How do MS-Win users do this?

[Nil]

Oh please. Windows includes many application programs. Indeed, it
seems to be part of Microsoft's strategy to obscure the difference
between an operating system and an application program.

That might be somewhat true with things like Windows Media Center and
now Windows 8. But not with text editing. Only the most rank newcomers
think that the applets that are included with Windows are their only
options.

Would you have been happier if I had said "the application that is
included with native Windows, called Notepad"?

Yes, I would. "Native Windows" itself has little to do with how well
text can be edited, as I hope you must know. You mis-spoke.

 

[mechanic]

Now THAT's a text editor!

I think I already recommended that solution many posts ago.

 

[Ken Blake]

I think I already recommended that solution many posts ago.

My text editing needs are normally very light, and Notepad has been
adequate for my uses. Nevertheless, I'm always open to an improvement
if there's one out there. Can you describe the ways in which you find
Vim superior to Notepad?

Thanks.

 

[Paul]

My text editing needs are normally very light, and Notepad has been
adequate for my uses. Nevertheless, I'm always open to an improvement
if there's one out there. Can you describe the ways in which you find
Vim superior to Notepad?

Thanks.

There are two kinds of (plain) text editor users.

Ordinary users.

And software programmers.

A programmer *needs* a split screen, and in the SunOS/Solaris case,
frequently there wouldn't be an IDE, and what you'd use is TextEdit
with its split pane capability.

A text editor for a programmer, may now include things like colored
text for software structures, checking for balanced parenthesis
and other kinds of syntax checking. That actually gets in the
way, if you're writing up a recipe for Mrs. Fields cookies.

So some of the text editors end up being "half of a software
development environment". That's why they're tricked out.

Paul

 

[Nil]

My text editing needs are normally very light, and Notepad has been
adequate for my uses. Nevertheless, I'm always open to an improvement
if there's one out there. Can you describe the ways in which you find
Vim superior to Notepad?

The biggie for me would be regular expression search and replace.
Another would be macros.

I don't use Vim very often because I can't remember many of the
complicated keystroke commands, and there are other editors with those
features. But it is quite powerful.

 

[BillW50]

My text editing needs are normally very light, and Notepad has been
adequate for my uses. Nevertheless, I'm always open to an improvement
if there's one out there. Can you describe the ways in which you find
Vim superior to Notepad?

Thanks.

Notepad is ok for reading most of the time, but editing there is a lot
of things I would like to have.

The basic thing that notepad does that I dislike and nothing else has
this problem. That is sure it can word wrap instead of scrolling left
and right. But if you save the file, you now have hard returns were the
lines had wrapped. Most of the time I don't want that and you have to
turn that off before a save.

I also like text editors with a good spelling checker and tabs.
Something that Notepad lacks.

I use an older version of Newtpad that does both and color coding for
source codes and all. Newtpad isn't special or anything besides what is
already out there (and it isn't free). But it has everything besides
plain text indent that I am looking for. For that I use Word. ;-)

 

[Bob I]

Notepad is ok for reading most of the time, but editing there is a lot
of things I would like to have.

The basic thing that notepad does that I dislike and nothing else has
this problem. That is sure it can word wrap instead of scrolling left
and right. But if you save the file, you now have hard returns were the
lines had wrapped. Most of the time I don't want that and you have to
turn that off before a save.

That is a bogus claim. Hard returns are NOT inserted. The "Wrap" is
strictly a "View" and if you open the file with "Wrap" off, you will
need to scroll right and left again. The file itself is not changed,
only the view setting in Notepad is.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

That is a bogus claim. Hard returns are NOT inserted. The "Wrap" is strictly
a "View" and if you open the file with "Wrap" off, you will need to scroll
right and left again. The file itself is not changed, only the view setting
in Notepad is.

+1. I just tested it (Notepad, Windows 7, result viewed in Notepad++).

 

[BillW50]

That is a bogus claim. Hard returns are NOT inserted. The "Wrap" is
strictly a "View" and if you open the file with "Wrap" off, you will
need to scroll right and left again. The file itself is not changed,
only the view setting in Notepad is.

Not for me, Notepad destroyed many of my file formatting because of
forgetting to turn wrap off before saving. I never tried it under
Windows 7, but XP and under it did.

 

[Ken Blake]

There are two kinds of (plain) text editor users.

Ordinary users.

And software programmers.

A programmer *needs* a split screen, and in the SunOS/Solaris case,
frequently there wouldn't be an IDE, and what you'd use is TextEdit
with its split pane capability.

I'm retired now, but I used to be a programmer. Although a split
screen might have been nice to have, I never had one, and I never
*needed* one.

A text editor for a programmer, may now include things like colored
text for software structures, checking for balanced parenthesis
and other kinds of syntax checking.

Again, nice to have, but not necessary. I certainly don't need any of
those things these days.

But thanks for the info.

