A little too basic
Written: Dec 07 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: simple, free, don't need to download it
Cons: too basic.
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| wintermute's Full Review: Microsoft Notepad |
Well, much as I hate to say anything nice about Micro$oft, This is quite a nice little package, for free. The problem with reviewing it is that it does nothing special. There are thousands of text editors out there - EditPad, NoteTab, Ultra Edit, Vim, PHPed, Hippie - and thats just the ones on my system :) If it wasn't part of Windoze, this would have been lost in the heap. Of course, because it is part of Windoze, everything else has to be able to claim that it's "better than NotePad".
This not not all that tricky, but then again, it's not all that easy either. NotePad has the slickest, simplest interface you could ask for. Theoretically, it can do anything you would ever want it to, even if you end up doing the bulk of it by hand. There are several features that a text editor needs for me to fall in love with it, all of which NotePad lacks (see below). Despite this, I still use it for simple stuff, when I can't be bothered to wait for something else to load. And, hey, it's free :)
Essential Text Editor features:
1: Pattern-matching
I want to be able to look for a block of 5 digits that's in either quotes or brackets (for example). In programming jobs, things like this are reasonably common, and most text editors will let you search for something like /(\(\d{5}\)|"\d{5}")/ (PERL regexp - most editors have their own format). In NotePad, the best you can do is turn off case sensitivity.
2: Find in files
Suppose you need to find a file, but can't remember the name. Win allows you to search the file contents from the "find files" box, but it's far easier if you can do it from within your editor. Combine this with pattern matching for true power.
3: Configurable syntax highlighting
Again, this is a programmer's tool. If I'm working in HTML, I want to be able to see at a glance whether I'm working with a table, or where the CSS definition is. In Java, I want keywords in a different colour so I can see if I've spelt them correctly, et cetera. Ideally, I want one editor to correctly highlight many different formats, and work out ho to do it from the filename.
4: Multiple Document Interface
When I work on multiple files, I don't want to have so many windows open that I can't tell which one holds which document. One object on the taskbar, and 10 tabs in the window, each with a different document.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
wintermute
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Member: Ross Thompson
Location: London, UK
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 3 members
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