Slashdot Mirror
Recommended Text Editors for Win32?
Dave asks: "I must us a Windows machine at work where I do web development and system administration. I have been looking for a "decent" editor to use on Windows, but thus far have come up short. GVim doesn't do it for me, on linux it's fine, but on Windows it isn't the most stable thing around. I've also tried Windows versions of MicroEmacs and Vile. What do other Slashdot users develop in when they must use a Windows machine?"
Notepad?
Seriously. It's standard, it works well, and on Windows 2000 and later they finally removed that annoying 64KB text limit. Why use anything else?
http://www.multiedit.com/
I u'r serious about dos & win programming, this is the best tool.
This Ask Slashdot sounds to me like trolling against gvim. I use it extensively (didn't even bother with trying any emacs-life stuff for Win) under both WinMe and WinXP and it has never crashed on me and I even like it more than the Linux version. I use it for xml and java and html and a few other things. Never had any problem.
I love this editor.
Adds itself to the context menu in explorer so you can open anything in it.
Supports huge files.
Color codes C++, Java, etc.
Handles indenting and word-wrap well.
Has an 'always on top' feature.
Easy to asign file associations from the UI.
http://www.textpad.com
A speech...
honestly this is not a troll
but on windows use something that is designed for windows and not ported as an afterthought.
when i have to use a pc to edit (i mainly use bbedit on os x, which is by far and large the best editor i have EVER used) i use textedit
yeah, it's shareware, but it's not disabled in anyway and the only shareware part is that once in a thousand saves you get a dialogue that says "register or not" and the not button isn't time delayed or any of that crap, you click "not now" and it shuts up like a good piece of software.
At work we have standardized on Jedit http://www.jedit.org . Good syntax coloring. Lots of plugins: cvs , regex testing , and ton of others. A good macro language.
Oh really?
"...What do other Slashdot users develop in when they must use a Windows machine?"
First I develop a migrane, then I use lots of tequila. Works every time.
*comf*
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
i've been using the win32 version for years and years without a single problem. that aside, i'll recommend the following since you're doing development:
:O
ultraedit - www.ultraedit.com . even though i use vim more than anything, i keep it around for certain tasks and it's worth every penny. you didn't specify whether or not it had to be free...
cedit - cedit.sourceforge.net . free ultraedit clone attempt. i wouldn't know how it works, because it wouldn't run under xp
my advice is to try ultraedit, and a) if you like it and b) you're a cheap bastard, try cedit.
Seriously though, why don't you just use Linux ?
I can understand if you _must_ have windows for one reason or another, but you aren't worth too much if your employer doesn't give you a Linux box also.
Loser !
WWW.ULTRAEDIT.COM
Check out http://www.editplus.com/
By far the best text editor I have ever used. All of my development is done in this editor, since I have yet to find anything comparable in either BeOS or *BSD. It has syntax highlighting for virtually everything, and if it doesn't have what you want, you can add it very easily. And you can run arbitrary commands straight from the editor, such as compiling.
You want it, this thing has it.
The only drawback for all those free software nuts, it's shareware - free until you pay for it. But well worth the money, if you believe in that kind of thing.
If I was worried about Karma, I'd eat tofu.
very powerful, c-style macros, record keystrokes, language-specific settings/formattings, all the power of emacs but with a friendly (yet not dumbed-down) interface.
will interface with command-line compilers, also integrates with many IDEs to be the source editor, and respond to the IDE commands etc.
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
My absolute favorite programming IDE ever was Borland Turbo Pascal 7.0; therefore, I'm a sucker for any editor written in TurboVision, like RHIDE or SetEdit.
DOS Edit is still pretty decent in the console; on the GUI side, NoteTab is a notepad replacement on steroids (the "Light" version is free).
If you download Cygwin, you can compile almost any UNIX-y text editor you want, including my favorite--nano.
And if all else fails, Ask Google!
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I use PFE, the Programmer's File Editor. It doesn't even have syntax highlighting, but it's light, fast, very configurable and the macro function rocks (Shift + F7, Do some stuff with Ctrl+Cursor or whatever you want, Ctrl + F7, repeat with F7).
Regrettably it's out of development, though there still is a bug that sometimes occures: when editing, lines disappear and you should not save the file if that happens. But it does not happen very often.
The Mode feature is not very intuitive, but once you figured out how it works, it allows you to switch things like line-indenting, wrapping, etc. based on the file type you are editing.
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe/
I don't use other editors because of the time to get used to them... and because of basic stuff like Ctrl+Cursor, where PFE stopps at far more characters than whitespace only. I need this a lot and most other editors don't do this.
HTML-Kit works like a top, and has a great plugin system. I haven't done much much c coding with it, but it does handle auto-indenting and colorization of C/C++ code on top of the popular web programing laguages (Perl, PHP, Java, *Script, and VB code).
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
For anything web related (HTML, CSS, PHP) I use HomeSite. It works. Great editor, nice syntax highlighting, lots of nice features. I haven't found anything even remotely comparable for Linux, unfortunately. For C/C++, C++Builder is excellent. The syntax highlighting works well and the editor is amazingly fast. Works on files of literally any size with no slowdowns.
As an emacs user, I feel obliged to point out that xemacs is available for windows, and works quite well. It runs natively under windows, so you don't need to deal with cygwin or any of that (unless you want to, they do have a cygwin version available). And if you're a vi person, you can always run emacs in vi mode.
There's no sig like SIGSEG
I love UltraEdit.
