

Ask YC: Best text editor for Windows? - sjstearns

I'm stuck with a PC at work, and am missing TextMate. what editor should I use? Looking for something windows based (not XEmacs) for general use. Suggestions?
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aaco
Vim. Both for Windows and Linux I use it, it's a good and very powerful
editor. However it's not the type of editor that you'll get how to use it in 5
minutes (well, this is true for the very very basic use, just press "i" to
insert text).

Download the self-installing executable here:

<http://www.vim.org/download.php#pc>

~~~
kashif
Just upvoting ViM is not enough, so I put in this note. I have used Emacs and
ViM and I am with ViM forever...

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yters
There is a vi mode in emacs, though it just replicates the keybindings:
<http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/ViperMode>

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vikas5678
I use Textpad a lot, cos its pretty simple looking, and yet has a lot of
functionalities, and I open a lot of very huge xml documents in it(pretty
stable), some other ex-colleagues of mine love(d) Notepad++. Some other people
I know like Ultraedit, although I found it to be too complex for my liking.

~~~
edw519
Textpad can be as simple or complex as you want. I use nothing else any more.

~~~
agotterer
I used textpad for years, recently switched to notepad++ and am very happy.

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tzury
Scite. Scite is the one I used in windows for couple of years and kept it with
me when switched to linux a year and a half ago.

~~~
sosuke
Notepad++ is a good editor built off Scite with some nice additions. I keep
both installed on most of the systems I work on and would recommend you give
it a shot. Other editors I work with are far to heavy for quick changes or
random filetype testing.

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undees
InType and e are fairly TextMate-ish. The latter costs money, and the former
has announced plans to set a price. They're both basic but usable, and
compatible to some degree with TextMate snippets / bundles.

~~~
jamongkad
I used to use Intype on my windows box before I made the jump to Ubuntu. Now I
use VIM and never looked back. Intype is definitely not bad imho.

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3flp
Emacs + customisations.. nearly like Textpad but easier to use. Emacs is not
really a text editor. It is some sort of OS for making text editors. You can
have any text editor you like. Why would you use anything else?

# There is a native Windows build. It is a normal Win app, with file selection
dialogs, etc...

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yters
For the windows build see here: <http://ourcomments.org/Emacs/EmacsW32.html>

This is the emacs wiki page on emacs for windows:
<http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/EmacsForWindows>

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alek
Cream (a GVIM variant, which is a VIM variant, which is a...)
<http://cream.sf.net/>

you will need a day or two to get the hang of it, but once you do you won't
ever want to go back. (you'll know when you start writing ":wq" in non-VI
editors)

~~~
donal
gvim is the only thing that keeps me sane in windows. I have not tried this
cream you speak of however. Just downloaded it though.

~~~
donal
eeppp, I think I'll stick with gvim.

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fendale
The fact that Textmate doesn't run on Windows is exactly why I stayed away
from it on OS X - I am forced to use a windows machine at work, and am stuck
in a terminal a lot of the time, so I decided to learn emacs instead.

Once you get over the initial Emacs learning curve its great - then install
the emacs code browser, and the rails plugins (if you do rails obviously) for
extra productivity. See [this tutorial]([http://sodonnell.wordpress.com/the-
emacs-newbie-guide-for-ra...](http://sodonnell.wordpress.com/the-emacs-newbie-
guide-for-rails/)) to set it all up.

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utnick
was going to suggest xemacs :(

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joshwa
<http://www.e-texteditor.com/> : "The Power of TextMate on Windows"

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CHIEFARCHITECT
UltraEdit is a pretty adequate text editor if one is willing to do some minor
configuration. It took me only 30 mins to master it.

A txt editor is like most tools, one has to customize it to their needs and
wants.

The sword does not make the samurai. It is the samurai that makes the sword
go. (General View)

~~~
kencyber
I've been using UltraEdit for about 8 years now. Notepad++ is close, but the
FTP plug-in just isn't quite as good (I use FTP a lot through my text editor
and UltraEdit is the best). The best features of UltraEdit are it's macro
recording and template (ie: code snippets) feature.

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davidw
Maybe you're a Mac guy rather than a Unix dude, but I put this together a
while ago as a wiki, then 'froze' it into an article:

<http://www.welton.it/articles/windows_for_linux_users.html>

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kingnothing
I haven't used Windows in a while, but I think something I discovered right
before I made the linux switch was called Programmer's Notepad. Try
<http://www.pnotepad.org/>

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bprater
Ultraedit+WebDrive was my wet dream. It was the only thing holding me back
from switching to Mac 100% of the time, until Panic churned up Coda.

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Zak
Not XEmacs? I think GNU Emacs runs on Windows too.

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ivank
Eclipse for its mark occurrences feature, easy editor splitting, and variable
width font support (when it's occasionally needed).

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dhouston
\- editplus is great for general text editing (non-coding)

\- activestate komodo for python/perl/php

\- visual studio for c++

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jalammar
I like to use jEdit for coding. EditPlus is commonly used where i work so I
use that for general text editing.

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nreece
Notepad2: <http://www.flos-freeware.ch/>

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kmt
Real programmers use... <http://xkcd.com/378/>

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thorax
PSPad is good enough for me. PHP I use Nusphere PHPed (not free).

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projectileboy
I like Crimson Editor. I think it's a bit nicer than Textpad.

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klocksib
GNU Emacs. :)

