| Author: |
Sheila |
| Dated: |
Monday, July 19 2004 @ 10:56 PM |
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3456 times |
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 Text Editors are used by most programmer's for writing code. They are not the same as word processors. Word processors allow you to "mark up" your content with styles like ...
... bold-face, italics and change font sizes and so forth. Plain text format does not allow for such markup. Word processors usually save the file in some proprietary format, which can only be read by someone with the same word processor. Text editors, on the other hand, save the file in a plain text format, and any text editor on any platform will be able to open and read a plain text file.
If you need to work with HTML files or cgi script programs, then it is recommended to edit the code in a text editor, and not a word processor (such as Microsoft Word). Word processors do sometimes add formatting characters that you cannot see, and can mess up your file.
Most operating systems come with a plain text editor. But you can find plenty of other text editors that are available, both free and commerial.
Windows
On Windows, the default text editor is Notepad. I don't use it much, myself, but in a crunch, you know it is there. (Look under the
Start Menu > Programs > Accessories >Notepad.)
I have been used the following editors:
TextPad: This is my current
editor of choice, which I have been using for a couple of years now.
I write all of my Python programming code in TextPad, using a syntax
highlight file available on their web site.
Programmer's
File Editor: a free, general purpose, closed source editor.
No longer under development or supported. Was very popular at one time.
I used with AP Computer Science students for simple editing.
WinEdt: I downloaded
and registered this editor for working on LaTeX files, but it also
supports HTML editing, and a variety of other programming languages,
such a C, Fortran and Perl.
CuteHTML:
a shareware HTML editor. I've given this to my kids to use.
Arachnophilia:
a freeware HTML editor with a large following. I've also given this
one to my kids to use. Also supports CGI, Perl, C++, Java and Javascript.
Homesite:
A commercial HTML editor formerly from Allaire, now by Macromedia. I used
to use this for much of my HTML editing, although nowadays I often simply
use Textpad. Homesite integrates with Dreamweaver.
Some other Windows Text Editors that I have briefly tried out and also look good
are UltraEdit,
NoteTab, Vim. I have a number of friends who swear by UltraEdit, and also some friends who really like NoteTab.
Macintosh
I don't really use a
Macintosh, but I hear that BBEdit
is a really nice text editor for Macintosh, if you want something
more than the SimpleText editor that comes with the operating system.
Unix/Linux
The only text editor
that I have personally used on Linux, is Pico.
Not exactly a full-featured editor. But simple, and easy to learn. Here is one tutorial on using Pico that may be of assistance: Using the Pico Text Editor.
Some very popular and well-known Linux editors are Vi
or Emacs.
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