The hex editing mode is really nice, as is integration into the shell (right click on any file to edit it, text or binary!)
UltraEdit Does a good job of syntax highlighting, and it has lots of options. It supports large files, is very fast, and not too heavy when it comes to resources.
Ever since downloading the free trial of Allaire HomeSite 4, I've been hooked with the product. Macromedia bought out Allaire (and I think I read that here), and released HomeSite 5, which is hardly different from 4.5, but keeps me with the latest version, which is something I think every self-respecting geek goes for.
Granted, I haven't actually used the free trial ever since. I've been cracking/patching it since around 4.5.2. It's fantastic. I highly recommend Macromedia HomeSite 5, even if you have to buy it (and your employer would probably be willing to pick up some copies; it's a great complement to Dreamweaver from what I'm told). It allows you to work in HTML, VRML, JavaScript, Java, PERL, PHP.. you name it, if you work with the source, you can work with it in HomeSite. It's highly customisable and comes with onboard preview support for IE and Netscape (Mozilla, sadly, isn't supported).
Matthew G P Coe
http://mgpcoe.blogspot.com/
I prefer ContTEXT.
It's a great editor for my needs. I do php, perl, html, c/c++, and Java in it. It has a modular syntax hilighter so you can create your own hilighting schemes and/or download existing ones. I also has syntax hilighting for my apache conf files.
It also has auto indenting, soft/hard tabs, programmable buttons/shorcuts based on file type. I set up one button for compiling, one for running, one for formatting, etc..
It supports CRLF, LF, and CR based text files so it works with every platform, and you can switch modes whenever you want.
I also enjoy the tabbed MDI setup, it works really well for me.
At least give this one a try, the worst that could happen is you don't like it ;-)
~higman
-- [insert sig here]
I'm a big fan of Code-Genie... customizable syntax highlighting and whatnot, quite nice.
One editor to rule them all, one editor to find them...
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
unstable? never had it crash on me and i do most of my web develop ment with it. if im not telneted into my box from a remote site working on it..
ive never had a problem with Gvim on windows 2k. perhaps its the OS. or need a newer version of Gvim.
It comes with syntax highlighting for HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP, Perl, C/C++, Java, JavaScript and VBScript, plus you can get user-created "STX" files for many other languages, or write your own. Each token color can be easily configured from a pallete selection dialog.
My favorite feature though is the built in FTP (File Open/Save/Save As) system, which makes opening a file on a remote FTP server as seamless as opening a file on your local machine.
Here's a few other features which I felt seemed noteworthy:
Sorry, I guess I got carried away :) I really like this program though, and I've been using it for about three or four years now. It's probably the only program I've ever registered within 15 minutes of downloading :)
I don't like the default colors and font that come with it. I prefer dark backgrounds, so I always set the background to black, then let the lumance level of all the default syntax highlighting colors to "200". I also don't like the default variable-width font, as I prefer mono-spaced fonts, but I don't like Courier, so I set it to the windows "FixedSys" font. Once I've made these adjustments, EditPlus looks more like a UNIX terminal than a Visual* editor.
On the occasions I've considered switching to Linux, EditPlus is probably one of the few things holding me back from doing so.
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
http://www.textpad.com. Cheap, powerful, fast, & very stable.
xemacs. Version 21.4.6. Available as windows InstallShield. Editor of the gods.
Bow
Bow
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
NoteTab, Golden Pen and HTML-Kit...
I'll just stick to Notepad personally, as far as windows is concerned. Other than that, VI forever!
Easy to use (menus and buttons until you learn the keystrokes).
The Installshield installer the folks at www.xemacs.org provide gives you a very capable editor without any painful configuration. Default editing modes are pre-bound to most common file formats.
- Superb source code browser. The main reason why I bought Slickedit.
- Runs on most OS'es including Linux and OS/390(!).
- C-like macro-language
- The people at Slickedit are very responsive if you're having trouble. This includes support as well as sales.
Cons:- It costs money. A single user license is $299 in USA and Canada, $329 everywhere else.
- No Mac version.
See more at www.slickedit.com.Disclaimer: I use Slickedit eight hours a day but am in no other way affiliated with the company.
My opinion? See above.
jEdit (available here) is available anywhere there's a reasonably recent Java2 runtime. On Windows with J2SDK1.4, I've noticed that it takes a fair bit of time to load up, but once loaded it's acceptably snappy--it's never going to win points for speed, but it manages to not be noticeably and/or annoyingly slow, which is good.
It has bindings for something like 50 different languages, from Ada to SQL and every-other-thing in between. I have been exceptionally pleased with jEdit so far, at least on Win32. On UNIX, jEdit is a little slower, to the point where it enters noticeably and annoyingly slow, but it's still a defensible choice.
If you do a lot of crossplatform work (I do) and want to keep your basic work environment the same in both environments, you can do an awful lot worse than jEdit.
As an added bonus you can tell yourself you are using a descendent of the very editor that was used by the actual developers of the early versions of NT!
- adam
I find Emacs very confortable.
You can install a lot of package you use under Unix (eg. folding, and so on) and it is complete.
My coworker like a lot UltraEdit, so take a look to it (but it isn't free!)
