Which code editor do you use? 21

[BDC2]

There have been some recent posts containing references to the code editors which some of you use. I am at a stage where I believe changing my own code editor would perhaps benefit me but I would like to hear some advantages, disadvantages, unique features etc. of the code editors that you use. I think this discussion would benefit all levels of coder and all contributions are welcome.

I myself have only ever used DreamWeaver to develop my applications so I can’t benchmark it against other programs but I will give a short appraisal.

DreamWeaver is an excellent all round WYSIWYG site development application. The tools at your disposal provide enough functionality to produce, manage and publish web sites easily and cost effectively. It is user friendly and quick to learn appealing to people starting out in the industry. (that’s enough Macromedia marketing)

From a coding perspective, DreamWeaver provides data binding and server behaviours that produce the code for you, again this is great for someone starting out in ASP. When I first started out, I used these server behaviours to build my understanding of how ASP works with a database in a web page. Over a period of time, I have built up my own code base that I use in preference to the DreamWeaver server behaviours and feel that the application no longer caters for my needs. If for example I have a dynamic connection string based on the name of the server my application is running on, none of these DW features are available.

I feel that a DW has played an important role in my development and would recommend it to ASP beginners but what else is out there for different levels of coding ability?
BDC.

 

[JamesLean]

As a bit of a purist, I like to code entirely by hand. This gives me complete control of the layout and formatting of the code and keeps the resultant HTML crisp and clean!

At work, I use Visual InterDev but purely for the text editor section - I never utilise any of the WYSIWYG features. Like you say, I have lots of dynamic content and includes so trying to preview/debug within the IDE is hopeless. Having said that, the syntax highlighting and auto-complete features are excellent.

At home, I recently got a copy of EditPlus on Tarwn's recommendation and have been impressed. Good formatting/highlighting features and can be expanded with user toolbars etc. very easily.

Other than that, good ole' notepad does the job for me! --James

 

[NoCoolHandle]

Pretty the same as James.

Visual Notepad and Visual Interdev

Notepad for 99%
and Interdev for ComObjects and the COde completion/Intellesence + you do get the ability to Debug line by line Server or Client side scripts if for some strange reason there might be a logic or syntax type error.

 

[xutopia]

I use UltraEdit for all coding in any programming language I use.

According to everyone I ever introduced to UltraEdit (especially it's Column Mode feature) it is the best and most complete text editor they have ever used. Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran
==========================

 

[techguru69]

Primalscript from Sapien is my main choice. I like the way it handles WSH and VB without a hitch.

Otherwise, a grownup notepad called Programmers File Editor (PFE) is pretty nice for small jobs. I can't tear myself away form it since I've started using it 12 years ago (that's a long time in software years!).

 

[onpnt]

I have to say

http://www.textpad.com

again.

not to complex but at the same time not to simple as notepad would be.

jemminger told me about this editor awhile ago and ever sense it's all I use. although as Tarwn always brags about editplus I am going try it out one of these days. _________________________________________________________
for the best results to your questions: FAQ333-2924
[sub]01001111 01101110 01110000 01101110 01110100[/sub]

[sup]

http://www.onpntwebdesigns.com

[/sub]

 

[GaryC123]

Also

http://www.notetab.com/

A nice all in one little package and its free

http://www.intouch-media.co.uk

 

[onpnt]

hmmm... all these choices..

I went to textpad.com and grabbed the major features they list for everyone to see without having to go through them.

