Lightweight text editor

[Cell]

Hey guys,

At work and on my main PC I have become addicted to UltraEdit. The amount of features is absolutely awesome. However, I recently got a new laptop and my UE licenses do not extend to my laptop. I am looking for a similar text editor - one that is relatively lightweight, but with a large amount of features (especially column mode and a powerful 'find' tool!).

Thanks!

[zacs7]

Can't go wrong with vim, http://www.vim.org/about.php

The learning curve is steep. But it's well worth it, especially if you find yourself SSH'ing into machines without X. vim is on most Linux boxes, or at least vi is.

Also this is probably in the wrong section.

[arpsmack]

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net

I've been using Notepad++ ever since one of my friends got me to switch from PSPad. I don't think its quite as nice as UltraEdit, but considering its free, its pretty damn good!

It does have column-mode support, although it's not as powerful and easy to use as UltraEdit's. Just hold ALT, and then click and drag to make column selections. Then ALT-C (also in the menu: Edit -> Column Editor) opens up a dialog to add text to columns you have selected (replacing any text that's already there).

As far as a "powerful find tool" goes, it supports regular expression searches and replacements. That's more power than I've ever needed.

I've tried a wide variety of text editors, and I have yet to see one that I would call 'perfect' for my needs. There's always a list of features that I wish could be tweaked a certain way, or I'll find a feature from another text editor and wish that they all had that feature. But Notepad++ is probably the best fit for me out of all the free choices. (The Eclipse Java editor gets an honorable mention though, it does some snazzy things)

[NeonBlack]

I have been using notepad++ for about 4 years. Though right now, I am using an old version because the auto-indent on the new versions is really p****** me off.

What would be really awesome would be the Visual Studio editor as a standalone text editor.

[matthew82]

Try VEDIT?
http://www.vedit.com/

[laserlight]

Moved to Tech Board.

What do you define as "lightweight"?

[CornedBee]

jEdit is not lightweight (it takes pretty long to start) but damn, it's powerful. And free.

[Salem]

You can't get much more lightweight than this

> copy con: prog.c
int main ( ) {
    return 0;
}
^Z
        1 file(s) copied.

> type prog.c
int main ( ) {
    return 0;
}

[matsp]

You can't get much more lightweight than this

> copy con: prog.c
int main ( ) {
    return 0;
}
^Z
        1 file(s) copied.

> type prog.c
int main ( ) {
    return 0;
}

The features might be slightly lacking for editing files more than a few lines long, tho'

--
Mats

[audinue]

Notepad++ is quiet good. Somehow it's slower than Notepad itself. I hate slow C++ softwares.

However, I'm always use the portable and lightest-weight Notepad instead of any other text editors.

Tough you'll type faster and easier by using complex text-editor, it's still depend on how do you type, your typing skill.

[SlyMaelstrom]

Notepad++ is quiet good. Somehow it's slower than Notepad itself. I hate slow C++ softwares.

It's significantly more feature filled than Notepad. ... and besides, what language do you assume Notepad is written in?

[CornedBee]

C :-)

Not that Notepad has much code. The original Notepad was a very thin wrapper around the edit control, nothing more. Recent versions have a tiny bit more features.

[audinue]

Based on a powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++1 and uses pure Win32 API and STL2 which ensures a higher execution speed3 and smaller program size4. By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendlyness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment.5

*1 Answers:

It's significantly more feature filled than Notepad. ... and besides, what language do you assume Notepad is written in?

*2 cause.
*3 and 4: Don't you think this statement is irrational?
*5 Amen. LOL. Just in theory.

[SlyMaelstrom]

*1 Answers:

*2 cause.
*3 and 4: Don't you think this statement is irrational?
*5 Amen. LOL. Just in theory.

What is this? Everything you just quoted only backs up what I said about Notepad++.

Thanks for doing my research for me... however, I think CornedBee did the answering to my question, even though I beg to differ. I'd have to look it up, but I'd bet that since Windows NT, Notepad has been written in C++ like most of the rest of Windows Explorer and the rest of Windows GUI applications.

Which really only begs the question: How come Windows developers refuse (cause I know some are capable) to make a free notepad as efficient and powerful as Notepad++?

By the way, did anyone see the new Windows 7 Wordpad and Calculator? I must admit, I think they're pretty good. Wordpad now offers enough features for most highschool and college student essays and the new modes in Calculator are pretty good, albeit, some gripe-worthy features missing in the Programmer mode.

EDIT: And one more thing... I might just have to whip out CPU-Z when I get home and see what Intel Speed-Step does on my C2D as far as throttling down the CPU frequency between running Notepad and Notepad++. I've seen some stretches, in my day, but that one is a bit too much.

[cyberfish]

Which really only begs the question: How come Windows developers refuse (cause I know some are capable) to make a free notepad as efficient and powerful as Notepad++?

They are busy implementing the biggest and baddest next gen piracy protection scheme, and deciding what features to exclude from the 6 or something versions of Windows 7.

Seriously, though... if they continue doing that they won't need to worry about the piracy problem anymore soon.