-- Giovanni Daitan Giorgi http://gioorgi.com http://www.siforge.org
I personally use NoteTab for just about everythnig from note-keeping to times when I need to look at several text documents at the same time. For web development, I quite love Macromedia's HomeSite, but since I can't afford to own a legal copy (shh... don't tell), EVRSoft's 1st Page 2000 is far from being a step down. It's free, it's fast, and it has similar features and feel as HomeSite. (But after kludging around with Cold Fusion, I will probably not go back to HomeSite. ColdFusion Studio still gives me nightmares.) Then for C/C++ development, I'm still looking for the right editor. I'm picking up Emacs on Linux, but for Windoze dev work, I need something with a filename other than MSDEV.EXE. I've come to hate that file with everything in me. But if you're a lazy coder like me, C++ Builder (or Kylix 3 in Linux) is definitely the way to go.
grey wolf
LET FORTRAN DIE!
UltraEdit32 does it for me.
Support for HUGE files, thousands of files open simultaneously, regex search & replace, interactive function listing, syntax highlighting, split window with synchronized scrolling, search & replace in multiple files (with regexes), find in multiple files (like grep), htmltidy built-in, column editing mode, converts to and from dos, mac and unix line endings, hex editing mode, and lots and lots of other stuff.
definately worth a look.
jeremiah
If you are using Windows for daily work, the only editor for you to use is vigor or recently vimgor. Seriously, it is the only solution for you >:)
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
...I ran a couple of common phrases through the M$Word grammar check:
.exe.
I must us a Windows machine -- ok
I must us an Windows machine -- ok
I must use a Win doze machine -- ok
All your Windows are belong to us -- ok
Not bad for a paltry 8.6 mb
Mentioned twice before but I figured I'd add my bit:
1. Regular expression "replace" - very useful
2. opens (very) large files quickly
3. I actually paid the shareware fee - for those that know me that should say something...
4. Hex mode
Also, not a text editor but a very usefull addition to your toolset is "EasyDiff" and "EasyDiff Pro", which is a powerhouse of text and file system comparisons.
CySurflex
GVim works very well on Windows, even on ME. If you experience problems, simply post bug reports to the Vim list, instead of flaming GVim on /..
I had to use gcc under windows, and this little program helped me (until i got my hands on devc++) but it was ok, and it's got a heckuva colorcoding (even on x86 assembly)...
I think it's a nice option for windows editors (and it's freeeeeeeee)
- Unikron
(G)VIM is still the best generic editor by far in my opinion. It can edit huge files (I've corrected codec tags in 700Mb AVIs), it's fast, and it integrates quite well in the windows environment. And it's (totally) free.
Well, that depends on the type of editing you do. If it's coding, then VIM is the best - if not, then it's a toss-up.
Its syntax hilighting, code-folding and command-based editing modes make it ideal... and once you press 'i' and have the backspace=2 option set, it's basically the same as textpad32/notepad/ultraedit.
PS: VIM is NOT vi! vi was written for a different era. I prefer Emacs over vi, but not over VIM.
Also, I do prefer the native IDEs when I code in Delphi, Visual C++, Python (here I use Boa-constructor instead of (g)VIM)
TextPad is, as far as I'm concerned, the bee's knees - not just in terms of Windows-based editors. It's probably my favourite editor on any platform. My only couple of gripes (I've mentioned these to Helios, but to no avail as yet)...
As you say, its shareware - you try it, you like it, you buy it. I assume you have paid now that you have used it to save a document over a 1000 times and are raving about it ... :-)
Maybe it's just that you *sound* like you think of only the button as 'the shareware part' rather than, as the license under which you can trial this otherwise commercial software.
Go try UltraEdit Its a real nice editor. Also runs fine under Wine, if you for whatever obscure reason need to run it under Linux.
... it's the best programming editor which ever came under my fingers in 35 years.
I find also extremely useful the ability of Emacs (thanks to Ange-FTP) to edit files remotely: is is just as simple as opening ``/username@host:/remote/file/name'', and everything (dired and completion included) just works as if it was on a local filesystem, so I don't even have to move from my workstation...
OTOH, for those who like having everyting and the sink but don't feel comfortable with Emacs, I'd say that JEdit is surely the best choice for them: it is completely scriptable using BeanShell, a Java-like scripting language, and has lots and lots of plugins for additional functionalities.
I just think it's better. :) http://www.slickedit.com/home.php
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
I know many people, that think the only text editor exists is Notepad and the only IDE editor is the one in M$VC.
It's great to see that people here have so many different editors that "just fit them". Obviously I prefer an open source one (on win32 boxen I use GVim) but if you prefer a commercial one, go ahead and use it.
The thing I like is that people aren't locked down to a specific editor (as I noted with Notepad) but actually do something for themselves and gets a normal editor.
From friends recommendations: Slickedit and jEdit are very popular.
^_^
I have to do all my editing in Windows, but with files located on a Solaris machine with no Samba.
Ultraedit has a semi-well implemented "Save to FTP site" function which is most useful.
It also does all the standard syntax highlighting, projects etc and is a fair price (shareware).
Win32Pad does it for me.
You chose WIN or UNIX line ending, tab size, auto indent, etc.
Win32Pad is a feature filled text editor that is written with a programmer in mind. Its main purpose is to provide enough functionality that is missing from notepad without sacrificing file size and performance.
Freeware, not Free Software though. :(
Phillip
I've been using gvim for at least 5 years on windows (NT, 2k, XP) and never had _one_ crash.
If you don't like the *vi type editors, Xemacs or Gnu emacs work flawlessly on win32 as well. Xemacs is a lot easier to set up (e.g.: getting the Java development environment JDE working), but perhaps you want to use Gnu emacs for political reasons...
If you want something more windows-centric NOTEPAD.EXE has always been pretty reliable, if a bit slow on large files.
