I actually bought EditPadPro recently because there are times when I want to use a stream-oriented editor reather than a line-oriented editor like Kedit, and it seemed to have the best combination of features along with excellent speed and a light footprint, unlike some of the other editors I have worked with (e.g., SlickEdit).  Although I haven't given it a good workout yet, I find it very impressive so far and am very happy with the choice.

That said, folding in EditPadPro is not at all the same as selective editing in Kedit, because folding affects only the display, not the underlying document. In Kedit, you can restrict the editing scope to the visible lines, so that when you mark a rectangular block in the displayed text and copy that block elsewhere, the copied block will contain only the text that was visible in the restricted display. With folded text, the hidden lines would be included in the copy. You can also incrementally add or remove lines from the restricted display by specifying additional targets.

Restricting editing allows you to do things like right or left justify the contents of a rectangular block without affecting the text on the same lines outside of the block. These capabilities make Kedit an unequalled tool for editing flat file ascii databases and tabular data.  On the other hand, you can't search for a pattern that spans multiple lines, as you can in a stream-oriented editor, which is one reason I sometimes need one of the latter.

Speaking up for EmEditor again

Its licensing is not per-installation, but per-user.

I read it as per-installation.  Will have to take another look.

Since I bought a License for EmEditor back in version 5 or 6, and it's still good in version 8, it's quite generous

They're already talking about version 9 


[edit]
Ah, I see the confusion over the license.  EmEditor Web site says:

You must obtain a license for each computer you install the software on. Therefore, a license is needed for each terminal computer on a network, including remote terminal computers. If this software is for personal usage and not installed on corporate computers, you can install up to 5 computers for your use only.
If this software is installed on a portable drive such as a USB drive, one portable drive equals to one computer as described above.

I mostly use software at work, so read the license as per-installation for my purposes.  It isn't clear whether buying a license primarily for work, but with one's own money, also confers a right for personal use at home.
[/edit]

My understanding was that the spirit of a personal license versus commercial comes into play if it is the company that is buying it versus an individual. But the specifics are usually a bit ambiguous in most cases.

There's an editor I have not heard of before coming up on BDJ in a few days - HippoEDIT (can't say I'm fond of the name, but that doesn't really matter): 

• http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/hippoedit/
• http://www.hippoedit.com/

It seems interesting, and the little bit I've put it though it seems worth looking into more (which I don't really have time for at the moment). Does anyone else have any experience with this that they could post?

I've been playing with it a bit, and wow -- it's *really* powerful, really extensible; actively devolped and has an active support forum.  For 15 bucks, it'd be a shame not to add this to my text editor collection.

If you buy it for yourself, and use it for yourself, even if it's on the job, I think (hope) that's still considered personal use. I use EmEditor on my home PC and my laptop, which I also use for work, and that was my assumption based on the license.

Here's what's in the Help file for EmEditor 8.04:

You must obtain a license for each computer you install the software on. Therefore, a license is needed for each terminal computer on a network, including remote terminal computers. If this software is for personal usage and not installed on corporate computers, you can install up to 5 computers for your use only.
If this software is installed on a portable drive such as a USB drive, one portable drive equals to one computer as described above

Which I read to mean that I have to treat it as a single-installation license because I use it at work, even though I paid my own money.

Quoting Eóin:

But the specifics are usually a bit ambiguous in most cases.

You never typed a truer word...

Hmmm, time to contact Emurasoft.

Zeus has all these feature: http://www.zeusedit.com
[...]
I am not exactly sure what you mean by a redirection filter?

When the editor runs an external tool it will put in it's own hook to capture the output. If you redirect this output there will be nothing for the editor to capture.

I use lots of DOS and Windows console-mode ports of Unix command-line tools, like sed, awk, tr, comm, etc.  These normally work by taking input from STDIN and sending transformed (filtered, I suppose) output to STDOUT.  Many editors allow you to define user tools, but they often invoke them by means other than a command shell.  If there's no command shell, there's (as I understand it) no access to STDIN/STDOUT and the redirection process, so one can't use tools that operate as filters, at least not at all easily.  By contrast, consider TED Notepad.  It presumably uses a hidden command shell, because you can define STDIN/STDOUT filters as user tools, mark a block of text, hit the hotkey for that tool, and have the transformed text over-write the existing block.  Very convenient.

