Basic text editors were likely your initial choice for writing your programming in. Default operating system programs such as Notepad (on Windows) and TextEdit (on Mac OS X) work great for programming. Their minimalistic feature set and interface won’t get in your way and let’s you get straight to the point of the programs: writing. Unfortunately, their main strength, minimalism, it also their main weakness.
Notepad and TextEdit just don’t provide the features that can make programming faster and more pleasant. Features such as syntax highlighting, line numbering and code completion can all make programming just a little bit easier (and easier on the eyes). Below is a list of code editors and any outstanding features.
Notepad++ (Windows)
Tabbed documents, macros, auto-completion API. Open source (GPL). Free.
jEdit (Java based – Windows, Linux, Mac)
Macros, tabbed documents, code folding, location markers, session persistance, plugin manager. Open source (GPL). Free.
Programmers Notepad (Windows)
Code folding, project support, text clips. Free.
TextWrangler (Mac)
“Grep-format” searching, file differencing, FTP support, document sidebar. Free.
Coda (Mac)
Projects, text clips, auto-completion, file differencing, FTP support, Subversion integration, HTML/CSS preview, “drag and drop” grep searching, live collaboration. $99
Dreamweaver (Windows, Mac)
Mostly point and click web design software, however it does include a code editor. Notable features: built-in FTP, Subversion integration, live-view (for HTML/CSS), code completion. $399.
Obviously we’re just scratching the surface with this list (and the listed features). What’s your favourite code editor, and why?
Tony Chung
December 16, 2009 12:43 am
I’m using TextWrangler on the Mac and sort of loving it. I got spoiled on my PC when I used NoteTab Lite (upgraded to NoteTab Pro in 2004). NoteTab has no comparison. It’s a pure text editor without code or syntax highlighting, but powerful macro features for programming complete applications.
Out of the box, NoteTab provides an HTML auto replace library. Just start typing an html tag, and it completes the syntax or provides a wizard to modify the attributes before generating the code. Another macro I used extensively is the Paste Clipboard. I set up shortcut entries to full text blocks for use in every application on my desktop. I really haven’t found anything that good on my Mac. But then again, I’ve never really spent the time to learn the deeper features of TW or its big brother BBEdit.
Thanks for posting on this integral component from our toolbox.
Cheers,
-Tony
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December 16, 2009 12:53 am
I’ve worked with few of them and I must say that Dreamwaver was the most pleasant to work with. Many useful options and interface that is easy to understand and to use day by day. I would recommend this program to anyone that wants to edit web pages and who need some fast and easy tool.
Teknoloji haberleri
December 16, 2009 7:32 am
All software should they decide to be. Thanks for the list.