"But actually trying to use m4 as a general-purpose langage would be deeply perverse" --ESR
This excellent text editor is about to release a new version. Araneae
it has builtin ftp support that acts as a filesystem so web developers can work remotely. and builtin preview support for web pages.
Stupid things kids do.
SciTe wins hands down.
Why? Let's start with SciTE is based on scintilla, a free and open source edit control yuou can include in your own code.
Then let's talk features:
Use any font you like, proportionally spaced or monospaced (trust me, proportional is beter for code, given the right font)
Intelligent and configurable lexers for a plethora of langauges (even Apache configs),
Syntax highlighting (user customizable of course) using colors or fonts or background colors
Code folding: show or collapse everything between whatever delimits a block of code or some higher hierarchical strructure in your language of choice
Intuitive font size zooming, for those bleary-eyed late nights
Per-language configurable Compile, Make, Run, or other commands
User configurable (or just use what comes included) syntax completion and function hints ("calltips")
Line numbering and margins, if you want them
Regular, \escape, and regex search and replace
Unix (\n) or DOS (\r\n) line endings
Displays compiler output in seperate pane, with intellegent parsing of, and go to line of, compiler error messages, even in source files not already open in the editor
User configurable status line
Configuration via config files, not a GUI (This is a strength, not a weakness -- code-Genie does it too, and it works much better than a crowded GUI once the number of config options gets large)
A very responsive developer: when I had an issue (the mouse wheel didn't work consistently when set to scroll one page at a time), my email to the developer got a response in less than three hours. Three hours later, the developer had located newer versions of the mouse drivers, and had downloaded and installed them on his own machine to to test. The problem was fixed in the next release; in the meantime I'd compiled my own copy from the source. (My one quibble is that having researched the problem and provided a code fix, my name wasn't added to the conttributers' list :), but that's unimportant next to having been given the application, the source, and several hours of the developer's time.)
Other than for debugging, SciTE and a make file replace the IDE, and far more cleanly. It also replaces any text editor other than a word processor -- I use it for viewing or editing any text-type file in preference to Wordpad, notepad, etc.
Oh, and did I mention it's free and open source? And unlike GPL'd code, it can be used in commericial projects?
But don't take my word for it. Get yourself a copy here: SciTE
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
It's a good port; it has a proper installer, a native Win32 GUI, and it's fast.
If it's unstable for you, try submitting a bug report; it's been rock solid for me since the early 6.0 beta's.
What build did you get? I've stuck with a perfectly good 6.1 beta, but I've heard of some specific builds being dodgy. ATM it's at about patchlevel 90 past release, and I'm sure Bram and co will be very happy to look into any problems you have. Seriously; it should be solid as a rock even in Windows.
seems like a no-brainer. download cygwin, and then you can run emacs in windows.
Two years ago we were using homesite (4.2) for our HTML/ASP needs..
:)
Problem was: homesite doesnt as much as leak memory, it bleeds it... a lot!
Instead of rebooting the machines (they were 64Mb with Win98) every 2 hours or so we decided to create an in-house editor.
The major feature we wanted was suport for some brief-likeness
That was 1 year ago and we all devoted some spare time to the project.
But now the editor (dubed ProEd) is quite mature and I think that it should be set free (as in speech), or at least free (as in beer)
it has builtin ftp support that acts as a filesystem so web developers can work remotely
Does anyone know of a Mac OS X editor that has this feature? My hosting provider has FTP-only access for my web site, and frankly, I'm a loser who'd rather write something quick in nano rather than constructing some monstrosity in Dreamweaver and uploading it.
Long story short, it's kind of redundant doing basic text editing on my local machine and then FTPing - I'd rather take care of it in one step.
--saint
Everything else is just fluff. :)
Keep Austin Weird!
heh, this is just a dumb idea, but you could make a "/foo/bar/RemoteUpload" dir and write a shell script that uploads everything in that dir by calling a command line ftp client when you trigger it... Then you could stick the script in cron and have it run once a minute or so... os x is basically unix after all... then there's the odd chance your hosting provider will let you NFS mount your home dir...
(I guess the best $5 i ever spent on software would have to be that first linux cd i got many moons ago from cheapbytes.com, ;-) )
on unix, i tend to use vim, but when I miss editplus, I've found nedit to be an acceptable substitute.
I've personally found UltraEdit-32 to be a fine low-cost ($35) editor for use in Windows. There are wordlists available for just about any programming/markup language you should need, and the inclusion of column editing, bracket matching, side by side diffs, and a relatively robust macro recorder make this a really good tool.
Bryan J. Casto
bryan.casto(a)gmail.com
try lucida sans console, if you have it. it's my favorite win32 coding font.
EditPlus was already recommended, but I'll throw in my personal fave. It's WinVi, an open source Vi clone for Windows. The best part about WinVi is that it accepts keystrokes in both NotePad and Vi styles. That is, if you're feeling lazy and need to just cut and paste via your mouse (or similar Notepad method on the keyboard), WinVi has no problem with that (provided you're in insert mode). Otherwise, WinVi is free to use as a functional Vi clone, with magical search and replace as a prominent feature coming to mind. It also features displaying files in Hex mode, if you dig that.
Then you could stick the script in cron and have it run once a minute or so... ...and thus manage to fire my FTP password, in plaintext, across my (soon to be defunct) cable company's network, every sixty seconds.
--saint
Joe's Own Editor:
http://mitglied.lycos.de/tygs/bsd/editor.php
Either in a PuTTY ssh session to my OpenBSD server,
or natively compiled - for example, with the free
Borland C++ 5.5 Command Line compilers.
