Notepad++ – a cool source code editor

Notepad was my second (probably third) application in Windows that I’d used when I first learned how to operate a computer. Since then, there were not much changes in the Notepad user interface. It still live out there as our plain old Notepad. When you first learn a computer language, like Java, the instructor would force you to code in Notepad, mainly because Notepad is not an IDE, so that you can concentrate on learning the language than the IDE. And most people prefer using Notepad, even after they progressed so much in their programming career, because of the lightweight nature of Notepad. They may not use Notepad for coding though, but for editing plain text files.

If you want the (half) features of an IDE combined with the speed of Notepad, then you will have to head to Notepad++ – A Free software for source code editing and text manipulation. The striking feature of Notepad++ is that it supports the color formatting of several languages (including CSS, HTML, Java, SQL and many more!).

Since Notepad++ is written on C++ and uses native APIs, it runs in a lightning speed. It loads faster, handles huge amount of text data (I usually open’s my server’s log which is of around 10MBs). I’ve never faced a crashed Notepad++ in my 1.5 years of experience with it. This app is such stable and mature.

Some features of Notepad++, you may want to look at it:

To list some of the points about why I like Notepad++ so much,

• Syntax highlighting for several usage – I often use Notepad++ as my default SQL and CSS editor. And for reviewing the Java code, why care loading the heavyweight Eclipse, when Notepad++ out there!
• Zoom in – ability to zoom in/out the text (which can be achieved in Notepad by changing text size! ). Very useful when you are presenting your code from yor monitor screen to a group of people.
• Split view – viewing/editing two different (or same) documents at the same time. Useful to the code copy-pasters!
• Auto-completition – it even provides auto completion for the language syntax (very limited, though!).

Overall, I can give a 5 out of 5 rating to this cool text editor!

So, have you used Notepad++ !? If so, feel free to share your thoughts in comments.