Looking for a decent text editor to type stuff or for programming? Here’s a list of those I’ve used. I researched these because text editors are probably the tool I use most (after Firefox ofcourse).
In no particular order here are a few editors which are worth looking at. These are editors and not IDEs (Visual Studio and Eclipse won’t feature here).
1. Crimson Editor – http://www.crimsoneditor.com
My current favorite text editor. Doesn’t have too many features but it does what it has very well. Development on this has currently stopped though and the last release was Sept 22, 2004. Still this editor continues to perform excellently. Syntax highlighting, indentation etc works really well. Its extremely reliable. Although this looks a little old school with old icons.
Screenshots. Freeware. Windows Only.
2. Notepad++ http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
It’s got tons of features, and very useful plugins. It’s got autocomplete too, which is handy when you can’t remember the entire list of functions in php/perl. I’m currently using this and evaluating it as a replacement for Crimson Editor. Seems really good so far. The screenshots on the website seem to make it look ugly with those awful toolbar icons. But in reality they are a completely different set of icons.
Screenshots. Freeware. Windows.
3. Programmer’s Notepad – http://www.pnotepad.org
A very powerful editor with several advanced features. Does everything Crimson Editor does plus more. One of the main advantages of this editor is its ability to add clips and plugins (like svn, cvs support). It looks pretty good too.
Screenshots. Freeware. Windows Only.
4. TextPad – http://www.textpad.com/
Another old school editor which has tons of features. It has an old school look as well, which puts me off a bit. It seems to miss code intenting which always turns me off because I’m going to be damned if I hit TAB everytime. You only get a 30 day trial to use this editor. In this market which has tons of excellent free editors, this is a big no-no for TextPad.
Screenshots. Shareware – 30 day trial only. Windows Only
You’d think these four editors are more than enough and cover everything you’d need. But what the hell, I’ll write more. I’ve used tons of editors.
5. jEdit – http://www.jedit.org/
A Java based Text editor targetted at Programmers. It’s strength is that it has tons of plugins, too many to count. It is highly customizable which no other editor can boast. It is open source and it can be used over several operating systems. If Linux didn’t have vi and Emacs i’d be using jEdit. However, it tends to eat up more memory than other editors.
Screenshots. Freeware, Open Source. Windows, Several Linux Flavours, Mac OS X + other lesser used OSs
6. UltraEdit32 – http://www.ultraedit.com/
Here’s an editor which comes bloated with a ton of features. The editor itself is not bad, but it just has too many features. When I click on a menu, I see tons of listings which is very overwhelming. It supports multiple languages which seems a positive point over other editors. Its not free. Costs “only” $40 bucks to buy past the trial. Here’s a full list of features.
Screenshots. Shareware. 30/45 day trial. Windows Only.
I’ve never used Macs so I can’t comment on those, but TextMate seems to be a popular choice there. On Linux I just use Emacs, can’t beat that. Any other editors which you like to use and share? Drop a comment and let me know! Also check out Wikipedia’s list of text-editors.
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