With over 20 years of programming experience, I can say with confidence that Arachnophilia by *Arachnoid *is one of the best code editors around. and get this. IT’S FREE.
(I have to mention UltraEdit because it’s also one of the best editors I’ve used; but it’s not free. Ultra edit has one thing that Arachnophilia doesn’t. it allows you to list code by line numbers, which is extremely helpful when debugging.)
Arachnophilia edits a whole array of file types including, but not limited to:
HTML, CGI, Perl, txt, java, jscript, cfm, jsp, asp, xml, etc.
Pros:
1) It’s FREE
2) Global site changes via find/replace for all open files. You can simultaneously change all opened files with one search/replace. This is the extremely useful when making global site changes. You only have to do one find/replace instead of repeated edits for each file.
3) Clear delineation of’content’ and’script’ using different colors
4) Templates for the different file types. For instance, if you were to create an HTML file, Arachnophilia includes the generic tags for you - DOCTYPE, HTML, HEAD, BODY tags
5) Customization and editing. Comes with all the tools that allows easy insertion of predefined components such as: fonts, forms, frames, images, javascript, sound, structures, lists, styles, colors, ASCII codes, etc. so you don’t have to type out those tags by hand.
6) Preview files in browser of your choice
7) Saves Unix lines endings for CGI, Perl, and .ht files
Cons:
1) No debug features in 4.0 versions, but that’s asking for too much from an editor.
2) Newest java-based version requires more computer resources and is a little slower.
3) No line numbers
I’ve used the latest java-based versions and they don’t add much more than the non-java-based versions 4.0(build 5310).
I prefer versions 4.0(build 5310)
Similar Editors:
UltraEdit(This is the best commercial editor; but it’s not free)
NetObjects Fusion(WYSIWYG includes code editor)
MS Notepad(Windows bundled editor)
Macromedia Dreamweaver(WYSIWYG includes code editor)
Adobe GoLive(WYSIWYG includes code editor)