[Hidden-tech] Text/Code Editor

[Robert Carey]

>
> The question I have for y'all
> is:  How do YOU code?  There's such a wide range of tools out there,
> from texteditir, notepad, vi.. to IDE's like Eclipse and Xcode. What
> software do you use to write your code?
>    
For general purpose coding and for languages that don't have great IDE 
support I prefer emacs because it runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and its 
keyboard macro facility is really simple and hard to beat.  I like 
netbeans for Java because the language and libraries are well integrated 
into the system.  I do frequently make use of those features of netbeans 
and then use emacs to do more sophisticated editing tasks than the built 
in editor will support.  I like eclipse but I have kind of settled on 
netbeans for java.  The nice thing about eclipse is that it is very open 
in design so there are a ton of plug-ins to support different needs.  I 
was a hold out against IDEs (except in languages like Smalltalk where 
they are part of the whole system.)  At this stage of the game I think 
it would be severely limiting to stick with an editor alone for any 
environment that had a good IDE.

I have always been a peculiar spectator in the text editor wars.  These 
days I am mostly management, but even so in the course of a day I 
typically use vi, emacs, notepad++, textpad, sometimes supplemented by 
other tools.  I like textmate on the Mac, but I don't use it much, 
mostly because of lack of familiarity and because I don't use a Mac at 
work.   I generally find that each has it strengths and weaknesses, and 
since many of them are free I just keep a variety available.  I also 
like jedit, although I have run into some peculiarities under Windows 
that have typically been fixed by subsequent releases.

Rob