A good text editor?

[AtmaWeapon]

I'm starting to have to write programs for small microcontrollers and for UNIX environments, so I'm in the market for a good text editor. I want something like notepad, with a fixed-width font, but with goodies. I want to use it for programming, primarily in C/C++, but possibly in other languages. So, syntax highlighting or indenting would be a definite plus. I've heard good things about some program called TextEdit or UltraEdit, but I hate to shell out the cash without a second opinion.

Any suggestions?

[fatcatfan]

I'm pretty fond of UltraEdit myself. Have you tried out the demo?

[Dechipher]

There was this one I had, called Arachnid, I think. It was pretty good.

[Eckels]

textpad (http://www.textpad.com)

[Tsukuru]

Metapad (http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/) is another good text editor.

[AlphaDawg]

I use EditPad Lite (http://www.editpadlite.com).

[AtmaWeapon]

So far it looks like a fight between TextPad and UltraEdit. They both boast a similar set of features, I'm going to have to use them for a while before I decide which one I like the best. TextPad certainly has a better price point. I used to use EditPad Lite, and I love that program, but unfortunately I really like syntax highlighting. It would also seem that I can get both TextPad and UltraEdit to send the commands to compile the code I'm writing. Any other suggestions?

[vegeta1215]

Emacs!!! (http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs.html)

[AtmaWeapon]

Fly from me, devil! Back! Back!

Actually, from my limited experience with Emacs, I kind of liked it. It's just the pages and pages of documentation intimidated me. You got any Emacs n00b guides for the *NIX impaired, vegeta?

[inori]

At one point, I had some emacs cheat sheets with the basic commands (open, save, close files, move text around, etc.), but I left them all in America. :(

That said, emacs includes just about anything you could want. Except a kitchen sink. But they're working on that.

Seriously, if you're going to be using a text editor on Unix environments, use emacs. The extra effort you might need to figure out how to do something will be outweighed by the fact that there is always a way to do that something. (And feel free to post questions, here or in the Programming forum.)

[slothman]

"I left them in America." That just sounds funny. Anywho do any of these have no footprint. I downloaded textpad but it was over 1 meg. Of course it could be smaller but I want something as diminutive as notepad. With unicode support and block moving, as opposed to line moving.

[ShadowTiger]

Wasn't there a free slash awesome text editor (Notepad Lite) that came with the Age of Kings scenario construction kit guide book? I love that thing. It's got everything.

[vegeta1215]

Originally posted by AtmaWeapon
Fly from me, devil! Back! Back!

Actually, from my limited experience with Emacs, I kind of liked it. It's just the pages and pages of documentation intimidated me. You got any Emacs n00b guides for the *NIX impaired, vegeta?

Sure do:

http://facultyfp.salisbury.edu/taanastasio/COSC350/Fall02/Goodies/gnuemacs.html

I should just give you the link to my Cosc 350 teacher's page, he has alot of good links there, some of which I posted in another thread for you:

http://facultyfp.salisbury.edu/taanastasio/COSC350/Fall02/COSC350.html

[Kryten]

Yes, I would suggest you get to know Emacs, because it is extremely powerful, and you can use the same editor on just about any OS you come across. For a small text editor, I would recommend MetaPad, as it has a very small footprint, and makes for a nice replacement to notepad. Literally. Rename it and plop it in your win, sys32, and dllcache directories really quick. You'll then have a nice "upgrade" to notepad, and everything (including windows software) will already use it by default. I suppose the same can be said for other text pad upgrades, but metapad is so light and quick you'd think M$ actually got off their asses and upgrade a part of their OS that has hardly changed since Win95. :eek:

[TedHead]

EditPlus!!! But I'm too lazy to post a link... hehe.