Wanted: Good Text Editor

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 12:20 am

I've recently had the need to carry out some scripting needs on our upcoming game. We're using Lua as the level scripting language. I'd like to have a basic text editor that is:

1. Freeware or open-source. I don't want anything that nags at me to register.
2. Has a tabbed interface like Firefox. I need five or six scripts available at once sometimes.
3. Supports or can support Lua syntax highlighting, by plug-in or by default.

I've been using SciTE, which supposedly does tabs if enabled in the config file, but are there some better alternatives? Note, it doesn't actually need to support compiling or interpreting Lua, but syntactical highlighting would be nice.

Tricord · Post by **Tricord** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 3:39 am

I use EditPlus2, which offers tabs and syntax highlighting (which I think you can customize to your liking). It's not perfect, but you might want to check it out.
I use it because it can open and save files directly from FTP, it's mighty handy.
There might be more recent and better editors out there by now, I don't know.

Also, I would recommend EditPad as a Notepad replacement. It is basically the same (no highlighting) but it's soo much better while still being simple. It also has the tab feature. It makes life a lot easier I think.

Flatlander · Post by **Flatlander** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 5:17 am

Tricord wrote: Also, I would recommend EditPad as a Notepad replacement. It is basically the same (no highlighting) but it's soo much better while still being simple. It also has the tab feature. It makes life a lot easier I think.

x2

KompresZor · Post by **KompresZor** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 6:54 am

http://www.crimsoneditor.com/
go to the syntax files link, search for Lua

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 7:51 am

EditPlus nags, but I use it for PHP anyway.

Tricord · Post by **Tricord** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 7:54 am

Thanks K, looks like it's better than Editplus2.
I'll give it some time and if it feels good, I'll ditch Editplus in it's favor.

aldel · Post by **aldel** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 9:37 am

Emacs does everything. Of course it has a pretty steep learning curve. I'm not saying it would necessarily be a good choice, but everyone should be aware of its existence.

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 9:57 am

Well, on that note, use vi!

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 9:59 am

I use editpad.

might want to take a look at programmers notepad.

Avder · Post by **Avder** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 11:15 am

textpad.

Kyouryuu · Post by **Kyouryuu** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 7:59 pm

Awesome, I'll give these a try.

It's really nice that we have the ability to essentially "program" levels at work. It's so much easier to write a script in many cases, like when you want to set up conditional puzzles ("if A and B") or script the escort missions ("if NPC reaches point 40, then do this"). And Lua is a pretty slick little programming language.

Tank · Post by **Tank** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 8:42 am

Context is one of the best free editors for Windows that I have ever used. Has tabs and will do you highlighting. There are hundreds of syntax highlighters for download. I really can't say enough about it, so you should probably just check it out for yourself:

http://www.context.cx/index.html

And the highlighter for Lou:

http://www.context.cx/highlighters_i-p.html