Tools of editing

There are 2 text editors out there that I use and consider to be really good editors to allow you to replace the Notepad and Wordpad applications that are delivered usually with Windows, because let's face it: those default applications are just for very basic operations. If you want productivity, you need to look at something else. There are many, many editors, and I only looked at the ones for the MS Windows OS family, having a special interess in startup speed (this is important when using a replacement for the Total Commander viewer plugin), running speed, ease of use, features (translating into productivity gain), cost. I reviewed very shortly editors that require to pay for a licence. I found no real gain in using them.
Also, speaking of the Linux variants... I saw emacs being used by one of my colleagues at work. Didn't seem very productive with it, could be because he was running it on Windows. I know there's a real cult built around emacs... but I can't really figure out why though. Maybe an emacs afficionado can enlighten me.
And maybe about vi also. I remember using a version that looked like 1983 or something in school. So I'm sure no one is using that vi.

The 2 editors I found myself using the most are:
- Notepad++: an open source text editor.
- PsPad: a closed source text editor.
Other editors I looked into are:
- ConText: seems very fast. But also very lightweight, so limited functionality. Became open source in 2009, so maybe it will grow into something more powerful. Could be a very good substitute to the Total Commander viewer and editor.
- UltraEdit

There are many similarities that make both applications very useful. A plethora of syntax highlighting definitions, custom definitions are also possible, document history, and many tools for text conversion. So it will be much easier simply analysing the differences.

Speed: PsPad starts faster. The fact that it remains resident in memory helps with this. It feels faster for regular use also. But it's slow when working with long lines.

File search: both products have an exellent search. Notepad++ has however an annoying small dialog it uses. You can't really see what previous searches you made if you are using long paths.

File contents monitoring: in PsPad, if 10 files that you have opened changed, you have the option to reload all with a single click; in Notepad++ you must click 10 times! Is it really so hard to implement a "Yes to all" feature?

File comparison: PsPad has an incredibly simple interface to compare 2 opened files: compare between tabs. A recent release (4.5.4) also sports an improved file comparison. Notepad++ isn't as intuitive. I guess it's simply a matter of getting used to it.

Syntax highlighting: I found the PsPad highlighter to have some issues. For instance, you can define both FALSE and false, and depending on the order, only one of them will be displayed; also, the bracket matching doesn't always display on the first click on a location. No problems found with Notepad++ yet.
A somewhat similar feature is to highlight all matching occurences of a word. Notepad++ does this quite well. PsPad doesn't at all. (You could use bookmarks, but it's not nearly as productive). The PsPad developers claim it's due to the underlying component used for the editor, but as a user, I can't say I really care as to why it is possible or not; it still is one of the major drawbacks of PsPad not having a simple to use word matching highlighter.

Handling large files: PsPad is slower in this scenario than Notepad++. Also slower than Ultraedit. And it's not just large files in general. Long lines is the Achiles' heel for PsPad.

Encoding: unfortunately there are many encoding options. PsPad tries to pick up the encoding automatically, not always the best however. Notepad++ fares somewhat better.

Defaults: the power of defaults shouldn't be underestimated. The default environment for PsPad looks more like a visual studio IDE than a simple text-editor. And I heard people complain because of the way it looks initially. There are a lot of toolbars and panels shown initially. But looks can be deceiving. After you configure it, there's a lot of space for editing. Notepad++ comes with a focus on text editing as the default. Also, in case of PsPad, the default shortcuts could be improved to be more general, to mirror other applications. (E.g. Notepad++ uses CTRL+SHIFT+F to search in files, just like some IDEs, notably MS Visual Studio. You can make both programs use any shortcuts you want... but it takes some time setting everything up).

Licensing: PsPad is free. If you don't like something about it, there is a limited interface you could use to extend the application with a plugin. Notepad++ is open source. Whatever you don't like, you can change. And plugins are also available.

Currently I am using PsPad for my day to day problems, although the feature list tends to favor Notepad++. I also use Notepad++ in parallel, but only when I encounter large files or run into problems with the encoding. I think it's because of the file comparison which I use very much. Maybe I will make the switch to Notepad++ sometime in the future if the file comparison interface becomes better. :-)

Links:
http://www.pspad.com/
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
http://www.contexteditor.org/