Huge files can be edited (up to the limits of virtual memory for the 32-bit edition). See Specifications for the actual limits.
Supports Universal Naming Convention (UNC) style names, and long file names with spaces.
CUA compliant keyboard commands.
English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish user interfaces.
A spelling checker with dictionaries in 10 languages.
Multiple files can be simultaneously edited, with up to 2 views per file.
Warm Start feature lets you restart exactly where you left off.
In addition to the usual cut, copy and paste capabilities, selected text can be case shifted and block indented, and characters, words and lines can be transposed. Cut and copied text can be appended to the clipboard, as well as replacing its contents.
Text can be automatically word-wrapped at the margin, or at a specified column, if it does not fit on a line. In this mode, text can be split into separate lines where wrapping occurs, or lines can be intelligently joined, preserving paragraphs.
OLE2 drag and drop editing for copying and moving text between documents.
Unlimited undo/redo capability. The undo buffer can be optionally cleared when a file is saved, or by using the Mark Clean command.
Block (column) selection mode, and visible display of tabs and spaces.
A keystroke macro recorder, with up to 16 active macros.
Sorting, using up to 3 keys.
Text can be automatically aligned and indented, relative to the previous line, to aid block indentation.
The right mouse button pops up an in-context menu.
The cursor can be constrained to the text, or can be positioned freely in the document view.
Toolbar with fly-by usage hints, and an active status bar.
A powerful search/replace engine using UNIX-style regular expressions, with the power of editor macros. Sets of files in a directory tree can be searched, and text can be replaced in all open documents at once.
Visible bookmarks can be placed on individual lines, and on all occurrences of a search pattern. Bookmarked lines can be cut, copied or deleted.
A built in file manager for fast file copying, renaming, deleting etc.
Print previewing, and printing with customizable headers/footers and page breaks.
Viewer for binary files using a hexadecimal display format.
Built in file comparison utility, and up to 16 user-defined tools with argument macros.
Hypertext links from file search and user tool output to the relevant source line.
DDE interface to other tools, such as MS Visual C++. The editor detects when an open file has been modified by another tool, and prompts you to reopen it. _________________________________________________________
for the best results to your questions: FAQ333-2924
[sub]01001111 01101110 01110000 01101110 01110100[/sub]

[sup]

http://www.onpntwebdesigns.com

[/sub]

 

[palbano]

Visual Interdev is the best for total microsoft platform development. By that i mean if you are standardized on IE since it gives you great autocomplete for the IE supported DOM in your client script as well as your ASP server script.

For JSP/Servlet/Java development I use Forte which has a somewhat lame, but still there, autocomplete feature. More importantly you can compile your JSP code and fix compilation errors without executing the page through tomcat or whatever. Again with an IE only audience i still use Interdev to develop the client scripts or behaviors.

I plan on trying Eclipse any day now, been saying that for like 6 months LOL! Anyone using Eclipse for anything?

-pete

 

[jemminger]

i code by hand to...

textpad and visual interdev if i'm using my laptop (haven't installed textpad yet)

visual interdev is nice for its autocomplete features, but the code highlighting is inferior to textpad. i never use the wysiwyg features.
=========================================================
while (!succeed) try();
-jeff

 

[rac2]

Homesite provides color-coded highlighting for different types of elements, menu-driven HTML tag building, special characters, color palette for color codes, extended search and replace in multiple files, menu-driven stylesheet building, and remote access(ftp).

To "publish" I use mapped drives for web sites on our LAN, or ftp through Homesite, or, (you may not be ready for this), ftp.exe.

I do not preview within Homesite, rather I simply keep the page open in a separate browser window. I do not use code-sweeper to format the code because I never like the result. I cannot imagine how a drag-and-drop tool could help me build the pages I must build, they seem to be full of endless exceptions and tweaks, I just code it myself.

My work is ASP with JScript, ADODB, MS SQL Server, Javascript, and HTML.

 

[francesL]

I use Dreamweaver and Homesite.

Homesite is easier to handcode in - the page looks cleaner and is easier to follow.

But for html, dreamweaver makes life so much easier. I don't understand how anyone who needs to make changes to tables could want to delete rows/columns by hand - working out all those colspans and rowspans would kill me.

