Sorry about the large message. Please snip with vigor in replies to
this message.
I'm about to begin to try to attempt to list the better known text
editors and contrast the features, limitation, registry entries, file
sizes, etc. It's a large project. I can use any input that you might
have. I'm sure there are more quality freeware editors out there.
Remove the three caps to email me, or post in a new message and I will
add it to the list.
The first part was _greatly_ simplified by Susan. She archived
messages with links to enough programs to get started with. Thanks a
billion million Susan!
As to whether this is linked to Pricelessware or not, it really does
not matter to me one way or the other. I'll run it on my site. If it
turns out as I hope it will it might be a good asset to anyone looking
for an editor. Whether PL has a link is to be decided by you all.
I've almost finished downloading the programs that Susan had noted in
archive. I'm going to start installing and noting registry entries and
shared files each program has. I'm going to create several static text
files of varying sizes and test the limits and speed of each.
It's going to be tough to place some of these into a category. Some
programmers editors work great for normal text processing. Some were
built as hybrids. For now, I placed programs that state they are code
editors into the programmer editor listing. The hybrids I left as
normal editors.
Feel free to mirror if you have the time, especially on different
platforms. Most of these are ported to more than one platform.
If you know of a good editor that is not listed here I prefer to
continue with the ones people have used and recommend before hitting
google to find more.
=====================================================
AbiWord: 3919k
the 2001 threads rated this one as too "beta." It has been developed
since and is currently at version 1.06. It is a cross platform open
source project.
http://www.abisource.com/products.phtml
Atlantis Nova: 761k
This one was suggested as a contender in 2001. There is a shareware
version with more features, but this one sounds like it is worthy of
consideration for the 2004 list.
http://www.rssol.com/en/html/download/nova.htm
Crypt Edit: ~2000k + additional modules
This has been my default editor since I discovered it. It requires
modules for spell checking, hex, human languages, etc.
http://ps.yaroslavl.ru/
CWordPad: 845k
This one has been discontinued, but can still be downloaded below.
It's an older Win 95 Wordpad replacement. It might be useful in older
systems.
http://users.erols.com/fwcetus/cwordpad.htm
Delphad: 1004k
The discussion was the ability to view graphics, html and other files.
There was no ability to edit these in the recent, 2003 thread.
http://www.hushpage.com/Delphad/delphad.html
Editor2: 55k!
"Editor² v2.0.0.5 is fantastic. It has a lot of functionality
(including clickability to launch URLs) and is extremely, extremely
small and doesn't install. Absolutely an almost perfect, FOR ME,
freeware notepad alternative." I recall some confusion about this one
and another program with a similar name."
http://www.simtel.net/product.php?id=67247
EditPad Lite: 973k (linux version available) [Postcardware]
Handles large text files, lacking in features.
http://www.editpadlite.com/editpadlite.html
EditPad Regular: 309k (year 2000 version) [Postcardware]
An older version of the above it appears.
http://tucows.kr.psi.net/files/EditPadClassic.zip
GNU emacs:
"Emacs is the extensible, customizable, self-documenting real-time
display editor.
If this seems to be a bit of a mouthful, an easier explanation is
Emacs is a text editor and more."
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs.html
EmEditor: 1.27 - went shareware v3.36. I'll look into finding and
archiving the last freeware version if the licence permits
redistribution.
Emojic: v1.4 - 1230k
"A text editor which allows you count characters, words and lines in a
document. Now it even counts the characters in each line and sorts
lines alphebeticaly. Suggested use: Useful for writers and editors."
eWriter: 703k
"32-bit 21st century eTypewriter (for the writer, not the clerk
typist) for use in Windows 95+ and Windows NT."
http://home.earthlink.net/~acorioso/ew_main.htm
gbText: v4.5 - 314k
"gbText provides over 25 methods for quickly making changes to the
content of a text file. Special features include hex viewing of a
file, random data generation, analysis of the word and character
content of a file, and word wrapping to user-defined widths."
http://www.garybeene.com/free/
Jarte: v2.0 - 1693k (with British and American dictionaries)
2001 comment: "It sill seems more limited than Crypt Edit, which I
have replaced Notepad with. Crypt Edit has the eidtor functions, and,
IMHO, much more WP functionality than Jarte, going by the features
list at jarte.com"
http://www.jarte.com/
LCARS Editor (Star Trek):
seems to have been removed from the author's site.