Quote

If you press almost any other key, you lose the marked area and have to start again.

This is a Windows standard so I suspect that is why most windows editors do this. But in Zeus this is configurable.

Another piece of Microsoft stupidity that has to be fixed by the aftermarket...

Quote

Compare this with WordStar-style editors.

FWIW Zeus has a WordStar keyboard emulation mode.

I was aware of this, but I should make it clear I'm not a coder, other than AWK scripts and batch files.  The latest version of Zeus is a 10 Mb download - not that out of the way nowadays, but many competent editors are much smaller and presumably faster loading - and costs $USD 69.95.  I'm sure one gets what one pays for, but it might be too much for me.  On the other hand, if I'd bought it first, maybe I wouldn't be on this quest   

Many editors allow you to define user tools, but they often invoke them by means other than a command shell.  If there's no command shell, there's (as I understand it) no access to STDIN/STDOUT and the redirection process,

Zeus runs its tools as a hidden process and captures the STDOUT/STDERR output of the tool to a tool window within the editor. But it does not hook in to the STDIN of the tool so there is no way for the user to talk to the tool from within Zeus.

To get STDIN working from within Zeus requires something like Tee: http://www.zeusedit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=74

By contrast, consider TED Notepad.  It presumably uses a hidden command shell, because you can define STDIN/STDOUT filters as user tools.

Since TED Notepad hooks in to STDIN I assume that means you can type inside of TED Notepad and that input is sent to the tool. That is nice

(You can) mark a block of text, hit the hotkey for that tool, and have the transformed text over-write the existing block.  Very convenient.

It's possible run a tool from within a Zeus script and since scripts can be written in Python, Lua, JavaScript, VBScript, even Tcl, with a bit of scripting it is possible to do almost anything with the tool output.

The latest version of Zeus is a 10 Mb download - not that out of the way nowadays

Zeus itself is only about 800 kBytes but it ships with 19 other dlls that are about 6 megs in size. But of those 19 dlls only about 3 are essential and in fact reset can even be deleted.

but many competent editors are much smaller and presumably faster loading

Zeus starts in less than a second and it can open a 15 meg file in about 3 seconds. Normal files open in less than a second to load.

I'm sure one gets what one pays for, but it might be too much for me.  On the other hand, if I'd bought it first, maybe I wouldn't be on this quest.

Zeus costs nothing to try and the trial version is fully functional and runs for 45 days

I just looked at the Zeus webpage and must admit I am impressed. However, after reading some of the forum, it appears that Zeus has been (and may still be) using an older regular expression engine. Is this still true?

However, after reading some of the forum, it appears that Zeus has been (and may still be) using an older regular expression engine. Is this still true?

Zeus uses a unix/perl style of regular expression engine. Another user suggested the engine in Zeus is old, but I've never really understood what it is that makes an engine old or new?

Recently I wrote a C# project that made extensive use of the Microsoft C# regular expression object. All the regular expressions used in that project where written and tested in Zeus and they worked just fine in the C# regular expression object. 

Excuse me, but I am running the five year old version 3.94a and now you're at 3.96r? That change is in the SECOND DECIMAL PLACE of the revision number. That's supposed to be MAJOR?

Your upgrade page says

"This upgrade option is available to any Zeus user running the older 3.9x version who wishes to upgrade to the latest version."

and the cost of that would be $49.95.

But that's a-z then a-r, plus 2 decimal places -- that's at least 36 point changes ;P

In fact the 3.94a version is so different from the latest Zeus it can be downloaded free of charge from this link:

http://www.zeusedit.com/z300/ze32r394a.zip

It's like a Zeus Lite version

Jussi:

Thanks for the link. By any chance is there a change history or list of features added since 3.94a so someone using it might now what they are missing out on?

just tried TED, and it seems it doesn't work on windows server 2008 64. The search function fails; I copy a word from the text, search for it, and it says 'word not found'