- FTP - Working from remote, or in office, I require a robust FTP solution to work with multiple files and directories with ease.
- Find/Replace - The n00bs macro, I use this *all* the time. So useful, especially when replacing directories and links across a folder.
- Color Coding - It's been so helpful to view flow and tags in a color coded setup This can aid you, especially when trouble shooting code you aren't familiar with.
I tried notepad ++, but that experience quickly left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Though a very capable and lightweight editor, notepad++ has a couple dealbreakers with me. One, the color coding (at least for ASP/vBscript ) is abysmal.
Whoah, pretty colors
ASCII art display mode, anyone? Round 2, Programmer's Notepad 2
A week ago I found Programmer's Notepad 2. My initial impression was "wow, this is very nicely laid out."
So Classy...
Music to my bleeding eyes.
Yes! Informative, yet subdued. A great job here, by the developers. So far, so excellent. The find/replace is also sufficient for most needs. (Including the ability to undo "Replace All," which in Homesite is a **MAJOR** oversight. I can't tell you how many times I've had to redownload the original and start again, just because Homesite doesn't allow you to back up after a Replace All.) To balance out all these goods, major headache coming up, for all you webbased devs: no built in FTP solution. This is critical for me, as I work on our company's development server to build pages. This means I either have to create an ftp mapped drive, (which I may end up doing,) or use a dedicated FTP software like the excellent FileZilla. I actually am beginning to warm up to the 2 software approach, as Homesite used to frequently lock up when warming up the FTP again from my ridiculously slow rural DSL. With PN2, and FileZilla, I can keep coding while I fetch a new file. Also, response time was *immensely* better in FileZilla than Homesite. +1 for allowing me to rediscover how bloated Homesite is. I briefly browsed the PN2 forums, and discovered that a couple other people want a FTP solution too, and a couple are working towards it, both with Simon (development lead), and with their own python scripts on top of PN2.
The final question: Will it replace Homesite in my arsenal? I think so. Although I'm used to seeing Homesite's interface, and color scheme, I think the benefits and speed of using PN2 balance out the FTP problem (though a huge setback.) Also, for more advanced programmers, doing assemblers and PHP/Python/standalone apps, there's a lot to be had in this little known program. I'll probably post some more thoughts a week down the line, as I continue to use it. Please comment your thoughts on your favorite coding program.
The final question: Will it replace Homesite in my arsenal? I think so. Although I'm used to seeing Homesite's interface, and color scheme, I think the benefits and speed of using PN2 balance out the FTP problem (though a huge setback.) Also, for more advanced programmers, doing assemblers and PHP/Python/standalone apps, there's a lot to be had in this little known program. I'll probably post some more thoughts a week down the line, as I continue to use it. Please comment your thoughts on your favorite coding program.
There has been 2 Responses to 'The Quest for the Ultimate Homesite Notepad Replacement' so far
Bryan says:
great review, evan! since starting at worktopia, i have really begun to like using visual studio with visual sourcesafe and a local IIS/DB for all our editing needs. the color coding/intellisense is great. the visual sourcesafe integration is really handy to track who did what and when to files, and the local IIS/DB is VERY speedy and allows editing offline and checking files in later. i'll have to give you a demo sometime soon.
Evan Travers says:
Incidentally... I ended up using coda by panic software. Great application, mac only. :P
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