 

[Ken Blake]

The biggie for me would be regular expression search and replace.
Another would be macros.

I don't use Vim very often because I can't remember many of the
complicated keystroke commands, and there are other editors with those
features. But it is quite powerful.

OK, thanks. None of those are things I need, or even want, these days.
I'll just stay with Notepad then.

Ken

 

[Nil]

The basic thing that notepad does that I dislike and nothing else
has this problem. That is sure it can word wrap instead of
scrolling left and right. But if you save the file, you now have
hard returns were the lines had wrapped. Most of the time I don't
want that and you have to turn that off before a save.

Not for me, it doesn't. Word Wrap is view only, at least on Windows XP.

 

[BillW50]

I'm retired now, but I used to be a programmer. Although a split
screen might have been nice to have, I never had one, and I never
*needed* one.

Wow really? I never used split screens either, but I was using dual
monitors since the 80's. The running program on one screen and the
program monitor showing the running source code and the changing
variables on the other. That is just so Star Trek like and sweet. ;-)

 

[BillW50]

Not for me, it doesn't. Word Wrap is view only, at least on Windows XP.

Now wait a second! I know I am not making this up. Now I need to know
why it isn't working for me.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

[]
I use NotePad+ (one plus), from
http://texteditors.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Rogsoft_NotepadPlus - it serves
my needs, and _isn't_ optimised for source code editing. (Sorry, the
above page doesn't tell you much about it.) It is better than the
default Notepad on two levels: no (or if there is, a much bigger)
filesize limit, and no saving of line breaks if wrap mode is used.

Neither of which are a problem with the default notepad anyway after
some point in XP, let alone 7.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

He spoke in sentences that made up paragraphs, with immaculate grammar and
punctuation. - Barry Cryer on Clement Freud 1924-2009, in Radio Times, 25 April
- 1 May 2009.

 

[Paul]

Wow really? I never used split screens either, but I was using dual
monitors since the 80's. The running program on one screen and the
program monitor showing the running source code and the changing
variables on the other. That is just so Star Trek like and sweet. ;-)

I used split pane when I was writing utilities on SunOS/early Solaris.
It allows you to say, keep the definitions at the top of some piece
of code visible, while you're writing code that references them
in the second pane. On occasion, I've even had three panes open.
More than that, was too much.

That should also tell you, that I'm not a programmer, and my
source files weren't partitioned or structured well. (It would
be quite likely, that my source file was too long.) I'm a
hardware guy, and the utilities I write do things like
test the hardware, or in other cases, manipulate CAD files.
(I've used a few different languages over the years.)
If I pour twenty pages of code into one file, I need to be
able to view the definition section, while I'm adding code
near the bottom.

Paul

 

[BillW50]

I used split pane when I was writing utilities on SunOS/early Solaris.
It allows you to say, keep the definitions at the top of some piece
of code visible, while you're writing code that references them
in the second pane. On occasion, I've even had three panes open.
More than that, was too much.

That should also tell you, that I'm not a programmer, and my
source files weren't partitioned or structured well. (It would
be quite likely, that my source file was too long.) I'm a
hardware guy, and the utilities I write do things like
test the hardware, or in other cases, manipulate CAD files.
(I've used a few different languages over the years.)
If I pour twenty pages of code into one file, I need to be
able to view the definition section, while I'm adding code
near the bottom.

That explains so why I like you so much. As I never wanted to be a
programmer at all. But I was an electronic engineer who fell into
designing computers in the 70's and 80's. Not consumer grade stuff, but
for the military and then later for the professional market.

But all of the famous people like Gary Kildall, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs,
Steve Woz, and heaven forbid even Bill Gates were doing was just child's
play compared to what I was doing. But all I got was a paycheck.

And back then before a programmer could fully understand your hardware,
it was far easier to tackle the software and to do it yourself. You know
for testing purposes at least. I got better and better at it of course.
And I didn't care how sloppy my programming was, just so I could
understand it was all that mattered.

I was really picky about bugs though. As I could see bugs appearing
while I was programming. So I could fix them right away. I only have one
regard that I knew of if somebody used one program right at the start
just seconds before midnight, one varaible would be off by one day. I
let that one slide as I thought nobody would do that anyway. And to my
knowledge nobody ever did. ;-) But I lost sleep over that one. :-(

 

[Char Jackson]

Not for me, it doesn't. Word Wrap is view only, at least on Windows XP.

+1

Just tried it on XP SP3 and 7 SP1. No hard returns either way.

 

[Char Jackson]

But all of the famous people like Gary Kildall, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs,
Steve Woz, and heaven forbid even Bill Gates were doing was just child's
play compared to what I was doing. But all I got was a paycheck.

Wow, you were amazing, even if you do say so yourself.

 

[XS11E]

Wow, you were amazing, even if you do say so yourself.

I certainly found his comments amazing! <G>