MetaPad: v3.5 -
LE - 45k
FULL - 45.7k (I dunno yet)
"Q: What is the difference between Full version and LE?
A: Technically, the full version utilizes a RichEdit control whereas
LE (Light Edition) uses the older but speedier Edit control (as does
metapad 1.x). LE is somewhat quicker under NT when loading large files
but it does not have the following features: no file size limit on
Win9X, multiple undo/redo, show hyperlinks option, drag & drop text,
editinginsert/overwrite mode. It's up to you to decide which one you
like better!
http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/
Nerdpad: v1.0 - 30k
2001 comment: "Description:
Nerdpad allows you to open and edit program files with WordPad, a text
editor for Windows. Discover easter eggs, game cheats, or view all
program text. Use it to find out what an unknown installer program
will install if you run it."
http://www.zdnetindia.com/downloads/info/877091.html (sounds
interesting..)
NoteKeeper: v0.4 - 1090k
"NoteKeeper is a multi-functional hierarchical information manager.
Many notes and images can be stored within a single NoteKeeper file
and can be grouped into flexible virtual folders enabling easy,
intuitive access at all times. Think of it as an electronic scrapbook
- one which includes compression, encryption, text editing, and simple
organisation. Some suggested uses are: homework/coursework organiser,
journal/diary, digital photo album.Strong encryption is now included
to keep your data away from prying eyes."
All links I've tried so far at to the author's site and it is down,
temporarily I think.
Notemaid: 52k
"Description: NoteMaid gives you the ability to edit Text and Binary
files. It comes with a file wiper (secure deleting) and Join/Split
utility for quick file splicing. Append another text document to the
current document's cursor point instantly. Also features html tags
removal and other tools. It can also download Text and Binary files
off the Internet in http, ftp, or gopher protocol."
2001 comment: "Notemaid : quick, small, large files, does
HTML-stripping, frees up memory, font choices, no ESC-key exit"
http://www.freewareweb.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?ID=648
NotesPad: 97k
"NotesPad is a sensational Windows NotePad replacement ... amazing! It
offers so many options it's like getting behind the steering wheel of
a foreign car it does so much you almost don't know where to start."
http://www.newbie.net/NotesPad/
NoteTab Light: 1796k
"NoteTab Light: a free Notepad replacement, feature-rich text editor,
and HTML editor"
http://www.notetab.com/ntl.php
PFE: v1.01 - 607k
"The final release of PFE is version 1.01, which is available in
versions for Windows 9x, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows 3.1x.
It's available from a number of major archive sites."
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe/
Prolix: V3.2 - 507k
"Prolix is a Windows text editor which features a clean, intuitive
interface. It is an MDI (multiple document interface) style
application, so it can open many files at once."
http://www.kobayashi.com/prolix.html
RoughDraft: v2.11 - 1812k
"RoughDraft is a donationware word processor designed with the writer
in mind. For a more complete description, read the Overview "
No link found yet.
Scite: v1.54 - 920k
"SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to
demonstrate Scintilla, it has grown to be a generally useful editor
with facilities for building and running programs. It is best used for
jobs with simple configurations - I use it for building test and
demonstration programs as well as SciTE and Scintilla, themselves."
http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html
Shalom Txt: v1.2 - 405k
Shalom Txt is a text editor, meant for editing flat text files with no
formatting. It should be able to run on Windows 9x/ME/NT4 and Windows
2000.
I've tried to make a straightforward editor with all the standard
functions including printing, print preview, popup menu, toolbar, find
and replace, recent files list etc. And then added some extras.
