It’s my intention this and next week to provide some help to those developers who want to use .NET but can’t afford or haven’t access to Visual Studio.
It started in the last post on webref.info, as I had a few requests for resources on the .NET framework classes. Now it seems many of you are after tools which help in the coding of ASP.NET.
Today’s gem is Notepad 2, yet another Notepad replacement. But unlike some of the bloated and slow implementations that have tried to improve on Notepad, this edition really does act as a drag and drop replacement for the humble text editor that ships with Windows.
For starts, by default, it looks extremely similiar to classic Notepad. And this is a good thing. One of the reasons Notepad is successful is that it cuts to the chase and just displays files. And Notepad 2, when viewing a plain text file will do this without rulers, and toolbars.
Yet, open a C# file, and you’re presented with line number margins, toolbars, syntax highlighting and extra features just for the file type you’re using. And most important of all, these extras do not clutter the interface. As with most modern applications, it is XP theme-aware, so will fit in nicely with your desktop.
It also has very rapid startup: I couldn’t tell the difference between loading Notepad and Notepad 2 speed-wise. Which to me, is another big difference between it and similar niche applications.
As with any tools I’ll be highlighting over the next week, its free to use and download.
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NICE :)
good work
May 7th, 2004 at 10:21 am
Excellent… I just discovered my favorite, low-key IDE.
May 19th, 2004 at 7:46 pm
Yep, Notepad 2 is my fav! Been using it for quite a while now, but mostly for html, xml, and plain text, or only to veiw vb or c# files.
September 1st, 2005 at 7:35 pm
My favourite Notepad replacement is BDV Notepad. All my friend use it for a long time. It has a lot of functions for regular user.
November 18th, 2005 at 6:30 am
How does Notepad2 compare to Notepad++ ?
January 16th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
I use Notepad++ as my Notepad replacement.
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
It’s small, fast and easy to use. Different from Notepad2, its multi document interface and its folding feature save me a lot of time.
March 12th, 2006 at 8:37 am
This is a simple text editor. Simplicity and great possibilities are the main tangs of Notepad 2. It is targeted to edit a file in convenient way, not to edit thousands of files at once. I think it’s a great soft.
May 7th, 2007 at 9:02 pm