"If a tree falls in a forest..."
In every walk of life, there is always a question that really has no one right answer. In the case of text editors the odds of a flame war increase with the urgency of the user's request to the list for "the best editor for job xxx".
Here then are the elite of text editors...IMHO of course.
W5/DOS has been around a while, 1989 or so, but it is still remarkable: first with "select then act" metaphor, native RTF support, mouse welcome interface, style sheets & "templates" (glossary fn), it also has a 100,000 word spell checker, 220,000 word thesaurus, column-based operations, some math ability, ability to link documents, spreadsheets & graphics, and supports postscript printing without kludges. It also has a pretty good macro language, featuring intuitive command names, ability to format macro source code or save to plain text, as well as macro step mode. Finally, in addition to graphic preview and great online help/tutorial, W5/DOS can handle up to 8 documents at once, each up to 8 MB in size, something that WinWord x.x only dreams of (yet promises). Only the 622k .EXE is essential, with a 720k floppy setup quite useable. Probably impossible to get ahold of (like Win 3.x now). Chief architect: Charles Simonyi...for President.
QEdit is well known to most as fast and powerful yet small (EXE under 60k), with the biggest limitation being no access to virtual memory. Thus documents can be no larger than about 600k. SemWare Corporation, Suite C3A, 4343 Shallowford Road, Marietta, GA 300062-5022, U.S.A., Voice: 800-467-3692 or 404-641-9002 9 am to 5 pm EST, FAX: 404-640-6213, BBS: 404-641-8968, sales@semware.atl.ga.us, tech.support@semware.atl.ga.us, CIS: 75300,2710
R.1.1 The Semware Editor from SemWare
The Semware Editor (TSE) Professional v2.5 is the latest from SemWare Corporation, Suite C3A, 4343 Shallowford Road, Marietta, GA 300062-5022, U.S.A., Voice: 800-467-3692 or 404-641-9002 9 am to 5 pm EST, FAX: 404-640-6213, BBS: 404-641-8968, sales@semware.atl.ga.us, tech.support@semware.atl.ga.us, CIS: 75300,2710
[Thanks to Joop van Buuren for this info]
R.2 Multi-Edit from American Cybernetics
Possibly the best DOS-based multi-file editor with [if memory serves,] up to 100 files open at once, undo up to 64k operations with full control, load multiple files with wildcard from DOS prompt. Multi-Edit is very extensible (much of it is written in its c-like language that can be edited then recompiled) with numerous add-ons available, with one in particular geared to c++ programming (Evolve?). American Cybernetics, #112-1830 W. University Drive, Tempe, AZ 85281, 602-968-1945, Fax: 602-966-1654, sales@amcyber.com.
The grand-daddy of professional editors, I was scared away the one time I ran it. Many swear by it. Borland, 408-461-9000 or 800-841-8180 for a directory of phone numbers, ftp.borland.com.
Press the down arrow twice.
R.5 Copy con filename from Microsoft
GoTo R.4 for an example of "recursion"
R.6 DOS 5.x/6.x (QBasic) Edit from Microsoft
Type EDIT /? to learn more!
R.7 Epsilon from Lugaru Software
This EMACS clone supports 100+ files, virtual memory (ems, xms and disk), vertical and horizontal screen splitting, 132*50 screens (& whatever your video card supports), regular-expression search and replace, undo and more. Works on DOS, OS/2 and Unix.
[Thx J.P.]
R.8 AAEMACS with Gnu source code
AAEMACS comes with Gnu C++ source, can define macros and supports the mouse. It has its own HELP system and its help files (HELP and HELP.BIG) can be printed directly. It uses "virtual store" and fits uncompressed on one 3.5 inch floppy. Author: A.APPLEYARD@fs2.mt.umist.ac.uk
ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/editor/aaema95a.zip
[Thx A.Appleyard]
G is a color text editor for DOS and UNIX supports macros (based on ICL), regular expressions (from VI), WordStar navigation keys and the arithmetic routines with 'C' syntax. The macro language has loops, conditionals and arithmetic. G programs or individual commands may be run from the command line, from a file, or interactively from a "home" area at the top of the screen. The editor language uses a "conceptually simple two-file transcription copy/edit paradigm which is transparent to the casual screen editor user". Designed to be as efficient as possible, highly portable and supporting manipulation of large files, G has a very fast startup time and needs comparatively little memory. Available for most flavours of UNIX and MSDOS for the 386 or later. FreeWare. Author: jah@ilena.demon.co.uk
ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/editor/g471exe.zip ftp://ftp.coast.net/SimTel/msdos/editor/g471src.zip
[Thx Jeremy Hall]
R.51 WinEdit from Wilson WindowWare
Windows hosted and shareware, from Wilson WindowWare, try it at:
or
ftp://ftp.windowware.com/wwwftp/wilson
[kind of scarey site names...:-)]
R.52 MegaEdit from WinNET Communications, Inc.
Also Windows hosted and shareware, from WinNET Communcations, Inc, (formerly Computer Witchcraft, Inc.) Box 4189, Louisville, KY 40204 (502) 589-6800, Fax: (502) 589-7300, CIS: 76130,1463, megaedit@win.net
PFE is a multi-file high capacity MDI editor oriented towards use not only by programmers, but for general application as well. No limit on file size other than system resources. It can handle UNIX and DOS formats automatically, and compilers and programs can be run and the output captured. Freeware. Author: A.Phillips@lancaster.ac.uk
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe/
[Thx Alan Phillips]
R.54 TextPad from Helios Software Solutions
TextPad 1.30: Ziff-Davis 1995 Award winner. An editor for 16 & 32-bit Windows. It's fast & edits huge files; provides 2 views/file; word wrap; 32 editing commands; full undo/redo; REAL drag & drop; BLOCK select; hex viewer; tool & status bars; GREP & file comparison; in-context help & popup menus; DOS output window; etc. Downside? uses 16% FSResources. Author: Helios Software Solutions
[Floyd: The best Windows editor that I have tried to date.]
R.55 Zeus for Windows (shareware)
Zeus for Windows Editor. For those who have been looking for a Brief editor for Windows, the search is over. Features include, MDI file support, status and toolbar, syntax colorizing, background compiler, automatic backup, inline error listing and correction, unlimited undo/redo, search, replace, bookmarks, mouse and keyboard marking (column, block and stream modes), quick help keyword searching (search's ANY number of WinHelp files), programmable keyboard expansion, keyboard macros, external tool support, smart indenting, File Manager drag and drop support, and of course supports the Brief keyboard keystrokes mapping. All this and much more. ShareWare. Author: jussi@sydney.dialix.oz.au
Current version, via Simtel (& mirrors):
ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win3/editor/zeusv215.zip
Zeus Home site:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jussi
[Thx Jussi Jumppanen]
R.99 VEdit, KEdit, HEdit, PE & others
After I recover from getting inundated with comments about other MUCH BETTER editors, I will consider adding their voices to the multitude. But, until then, many very worthwhile text editors will be deliberately ignored...not :).