Subject line says most of it. I need a good programmer's editor that is portable, and money is no obstacle. I'm mainly interested in the following features:

- Windows platform
- Syntax highlighting, lets me define my own (for when Python3000 comes around and messes up the old syntax highlighters)
- Smart indenting, will emulate tabs with spaces
- At least rudimentry project management - must remember files, etc. but custom per-project compile/build macros are a plus
- Code folding is a plus but not necessary
- Scripting engine is also a plus but not necessary
- In-window command prompt a huge plus but not necessary

Suggestions for me to learn VI, Emacs, etc. will be politely ignored. I know vim, thank you very much, but I'm looking for something more Windows-y. (Vim complaint #1 - too many keystrokes to start a search & replace...)

I understand that UltraEdit is good, and pretty affordable at $40. What's your opinion of this one?

I used to use Visual SlickEdit (around version 4 IIRC) but stopped because it was pretty pricey - is it still good? It supported most of these, even from USB, but it was not easy to define new syntax highlighters.

I tried Zeus a couple years ago, and it royally screwed up my file associations, a condition which was NOT remedied by uninstalling. NOT GOOD.

Thanks!

Jeremy

Have you looked at PSPad?

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Notepad++

Does pretty much everything you asked for.

Thanks, Fluffly. I forgot to mention that I've been using PSPad lately, and it has just enough small issues with it that it's driving me nuts. :-,

I just now downloaded Notepad++, and after I got past a couple of quirks, it's beginning to feel good. Some annoyances, which I'm sure I could live with, include the fact that some visual enhancements cannot be turned off (like sometimes I enjoy NOT seeing the folding margin.)

I'm still looking around, but Notepad++ looks like it has promise.

Try to check GridinSoft Notepad, it's a nice dev.text editor.

UltraEdit gets my vote.

http://www.ultraedit.com/index.php?name=UE_MoreFeatures

What about Scite? Very tiny but very smart.

UltraEdit gets my vote too. It was the best $49.95 I paid so many years back and its been faithful to me through every programming language I can think off.

What version of PSPad are you using (latest stable or latest beta) ? What kind of issues have you been having ?

Can you comment on PSPas vs. Notepad++ ?

What programming language do you use it for ?

I've been looking at 3 similar softwares: UltraEdit32, Notepad++ and PSPad, I've not been able to test them thoroughly, I need a good tool for COBOL programming, UltraEdit seams nice, but is not freeware, so I'm looking more at Notepad++ vs. PSPad...

The latest seams to me like a more "professional" tool, don't know if you agree...

Please reply with your comments. Thanks a lot !

Best Regards

I really like Notepad++, and SciTE in that order. I used to use EditPad Pro, (I borrowed the key from a guy I used to work with), but I didn't really like using pirated software. Especially when I am using it to create my own intellectual property. I found SciTE when I got into AutoIt scripts, and found out is was much more capable. When Notepad++ came out I started using it because of all the added features like the fact it remembers what scripts you had open, and all the different text fx's, and the file explorer. NotePad++ had everything EditPad Pro had, and seemed to be a more professional looking program. I still find myself using SciTE almost as much as NotePad++ because I really like the sharp contrasts its uses for syntax highlighting. I mainly use it as my quick edit program, and I use NotePad++ as my project editing program. Between the two of those, I have all I need.

By the way, I tried PsPad for a while too, and it is pretty feature rich, but didn't look very professional, and I do remember it having some bugs where I had to kill it with Task Manager. I left it behind without ever looking back. Maybe it isn't as buggy anymore, but I'll bet it still looks like kakka.

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Just to be complete I thought I would throw in textpad. I got a copy of it back when I started College for C++ programming.

You can do a lot with it and it does have some nice plug-ins.

I personally use notepad++ a lot more then textpad but I have textpad setup to use the good old Borland command line C++ compiler. So I haven't switched completely over to notepad++ yet.

The Textpad site does have some good tutorials that help to setup some of the different compilers if you are interested.

I am not sure if you can get it to run on a USB drive I have never tried.
I do use notepad++ on my USB drive.

This is the site for textpad http://www.textpad.com

Anyone care to reply ?!

Thanks!

Give Editplus a spin: http://editplus.com

I apologize for the late reply. Here it is, for what it's worth.


I'm usually using the latest beta release. Problems I saw was mostly minor annoying UI quirks, text rendering bugs, nothing major.

Making big changes to the syntax highlighting is annoying, because you need to set the BG color to every freaking rule for every freaking filetype. There are some shortcuts, but it's still not a "do it in just an hour" kind of job.


Well, I really hate Notepad++'s webpage. Javascript required for basic browsing == -10 points!

I also feel that NP++ has too many features, too little self-consistency, and a poorly-organized configuration interface (i.e. the menus suck.) It feels like I'm using a text editor with several kitchen sinks crudely duct-taped to it. If I wanted that, I'd use emacs.

Also, last time I checked, NP++ doesn't allow for extending the editor via scripting. PSPad does, via Windows Scripting Host.


Mostly Python, HTML, CSS, Javascript, and some C, Java and C#.


I registered and used UltraEdit for a while, then I switched to PSPad. To be honest, I didn't have a good reason to ditch UE except that it didn't feel like an editor I wanted. It's certainly full-featured, and better-designed than NP++.

If you want a kick-butt editor, and I mean serious no-holds-barred editing awesomeness (not to mention USB-portable), I'd recommend Visual SlickEdit. It's very pricey, but I used it for five years without complaint. YMMV, of course.

And, for what it's worth, I'm still using PSPad. I invested far too much time in getting syntax highlighting right to give up on it now!

Hope that helps.

I'm a PHP scripter and have been using PSPad for ayear or two now. I have tried several other editors but always return to PSPad. It's highligting has a couple of bugs but I still find it the easiest editor to use and feature rich. Also it has built in FTP which is amust for me. I have tried Notepad++ but I like PSPad's auto complete with attributes feature also how easy it is to look up specialcharacters.

RJ Text edit is looking promising though once he sorts out the FTP problem.

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