What Notepad replacement do you use?

[Zippy]

Notepad++ on Win
TextWrangler on a Mac

[NickFitz]

Did you realise that TextEdit can read .doc files?

Yes, although it doesn't do much with formatting of any degree of complexity; for that, I use Pages, although that can do so much more than Word that I then have to export to .doc and check it in Word Viewer in a VM... easier to just print to PDF, except pimps still seem baffled by anything other than Word

I always used to save Word files as RTF, as that way there was no risk of accidentally passing along a Word virus (this was late 90s, when such things were a problem). I had one pimp come back to me saying "It has to be a Word file" and refusing to accept that RTF was a Word file; the lying scrote even insisted that he'd tried to open it, but Word couldn't read it. So I just renamed the file in Explorer to a .doc extension (as Word doesn't care what the extension is) and sent it again. He was able to open it then

[Sysman]

Yes, although it doesn't do much with formatting of any degree of complexity; for that, I use Pages, although that can do so much more than Word that I then have to export to .doc and check it in Word Viewer in a VM... easier to just print to PDF, except pimps still seem baffled by anything other than Word

Well you can (or could?) grab the source of TextEdit if you were feeling adventurous

There are alternatives too. Bean is a lightweight word processor, though IIRC it doesn't do outlines (because the author has never come across a need for them). AbiWord has for a long time been able to read Word Perfect docs (I think LibreOffice can do that now), and Nisus Writer (not free) is the weapon of choice for several folks I know for its multilingual capabilities. Multilingual docs were a pain in the neck in Pages '08, but with '09 that got better.

I always used to save Word files as RTF, as that way there was no risk of accidentally passing along a Word virus (this was late 90s, when such things were a problem). I had one pimp come back to me saying "It has to be a Word file" and refusing to accept that RTF was a Word file; the lying scrote even insisted that he'd tried to open it, but Word couldn't read it. So I just renamed the file in Explorer to a .doc extension (as Word doesn't care what the extension is) and sent it again. He was able to open it then

I tried RTF a few years ago and got a bollocking for not conforming to the "Office standard". The only explanation I can think of was that the chap had RTF file association set to WordPad instead of Word.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing though. I have since discovered that his entire organisation is unbelievably pro-Microsoft, to the extent where I am sure they get back handers very persuasive inducements.

[cykophysh39]

textpad was my tool of choice but notepad++ is free and just as good.

WHS

[Ignis Fatuus]

I use Notepad++ as my main Windows editor, and switch to others for some functions.
I often use Textpad because I often prefer its file compare tool. Also If I am switching a lot between the editor and another program, Notepad++ has a significant delay in refreshing. And Notepad++ doesn't have a MDI.

And I use SFPLite, a Windows ISPF emulator. Once you've worked on a real computer (an IBM mainframe under MVS), nothing else is quite the same. Try
x all;f all xxxxxx;c all nx yyyyyy zzzzzz
on any other editor (changes all yyyyyy to zzzzzz on lines containing xxxxxx).
You'd be surprised how often I find a use for "x all;f all". I know that Notepad++ can Hide lines, but to hide all but a few lines in one stroke, I haven't seen anywhere else.

I have had Notepad++, Textpad, and SPFLite open at the same time, working on the same file. Fortunately all of them detect a change made in another program.


For the Mac, Textedit does a lot, and TextWarangler does the rest. Although I am looking at installing SPFLite in a VM.

In unix I often use vi. As a contractor you should know it, because it's available everywhere. It is not just a piece of tulip, it is a spectacular piece of buffalo bagel. But often it just gets the job done fastest.

[eek]

In unix I often use vi. As a contractor you should know it, because it's available everywhere. It is not just a piece of tulip, it is a spectacular piece of buffalo bagel. But often it just gets the job done fastest.

My viewpoint on vi is I can load, edit and save a file and that is enough to get me out of the tulip.

[stek]

And I use SFPLite, a Windows ISPF emulator. Once you've worked on a real computer (an IBM mainframe under MVS), nothing else is quite the same. Try
x all;f all xxxxxx;c all nx yyyyyy zzzzzz
on any other editor (changes all yyyyyy to zzzzzz on lines containing xxxxxx).

:%s/yyyyyy/zzzzzz/g works on vi!

[Ignis Fatuus]

:%s/yyyyyy/zzzzzz/g works on vi!

I know it does, I use it.

But what the ISPF command I gave does, is to apply that change ONLY on lines containing xxxxxx. As well as giving me a quick visual of its target. If I want to verify first I'll do
x all;f all xxxxxx
and this will display only the lines containing xxxxxx
If I like the selection, I'll then do
c all nx yyyyyy zzzzzz

Obviously in the case where xxxxxx = yyyyyy what you're doing is verifying first that you have the scope that you wanted (i.e. no yyyyyy that you don't want). But when the fecility is available, you use the full version more than you might think.

And it's fast and reliable: just a few keystrokes, and then the editor displays only the lines of interest.

[d000hg]

What do you mean, replacement? notepad and mspaint are eminent productivity tools.

[ctdctd]

PFE here.

Mind you, the last time I programmed anything was in 1999