(416 kb; install program that doesn't copy anything to the system
folders;
uninstall program and detailed help file included)."
http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/stxt/
Stratuspad: 1000k
"STRATUSPAD is a text editor and a replacement for WordPad and
Notepad. It allows multiple large files to be opened. It is highly
customizable and includes a spell checker, word count, case
conversion, load workspace, column and line indicators and much more.
Last Freeware version - Home Page features Shareware version.
Download: Version 1.0.1
[ftp://ftp.meiji.ac.jp/mirror/win3/util/stratpad.zip] (1 MB)"
Syn: v2.5.0.24 - 1631k
"syn is an Open Source Text- and Programming Editor with
Syntaxhighlight for many Languages, and some IDE Features, like
starting a program (e.g. Compiler) and capture the output, support for
Projects etc." "Syn is the most downloaded Freeware Text Editor in
2002 on WebAttack"
http://syn.sourceforge.net/
TextMorph: v1.0 beta - 1920k
"TextMorph, is called such because that is essentially what it does -
it morphs text. It is a full text editor (like Notepad) except it also
does so much more. It can do such things as quickly cleaning up
forwarded emails (removing all those ">" signs and so forth),
converting text to and from HTML, searching and replacing text
(including multiple paragraphs of text), changing upper/lower case,
removing trailing carriage returns, and so forth, all with the push of
a button. What's more is it can also repetitively do these tasks
across large numbers of files (using TextMorph's Multiple File Morph
wizard). For instance, if you have 500 text files, you can in less
than a minute, convert all 500 of them to HTML files complete with all
of the formatting that you wish in the files (such as background
image, etc.) This makes TextMorph an ideal program for people who work
with large numbers of text files or archives of HTML or text content,
as it can quickly and easily apply formatting to all files."
http://www.laughandlift.com/programs/index.html
TextShield:
"TextShield is a free, compact word processor with a wealth of
features. Besides those features available with most ordinary word
processors, TextShield has many advanced (but easy-to-use) features.
TextShield can compress files automatically using the popular ZIP
compression, making them as much AS 95% smaller. TextShield saves
files in the universal RTF format, or in plain text. TextShield is
both a word processor and a plain text editor. For maximum
interchangeability, TextShield has a build-in HTML converter and can
save files as Microsoft Word, and other formats, using Microsoft
converters. TextShield supports advanced formatting features, like
hyperlinks, underlining styles, Rainbow Colors and even 3D Text.
TextShield is compact and can easily fit a single 1.44Mb floppy disk
(try installing Word on a floppy...). Finally all these features would
be worthless without a good help system; So TextShield has a 6000 word
help file explaining everything that could be difficult for the
beginning user."
No working link found yet.
The Gun: v2.5 15k!
"Number One Son has just come back from the gym a bit skinnier and a
bit smarter. He now weighs in at 6144 bytes and has had a lot of help
from his friends to parse command lines more consistently across
different versions of Windows..The technique for loading and saving
files has been changed to increase the effective file size limit and
to display binary in normal ascii format. TheGun now has a settings
editor SETGUN.EXE that allows some of the settings in TheGun to be
changed. It does not require the settings editor to be present to
operate correctly.
TheGun is written in 32 bit Microsoft Assembler (MASM) and is a
genuine Portable Executable format file. It does not need any Visual
C++ or Visual Basic runtime DLLs and does not use or write to the
Registry at all. It is fully drag & drop enabled, supports wordwrap
and uses the full operating system based search capacity with case
"sensitive", "insensitive" and "whole word" search.
There is no limit set within TheGun any longer for the maximum file
size, it will be limited by the amount of available memory and the
final loading speed. It has been speed optimised in both file load and
file save.
It uses the operating system capacity for printing which is in turn,
farmed out to Wordpad.Exe. It prints with the margin settings in
WordPad.Exe. It will exit by pressing the ESC key and it starts at a
preset 75% of the screen width & height. It supports right click mouse
for the menu."
http://www.movsd.com/thegun.htm
Quick Editor v3.0f - 139k (from The Gun site)
"From its inception, Quick Editor was designed to be a gimmick free
working tool. It has never been for sale and it cannot be sold or
licenced for any commercial application. Version three is a complete
rewrite to add additional capacity while remaining true to its
original concept, a minimum memory footprint editor that will run
correctly on older machines that do not have a lot of memory or fancy
graphics cards. It will run on Windows versions from Win95b upwards.
