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30th April 2008 - 4 minutes read time
Since starting programming I have used a lot of text editors, some have been good, and some have been very, very bad.
One text editor that stands out is PSPad. It is a free text editor for Windows that has lots of features and is very stable. I have been using this for a while now and have seen very little problems. I say "very little" as I once tried to open a 800 megabyte log file and it fell over, which is understandable.
It has the following features:
Have many different files open with multi tabbed editing.
Close and re-open the editor with the same files you had open.
Built-in FTP client.
Search and replace in files.
A very neat text difference engine which highlights differences.
Create new files from templates in HTML, PHP, Pascal, JScript, VBScript, MySQL, MS-Dos, Perl and a few more.
Fully functional HEX editor.
Intelligent syntax highlighting dependent on file type, which can be changed to any other syntax highlighting.
Ability for users to create their own syntax highlighting.
Print out text with coloured syntax highlighting.
When typing you can press Ctrl and space to see a list of functions that start with what you have typed. This is an intelligent list so if you are writing in PHP you will be given a list of PHP functions.
Built in code explorer that allows you to view functions and classes in your files. Created for PHP, XML, HTML, INI, C/C++ and Pascal, but more are in development.
Spell checker.
Auto correction of code.
Bracket and tag matching.
HTML code tidying and formatting.
HTML entities and ASCII chart.
Text manipulation with line sorting, removing blank lines and regular expression text replacing.
Export text with syntax highlight to HTML, RTF, Tex format or to clipboard.
Ability to link program with external compilers and capture error messages.
Record, save and load macros to carry out repetitive tasks.
Create a project so keep track of multiple files.
Many more features besides these few.
Personally I find the bracket and tag matching extremely useful, and is a feature that makes it stand above professional text editors like Dreamweaver. If you are battling with your current text editor then give PSPad a go and see how easy it is.
When doing Web design up here in Manchester I have fallen into the trap using dreamveaver for editing and as an ftp client. I have lately been using Filezilla for the FTP side, I will give PSPad a go now.
Submitted by Michael Smyth on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 14:19
If you are working on the Linux command line then sometimes you'll do a search to find out how to run a command that performs a task. I don't usually copy and paste commands in unless I can see what is going on, which used to mean spending time going through man pages and documentation trying to find out what this or that flag does.
SimpleTest is a great way to test your modules, but it can take a bit of setting up. For every test that is run SimpleTest effectively has a fresh install of Drupal, so if you need to test a particular function you need to have everything in place before you run the test.
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Submitted by Michael Smyth on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 14:19
PermalinkSubmitted by The Web Design… on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 14:20
PermalinkSubmitted by philipnorton42 on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 19:24
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