Need a basic windows text editor that understands *nix linebreaks.

SantaHoe · 01-10-2004 11:14PM #1

Does such a thing exist?
Trying to read these text files in notepad has my head wrecked.
I just need something small, free and basic.

Thx, gg.

Fenster · 01-10-2004 11:23PM

Ehh, install Linux?

But other than that, I used MS Word and Wordpad (on XP machines without Office) to read *nix text files without formatting nightmares.

EDIT: And yes, Notepad is a stinky text editor.

tadgher · 01-10-2004 11:24PM

Small, free and basic? Programmer's File Editor (http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe/).

Not free, but TextPad is fairly good (http://www.textpad.com).

Or get Emacs and get religion...

SantaHoe · 01-10-2004 11:31PM

Ah nice one, would never have suspected wordpad to be so usefull

Fenster wrote:

Ehh, insall Linux?

Point me to a linux distro that has out-of-the-box support for my Zyxel 630-11 and I'll start downloading it right now!
There was a sourceforge project that worked for a lot of people, but it puked up compile errors no matter what I did.

"Linux + offline" vs "XP + online" ... very little contest tbh.

Anyway, thanks for that, wordpad looks like it'll do nicely.

Fenster · 01-10-2004 11:49PM

Emacs... *shiver*

Although I will admit I'm becoming quite partial to the command-line version of vi. Its handy and fast when I'm editing config files.

Syth · 01-10-2004 11:58PM

I use vim to an almost religious amount. That can do all, though of cours eit takes a little/long time to get used to it, but once you start you won't be able to stick with any other editor as vim rocks!!

And yes there's a windows version. www.vim.org

tadgher · 02-10-2004 12:16AM

Modal editors... *shiver*

For the OP, it's worth investing a bit of time (and perhaps money) in getting a good text editor and getting familiar with it. I paid for TextPad and happily used it for years, and perhaps would have stayed with it if I was only working with Windows.

Emacs and vi have the advantage that they are available for many (every?) platforms, but neither of them has what one would call an approachable user interface. Once you get familiar with them, however, most other editors start to look like toys.

Fenster · 02-10-2004 12:21AM

tadgher wrote:

Modal editors... *shiver*

For the OP, it's worth investing a bit of time (and perhaps money) in getting a good text editor and getting familiar with it. I paid for TextPad and happily used it for years, and perhaps would have stayed with it if I was only working with Windows.

Emacs and vi have the advantage that they are available for many (every?) platforms, but neither of them has what one would call an approachable user interface. Once you get familiar with them, however, most other editors start to look like toys.

I never had any problems with vi. For the average joe just making quick changes, you all you need to know is to how enter/leave edit mode, how to save and how to quit. Four keys in total.

Need a basic windows text editor that understands *nix linebreaks.

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