The most recent example of urine drenched Mac-lemming giddiness comes from WebMonkey via LifeHacker. Heidi Pollock (refrain from meathead jokes please) said: “The day I discovered TextWrangler — the heir apparent to everyone’s beloved BBEdit Lite — I swear my eyes welled up with tears of joy.” What we’re talking about is a scriptable, configurable, syntaxt high-lighting, source code debugging, text editor. That might be a short list for Mac but for Windows the list is Ensteinian in its proportions.
You may join me in my derisive laughter. No? Well let me give you a short list of reasons to laugh right along with me.
NoteTab (one upon a time known as Super NoteTab) is a tabbed text editor with a built-in scripting language that allows users to control the interface.
Another handy gadget included with NoteTab is the clipbook editor. With clipbooks you can store huge swaths of text embedded with replaceable parameters that either prompt for input or wrap around selected text. With the clipbook repository, users can download tools to help develop in languages from AutoLisp to VRML.
Save text directly to your handheld device, convert CSV files to HTML tables, search the web, create a rolodex, email your text, all from within the application.
ConTEXT is the TARDIS of text editors–it is bigger on the inside than it look on the outside.
With unlimited file size, an unlimited number of tabs, an unlimited number of syntax highlighters (download them as plugins, or create your own custom highlighters), multiple human language support, code templates, file explorer, file compare, support for multiple file formats (DOS, Unix, and Mac), and more. You can see why I call it the TARDIS of text editors.
A couple really standout items are the macro recorder, and the command line handler. You could almost replace the standard Windows shell with ConTEXT…I might just give that a try.
It’s so small it fits on a floppy, which means that I keep a copy of it on my portable USB device. It has a macro recorder, spell checker, multi-level undo, support for a multitude of syntax highlighters (in addition to the ability to create your own), built-in FTP client, file browser, find and replace across multiple documents, and much more.
And that’s not all folks, those are just the text editors I use or have used. You can Google for any combination of features and turn up a number of text editors. For instance I searched for free scriptable programmer editor and turned up the following links: Windows-only editors, SciTE ports, Free Windows editors. But don’t pee your pants when you find the perfect editor for you.