My Karma isn't excellent, damn it! (And
When I first came on board, I had to learn Cold Fusion. The tools that we use for it are Dreamweaver(evil, evil) and Cold Fusion studio. CF Studio is just incredible, allowing coding and syntax highlighting in not just CF, but ASP, Perl, PHP and others. It can be extended using custom tags, and I love the keyboard shortcuts and custom shortcuts (click a button and it will surround whatever you have highlighted with whatever you want). While you can download a 30-day trial from Macromedia for free, the application itself costs money. But after trying homesite, GoLive, TextPad, Notepad and all the others, I love it.
Random Musings
Real men use real emacs on win32, not that microemacs crap. Works well for me, never crashed, etc, etc.
I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me.
ok so its not the best but i am attached to it for win32 work
I'd definately use NoteTab. The Pro version is worth every penny. It has a tabbed interface, cusomizable toolbar with lots of gadgets, Clipbooks (can range from simple text macros to complete mini-applications with a powerful scripting language), Very fast "Replace All" command, URL and HTML-tag highlighting, Multiple-level undo/redo, Option to show nonprinting characters, Bookmarks, Wrap to column, Line-number ruler, Choice between real/fixed/smart tabs, autoreplace MS Notepad, spell checker, thesaurus, integration with html utilities, plus lots more.
.). It's lightning fast and just keeps getting better with every release.
I've been using it for 5 years have never had any problem with it. All minor version upgrades have always been free (everything after the
Get it here
I use notepad. Lots of people do. But, the reason may not be what you think it is.
So many people use Notepad for the same reason that so many people use Vi. The simple reason is that you can find it on *every* system. If you work in a Windows shop you will likely be working on other machines than your own. These other machines will not have your favorite "SlickEditor" but, they will have Notepad. Regardless of whether the machine is 95/98/NT/2000/XP notepad will be there. The same holds true with Vi. If you work in a *nix environment, you can be assured that whatever machine you use will have Vi. They may or may not have GEdit or Kwrite or even Emacs but, Vi wil be there.
Of course, if you use only Notepad and then go to a *nix system, you'll have a hell of a time with Vi.
How about jEdit? It's java-based, open-source, with syntax highlighting for some insane number of languages, has a plugin community base, etc.
http://www.jedit.org
WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
Real men only use Edlin.
see subject
BC
If you can stand the resource usage (and really, if you are used to Emacs, you have absolutely no excuse :p), try jEdit (www.jedit.org). It is an editor written in Java, and it is excellent. It is extensible with plugins, and is scriptable (but you don't have to use/see any of this if you don't want). It has powerful syntax highlighting, abbreviation/auto expansion, built in file browser, integration with Ant, etc.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
UltraEdit is some REALLY great software. :)
Does HTML tidying, color syntax highlighting depending on what language you're using, has very advanced find and replace capabilities (UNIX regular expressions supported), nice tabbed interface, customizeable tool bar, project management features, built in FTP client, Save To FTP (which is great) along with a ton of other stuff.
Check it out!>
No, I don't work for them. But I like their product.
- Sometimes you're the pidgeon, sometimes you're the statue.
First and foremost is VIM http://www.vim.org. There are ports to MANY environments including a Windows OLE version that integrates with Visual Studio.
Next UltraEdit. It works, has a lot of features (many I don't use but I do know others who do).
This is ONLY based on personal preference not some detailed analysis of the actual code. Have fun.
If VISTA is the answer, you didn't understand the question
I've tried to use HTML-Kit, honestly I've tried, but it just seems so clunky and slopped together. Plus its keyboard cursor movement just doesn't seem right to me. So, despite some of its coolness, I went back to EditPlus.
If its honest to goodness Word processing, I'll use Microsoft Word 97. (No, I'll NEVER upgrade)
If it's a program, that's why Delphi 5.0 exists.
If I need really tricky manipulation, I'll write a program to do it.
--Mike--
I have found Omnipad to be an excellent editor. Here is their decription from their site
"OmniPad is a multipurpose text/code editor designed to be intuitive, sleek, fast, and feature packed There are way too many features to list here but some of the major ones are: Multiple document interface, syntax highlighting, autocomplete, built in FTP, hex editing, total customization, and many more."
gvim, but since I just noticed that you said it doesn't "do it" for you, I guess I'm just flapping my lips about in a vain attempt for Karma...
In addition to XEmacs as others have mentioned, you can also get an Emacs for Window straight from the Gnu's mouth.
c s. html
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntema
The binary install is a zip file, which you unzip and then add the bin directory to your path.
Also, I highly recommend adding your favorite text editor to Windows Explorer's "Send To" menu, by creating a shortcut in the Send To directory in your Profile directory. This way you can edit files that are associated with other apps without needed to break the file associations.
I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
XEmacs for Windows!
http://www.xemacs.org/Download/win32/
I feel much better being sane while using Windows now
...is by far the best and most customizabel editor. I use it everyday. It has syntax coloration and allows yout o store oft used text snippets. I dont' think I have typed a mySQL connect statement in 6 months. Programmer's Notepad
just get an X client like Xmanager or Xwin32 or something, and set up a linux machine with your favorite editors on it. then X11 forward those apps to your windows desktop (ssh is easist - use PuTTY).
then, if you mount your windows PC over samba, you'll be editing the files locally. try it, it works really well.
Somewhere on this page I have hidden my signature.
