Searching for a "good" text editor.

[NPauly]

I am looking for a text editor to use when constructing websites. It must have configurable syntax highlighting for PHP, HTML, and CSS files. I would also like this text editor to have "collapsible code blocks" so that I can collapse and expand say a <div> or PHP function in a similar fashion to to a folder in windows explorer.

I currently do all my work on a Windows XP computer using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2k4 and Notepad.

Any suggestions?

~Nick Pauly

[edited by: caine at 5:52 pm (utc) on Feb. 1, 2004]
[edit reason] deleted url. Against TOS [/edit]

[Elijah]

I think jEdit is what you're looking for. It's free and open source. I use it for my php/html/css coding.
It automatically highlights php/html/css.
It has folding features. (although I have never used them)

[thehittmann]

Welcome to Webmasterworld!
Posting URLS is against the TOS of webmasterworld

I like using CSE HTML Validator, it's a text code program with some extra built in features.

[NPauly]

Sorry about the weblink, I didn't realize that it was against the rules. I would remove the link, but it doesn't appear that I can edit my message.

On another note ... thanks for such quick replys! :)

I'll look into both jEdit and CSE.

Thanks again ...
~Nick

[bill]

I find myself using the editor in TopStyle a lot recently. I like it better than the CSE one.

[SlowMove]

Use several editors. Alt+tab in Windows. Emacs on Linux.

[cicru]

Any fans of ultraedit here?
I have not yet met something more powerful.
How does Jedit compare to it any people used both?

[bumpaw]

What about using Homesite that should have come with DW MX?

[loke]

I've tried several. I like notepad, but I just love
Textpad. You might want to try it.
h**p://www.textpad.com/

[BlobFisk]

ScIte - based on Scintilla.... my weapon of choice.

[gethan]

Really worth the effort of learning and free - Vim

[vim.org...]

[photon]

So many features (including syntax highlighting) it takes a while to learn even a majority of them, and it's free: HTML-Kit.

[MaxedOut]

I'm also a fan of textpad and have used it for years.

[carolynf]

I believe Ultraedit was designed for HTML coding. Tags and attribute names appear in different colors than values. There are other nice features too, such as split screen multi-document editing.

[photon]

Not sure about the "collapsible" sections, but HTML-Kit is a very powerful (and free!) editor. The author is very active in the program's newsgroups, so questions are answered quickly.

[Robino]

EditPlus is the best I've used so far.

VIM is pretty sweet too.

[antsaint]

Got introducted to NoteTab recently, and that's been very robust.

[PSilver]

Context is pretty good, and you can download lots of modules to highlight the code in all the languages you mentioned and lots more.

I've got a mate who thinks HTML-kit is the bees knees, so that's two votes for it!

[patricks]

I use UltraEdit and Notetab Standard and am pretty happy with both of them.

[grelmar]

Been using Homesite for years. Have the last edition released before Macromedia rolled it into Dreamweaver.

Any advantage to getting dreamweaver, if you never plan on using the WYSIWYG? Specifically, were there any noticeable improvements to Homesite?

Call me old fashioned, but I can type out a page way quicker than I can gnerate a page wrestling with a WYSIWIG. It always seems like you have to go in later and mod the code anyway. Not to mention, you can cut page weight in half by getting rid of all the useless junk code the WYSIWYGs generate. I'm cheap, I hate paying for bandwidth.

[koocw]

I love using Notepad, it's just another good old text editor - no-frills and no errors. The only other webpage editor I have is Microsoft Frontpage 2000 (yes, I know, very outdated) and...

Microsoft Word! ;)

[corz]

i've used every editor mentioned in this thread, yup, occasionally use textpad and emacs, but for coding, particularly web-coding (actually for all my text these days) BBEdit is head-and-shoulders above everything else, and with a long neck, too.

Of course, you'll need a mac to use it, in fact I hear that some folks buy a mac just to use BBEdit, it really is that good.

barebones software.
there is a free version, too.

;o)
(or