Best Free Text Editor
There are lots of text editors. Some of these aspire to just be Notepad replacements, while others are full-on programming editors.
Notepad Replacements
My top choice in this category is EditPad Lite. It has a Notepad-like interface combined with tabbed document windows, the ability to open as many documents as you like, no file size limitations, and unlimited undo capability. Its main downside is that it's for personal use only.
If you need a free Notepad replacement that you can use commercially, I suggest NotePad2. It's small and fast, but unfortunately lacks the tabbed Windows that are so handy in EditPad. NoteTab Lite is another possibility but I find it a tad slow, and the single-level undo a severe limitation.
If you're looking for a text editor that can serve both as a Notepad replacement and a source editor you might like to check out Notepad++. It performs impressively in both roles. It's loaded with features to make your programming more productive including syntax and brace highlighting for many languages, search and replace using regular expressions, macro recording, and more. It is also highly configurable through plug-ins, has a wide range of themes, and offers multi-language support. It seems to interface very well with JAVA.
More Complete Text Editors
If you are just concerned about text editing power and not concerned about startup time, try jEdit. jEdit provides a huge array of features, especially if you include the plugin library. It has all basic features like tabs and syntax highlighting (for 130 languages!). Its advanced features include a diff utility, an FTP browser, a powerful macro language, block select, and more. A bit of a heavyweight, yes, but you can't beat the power.
Programming Editors
PSPad is more specifically geared to programming. It supports syntax highlighting for most popular languages, has an inbuilt spell checker, hex editor, macro recorder, FTP client, and more. PSPad has stellar performance in this area and compares favorably with commercial applications such as TextPad.
Vim is an editor which is based on the UNIX "vi" editor. This editor has to be learned and isn't terribly user friendly. But if you have spent most of your time in the UNIX world and chose "vi" over emacs, then it is a familiar face. Sure, vim is more friendly than the command line vi, but all the features you are used to seeing are there.
Other Editors to Consider
Other source code editors worthy of evaluation are ConTEXT, and my personal favorite, Crimson.
Choosing the "best" programming editor is too controversial a topic even for me so I suggest you try all these and see what works best for you.
Links
Website: http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html
Download link: http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html
Author: Just Great Software
Current version: 6.3.1
Version date: August 16, 2007
Download file size: 3.1MB
License: Free for non-commercial use
Operating systems supported: Windows NT4/98/2000/ME/XP/Vista
Additional software required: None
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Yes
NotePad2
Website: http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html
Download link: http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html
Author: Florian Balmer
Current version: 2.0.18
Version date: July 26, 2007
Download file size: 247KB
License: BSD
Operating systems supported: NT-based versions of Windows
Additional software required: None
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Yes
NoteTab Lite
Website: http://www.notetab.com/ntl.php
Download link: http://www.notetab.com/ntl.php
Author: Fookes Software
Current version: 5.6
Version date: January, 2008
Download file size: 2.08MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/2000/2003/NT4/ME/XP/XP64/Vista
Additional software required: None
64 Bit version available: Yes
Portable version available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: None
Other relevant information: Many free resources for NoteTab Lite are available on the website.
Notepad++
Website: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Download link: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=95717&package_id=102072
Author: SourceForge
Current version: 4.7.5
Version date: January 14, 2008
Download file size: 1.99MB
License: GNU General Public License
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/2003/XP and some versions of Ubuntu Linux
Additional software required: No
64 Bit version available: None
Portable version available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Yes
Other relevant information: A lot of plug-ins are available on the website
jEdit
Website: http://jedit.org/
Download link: http://jedit.org/index.php?page=download
Author: Slava Pestov
Current version: 4.2 (4.3pre14 devel.)
Version date: August 28, 2004 (April 27, 2008 devel.)
Download file size: 1.9MB
License: GNU General Public License
Operating systems supported: Anything with Java: Windows 95?/98?/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista, Mac, Linux, Unix
Additional software required: Java 1.5 (1.4 with older versions)
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: No
Other relevant information: Plugins (http://plugins.jedit.org/) are nearly essential.