I personally use GVIM for programming and it works fine as many other posters have mentioned. But I figure I'll throw in another option, I also use an editor called VEdit(http://www.vedit.com/) which runs about $99 and has a ton of cool features for editing all sorts of flat file formats (EBCDIC / Octal / Hex support...), automated unpacking of packed data fields, etc... It has a nice macro language, syntax highlighting for about 40 languages and thus would be a good choice as a programmer's editor.
I have found that if you are switching between operating systems (Linux/Windows) probably my favorite editor is JEdit. It is written in Java as an Open Source programmers editor. It is quite fast and has MANY 3rd party plug-ins that allow it to go above and beyond most other editors I have used. (Including my daily Delphi IDE). www.jedit.org
Let's face it...I must have turned to the darkside. The IDE with visual studio works decently....... For everything else there is ED for windows http://www.nusphere.com.
NANO or PICO both are miles better than notepad.
Love it. The syntax highlighting and general simplicity make it a winner.
I use the macro feature to dump stuff out to SQL and run the script I am working on with one key press.
It seriously works great, and it is freeware.
Cuchullain
"If sharing a thing in no way diminishes it, it is not rightly owned if it is not shared." -St. Augustine
metapad is my notepad replacement. Small, fast, keyboard shortcuts for save, search, etc, unlimited file sizes. Free as in beer. Excellent.
In this case, I think metooism is warrented. I've used Gvim as my editor of choice on Win98, NT4.0, Win2k, and Linux for five years now and have never had a problem with it. I'm a software engineer and do a _lot_ of typing. I also use it to write email, post to usenet - pretty much anything you'd want to do with text. GVim always come through for me.
I wonder if you have an unstable machine.
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
I use and recommend OmlettePad EX, because I wrote it myself.
Think of all the things your current editor does that are really cool, and chances are, OmlettePad EX doesn't have them.
[o]_O
NT Emacs is awesome. I use it on my windows boxes, and aside from some unix-ish features like command-prompt interaction, it is quite stable and mature. It even has decent integration with the shell, letting you (for instance) drag files into the emacs window to be opened.
I don't know what killer features gvim has that you use, but I assure you they're all there.
Many suggested SlickEdit, but they missed an important feature: SlickEdit have a VI emulation mode!
TkNotePad is something I wrote and it is just a basic text editor like notpad, but it has unlimited undo / redo and a better find / replace.
Only 'flamers' flame!
This is cooming late, but have you tried Zuess?
http://www.zeusedit.com/
Verah naaas!
Siggy Wiggy Figgy Tiggy a bana bo Biggy!
http://www.emsps.com/oldtools/borland.htm
Ware your brief!
I use notepad...but I've only been hacking for 4 months now in perl, so what do I know anyway?
Uhhhh, yeah, thath dithgustin. [The lady's man]
Any one have any open source editors for Windows????
It is by coff... er, will, alone I set my mind in motion...
WinVi is awesome. I use it for all my Windoze platform programming needs.
Having both Windows and Vi commands is a terrific feature, especially you switch platforms frequently. It always takes me a little while to re-adjust, and having both options available simultaneously is fantastic.
And it's free, in many important senses of the word.
I can spell. I just can't type.
www.vim.org
I can't believe peoples recommend emacs ! (humor impaired -> this is a joke)
:wq
Programmer's File Editor, while no longer under development, rules. Its home page is:
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe/
But you can usually grab it from any of the commoon download sites.
This is hands down the best text editor for Windows, and it's pretty righteous for all the many other platforms it supports as well. It sports built-in syntax hilighting and tooltip style help for every language from Ada to XML (and I do mean every language -- does your editor know Intel assembler? How about OS/390 Assembler? SAS?). It also has a built-in FTP client, integrated version control (CVS, RCS, Source Safe, etc), a rather diesel calculator, an extremely nice diff utility (DiffZilla), integration with everything from GNU style build tools to Visual Studio .NET, and on and on. Plus an excellent tagging system which can build you an API reference as you code. :) ;)
I believe the phrase is 'bitching'. Anyway, scamper on over to http://www.slickedit.com and try not to freak too much at the price.
Blake
For the bigger project stuff it's either JEdit or XEmacs. Both are stable, cross platform and loaded with features. I'm still trying to decide which one I like best. ;-)
Well there's a great list of editors on PHP.net at http://213.155.159.67/phpeditors/index.php that you might find helpful. The list gives the webpage, platform, license, and reader comments for each one.
As a web developer who is almost always using Windows, lately I've used Homesite (costs a bunch), 1st Page 2000 (just like Homesite but free) and Crimson Editor. They all work fine for anything I've needed to do.
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do.
Scite, based on scintilla.
its fast, LOADS of options
standalone exe (167k) or full installation
syntax highlighting, autocompletion, folding. etc
www.scintilla.org
Though I hardly ever use my winNT box anymore ( except for outlook ) I've used gVim on windows extensively, and it's pretty solid IMO. Maybe there is something else wrong with this guy's machine ( other than it's OS ) that's causing it to crash gVim.
Eat at Joe's.
There is a excelent text editor for almost every language for the web, its called AceHTML, this editor for win32 rulez!!
Its price is about 40 dollars, but its worth to use it...
you should try it...
http://www.visic.com/
Sometimes its better pay for something that is really good instead of getting headaches with free apps that you dont have the time to see the source code...
