New OS, New Text Editor

[Dobby]

I've just come across an editor called Twistpad. I happened to be looking at BestVistaDownloads.com for a new archive util (Neither Tugzip nor IZArc cut it in Vista). Quite a good site. If you ignore the ads and some dodgy software (free version of WinRAR 5.1? What's that all about? WinRAR is not free and certainly not on version 5).

I've used Editplus for years it's a great editor but is looking a little long in the tooth these days but I've not yet found a replacement that can match the features or throw in any more for good measure. That was until now. I'm still trialing the eval but so far so good. Couple of features that first struck me were the compare, and replace in files. Editplus could do find in files, replace in open files but not replace in files on disk (without opening first). I always thought this was a little strange.

Plus the interface looks very nice (to match Vista ) and it looks to be fairly feature rich and only a 2MB download.

Could this be a replacement for Notepad and Editplus. Time will tell...

Edited March 8, 2007 by Dobby

[DigeratiPrime]

I use Notepad++ and WinMerge if I want to compare files.

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/

http://winmerge.org/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/winmerge/

[Dobby]

I've tried many editors and notepad++ along with Editplus, Editpad, notepad2 and a few others are quite popular. I didn't want to get into yet another editor discussion. I merely mention Twistpad because I've not heard of it before and not seen it mentioned on any of the forums I visit (mainly this one!) and because it looks quite promising.

I use TortioseSVN (front end to subversion version control software). It also has built in Merge functionality. Possibily not as powerful as WinMerge but it does the job. I just thought it was quite a neat idea to have it built into an editor. Although after trying it out it seems a little sluggish on large files but I've mentioned it on their forums. It's an RC release afterall.

[mau-yong]

I am using free SCIntilla based Text Editor - SciTE. It has both Win32 and Linux versions. It supports syntax highlights to these programming languages:

• Ada
  ANS.1 MIB definition files
  APDL
  Assembler (NASM, MASM)
  AutoIt
  Avenue
  Batch files (MS-DOS)
  Baan
  Bash
  BlitzBasic
  Bullant
  C/C++/C#
  Clarion
  conf (Apache)
  CSound
  CSS
  diff files
  E-Script
  Eiffel
  Erlang
  Flagship (Clipper / XBase)
  Flash (ActionScript)
  Fortran
  Forth
  Haskell
  HTML
  HTML with embedded JavaScript, VBScript, PHP and ASP
  Gui4Cli
  IDL - both MSIDL and XPIDL
  INI, properties and similar
  InnoSetup
  Java
  JavaScript
  LISP
  LOT
  Lout
  Lua
  Make
  Matlab
  Metapost
  MMIXAL
  MSSQL
  nnCron
  NSIS
  Objective Caml
  Opal
  Octave
  Pascal/Delphi
  Perl, most of it except for some ambiguous cases
  PostScript
  POV-Ray
  PowerBasic
  PureBasic
  Python
  Rebol
  Ruby
  Scheme
  scriptol
  Specman E
  Spice
  Smalltalk
  SQL and PLSQL
  TADS3
  TeX and LaTeX
  Tcl/Tk
  VB and VBScript
  Verilog
  VHDL
  XML
  YAML
  

By adding some extras to SciTE, more languages can be supported including PHP, etc. Screenshot here.

I also use PHP Designer, it supports syntax highlighters to PHP, SQL, HTML, XML, CSS, JavaScript, VBScript, Java, C#, Perl, Python and Ruby. Screenshots here.

[Dobby]

Please stop! I've used SciTE too (sorry I didn't mention this before). I use it for Ruby programming. And yes it supports a lot of languages. But I don't think it is as accessible as other editors. For starters It'll only load up to 10 files at once. I mean maybe there is an option to change but oh wait you have to dig through a text file to change it. Come on this isn't VI. And what's with that options menu?! It doesn't even fit on the screen.

No trust me. Just save yourself the trouble, mention the name and key features if you must but really I've probably spent way too much time looking for editors and tried most of them.

As I've said before, I've not seen this one mentioned and I've not fully tested it myself but I thought it was worth a mention.

Think of this post as more of a preview rather than a call for help. I'll post more once I've tested it a while.

Edited March 9, 2007 by Dobby

[DigeratiPrime]

Please stop!

As I've said before, I've not seen this one mentioned and I've not fully tested it myself but I thought it was worth a mention.

Think of this post as more of a preview rather than a call for help. I'll post more once I've tested it a while.

I understood you and your right I've not seen this tool mentioned before. thanks.

[Zxian]

Oh if only gedit existed for Windows. That'd be my favorite.

@Dobby - Thanks for the info, but I personally would rather find a freeware text editor over paying for a licence. Usually, most of my stuff in notepad is simple quick edits, not full-on development. But hey - if it works for you, then great.

[Dobby]

Yea there are some good free ones out there and I think there is a difference between a notepad replacement and something a little more development oriented. Notepad 2 and SciTE I would think are good replacements. Crimson Editor is a free rip off of Editplus but doesn't seem to be in development anymore.

I want something with a little support behind it and I don't mind shelling out a few quid for it. Having said that I did pay for Editplus but not much is happening now. Although I did use it for five years. Not bad.

It's only $20 and the guys seem very keen to help. Hell I asked on the forum for a Ruby syntax file and they wrote one for me and put it up for download within a few hours. That's service.

[CoffeeFiend]

It's pretty hard to find the perfect editor indeed. I tend to use notepad for smaller stuff, and full-blown IDEs for programming (so much more powerful/useful for that purpose).

So Notepad++ usually works well for that. But I really love ultraedit. It has LOTS of very handy features. Just too bad it's 50$, which does seem like an awful lot when you see lots of big IDEs (like Eclipse/VS Express/Netbeans/Sun Studio/etc) and countless text editors available for free. There is a "unlimited upgrades" license, but 125$ -- for a text editor? UEStudio seems even nicer, but at twice the cost (100$ for one version or 250$ for unlimited upgrades) I'll definitely skip! If only UEStudio was 20$, I'd be buying it right away.

[Zxian]

Look guys - I'm gonna make a text editor, and then sell it for $1000!!! It'll be brilliant! (If I can sell one copy...)

[Dobby]

Works for Microsoft!!!