Keith Devens .com

New toolchain!

I've got a new coding toolchain. I've finally ditched jEdit, slow beast that it is. It's a good editor, and it'd be usable if it wasn't written in Java.

I'd been looking to replace it for a while, and the main reason that I hadn't is that it's about the only editor I could find that supports SFTP, which allows me to edit files live on my server (source control is for wusses)... even though the SFTP library it uses throws up errors all the time.

Turns out WinSCP does a fantastic job of letting you edit files on the server. In particular, you can set it so that it launches a file in your editor when you double click on a file, and when you hit save in your editor WinSCP almost instantly notices the change and saves the file on the server. It's such a nice change from the SFTP support jEdit offers which takes a very long time to do anything.

So, now that my remote site file handling is separate from my text editor, I can use any one I want. I'm trying out PSPad. It's an excellent editor... it's probably a keeper if I can only figure out how to make it display whitespace.

Permalink | 7 Comments | Tags: Programming | id 8022

22:53 (utc-6)
edited: 22:55 (utc-6)

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Hey thanks for the tip! I've been using JEdit ever since you mentioned way back in January of 2003, but I've noticed similar problems, mainly the startup time and the clunky interface. I'll try out the WinSCP/PSPad combo, but keep us posted on your editor choice.

I've been using HTML-Kit (www.chami.com) for pretty much all of my web developer career. One of its big plusses for me is that its free AND it lets you edit files remotely (via a build in FTP client). Open the file, make your changes, click save and the file is automatically uploaded to the server.

It's a bit of a resource hog, but because it does pretty much everything I don't need to have 4 different applications open.

Its got a wealth of 3rd party add-ins that cover pretty much everything you could think of too.

Well worth a look.

HTML-Kit doesn't support SFTP, does it? FTP-only support does me no good.

I've tried HTML-Kit a few different times over the years and never stuck with it. I don't remember why... maybe it's too obviously focused on HTML for my taste, or maybe I felt like it was a bit of a resource hog.

Yes, I used to use EditPlus (and still use it occasionally just because it's so much faster than jEdit). Now that I've officially ditched jEdit and don't need to depend on an editor to have SFTP/SSH support, I'm going to evaluate PSPad, and possibly Crimson Editor and ConTEXT to see which one I like best between them and EditPlus.

Thing is, I like to use free software not even so much becuase I don't have to pay for it (I've bought two separate versions of EditPlus, and still have my current license sitting around somewhere), but because for commercial software I have to manage the license and it's a hassle. If I choose a free editor I can just install it everywhere and not worry about it. In addition, EditPlus's development is pretty much in maintenance mode whereas PSPad seems to be under active development, and PSPad has scripting!

How about UltraEdit?
http://www.ultraedit.com/

I've been using it for all types of coding for years with great joy. Speedy, highlighting, all those typical bells and whistles. It has an FTP option but I have never used it, so I don't know if it does what you need there.

I highly recommend giving it a try if you haven't already.

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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

New toolchain!

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