PSPad
Website: http://www.pspad.com/
Download link: http://www.pspad.com/en/download.php
Author: Jan Fiala
Current version: 4.5.3 (Build 2298)
Version date: November 25, 2007
Download file size: 3.43MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 98/2000/ME/NT/XP/Vista
Additional software required: None
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: Yes
Non-English languages supported: Yes
Other relevant information: 3 pages of editor extensions are available on the website
ConTEXT
Website: http://www.context.cx/
Download link: http://www.context.cx/downloads.html
Author: ConTEXT Project Ltd
Current version: 0.98.5
Version date: December 3, 2006
Download file size: 1.6MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista
Additional software required: None
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes
Crimson
Website: http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
Download link: http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
Author: Ingyu Kang
Current version: 3.70
Version date: September 22, 2004
Download file size: 1.19MB
License: Freeware
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
Additional software required: None
64 Bit version available: No
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes
Other relevant information: Became an open source project in December 2006. It is being rewritten under the name Emerald Editor. Beta version 3.72 information on their website http://www.emeraldeditor.com/
Vim
Website: http://www.vim.org/
Download link: http://www.vim.org/download.php
Author: Gnu
Current version: 7.1
Version date: May 12, 2007
Download file size: 1.19MB
License: Charityware (GPL compatible license)
Operating systems supported: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, UNIX/Linux, Amiga, OS/2, Mac OS, QNX, Agenda, Zaurus, etc.
Additional software required: None
64 Bit version available: Yes
Portable version available: Zaurus, Windows CE
Non-English languages supported: Yes, the range of languages is significant
Other relevant information: This is a programming editor, not a word processor
Here are some other Editors that I've put on my list to review as I get time:
- Jen's File Editor ( http://home.arcor.de/jensaltmann/JFE/jfe_eng.htm)
- Scite (http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html)
- NoteTab Lite (http://www.notetab.com/index.php)
This software category is maintained by William Fishburne.
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I downloaded and used notpad++ and crimson Editor from 2 years ago,
Notpad++ in a full comparison is the best ( especially with some of plug-ins ) which exists on this page
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
and crimson which is not bad, exists on this page
http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
I found PSPad several month ago in c|net , it's very well; which exists on this page too
http://www.pspad.com/
and I found GNU Emacs and Geany in wikipedia almost 1 month ago
GNU Emacs is very powerfull text editor , but also is very heavy; but I think if we skip size of the app; it will be the best; When I cheked comments see it in comments
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/emacs/windows/
and Geany :
http://geany.uvena.de/
is other good text editor and is not very heavy; almost a full IDE, I think no one not it yet
Seeing here for information :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_text_editors
EDXOR
http://freezip.cjb.net/freeware/
http://editra.org/
here is another very good editor.
Is anyone aware of a editor (preferably unix based other than emacs) which is capable of version control.
The purpose is to have multiple versions created for multiple save operations and being able to take a diff (difference) of them.
I call this section the "programmers corner": what about notepad replacements for the rest of us?
OK, I guess that seems fair...what are the features that you would like to see that NotePad doesn't give you? If you simply want a duplicate of NotePad itself, then why not use NotePad?
I would like a free lightweight notepad replacement that gives me an outline, tabs, enhanced style and paragraph format features, tables, a good search utility, and if possible a portable app... I don't need a program that speaks in c, c++, etc, etc.
In short, you are asking for a wordprocessor. So go for free wordprocessor softwares like abiword, not for notepad replacements.
Um, your links for Vim point to crimson. Copy/paste error? Actual links are:
http://www.vim.org/
http://www.vim.org/download.php
Also, Vim is portable by default. You can turn off all the shell integration features in the installer and the only thing it will do is try to do some OLE registration, otherwise it leaves your registry untouched as far as i can tell. You can also combine "vim71rt.zip" and "gvim71.zip" or "gvim71ole.zip" an get a no-install version. Thing will use your %home% directory for .vimrc, or the program directory if there's no %home%.
And since you mentioned emacs and I used to use it back in the day, the links are:
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/windows/
This is the NTEmacs varient, there are a few other GNU emacs windows varients apparantly, see http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html .
