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Text Editors

UltraEdit

Home:
http://www.ultraedit.com/
License:
shareware
Platform:
Windows
Pros and cons:
A text editor with:
  • enough preferences to make it act the way you want
  • the usual features: auto-indentation, syntax highlighting, autosave, etc.
  • excellent tech support
  • ability to re-open previously opened docs upon launch -- great for continuity of work
  • ability to open files over FTP
Contributed by:
ChuckEsterbrook - 31 Oct 2001

gvim

Home:
http://www.vim.org/
License:
charityware
Platform:
Various
Pros and cons:
If you need a graphical vi, especially for Windows, consider gvim!
Hints:

Setting indentation to use 4 space indents can be done by adding the following lines into your .vimrc (or _vimrc on Windows):

set expandtab
set ts=4
set shiftwidth=4

Or put this line in your files:

# vim: shiftwidth=4 tabstop=4 expandtab

Contributed by: PaulBoddie - 01 Nov 2001 (modified 21 Nov 2001, 04 Dec 2001) MikeOrr - 20 Jun 2002

Emacs

Home:
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs or http://www.xemacs.org
License:
The original GPL app
Platform:
Various
Pros and cons:

Unfortunately, it is difficult to deal with the Webware style of using tabs for indentation instead of spaces. You can set Options>Advanced>Emacs>Editing>Basics>Indent Tabs Mode... (turn it on). Unfortunately when you edit code from any other source of Python code it will insert tabs instead of spaces, causing great harm, since everyone else uses spaces, not tabs.

Note: I've found that if you don't set the tab width to 4 (i.e., leave it at 8) it will auto-detect tabs vs. spaces correctly.

One of the nice features is editing files on your server over FTP, by opening /username@servername.com:/path/to/files/servlet.py, or even over SSH using TRAMP

Contributed by:
IanBicking - 02 Nov 2001

Kate

Home:
http://kate.sf.net/
License:
open source
Platform:
KDE/X-windows
Pros and cons:
A friendly text editor with:
  • a "Python Class Parser" plugin is available. See http://www.kde.org/kate/3rdparty.html
  • lots of preferences
  • the usual features: auto-indentation, syntax highlighting, etc.
  • excellent tech support
  • ability to re-open previously opened docs upon launch -- great for continuity of work
  • a filesystem-browsing side-panel with one click access to files
  • if you are coming from UltraEdit? for Windows, then you will probably like Kate
Contributed by:
ChuckEsterbrook - 10 Nov 2001

SciTE

Home:
http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html
License:
open source
Platform:
Windows and Linux/GTK
Pros and cons:
A nice text editor with:
  • nice syntax highlighting, including a good Python mode as well as an ASP mode that works pretty well for PSP files (many more modes available too)
  • multiple documents open in tabbed windows
  • lots of preferences configurable through text files
  • Can run scripts as a mini-IDE with the output showing up in another panel
  • Launches very quickly (at least on Windows) compared to most other text editors
Contributed by:
GeoffTalvola - 20 Jun 2002