The current version builds at 35k in size and for this increase in
size, it has a scripting engine of its own, it has full true type
support for both display and printing, it is fully drag and drop
enabled between instances, can now open text files in excess of 10
megabytes in size, it will both open and save binary files in HEX
notation, it can close and save all instances from any single
instance, it has additional functionality in both search and replace
and is progressively configurable with the add in DLLs that are
supplied with it."
http://www.movsd.com/qed.htm
Win32Pad: v1.3.3 69k (or 30k .zip)
"Filesize is limited to the available memory. (not 64k) Small filesize
with a ton of features. Auto-Indent. Full Intellimouse support. Can
read/write Unix text files. Customizable: Font
Color/Name/Size/Style/Script and Tab Size. Remembers recently opened
files."
http://www.gena01.com
TxtEdit
"TxtEdit is useable as Freeware or Shareware: For the first 30 days,
it will run in shareware mode (trial period). Afterwards, you may
continue using it free of charge and unlimited in FREEWARE mode (some
functions are now disabled). To get back the full functionality,
register TxtEdit by sending us US$ 20.--. You will then get your
personal RegNo!" I imagine this one won't make the cut, but I'm going
to check it out anyway. Strange license.
http://www.luziusschneider.com/Engindex.html
vim: v6.2 - 4040k
"Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient
text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed
with most UNIX systems. Vim is distributed free as charityware. If you
find Vim a useful addition to your life please consider helping needy
children in Uganda." "[2003-06-01] A complete new release of Vim is
waiting to be downloaded! This is mostly a bugfix release, only a few
new features are available: Arabic support, exception handling, GTK 2
support, PostScript printing for 8-bit encodings and a number of
smaller things. Several hundreds of bugs have been fixed. For the full
list of changes do ":help version-6.2" in the new Vim. (Bram
Moolenaar)"
http://www.vim.org/
Winsyntax v2.0 - 453k
"Arisesoft Winsyntax - is a small PHP-code editor with a fast parser
engine and context PHP-help for comfortable coding. Now it supports
parsing for syntax: PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL'92 and extensions
for MySQL and PostgreSQL. Opportunities for customizing of
highlighting and the addition of new languages with highlighting of
syntax for several script languages in one document. Supporting of the
line kinds for PC/UNIX and encoding between ANSI-UTF8-KOI8. The search
and replacing of the text in external files with different encoding.
Build-in File Manager. History of last ten open documents. Alerts for
external change of open documents. Context help for any PHP keyword,
when clicked (F1) on cursor position. The code explorer for
PHP-scripts - tree of the classes with variables and functions.
Selection of the text by columns-lines-symbols. Multiple history of
'Undo-Redo' for the edited documents. Moving the cursor with ignoring
of the line carry - for all width of line. Autoindent of the input
line by start position of the previous line."
http://www.winsyntax.com/
Word Tabs v3.29 - 1529k
"WordTabs is a free word processor that's both a standard text editor
(like Notepad) and a rich text (RTF) editor (like WordPad).
WordTabs uses the latest RTF technology so you can have access to OLE
objects, Internet URLs, multiple undo/redo, and advanced
line/character formatting. Other features include spell checking,
drag-and-drop text editing, word count, case conversion,
find-and-replace, a multi-clipboard text editor, and complete glossary
function."
http://www.aaafreebies.com/programs/wordtabs.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------
Wordsworth & XpertWord (I stopped here for today)
XVI32
Ywriter:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------
Programming Editors: Many of these can be used as a normal text editor
as well.
