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Author Topic: TextPad updated to 5.0  (Read 14191 times)

tranglos

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TextPad updated to 5.0
« on: March 06, 2007, 03:54 AM »
After two years or so, my favorite editor has been updated, just when I was about to give up hope: www.textpad.com

The list of new features isn't all that impressive, but the author says it is the first in a series of new releases to come. The update is free to registered users of TextPad 4.x.

Enhancements:

    * Dockable File Explorer.
    * Dockable Search Results and Tool Output.
    * Tabbed document selector and clip library.
    * Resizable Find/Replace dialogs.
    * Drag and drop reordering of document tabs.
    * Configurable environment variables.
    * Vista 64 compatibility.
    * Partial URLs of the form www.domain.com are now syntax highlighted.

While TextPad didn't do too well in DC's Best Text Editor review, it's still my favorite editor. It has served me fantastically well over the years, and it's unmatched in manipulating huge files, 50 MB upwards.

Within the last year I've evaluated plenty of other editors, including some over the $100 mark; I've purchased EmEditor (I needed an editor that handles *all* Unicode files correctly; otherwise it still has a long way to go) and EditPad Pro (for its general neatness, but the more I use it, the more it disappoints me). TextPad remains the fastest, leanest, most streamlined in my daily use. It has only one annoycance that I can think of - the tab navigation scheme. Otherwise, of all the editors I've seen, TextPad is the one that never gets in my way and is by far the most productive.

marek

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Re: TextPad updated to 5.0
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2007, 05:47 AM »
Allen (respected DC member here) also swears by TextPad, and i'be been waiting for it myself for a long time, hoping for the inline spelling error highlighting that i'm so sorely missing in UltraEdit, so i'll be giving it a very close look.  :up:

mwb1100

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Re: TextPad updated to 5.0
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2007, 08:29 PM »
hoping for the inline spelling error highlighting that i'm so sorely missing in UltraEdit

Just today, IDM released UltraEdit 13.0 which has inline spell checking as a new feature.

They've also revamped the macro engine so that you can write macros using Javascript instead of a proprietary language.

Looks interesting, but I haven't tried it, yet...

mouser

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Re: TextPad updated to 5.0
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2007, 03:47 AM »
Oh wow..
These are the very 2 items that I found deficient in UE (UE macro editing was better than many, but still a real pain) -- it's quite good news to hear they've improved that.

(version 13.. hmm are they aiming for largest version number award?)

crono

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Re: TextPad updated to 5.0
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2007, 03:21 PM »
(version 13.. hmm are they aiming for largest version number award?)
No way - I got here "Microsoft Office 2007" ;)

steeladept

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Re: TextPad updated to 5.0
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2007, 11:25 AM »
I too am a die hard TextPad user, especially since my company bought the site license, so it is free for me to use.   :Thmbsup:

It didn't hurt that it was the preferred program of my Java instructor either.  I think I will have to look into the upgrade now...

Thanks for the tip.

insert_nick

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Re: TextPad updated to 5.0
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2007, 12:35 PM »
Go TextPad go! Yes this is the best text editor ever, I feel poor and less powerful without it, even if I can use other editors with no problem.

Let me use this post for a little suggestion I'd love in future versions of this editor, who knows the author could been reading this thread :)
(maybe this should go in the coding snacks section...)

Modern editors have code-folding; but TextPad should introduce... the text-folding(TM)!
Here it is:

First, "folding comments" must be defined: e.g. using "@@@" as the first chars of a comment line (after the comment chars for code, see example below), makes the line the "fold begin" command for TextPad, with the following text being the "label" for the folded section; the "fold end" can be the subsequent comment line starting with "@@@". TextPad automatically makes the plus and minus signs to open/close sections, and adds a control char (e.g. "c") after the end section comment to save the information of section fold open/closed. The control char can also be added manually. Ok, that's twisted, let's see an example: let's say we're writing a PHP script, so the comments are "#" or "//". If we write:

1. echo "text-folding";
 2.
 3. # @@@ Three echoes of the same string here
 4. echo "text-folding";
 5. echo "text-folding";
 6. echo "text-folding";
 7. # @@@
 8.
 9. # Two echoes of the same string
10. echo "text-folding";
11. echo "text-folding";

TextPad will automatically add a little "-" sign on the left of line 3, and if we click on it then lines 4, 5, 6, 7 "collapse" in line 3, which is rendered in some different way and says Three echoes of the same string here. When the section is collapsed, TextPad automatically adds the "c" character after the "@@@" in line 7, which by the way will never be visible: so, when saving the file, closing TextPad and reopening it, the section will be rendered as collapsed (because TextPad finds "@@@c" instead of "@@@").

Of course, manually writing "@@@c" as section folding end marker, will tell TextPad to collapse it (without having to come back on the section folding begin marker and clicking the "-" sign to collapse the section, we TextPad users love very fast-action ;)

Reversely, when we expand a collapsed section, TextPad deletes the "c" char in the end marker, in order to store the information that "the user wants this section not collapsed when re-opening the file".

So, the code above will be rendered as:
1. echo "text-folding";
 2.
 3+ [Three echoes of the same string here]
 8.
 9. # Two echoes of the same string
10. echo "text-folding";
11. echo "text-folding";

Indenting folding comments could be interpreted by TextPad as inner levels of folding. E.g.:

# @@@ My favourite movies:
  # @@@ movie 1:
    # @@@ author: name1 surname1
    # @@@ actors: ...
  # @@@
  # @@@ movie 2:
    # @@@ author: name2 surname2
    # @@@ actors: ...
  # @@@
# @@@
# @@@ My favourite OAVs:
  # @@@ movie 1:
    # @@@ author: name1 surname1
    # @@@ animators: ...
  # @@@
  # @@@ movie 2:
    # @@@ author: name2 surname2
    # @@@ animators: ...
  # @@@
# @@@

Ok, hope the TextPad author takes inspiration from this request, I dream of it from my early days of using a text editor :)

angelia

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Re: TextPad updated to 5.0
« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2007, 01:16 PM »
 :Thmbsup: AWESOME!!! Thank you so much for letting know. I've used TextPad for years and it is by far, my favorite as well!
~A~

mathom

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Re: TextPad updated to 5.0
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2007, 07:27 PM »
One warning... the 5.0.0 version is full of bugs, and is apparently only the first in a series of new upgrades. It should be regarded as a beta test version. If you've never tried it before, try the stable version 4.73 first!

One way or another, it's definitely worth checking out. I love this program, and it's great to see it getting updated.