Author: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
Title: Notepad++ 4.9.2
Price: Free Open Source
Free Demo: Yes
Product Rating: 5/5
Packaging Rating: n/a (Download)
Description:
Notepad++ is a free (free as in "free speech", but also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement, which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.

This project, based on the Scintilla edit component (a very powerful editor component), written in C++ with pure win32 api and STL (that ensures the higher execution speed and smaller size of the program), is under the GPL Licence.

This project is mature. However, as you can see it's a one-man-project, there are still some bugs and missing features. If you have any question or suggestion about this project, please post them on the forums. As well, if you have any feature requests, you can always make the demand, but there's no guarantee that I'll implement it.

You're encouraged to translate Notepad++ (if it is not present in the Download Section) and/or to translate the Notepad++ official site into your native language.

I hope you enjoy Notepad++ as much as I enjoy coding it.


Here are the features of Notepad++ :

• Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding
• WYSIWYG
• User Defined Syntax Highlighting
• Auto-completion
• Multi-Document
• Regular Expression Search/Replace supported
• Full Drag ‘N' Drop supported
• Dynamic position of Views
• File Status Auto-detection
• Zoom in and zoom out
• Multi-Language environment supported
• Bookmark
• Brace and Indent guideline Highlighting
• Macro recording and playback
• Then there are down loadable plug ins..

Minimum Requirements:

• I could not find a requirements list. This text editor will work in Linux, Windows and just about anywhere else. I recommend visiting the WIKI if you are not sure how to do something.

Lead In:
When I started coding I read all these tuts saying, start with windows notepad. Learn to code using plain text. Yea, FUCK THAT. I did that bullshit. Then I found text editors with line numbers, syntax highlighting. Even auto complete for my code. Regular Expression searching made me have a joy-gasm. For years I used DreamWeaver. It is still a decent text editor. Its CSS support has improved. But what about the times when you are one someone else's computer?

What about when you can't afford a $300 text editor. Notepad++ is your new best friend. This lightweight text editor packs a serious punch. If you put this puppy on a thumb drive you have a NICE text editor(for free) anywhere you go. It is Open source, has a large community, and can be used on any *nix environment and windows environment. You can have multiple documents up in tabs. It integrates nicely with WinSCP and other file transfer clients.

Once you start looking at plugins you see the power of this text editor is only limited by what has not yet been coded. set it up right and you have a FULL IDE.


Review:
I have personally used Notepad++ for years. It has only gotten better with time. I am very pleased with it. Though it is not my first choice (phpDesigner 2008 for PHP development), it is the best FREE text editor out there I know of. The plugins I have install have made it VERY powerful in terms of development. It is nice to have a free decent text editor I can use anywhere I go.


The Good:

• customizable syntax highlighting
• New plugins all the time
• Regular expresion search and replace
• large community
• decent documentation on their site and Wiki
• light weight
• Wide range of programming languages supported

The Bad:

• When new version comes out you get an annoying popup asking if you want to update.
• I have installed a few plugins that broke WinSCP a year back. I removed everything and re-installed and all was fine again.

Final Thoughts:
For free text editor you will do no better. It beats notepad in the junk!

Have you tried EditPlus? I are love...

I will check it out. Never heard of it. Have you tried notepad++ and then switched?

Yeh, i tried notepad++ but prefer edit plus myself

bah, its pay for... Apples and oranges man. Edit plus from what I can tell supports only windows and is NOT open source. It is Not free.

http://www.editplus.com/faq.html

True it has some features that are "neat", But thats why I have an IDE(see my post on PHP Designer 2008).

Notepad ++ is open source and can be run under any OS I know of. I will still with notepad ++

It isn't supported on *nix, and it's not free; it's a great program that I've yet to be able to compare up to. And i use "paid" loosely.