This is NOT a commercial
http://www.premia.com/products/codewright/
it has good tie ins to most Source control
systems. Good syntax highlighting, with
code competetion for java
Other good things about textpad:
- syntax highlighting
- document selector
- ability to add command line tools as menu/keyboard shortcuts, and can capture the console output from them (eg. can automatically add JDK compile and execute commands)
- can autodetect and display unix or dos text
- automatically adds itself to the right-click menu in Windows Explorer, as well as the Send-To menu
- it is nagware, but it hardly bothers you at all if you're evaluating it or too cheap to pay for it
Basically the above allows Textpad to work well as a very simple development environment, as well as a good all around text editor. It is one of the only programs I miss when I work in a graphical Unix environment, although KDE's Kate bears some resemblance to it (embedded console, document selector, syntax highlighting). If you're going the Cygwin route or refuse to use anything non-Free, I'd give that a try. Of course Cygwin gives the option to use command line editors like vim and emacs as well, which I prefer over Kate for simple editing tasks.
Almost forgot a few more features:
- line numbers
- split view
- tabbed documents (if you prefer this to the selector)
- ability to open/save your workspace
- bookmarks
Yes, EditPlus. I'm always surprised when people tell me they regularly work with Notepad. Notepad has no features even a beginner programmer like me would want. It shows text on screen and it searches, and that's about it.
I use EditPlus for C, Javascript, HTML, Python (also use IDLE for Python), and Perl. NoteTab (not Notepad, the free thing that comes with Windows) probably has more features, but I find EditPlus more accessible. That was subjective and vague, but that's as far as I can explain it now.
EditPlus has customizable syntax highlighting, user definable cliptexts, line numbering, goto line, bookmarks, auto-completion, column selection, customizable keyboard shortcuts, brace matching, function listing (definable with regular expressions), recordable but not editable macros, column markers, choice of Unix, PC, and Mac line endings, line commenting/uncommenting, spell check, automatic indenting (defined or disabled by user) and more. You can remap the keyboard. And the thing is, you can use almost any feature and perform almost any customization without reading the help. You load it and use it.
True, it has no scripting language (yet) but you can hook other tools into its menu or toolbars, including Perl scripts, if you want more than simple macros. HTML Tidy is in my tools menu, and it runs on the current file. I run the Borland C compiler from EditPlus and it outputs errors into a separate window, and takes me to the offending line if I double-click an error. That's not revolutionary, but it's better than Notepad.
EditPlus is not an IDE and it's not for giant projects and large teams. It's not Emacs either. And it's not trying to be Emacs, or any other legendary giant. But it loads in three seconds, costs thirty dollars after an unlimited try-before-you-buy period, and it fits on a floppy. I paid for mine, but when I'm on an alien Windows machine, I download it in a minute, install it in another minute, and use it. The uninstall is fast and very clean, or I leave it for the Windows user if he wants it.
Part of the script would be to check for changes. No changes = no connect.
"From my cold, dead hands you damn, dirty apes!" - CH
...and it's written in Java, so you can get used to one nice graphical editor for all your java-capable os's.
http://www.jedit.org/
Bah! Keyboard? Back in my day, we used PDP-11/20s and had to enter our data through the front-panel flip switches.
And if we had to edit our file, we physically removed the core memory from the chassis and used a fridge magnet to flip bits around!
I second the Textpad suggestion - it's one of two applications, along with Cygwin, that gets installed on any box I go near. Kate is so buggy it's unfunny so I wouldn't really recommend it when there are better alternatives on Windows. I've never had Textpad crash on me, and it provides all the features you will ever need. It does all this while still maintaining a usable interface that is never too cluttered. I have one (and only one) fault with it and that is that you can't edit binary files. (you can view them as hex though). Given that the program's a text editor anyway, the fact that this is the only issue I have with the program is testament to just how well written it is!
macromedia are still offering a standalone version of Homesite (version 5) but they probably won't for long.
The official upgrade to Homesite 5 is Dreamweaver which has an editor bundled with it that is very similar to Homesite. Of course Dreamweaver is a lot more expensive than Homesite alone.
my blog: good times, man, good times
JOE does not have a Windows version. Anyone know of a Windows editor that uses Borland/Wordstar/Control-Key editing commands?
For an outstanding commerical Emacs like editor (and yes it has a keyboard layout for vi) Epsilon I was introduced years ago and have converted everyone who's taken the time to run the tutorial. Multiple modes, extensions, an FTP open/write. You can run the same editor on Windows, or Unix (Linux) systems with the same functionality.
No connection to the company other than as a customer.
I use Jedit as well and it is really good.
Anyone know of a Windows editor that uses Borland/Wordstar/Control-Key editing commands?
That shortcut key layout saves about 15% in editing time, because you do not need to remove your hands from the home row of keys.
That shortcut system is intuitive, also, because it uses a "cursor diamond". Control-E is line up (top of the diamond). Control-X is line down (bottom of the diamond), Control-S is character forward, and so on. (The arrow keys also work.)
Programs that use the control key in this way are meant to be used with a utility that makes the caps lock key a control key. Sysinternals provides Ctrl2cap, for example. The utility is run once only.
The Borland/Wordstar editing commands allow almost all operations without removing your hands from the home row. Many commands are two keystrokes. Control-Q Control-R goes to the top of the document, for example.
SetEdit is an example of a DOS editor with these commands. I would like to find a Windows editor.
I use TextPad and NT emacs, depending on the task. Actually, I prefer TextPad, but have two big problems with it that keep emacs on my hard drive:
;)
1. When editing e-mail, it doesn't handle the reformatting of quotation paragraphs (whose lines start with '> '). emacs is smarter about this.