 

[Tarwn]

Ok, since onpnt did the TextPadf, I get to do editplus:

Huge files can be edited I did a 40Mb text file with editplus today
Supports Universal Naming Convention (UNC) style names, and long file names with spaces. yup
CUA compliant keyboard commands. What is this?
English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish user interfaces. - no idea, I only speak english
A spelling checker with dictionaries in 10 languages. - Again, i know it does english...
Multiple files can be simultaneously edited, with up to 2 views per file. - at least two views per file (I can't find the splitter now that I am looking for it) plus an output window
Warm Start feature lets you restart exactly where you left off. - errr...what?
In addition to the usual cut, copy and paste capabilities, selected text can be case shifted and block indented, and characters, words and lines can be transposed. Cut and copied text can be appended to the clipboard, as well as replacing its contents. - 4 case shifts, select word/line/all, 6 deletes, character/word/line transpose, character/word/line copy, etc with paste and paste append
Text can be automatically word-wrapped at the margin, or at a specified column, if it does not fit on a line. In this mode, text can be split into separate lines where wrapping occurs, or lines can be intelligently joined, preserving paragraphs. - ditto
OLE2 drag and drop editing for copying and moving text between documents. - ditto, plus drag and drop documents
Unlimited undo/redo capability. The undo buffer can be optionally cleared when a file is saved, or by using the Mark Clean command. - I think it has a a limit, but I have never found it
Block (column) selection mode, and visible display of tabs and spaces. - yep
A keystroke macro recorder, with up to 16 active macros.
Sorting, using up to 3 keys. - macros too
Text can be automatically aligned and indented, relative to the previous line, to aid block indentation. - plus smart indentation for some languages
The right mouse button pops up an in-context menu.
The cursor can be constrained to the text, or can be positioned freely in the document view. - uh huh
Toolbar with fly-by usage hints, and an active status bar. - if I am undeerstanding the language here, yep
A powerful search/replace engine using UNIX-style regular expressions, with the power of editor macros. Sets of files in a directory tree can be searched, and text can be replaced in all open documents at once. - Oh yeah, love the search functionality
Visible bookmarks can be placed on individual lines, and on all occurrences of a search pattern. Bookmarked lines can be cut, copied or deleted. - yep
A built in file manager for fast file copying, renaming, deleting etc. - yep
Print previewing, and printing with customizable headers/footers and page breaks. - yep
Viewer for binary files using a hexadecimal display format. - not sure, the last time I said no someone else corrcted me
Built in file comparison utility, and up to 16 user-defined tools with argument macros. - up to 10 groups fo 10 user tools with customizeable (optional) regular expression formatting for the output
Hypertext links from file search and user tool output to the relevant source line. - yep
DDE interface to other tools, such as MS Visual C++. The editor detects when an open file has been modified by another tool, and prompts you to reopen it. - yep

Also,
HTML toobar,
user toolbar,
customizeable document templates,
optional auto-completion,
document selector allows a looooot of files open at once (plus it is customizeable from position to size of doc buttons on bar), built in browser,
ftp commands to allow for remote editing (very cool), remote opening, remoting updating, multiple uploads, etc with options for chmod and etc
Color chooser, object chooser (lists all the includeable objects on system)
User defineable languages addons, color coding, etc
Seperate byte count/word count
Alloqw virtual space option

and many many more

-Tarwn [sub]01010100 01101001 01100101 01110010 01101110 01101111 01101011 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101 [/sub]
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Get better results for your questions: faq333-2924
Frequently Asked ASP Questions: faq333-3048

 

[Microbe]

I understand the coding by hand pursits...that's how I started out editpaf - I won't post specs ) - but it can do search/relace across multiple files.

However, I use DreamweaverMX. OK, its an expensive option (if you pay for it), but coding by hand is not unlike walking everywhere when a car is available.

Using a powerful tool like DWMX (think "a car&quot doesn't mean you cannot walk, but you will get there in MUCH less time.

Compare creating a 5 column 10 row table and then filling it with values by hand to doing it with a WYSIWYG programme.

