Need good text editor

[Perfection]

I need something I can use to edit large lists of plaintext in very powerful ways.

What's out there?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

EMACS is good but hard to learn.

I don't know if you can still get Boxer (which was a free variant of Brief, a great editor), good as well.

You can get Visual Studio Express for free for Windows, the editor is pretty powerful even if you don't do any programming.

EDIT: Or you could just learn some Python which has very powerful search/replace functionality which is easy to use for text files. Perl might be good too but I don't like the syntax myself.

 

[GVBN]

EMACS is good but hard to learn.

vi is better

 

[ParadigmShifter]

vi was the first editor I used. Better than setting fire to your gonads by rubbing sticks together maybe.

 

[Phlegmak]

I need something I can use to edit large lists of plaintext in very powerful ways.

What's out there?

emacs!


If you wants Windows specific stuff (there is a version of emacs for Windows), then you can try Notespad (notice the 's') or Crimson.

 

[Asher]

UltraEdit-32. Best in the business.

 

[Speedo]

UltraEdit-32. Best in the business.

QFT

10chars

 

[Till]

I really like notepad++. As easy to use as notepad, syntax highlighting, tabs, etc, etc. And it doesn't cost a dime!

 

[Grisu]

I really like notepad++. As easy to use as notepad, syntax highlighting, tabs, etc, etc. And it doesn't cost a dime!

yes, I use that all the time too. Notetab isn't bad either.

 

[kcwong]

PSPad is pretty nice, but chokes on really huge files.

Crimson Editor is no longer being developed, but it has spawned a new project: Emerald Editor.

All three are completely free, and especially nice for programmers who don't always use a full-blown IDE.

 

[cthom]

emacs!

ctrl key heaven i think i'll look this out again, it used to be the only text ed i ever used.

 

[Phlegmak]

emacs has the greatest features I've ever seen in any text editor. Unfortunately, it's missing some other features.

It's got:

Column-wise text editing
NO horizontal scroll (the only editor I've ever seen that doesn't have it)
regular expression search and replace
The ability to edit very large files (I can regularly edit up to 65 MB without running out of memory)

Those things are lacking in other editors, except perhaps the editing of very large files. Horizontal scrolling is one of the stupidest things in the universe.

 

[Till]

emacs has the greatest features I've ever seen in any text editor. Unfortunately, it's missing some other features.

It's got:

Column-wise text editing
NO horizontal scroll (the only editor I've ever seen that doesn't have it)
regular expression search and replace
The ability to edit very large files (I can regularly edit up to 65 MB without running out of memory)

Those things are lacking in other editors, except perhaps the editing of very large files. Horizontal scrolling is one of the stupidest things in the universe.

Even Windows Notepad has an option to disable horizontal scrolling (It's called Word Wrap).

 

[Phlegmak]

Even Windows Notepad has an option to disable horizontal scrolling (It's called Word Wrap).

Yep, you're right. It doesn't quite work like emacs though. For example, there is no indicator that the line continues to the next line, which is a backslash in emacs.

 

[Asher]

emacs has the greatest features I've ever seen in any text editor. Unfortunately, it's missing some other features.

It's got:

Column-wise text editing
NO horizontal scroll (the only editor I've ever seen that doesn't have it)
regular expression search and replace
The ability to edit very large files (I can regularly edit up to 65 MB without running out of memory)

Those things are lacking in other editors, except perhaps the editing of very large files. Horizontal scrolling is one of the stupidest things in the universe.

UltraEdit has all of that and a lot, lot more...

 

[Speedo]

emacs has the greatest features I've ever seen in any text editor. Unfortunately, it's missing some other features.

It's got:

Column-wise text editing
NO horizontal scroll (the only editor I've ever seen that doesn't have it)
regular expression search and replace
The ability to edit very large files (I can regularly edit up to 65 MB without running out of memory)

Those things are lacking in other editors, except perhaps the editing of very large files. Horizontal scrolling is one of the stupidest things in the universe.

That's a pretty standard feature list, actually.

BTW - 65MB limit on file sizes? I've (hex) edited files via UE that were well over 1GB.

 

[Phlegmak]

Column wise editing? I've seen it in one other editor ever, and that's Q edit, an old DOS program.

 

[Asher]

Column wise editing? I've seen it in one other editor ever, and that's Q edit, an old DOS program.

It's one of the many features in UltraEdit. I use it daily to modify SQL and the like.

 

[warmwaffles]

Im still a big fan of notepad just set your monitor to a higher resolution and maximize that puppy.

EDIT:
There are powerful ways to edit plain text? like mono sized, font, and font weight?

 

[Speedo]

There are powerful ways to edit plain text? like mono sized, font, and font weight?

Not editing the text itself, but a document made of plain text (most often source code of some type). You'd be surprised just how much time a good text editor can save you.