CodePad: (dual pane)
Code and hex editor. This one was mentioned for its ability to open a
document in two vertical panes and scroll.
http://shicola.d2.cz/codepad/
ConText:
This looks to be a super editor. The author has written syntax
highlighting for pretty much any language you might use, cobol, c++,
css, html, etc. There are modules for 17 (human) languages also.
http://www.fixedsys.com/context/
Crimson Editor: v3.51 (June 11,2003)
This is another that has styntax highlighting for programmers, or
html. It has a spell checker. This one has serious limitations: lines
4096 characters and files with > 65536 lines lead to reboot :<(
according to the author. He doesn't say which version. I'm going to
check it out.
http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
Jext: ~20 megs
"Jext is a free (as in free beer, covered by the GPL licence) source
code editor written in Java. You can download it, use it, modify it,
redistribute it... your choice, your freedom." Many platforms: I'm
getting the Win32: "This release is targeted for Windows users who do
not own a JVM. A Java Virtual Machine is bundled in this
distribution." Correction, I'm waiting on this one, 20 megs is too
large.
http://www.jext.org/
Side by Side: 685k
"Side-by-Side does what its name implies -- it puts two texts
side-by-side so that you can compare."
http://www.slimeworld.org/galwebde/sideby/index.html
Hex Editors: (Will be last)
A.X.E. - (standing for Advanced Hex Editor)
Frhed: v1.0.156 - 307k
Hex editor, includes C++ source code. Many versions, including .ini
versions with no registry entries.
http://www.kibria.de/ (outstanding page design for anyone who enjoys
a beautiful site)
Hexview: 210k
"HexView is a multiple document Hexadecimal viewer with drag n drop
functionality that can display, print, and print preview any file as a
hex dump. HexView was created as a supplement to our utility, Search
and Replace <search_replace.htm>. However, it is a standalone
application and it does not require Search and Replace. A Japanese
version is also available. Source code for MFC 5.0+ is available also.
http://www.funduc.com/otsoft.htm#hexview
Jedit:
"jEdit is a mature and well-designed programmer's text editor that has
been in development for over 5 years.
While jEdit beats many expensive development tools for features and
ease of use, it is released as free software with full source code,
provided under the terms of the GNU General Public License
<
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html>."
Many plugins, possible good for basic text editing.
http://www.jedit.org/
Special Use:
Bifocal Notepad:
"Bifocal Notepad is a simplified Notepad replacement intended for use
by the visually impaired, or by anyone who is tired of squinting at
tiny text files in the regular Windows Notepad."
Desktop Writer: 1900k v2.2
"Desktop Writer is a powerful word processor designed to be used by
children and people who are not very competent with word processors."
Seems abandoned, I can't find the author's site presently. "While
there are no menus, all buttons are designed to look attractive and
colorful so that a child can easily understand their function and how
to use them."
http://www.softlookup.com/download/down15692.html
Multi-program:
NotesBrowser: 2390k
"Notesbrowser is a professional organizer. You can store notes and
schedule dates in one integrated, easy to use interface. It is a
planning
tool and is suitable for both business and personal application.
This utility is very user-friendly and customisable. It can store your
to-do-lists, your appointments, your bookmarks and project files and
even your MP3 play lists.
An integrated search function allows you to quickly locate entries.
A number of attractive skins <./skins/skins.html> are also available
to modify
the design of the interface to one of your preference.
Because of its unique design, you can store an almost unlimited
amount of information in Notesbrowser and, what is more,
you can access any stored information with just a couple of
mouse clicks. No wonder Notesbrowser has won many awards
<./awards/awards.html>!
All in all, Notesbrowser offers you a very easy-to-use system
for entering and managing your appointments, your addresses,
your notes, etc. all in one place."
http://www.notesbrowser.com/
Stats:
TEXT ANALYSER? Text Information: v1.2 - 30k
This seems to be a program that gives many stats about a text file.
http://www.qjc.cjb.net/ti.html
====================================================
My Qualifications?
I am currently Microsoft Certified as 9th place from the people who
post in alt.comp.freeware... as to regularity. I am currently on a
high bran/fiber diet and hope to place within the top 5 soon.
Nanu-nanu.
