Text Editors, PPC and Desktop PC

[Kati Compton]

What text editors do you use, both on the PPC and on the PC Desktop?

Right now on the PPC I just open Word.

On my PC Desktop, I'm using XEmacs, and I also have tried jEdit.

What I really want on both the PPC and the desktop is a FAST text editor with syntax highlighting. I don't feel that either XEmacs or jEdit qualify as "fast".

So, on the desktop at least, I've been looking at a couple different programs. pspad is freeware, and seems ok, but maybe a little buggy from user comments? It's hard to tell. I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount if the editor is wonderful, so I was also looking at UltraEdit and EditPlus. User comments about UltraEdit seemed to indicate that it's become significantly slower lately. EditPlus seems very fast, and is currently the frontrunner... I should specify that I'm not looking for a vi-clone - I'm just not comfortable with vi, and I keep forgetting what mode I'm in, etc.

The features I'm looking for, in order of importance, are:

REQUIRED

- FAST
- Handles Unix-formatted files without adding ^Ms everywhere
- Syntax highlighting for C, C++, PHP, CSS, HTML, preferably also Verilog, C# and Java nice as well.

HIGHLY DESIRED

- Spell checker
- Word/character count
- Auto-indent
- Ability to add macros (like Emacs Ctrl-K... I love that one)

USEFUL

- Docking file list (I think both UltraEdit and EditPlus have this)
- ASCII selection chart
- Auto re-format
- Built-in Hex viewer (and maybe editor...)

NICE BUT NOT NEEDED

- Side-by-side file compare
- FTP, secure FTP support
- CVS

On the PocketPC side, I'd ideally like the required parts above, and maybe auto-indent. The rest isn't necessary. Are there any syntax highlighting text editors for the PPC?

[JonMisurda]

I've used EditPlus for many years from my CS undergraduate, to summer programming jobs, and now for my graduate work. I like the way it handles large fonts so I use it in my Intro to Java Programming course to display examples. In short, I've found it to suit my needs almost perfectly.

It has all your required features, and the highly desired ones.

It has ascii selection and the docking file list (with other things you can add there like latex templates...) however it lacks a code reformatter (the reformat command only makes it fit to 80 columns, not proper indenting.) It doesn't have a hex editor built in either.

It supports ftp, but to do sftp you need a stunnel type program.

So basically: I endorse it. Its a non-expiring fully functional demo, take it for a spin and see if it suits what you do.

Oh, you'll have to add a syntax file for Verilog, but theres one to download off the website (and you can make your own, its easy.)


As for the PPC... now thats another story.

I've used the Vim port (I'm not that familar with emacs, so I havent tried that port) and it worked ok, though it was just too big a program with too little screen real estate for me to like it.

I think CEdit 3.0 is pretty decent, though it doesnt have configurable syntax highlighting. I also found it too expensive to warrant me buying it.

What I've ended up doing is simply using the built in text editor for TotalCommander and installed a coding font: ProFontWindows so that I can have fixed pitch font thats readable at 7 point. I like that its built into the explorer so that I can easily navigate to different files, and don't have to worry about it being in My Documents.

I hope thats helpful in some way. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to try and answer them.

Jon

[Kati Compton]

Interesting. I'll take a look at the TotalCommander editor, and put another vote down for EditPlus. :)

Oh - another one I just found - Crimson Editor http://www.crimsoneditor.com/

[TopDog]

On the PPC I just use "notes". Works fine for me. On the desktop I use Notepad a lot. If I code HTML/CSS/etc, I use "1st Page 2000".

[maximus]

Almost the same here.

For PPC : notes.
For PC : wordpad/notepad for regular text files, and hedit for editing savegame files :)

[Kowalski]

pocketnotepad from tillasoft
fileone on desktop from Kowalski software :D


total commander internal editor???
i have been using total commander heavily for more than 5 years and havent seen such a thing, how, where??

[Janak Parekh]

Kati: also make sure to check out TextPad for the desktop.

But, as a hardcore XEmacs fan: it's not that slow on modern PCs, especially after you start it up the first time. :P

--janak

[ctmagnus]

I use Crimson Editor (http://www.crimsoneditor.com/) on the desktop and PhatPad in conjunction with Calligrapher on the Pocket PC.