notepad++
One of the topics I would like to write about in this blog is software I normally use, or I try. And the one here is about the almighty Notepad++. I recommend you to download and give it a try!.
A handy programming tool
If you like yo program with no IDEs, Notepad++ is one of the best options, but there are more. I can recommend you another text editor, such us Sublime Text (I have tried, and … I like it a lot!).
Notepad++ is the powerful text editor, a substitution for the default Windows Notepad. If you haven’t try, let’s do it right now!.
The main features are:
- Syntax sighlight for several languages
- Customization
- A lot of plugins and complements that make Notepad++ even more powerful
- You can save and run macros for repetitive tasks
- Quick access to the codification of files
- If you are a Web developer, you can have quick links to browsers
In my opinion, Nodepad++ is a very powerful text editor, free, and the best notepad you can use on Windows instead of the deafult (and too simple) one.
I am using Notepad++ for programming Classic ASP, HTML, CSS3 and Javascript, and some times, when I need to see the content of a file.
Improving Notepad++
The use of plugins is commonly used between software, and Notepad++ has quite a lot. On the Plugins menu, there is an item called Plugin Manager to manage them!
Now, I write about a few of them I use, and are quite interesting:
- Notepad#, increase functionality, and specially, I like it for colours when programming CSS
- Compare, is a plugin for “compare” two files, showing you where are the differences
- JSMin, to compress and uncompress Javascript files
- JSONViewer, is a viewer for JSON object
- WebEdit, is an “assistant” that you can configure to your needs for developing with HTML5 and CSS3
- XBrackets, is a very useful plugin for closing brackets when you write an opener bracket
- Zen Coding Python, is an interesting plugin if you need to program Python. It’s not the only Python plugin, so, you can find PyNPP, Python Indent, Python Script, … For Python I use PyScripter, a software that you can read more entrance here.
I hope this can be useful for you (at least, it is for me!). Have a nice day!.