A Modest Construct

rev. 7 May 2008

Text Editors and/or IDE

Notepad++

License: Open Source

Description: A tabbed, visually attractive text editor that supports a wide variety of file formats as well as extensive synax highlighting. It uses the Scintilla editing component.

Notepad2

License: Open Source

Description: Like Notepad++, Notepad2 is a Scintilla-based text editor with code highlighting and a number of other neat features.

PSPad

License: Freeware

Description: PSPad is a tabbed text editor with a buttload of extra features, like built-in FTP, hex editing, and just about every other feature you could ask for, including support for multiple programming languages.

Vim

License: Open Source

Description: A popular variant of the famous vi text editor. Both a text editor and a software IDE. Probably not for the fainthearted.

Emacs

License: Open Source

Description: Another open source text editor and IDE environment, the main competitor to the various variants of vi.

jEdit

License: Open Source

Description: This Java-based text editor can be expanded to become a fairly full-featured IDE. It has a one-click plugin installer for just such expansion.

Pure IDE

SharpDevelop

License: Open Source

Description: SharpDevelop (or #develop) is an open-source IDE for developing on the .NET platform—in other words, you can code in C# in a nice, integrated little suite without installing MS’s VisualStudio.

Code::Blocks

License: Open Source

Description: Code::Blocks is a cross-platform C++ IDE built with wxWidgets. It has support for a variety of compilers, including ICL and MinGW/GCC. It also plays well with Dev-C++. A nice, clean interface.

Eclipse

License: Open Source

Description: Eclipse is a mature Java IDE. Its claim to fame is that it is the preferred development environment for the Bittorrent client Azureus.

NetBeans

License: Open Source

Description: NetBeans is a Java IDE organized by sun. It uses a reusable framework and a modularized approach which allows for extensive third-party extension.

Aptana

License: Open Source

Description: Aptana is a Java-based program that bills itself as “The Web IDE.” Essentially, it seeks to be a one-stop shop for the development of web applications, especially using javascript frameworks, etc. It also has plugins for other IDEs like Eclipse. It’s a pretty similar interface to other IDEs; the one download is the nagging to buy the “Pro” edition that has extra features.

Kompozer

License: Open Source

Description: The bug-fix successor to Nvu (which is no longer listed here, because it hasn’t been updated in several years), Kompozer seeks to stabilize Nvu and fix security issues and other quirks in the program.

Trackback URI Comments RSS