6 ms·

Just wanted to say I find Notepad++ to be an excellent tabbed editor, especially for XML or SQL. I use it on windows all the time and really miss it on OS X whe

Just wanted to say I find Notepad++ to be an excellent tabbed editor, especially for XML or SQL. I use it on windows all the time and really miss it on OS X where I find Textmate to be a bit awkward.

neves 11y ago
I like Notepad++, but I prefer one that works in Windows and in my linux home computer.
- bitmapbrother 11y ago
  Notepad++ does work on Linux and also Mac's using WINE.
  - throweway 11y ago
    Seriously try gvim. Not vim where you need a long ass cheat sheet just to create a new tab or move between splits. But gvim where you can be productive and use the mouse and menus when necessary.
    - klodolph 11y ago
      The one thing that kills gvim for me is the inability to have one session with multiple windows. I use it anyway.
      - gcr 11y ago
        How would that be better than opening multiple gvim processes?
        klodolph 11y ago
        I want to type :wa in one window, not four windows. I don't want to get an error message when I try to open a buffer that's already open somewhere else, I want it to just move the buffer to the new window (or alternatively, raise the window containing the buffer). I want to move buffers across windows and keep undo history and register contents. TextMate / Emacs / etc. have this capability, but I can't figure out how to do it in vim.
      - aldanor 11y ago
        Try Emacs with vim bindings and you'll have it, its GUI is a client that connects to a server
jongalloway2 11y ago
I've been a long-time fan of Notepad++, but it's a text editor. You can extend it to make it work better with specific programming languages (e.g. here's a post I wrote 10 years ago about adding language support http://weblogs.asp.net/jongalloway/creating-a-user-defined-language-in-notepad http://weblogs.asp.net/jongalloway/creating-a-user-defined-l...) but it's fundamentally a text editor. VS Code is a code editor. It has IntelliSense (not text-matched autocomplete, IntelliSense), debugging support, git integration, parameter hints, go to definition, code peek, etc. (http://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/editingevolved http://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/editingevolved). The goal is to give you code editing features with the speed and simplicity of a text editor. They're both free and lightweight, so I use them both pretty much daily.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
  Notepad++ is very useful but I wish some features would be updated. The dialogs are awkward to use at times. The XML for defining custom syntax highlighting is atrocious. It's like they took a pre-XML config file and shotgunned tags into it without planning a rational format. Keywords are specified using long strings delimited by CR/LF entities for no good reason other than to destroy readability. It would be nice if an more modern hightlighting engine could be inserted as an alternative to the clunky ad-hoc design it currently has.
- jsingleton 11y ago
  As you say, both are useful for different things. They complement each other if you use the right tool for the right job. I find Notepad++ is great for handling really large files and changing UTF encoding or line endings. VS is good for pretty print formatting code/XML to be more readable, among many other non-text things such as debugging.
  - coldtea 11y ago
    >and changing UTF encoding or line endings If you need to do those things often, there are specialized tools, including in the command line, and for batch processing. No need to do it in an editor.
klodolph 11y ago
Coming from OS X, there are a bunch of minor things missing in Notepad++ that I'm used to having on OS X. Like the ability to drag tabs between windows with the mouse, to move new tabs to a new window, or to create a new file and immediately save it. The scrolling in Notepad++ is also a little buggy. Just to give you a perspective about what the other side thinks, since you inevitably develop different habits in different editors, and those habits break when you switch. That said, I use too many editors for my own good. (I'm active in both main churches.) Neither Notepad++ nor TextMate are competitive with VS Code, Emacs, or Vim, IMO, and I use all five regularly.
- Razengan 11y ago
  > Coming from OS X Also, do Windows editors have that Alt+drag rectangular text selection feature that most/some OS X apps have?
  - provemewrong 11y ago
    My most used editors (Sublime Text and Notepad++) have this.
  - reitanqild 11y ago
    No, it is implemented by each editor/ ide independently with their own modifier. On the contrary we have mostly consistent ctrl/shift + arrow behaviour over the last 15 or more years(I don't know before that). :-)
    - Razengan 11y ago
      > On the contrary we have mostly consistent ctrl/shift + arrow behavior Are you saying Windows has consistent Control/Shift + arrow behavior? OS X is pretty consistent about this too, though Control+Arrow moves between Desktop Spaces, not related to text, but you can modify a lot of system/app shortcuts from Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts.
      - reitanqild 11y ago
imaginenore 11y ago
Notepad++ is a great text editor, but it has no clue about your code base. It can't do searches of all functions, or Ctrl+Click on the method to go to its definition, etc.
ChristianGeek 11y ago
I dropped Notepad++ for SublimeText a while back (partially because it supports both Windows and Mac). VS Code is slowly winning me over though!
- smrq 11y ago
  I love ST, but the hotkeys are so different between Windows and Mac and it drives me up the wall. I feel like I'm abroad in the UK and now fries are chips, chips are crisps, crackers are biscuits, Ctrl+H is Cmd+Shift+F, etc... It really gets in the way of my ability to work in my editor fluently, which is ultimately all a text editor is good for.
  - jbrooksuk 11y ago
    You're aware that you can change them right?
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
kitd 11y ago
I'm always surprised that PSPad [1] doesn't get mentioned much in these conversations. I find the built-in utilities are more numerous and work much better than Notepad++. It also handles large files much better IME. It may be that the customisation is a bit less polished (eg, no way to quickly set themes) and the user community is less developed. But it really does everything and much better than the others IMHO. [1] - http://www.pspad.com/en/ http://www.pspad.com/en/ edit: words
coldtea 11y ago
On OS X, download TextWranger -- it's free and close to Notepad++ than TextMate.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- iSnow 11y ago
  And the best feature of TextWrangler: if it crashes, or the computer shuts down, it remembers unsaved changes in files. Start it up and it restores everything to the last keystroke. Not sure if other editors do this too.
Aldo_MX 11y ago
I prefer to install Notepad2, it uses the same engine as Notepad++ (Scintilla), but I have turned off most options to resemble the stock Notepad: http://imgur.com/vFu51NV http://imgur.com/vFu51NV
- groovy2shoes 11y ago
  So, apart from the icon, how does that resemble Notepad?
  - Aldo_MX 10y ago
    one instance per file, no tabs, no toolbars and a simplified menu (all of that configurable)

