Pre-review discussion of "BEST TEXT EDITOR"

[mouser]

ok, ftp servers are going to be done in a future week.

this week's review will be BEST TEXT EDITOR.

Some candidates:
 ulraedit, http://www.ultraedit.com
 notetab, http://www.notetab.com
 textpad, http://www.textpad.com
 editpad, http://www.editpadpro.com
 metapad, http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad

other free and open source text editor favorite suggestions are desired..

[nudone]

how about 'notepad++' http://notepad-plus....orge.net/uk/site.htm

it's got all the really smart features.

[mouser]

good, keep the suggestions coming.

notepad++ is based on scintilla which is also used in scite:
http://scintilla.sou...forge.net/SciTE.html

[tenseiken]

I was going to recommend SciTE.  It's made my life much easier.

[mouser]

a few more for consideration:

http://www.crimsoneditor.com - CrimsonEditor (free)
http://www.vim.org - Vim for Windows
http://www.context.cx - ConTEXT (free)
http://www.emeditor.com - EmEditor
http://www.alentum.com/editpro/index.htm - EditPro
http://www.pspad.com/en - PsPad

opinions wanted..

[nudone]

my brief opinions are:

metapad - everyday replacement for the windows notepad. it loads in quicker (does on my machine at least), has just the right amount of buttons for quick editing and the 'killer' feature is that you can launch two extra other programs straight from the toolbar - so if you do need a fancier editor for the file your working on, you can do so with one click.

notepad++ - use for script editing and collapsing large chunks of html <divs> and the like. great for using alongside another editor like dreamweaver (or better, integrated into dreamweaver).

can't really speak for the other editors - they all look very similar to ultraedit, which i would assume to be the best in it's field. i'm not a programmer so i don't really have need for the ultraedit styled programs therefore i can't appreciate their capabilities.

[dnm]

My votes are for EditPlus (http://www.editplus.com/) and Notepad2 (http://www.flos-free...are.ch/notepad2.html). I use a ridiculous number of text editors on pretty much every platform I use, because as simple as text editing seems, it's actually very personal and difficult to please everyone with one editor. Holy wars abound in the Unix world over vi versus Emacs (to name perhaps the most long-standing battle), but similar conflicts are also present in the Windows and Macintosh communities too.

I can rant on and on about why I use so many text editors and which editors remain my "default choices" for which tasks and on what platforms, but I like EditPlus (as my favorite Windows-native text editor) for anything more than just writing a quick, short plain text file or looking at a simple, uncomplicated plain text file. I often use Notepad2 (which I've assigned Ctrl-Alt-N in KeyText for launching it) to write down little notes or URLs or to view README files and the like, which litter my home directory and its subdirectories. EditPlus is the best "full-featured" Windows-native text editor I've found, and the one I keep coming back to despite having tried easily over a hundred other editors. I've been using it since at least 1998. While it has a number of built-in features for web developers, such as the in-editor browser, I don't make much use of that. I do use it to edit HTML and the like, but primarily I use it for programming, etc.

I found Notepad2 sometime in early 2004, if I recall correctly, and have been using it as described above, since then.

If I were to pick just one editor to win the award, I'd pick EditPlus.

I have a occasionally-updated text file which catalogues my notes on using various text editors over the years, though I didn't start putting it together until a few years ago. I had planned to make it into a large article or essay for my web site, which I may still do. The idea was to capture what I did and didn't like about the editors I was using or just trying out. Chances are, if you can think of a text editor for Windows, I've at least tried it.

Just in the interests of, well, I'm not sure what, here's a list of some of the editors I use on Windows besides the two mentioned above, in no particular order:

WinVi: http://www.winvi.de/
SciTE: http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html
GNU Emacs: http://www.gnu.org/s...are/emacs/emacs.html
XEmacs http://www.xemacs.org/
KEDIT: http://www.kedit.com/
j: http://armedbear-j.sf.net/
Programmer's File Editor (PFE): http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe/

[vegas]

Please do include EditPlus 2 & EmEditor

[zridling]

TextPad and NoteTab Pro are essentially abandonware, not having been upgraded for over 2-4 years. I'd make sure to cover three not on your original list:
__EditPlus — well-liked, and highly customizable;
__PSPad — Many love it, in part because it's free, but has a weak engine; and
__EmEditor — highly efficient, small footprint, and super fast.

A few things I look for first in a text editor are:
(1) Customizability, most notably of keyboard shortcuts;
(2) Speed and Power; that is, startup speed, and ability to handle very large files;
(3) How does it handle file/document tabs? Can I move them above or below the window? Can I rearrange their order and have them tab next/previous in the new order? How good is its Find/Replace dialog?
(4) Actual text editing features — if I only wanted a programmer's editor, I'd use Emacs or SlickEdit.

[mouser]

great points zridling
actually i already have those other 3 mentioned, and i already covered everything in your points except i forgot to mention moving tabs order.
and i think i will add something about using a dedicated programming editor like slickedit.

[mouser]

The review is now up.  thank you all for your insights.  I'm moving this into the text editor review section where we can continue our discussion.  As in past reviews I will adjust the review based on feedback if you think i've missed something or gotten something wrong.  If you happen to be in contact with any of the authors of the programs mentioned, please invite them to post.

[AbteriX]

Just want to share my daily quick editor Xint (for things PSPad is to big).

That's a tiny SDI editor
- 500kB
- GNU Public License
- no registry, only INIs
- URL highlighting
- regex s & r
- block selecting
- minimize in the TNA
- recent docs
- code clips
- auto compled
- a few build-in highlighters
Base-Translater, Converter: HTML, base64, URL...

SDI only, but enought as viewer and quick editor 

http://www.xtort.net/xtort/xint.php

my little german review
http://www.essential...1&highlight=xint

[riposa]

What editor will seach for a name in files where the name is mispelled, and the editor will give the results of both the name spelled correctly, and also list results of where the name is also not spelled correctly but the software editor is smart enough to make a good guess that the name you wanted along without all the instances where it was mispelled. This would be of great value to me, since I deal with lots of mispelled names, and now with Textpad, all I can do is seach twice using both the first and last name or only using the first few letters, or clumps of letters in the name that stand out, so it becomes very time consuming and tedious.

Is that a briallant editor out there for this?

For instance, if search for Luperini, It will bring back, Luporini, Luperin, Loperoni, and so on, it guesses and brings back everything close, or even customize the search more.

thanks,
Bruce

[mwb1100]

There's a text editor that supports soundex (an English-oriented phonetic matching algorithm) searches.  I haven't tried it, but you may want to give it a shot:

Power Edit ($30): http://www.galcott.com/pe.htm

I'm surprised I didn't find more on Google.  Soundex is a pretty simple algorithm.

[riposa]

Thanks,

I downloaded a trial version. Wait and see how it goes!

Bruce