Review For: Notepad++
Date Written: May 2, 2005
Compatibility: Windows
License: GPL Licence (Open Source)
Download/Site Link: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Rating: 5
out of 5
Notepad++
is a definite must-have for any one who does any common programming language
(see the end of this review for the full list of compatible languages).
The download is small, the number of supported languages is quite large,
and there are tons of very useful features.
The two main features that really caught my eyes however, was tabs and
the “structure trees” (at least that is what I’m calling them).
With the tabs you can have various documents open, and then switch though
them very easily simply by clicking their corresponding tabs (it works very
similarly to how FireFox uses tabbed browsing). As for the “structure trees”, your program is
automatically divided up into sections that act like folders. So, for example, if I have the following HTML…
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<center>Hello World!</center>
</body>
</html>
With the above you would be able
to collapse or expand everything between the html tags, head tags, body tags,
etc. This feature works very
similarly with other languages and you can see a C++ example on the screenshot.
This feature could prove very useful when trying to sift though large
programs. Finally, you have full
control over syntax colors, fonts, tab spacing, etc. in an easy to figure out
interface. The one and only thing
that I was disappointed about with Notepad++ was that it didn’t have an auto
indent feature for languages like C++. It’s
not that big of a deal, but it would have been nice.
Anyways, Notepad++ is something every programmer should have in his or
her toolbox. Also, for a full list
a features, be sure to check out the Notepad++ website!
Language Compatability (from what appears
under the Languages Menu…)
C, C++, RC Resource File, Jave, C#, Makefile, M$ INI file, HTML, XML,
Javascript, PHP, ASP, CSS, Pascal, Python, Perl, Objective C, Lua, TeX, Fortran,
Shell, Flash Actionscript, NSIS, SQL, VB, Batch, M$ Dos Style, Normal text (not
really a type of language/config file/etc…but oh well…it’s still going on
the list :-P)
CNR is not responsible for or approves of the content in the two above links.