Just wanted to say I find Notepad++ to be an excellent tabbed editor, especially for XML or SQL. I use it on windows all the time and really miss it on OS X where I find Textmate to be a bit awkward.

neves 11y ago

I like Notepad++, but I prefer one that works in Windows and in my linux home computer.

bitmapbrother 11y ago
Notepad++ does work on Linux and also Mac's using WINE.
- throweway 11y ago
  Seriously try gvim. Not vim where you need a long ass cheat sheet just to create a new tab or move between splits. But gvim where you can be productive and use the mouse and menus when necessary.
  - klodolph 11y ago
    The one thing that kills gvim for me is the inability to have one session with multiple windows. I use it anyway.
    - gcr 11y ago
      How would that be better than opening multiple gvim processes?
      - klodolph 11y ago
        I want to type :wa in one window, not four windows. I don't want to get an error message when I try to open a buffer that's already open somewhere else, I want it to just move the buffer to the new window (or alternatively, raise the window containing the buffer). I want to move buffers across windows and keep undo history and register contents. TextMate / Emacs / etc. have this capability, but I can't figure out how to do it in vim.
    - aldanor 11y ago
      Try Emacs with vim bindings and you'll have it, its GUI is a client that connects to a server

jongalloway2 11y ago

I've been a long-time fan of Notepad++, but it's a text editor. You can extend it to make it work better with specific programming languages (e.g. here's a post I wrote 10 years ago about adding language support http://weblogs.asp.net/jongalloway/creating-a-user-defined-language-in-notepad http://weblogs.asp.net/jongalloway/creating-a-user-defined-l...) but it's fundamentally a text editor. VS Code is a code editor. It has IntelliSense (not text-matched autocomplete, IntelliSense), debugging support, git integration, parameter hints, go to definition, code peek, etc. (http://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/editingevolved http://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/editingevolved). The goal is to give you code editing features with the speed and simplicity of a text editor. They're both free and lightweight, so I use them both pretty much daily.

kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
Notepad++ is very useful but I wish some features would be updated. The dialogs are awkward to use at times. The XML for defining custom syntax highlighting is atrocious. It's like they took a pre-XML config file and shotgunned tags into it without planning a rational format. Keywords are specified using long strings delimited by CR/LF entities for no good reason other than to destroy readability. It would be nice if an more modern hightlighting engine could be inserted as an alternative to the clunky ad-hoc design it currently has.
jsingleton 11y ago
As you say, both are useful for different things. They complement each other if you use the right tool for the right job. I find Notepad++ is great for handling really large files and changing UTF encoding or line endings. VS is good for pretty print formatting code/XML to be more readable, among many other non-text things such as debugging.
- coldtea 11y ago
  >and changing UTF encoding or line endings If you need to do those things often, there are specialized tools, including in the command line, and for batch processing. No need to do it in an editor.

klodolph 11y ago

Coming from OS X, there are a bunch of minor things missing in Notepad++ that I'm used to having on OS X. Like the ability to drag tabs between windows with the mouse, to move new tabs to a new window, or to create a new file and immediately save it. The scrolling in Notepad++ is also a little buggy. Just to give you a perspective about what the other side thinks, since you inevitably develop different habits in different editors, and those habits break when you switch. That said, I use too many editors for my own good. (I'm active in both main churches.) Neither Notepad++ nor TextMate are competitive with VS Code, Emacs, or Vim, IMO, and I use all five regularly.

Razengan 11y ago
> Coming from OS X Also, do Windows editors have that Alt+drag rectangular text selection feature that most/some OS X apps have?
- provemewrong 11y ago
  My most used editors (Sublime Text and Notepad++) have this.
- reitanqild 11y ago
  No, it is implemented by each editor/ ide independently with their own modifier. On the contrary we have mostly consistent ctrl/shift + arrow behaviour over the last 15 or more years(I don't know before that). :-)
  - Razengan 11y ago
    > On the contrary we have mostly consistent ctrl/shift + arrow behavior Are you saying Windows has consistent Control/Shift + arrow behavior? OS X is pretty consistent about this too, though Control+Arrow moves between Desktop Spaces, not related to text, but you can modify a lot of system/app shortcuts from Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts.
    - reitanqild 11y ago

imaginenore 11y ago

Notepad++ is a great text editor, but it has no clue about your code base. It can't do searches of all functions, or Ctrl+Click on the method to go to its definition, etc.

ChristianGeek 11y ago

I dropped Notepad++ for SublimeText a while back (partially because it supports both Windows and Mac). VS Code is slowly winning me over though!

smrq 11y ago
I love ST, but the hotkeys are so different between Windows and Mac and it drives me up the wall. I feel like I'm abroad in the UK and now fries are chips, chips are crisps, crackers are biscuits, Ctrl+H is Cmd+Shift+F, etc... It really gets in the way of my ability to work in my editor fluently, which is ultimately all a text editor is good for.
- jbrooksuk 11y ago
  You're aware that you can change them right?

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

kitd 11y ago

I'm always surprised that PSPad [1] doesn't get mentioned much in these conversations. I find the built-in utilities are more numerous and work much better than Notepad++. It also handles large files much better IME. It may be that the customisation is a bit less polished (eg, no way to quickly set themes) and the user community is less developed. But it really does everything and much better than the others IMHO. [1] - http://www.pspad.com/en/ http://www.pspad.com/en/ edit: words

coldtea 11y ago

On OS X, download TextWranger -- it's free and close to Notepad++ than TextMate.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
iSnow 11y ago
And the best feature of TextWrangler: if it crashes, or the computer shuts down, it remembers unsaved changes in files. Start it up and it restores everything to the last keystroke. Not sure if other editors do this too.

Aldo_MX 11y ago

I prefer to install Notepad2, it uses the same engine as Notepad++ (Scintilla), but I have turned off most options to resemble the stock Notepad: http://imgur.com/vFu51NV http://imgur.com/vFu51NV

groovy2shoes 11y ago
So, apart from the icon, how does that resemble Notepad?
- Aldo_MX 10y ago
  one instance per file, no tabs, no toolbars and a simplified menu (all of that configurable)