


Mathieu "POÏ" HENRI

[This message has been edited by poi (edited 07-21-2003).]

btw, has anyone of you already tried weaverslave? i have seen their webpage; this editor looks very nice too...and it's free.

elysiumart