That other major fork of the thing which I never really looked at is here:
http://www.xemacs.org/
http://www.xemacs.org/Download/index.html
I'm sure they can all be instaleld portably too, but I'm not going to try to figure it out. (I might have to look at elisp again ^_^). IMO they're like a two-ton sledgehammer, otoh, if you're into the extentions, modes and plugins, you probably don't really NEED any other software on your portable :D.
Fixed the links--Thank you! I'll add the other editors to the list...I'm slowly learning emacs, so it may be a bit before I get to them...please bear with me :)
PNotepad is also a very nice and fast editor. I use it more and more
http://www.pnotepad.org/
this is also very good .after use almost all of text editors mentioned in this page, i rate pnote as one of the top 3.
bfish should have a look at it.
ActiveState's Komod Edit is freeware and an excellent editor.
When Crimson (my personal favorite for many years) was not updated for a long while, I started looking for a replacement. The code completion is handy, there are a lot of syntax highlighting options to choose from, you can create custom color themes, and there are several good plug-ins to extend the functionality.
I strongly recommend trying this editor.
- Bill
I'm inordinately fond of Metapad http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad . Been using it for several years. The "lite" version is small, fast, and has everything I need in a text editor. This is one category where less is definitely more.
There's also Eclipse which is free and powerful, though it's more of a programmers' editor and therefore more project-oriented (in fact I don't think you can edit an existing text file without having to set up a workspace first). It's still worth noting as it has a large number of plug-ins and add-ons that allow you to tailor it to quite specific needs.
PSPad's pretty good too and I've used it in the past, however it has got one or two annoying bugs.
I use Eclipse on a daily basis as a programming tool. It is both free and powerful, but it is really more of an integrated development environment (IDE). I don't think that I could do it justice on a section oriented to text editors. While it is a nice tool, particularly the integration with source code control, I'm not convinced that Eclipse is the best. It is an enormous memory hog and definitely bogs down on older machines.
EmEditor 6 is the best in my opinion,.
Is it freeware?
It had a freeware version at one time, but I'm not able to find the link anymore. It is, however, well worth the money.
So that would be EmEditor 7, then.
PSPad is the one I like as you can create projects clustering specific text files. This is very useful for modding games such as RTW and M2TW
http://www.pspad.com/
I have both NotePad++ and PSPad installed and they do work well as programming editors. For straight text editors I much prefer NoteTab.
http://www.notetab.com/index.php. It has a tabbed interface for multiple
files, virtually unlimited file sizes, a powerful scripting language that
includes RegEx support, single file/multi file/ondisk file editing, customizable
menus and toolbars. The lite version is true freeware and there are two
low cost paid versions available which add a number of features.
Art
Art,
Thank you for the suggestion. I dropped by the site and it looks strongly geared to HTML. I've put it on my list to review as a text editor and I'll send a note over the HTML Editor page once I've had a chance to look at it and confirm. Thank you!
If jEdit don't require java it will be the best ever.
Niefer
why not include the gvim?
Done! I'm an old UNIX hack, so vi is very familiar and I've used vim quite a bit. Gvim is the graphic based version of vim which is more user friendly, but a little bit harder to find. I went with vim, although anyone who wants to search can quickly find gvim.
TextPad is simply the best choice! From coding to regexp functions, to text management.
I also like Notepad++ but on my old machine TextPad works very better.
Giovanni
I really like TextPad and I've even purchased a license. The problem is, however, TextPad is not FREEWARE. You can download an evaluation copy, but you should buy a license if you go on using it. I also have PSPAD (most of what I do is programming) and I love it...give it a shot.
jEdit + plugins was cool. Plugins is maintained on the jEdit site. It's open source, seems just like ugly editor, but when you try to learn the features, you will find a lot of cool thing.
Notepad++ is the best in my opinion. I tried most of these and they come up short on NP++. We develop a lot of stuff for mobiles in Java and we all converted over from Netbeans. It's fast, extensible, with an active plugin community and a handy internal scripting language so you can do everything with a keypress.
-Mark
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