2. emacs' latex-mode is smart enough to reformat latex code without breaking up commands and stuff like that. TextPad's isn't.
Actually, maybe someone out there knows of fixes for these issues?
Adam
Unless you have another Caps Lock key on the right side, swapping with Ctrl is not a good idea. Holding down Ctrl/Shift/Meta and striking another key with the same hand is not only slower (once you've learned to touch-type correctly) but allegedly bad for your wrists.
I don't understand this. There is always a Control key on the right side. Also, the Borland key shortcuts do not use shift.
The Borland method is definitely faster, and certainly doesn't have any drawbacks.
in my opinion.
It's FAST, VERY light (my executable is 150K), full with features, configurable pretty much for everything, contains a macro language that lets you create new commands, and has EVERYTHING without becoming bloated.
The only downside is that it's a commercial non-free program. But it's worth every single penny, I say.
Go to Semware, and download the trial version. I can't speak for others, but I love it a lot. When using Windows*, TSE-Pro and 4DOS/4NT are the two programs I use most.
By the way: Notepad is HIDEOUS. It might be standard, yes, but it's so primitive it becomes heavily restrictive. I carry around with me a diskette with my personal vital tools, text editor included, so I can skip the pain of using notepad on other people's computers.
"Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
- Sledge Hammer
Yes, thanks, but Cygwin is maybe 300 Megabytes. Yes, I need it anyway, but my customers don't, and I'm wondering if there are Windows native editors.
Also - has the ability to ...
- find in Multiple Files
- Search and replace in all open files.
This means I can do a regular expression search for some text in a folder, automatically open all files that contain that expression, and then Search and replace in all the open files. V+Powerful, and simle to use.
Training monkeys for world domination since 1439
It's very Emacs-like and highly configurable. On Windows, it has some nice integration features and I've used it since about '92 when writing code on Windows.
One of the features is that it supports Brief-style keyboard bindings, in addition to the default Emacs bindings.
You get binaries for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2 & DOS for one price.
You can get more info and a demo at Lugaru's website.
* As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
For web dev, HTML kit is very versatile as it color codes and can format perl and html in a very customizable way. And of course it's free. http://www.chami.com/html-kit/
PDP-11/20s??? That's one of them new-fangled transistorized computers.
We had vacuum tubes and punch cards. With enough punch cards, you don't NEED memory.
Punchcards are nothing more than line replaceable PROM!
Believe it or not, I bought 2 cases of punchcards last year - makes great geeky notepaper and bookmarks
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
I recommend EditPlus (http://www.editplus.com), TextPad, MultiEdit, HomeSite, etc.
Frankly, I consider that VI and EMACS are a little weak compared to what is available for Windows.
This is 2002, not 1965, for God's sake! Get yourself a decent editor!
Arachnophilia 4.0 is my first choice.
www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/
The older version 4.0, the newer version 5.+ is java based and doesn't seem to work as well.
I understand the Author's reason for going to java, but the new version can flake out at the worst times.
Arachnophilia isn't open source, but a modified version of freeware called careware.
I've used them both extensively, and they'll do practically anything. Ultraedit even will do hex math for you.
More like the other way around, but ok.
You're working with web development... I like to use HomeSite or the free HTML-Kit.
Will work for bandwidth
TextPad is 100% approved by Egg Troll. Its small, does everything I want it to, color coding, fast...how can you not love this?
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
Epsilon works great for me. Commercial, Emacs-like, but leaner and meaner with a C-like extension language instead of LISP. On *nix, I prefer Emacs, and a few years ago I was searching for a Win32 editor and tried just about everything out there at the time. There are definitely "sexier" editors out there (SlickEdit, Codewright, etc), but I like Epsilon's solid feature set and easy extensibility (and lack of bloat).
Buy it, use it, love it.
..... etc etc.
Works on Win32,Linux, BSD,AIX
Its the only one I use.
Extensible, supports most languages you would
ever use.
...But the editor of Visual Studio with it code highlighting is okay for editing websites...
I just wished it wasn't a MS product because the rest would be okay too in that case. Purchasing VS just for the editor is a bit stupid...
I haven't seen a mention of Metapad, my personal favorite editor here, so I'll add it to the list.
Very small, fast as hell, does everything Notepad does and better. I don't use it for the ultra-fancy things like spellchecking and syntax highlighting, so its speed and agility serve me well.
There also exists a small plugin for it that will list all of the text files in a directory in an explorer-style, always-on-top window, and automatically open them in the current instance of the editor. Great for editing HTML files or search-and-replace operations.
And come on... its home page is at liquidninja.com, that name alone has to be worth some bonus points! =)
I'm a bit amazed that so many people can reply to your post with so many recommendations when you provided so little information. A "decent" editor for "web development and system administration" leaves a lot of room for clarification. Do you need syntax highlighting? If so, for what languages? Do you rely on keyboard shortcuts, or are you a mouse maven? If using the keyboard is your thing, do you need keymap emulation? If mousing is your way, do you want to be able to configure the menus? Would having multiple files open in an easily accessible manner (ala Kate) be useful to you? Is version management important? Would you rate fast start-up over numerous features? I could go on, but I think I've made my point. There are literally dozens of quality text editors out there, each on geared to a different niche. Which niche are you trying to fill?
The world of achievement has always belonged to the optimist. -- J. Harold Wilkins
YAJE, give it a try. I have standardized on it for all platforms. It looks the same, works the same everywhere.
http://www.jext.org/
Enjoy.
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO