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I first use TextPad when I pulled a copy, 2.x I think, from the internet maybe 10 years ago when on a customers site where they wouldn't let me connect my laptop to to their precious network and they had nothing except what came installed with the OS. I was there for 6 weeks and it did everything I required of it without ever having to read the help. That's about the best recommendation I can give any piece of software and I stuck with it.

I've tried many others. Hell, I've got 4 or 5 others I've installed in the last couple of years on this machine, but I know TextPad inside out and it gets the job done.

I came to the conclusion that anything more programmable than it are a double-edge sword. I used TECO for 3 years in college, then EDT for two in my first programming job, and E3(ibm iou that became a non-ibm commercial product) for 6 or so after that and LPEX. Each was very programable and I expended a lot of effort in configuring and tailoring each one to my tastes.

I found two problems with them.

It is very easy to become dependant upon your editor and your configuration and become lost and frustrated when it isn't available. Especially when the chips are down and your up against some kind of deadline or crisis.
It's very easy to become distracted by perfecting your configuration to solve yet another trifling problem. I can remember more than one occassion when I've expended valuable time trying to get two or more macros or custom commands to work perfectly together to solve some problem that could have been more simply solved by a few manual steps that would have taken considerably less time than it took to automate the (often once in a blue moon) task.

My primary requirements for an editor are

It shouldn't get in my way or make me think about it rather than the task I am trying to perform with it.
It shouldn't do anything I didn't explcitely ask it to do.
It shouldn't leave me high and dry if my portables battery dies, or the plug gets kicked out, or dog forbid, my code crashes the system.
It shouldn't throw anything away. Undo is the greatest timesaver ever invented.

You'll notice those are all "should nots" rather shoulds or musts. I reject most of the other highly rated editors on one or more of those criteria.

If the editor succeeds in not violating those, the rest is gravey.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

The "good enough" maybe good enough for the now, and perfection maybe unobtainable, but that should not preclude us from striving for perfection, when time, circumstance or desire allow.

In reply to Re^3: Word replace - notetab light vs perl by BrowserUk
in thread Word replace - notetab light vs perl by kiat

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