Point and click links mean no typos.

etc etc etc

To be honest, I probably spend 90% of my time in the code window, but for those mundane trivial tasks, why not use a tool that can do them fast and error-free first time.

Steve Davis
hey.you@hahaha.com.au

http://www.hahaha.com.au

Me? I can't even spell ASP!

 

[Tarwn]

I write fast, easily editable code with descriptive variable names and the the most efficient methods for the most draining functions. I have never used Dreamweaver, but from the output I have seen here it has it's own naming technique that is rather difficult to understand at times, uses cookie cutter methods for code blocks, and is not necessarally easy for a user to go into and edit since the user is less aware of what the code is doing on the small scale and spends less time looking at code now that they have a WYSIWIG to do the majority of the work.

Concerning speed, I wrote a skeleton system for a user some time back that was based on the concept of a system that would have a backend db of artists linked to songs. The site consisted of:
- Front page
A-Z as links for a list of authors starting with that letter
Top 5 Artists by hits, Top 5 songs by hits, Most recently added songs by hits. The title were links to show top for all time vs for past month, underneath were links for top 10, 25, 50, each artist/song linked to the artist or song in question
- Artist Search Page
- Song Search Page
- Artist Search results with num albums listed for each author that linked to album search page
- Album searc results with artist name linked to artist view page
- Artist view page with listing of albums, each linked to album view page
- Album page with artist listed and linked to artist vioew page - also increments two counter fields in albums table for viewed album lyrics

The code is only 500 lines long because there is no prettiness added, with minor layout for the pages such as tables and lists. It was completed, tested, and fully functioning in (almost exactly) 2.5 hours.
It is also fully commented, every function has a minimum of a 3 line comment header, avg of 1 full line comment per 3 lines of code
The database had 50 test records in it and was also completed during the above test period.

Not to be mean, but I will stick with my text editor

-Tarwn
[sub]01010100 01101001 01100101 01110010 01101110 01101111 01101011 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101 [/sub]
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Get better results for your questions: faq333-2924
Frequently Asked ASP Questions: faq333-3048

 

[BDC2]

Tarwn, no-one disputes your ability to code, you are after all this forums top expert. ;-)

I agree DW generated code leaves alot to be desired, but you don't have to use the server behaviours as the ability to hand code exists.

Thank you everyone who has contributed so far, you all get a star. BDC.

 

[dilettante]

InterDev when I'm not being lazy (i.e. at a machine that has it installed). Even FrontPage when it's installed.

Otherwise notepad, or Windows Script Debugger, or ActiveX Control Pad.

I spend enough time in Script Debugger on non-Visual Studio machines that I'm pretty comfortable there. Free stuff is good, I can carry this sort of thing wherever I go - and I can pack a lot of docs along with these little tools. Gave up on floppys (too small) and CDs (too bulky). I have a "USB keychain reader" I carry along with several large (64MB, 128MB) SmartMedia cards that slide right in. I can fit a lot of CHM files on one of those. Since they're writable I can store my notes and a library of script-snippets I can freely update too. Few servers have CD-RW drives.

 

[tonykblen]

My own preference is Interdev as it exposes what is happening underneath the hood. It also forces you to think about what you want need to do and how to do it. By doing this, you can comment code with your thought process thus allowing other programmers to take the code and adapt/modify it as they need to.

Cheers,
Tony.

 

[shaddow]

I'm using the .NET version atm, and it's a lot better then any other editors.
Most thing i like is that i find out a new object like "ADODB.Stream" and then i find out in secs what this object can do.
This is in my opinion the best thing that we can have regarding to many undocumented objects.
I still think that Interdev is the best of his kind towards the programming side not really the WYSIWYG side(HTML) ________
George, M

 

[xutopia]

UltraEdit is the only one to have column-mode!!!!

mwaa haaa haaa haa!!!!

http://www.ultraedit.com

(this sounds a lot like we are a bunch of golfers sizing up each others equipement... LOL) Gary

http://www.xutopia.com

Haran
==========================