Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Have I plugged the Crimson?
(Ok, that sounds far dirtier than it probably should.)
The Crimson Editor is one of the software programs I've found via Clean Software. It's a directory chock full of programs for your computer that contain no malware (ie. spyware, adware, all the nasty stuff that sometimes tags along with downloaded software) and they're all free. A number of the items on the site are open-source, but probably just as many are just plain old freeware or shareware.
One such gem is the Crimson Editor, and it's possibly the best text-or-equivalent editor that I've used, with the sole exception of good ol' vim. Since I use a Windows box more than I use Linux though, Crimson makes for a very acceptable substitute to the arcane complexity of Visual Editor Improved.
As far as features go, Crim covers all the bases:
All the body needs to be able to edit text, code or the like. It even has a few nifty skills that set it apart from the crowd like
The editor I would most likely compare it to is UltraEdit-32, which is a bit of a hit with some friends of mine, and the only thing I think that Ultra can do that Crim can't might be SSH, but I'm not even too sure about that one. Still, UE32 requires either monies or skullduggerous cracks or keys to use willy-nilly, whereas Crimson only comes in free flavour.
I've essentially abandoned the use of Office for my personal use, using mainly plaintext* for anything that I need to take down. On Linux, this means the use of vi since I'm a masochist that way, but for Windows, give me Crimson Editor or give me... well, death is kind of harsh. Notepad, I suppose. Ick.
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* There isn't really any such thing as plain text on a computer. One way or another it needs to be encoded, and while ASCII is sometimes the result, it's not always. Just because it looks like unformatted letters doesn't mean it isn't marked up in cryptic Unicode or something. But this is really just a formality--I don't know how to use Asian characters or the Cyrillic alphabet, so ASCII is more than enough for a whitey like me. ¶ 7:28 p.m.
(Ok, that sounds far dirtier than it probably should.)
The Crimson Editor is one of the software programs I've found via Clean Software. It's a directory chock full of programs for your computer that contain no malware (ie. spyware, adware, all the nasty stuff that sometimes tags along with downloaded software) and they're all free. A number of the items on the site are open-source, but probably just as many are just plain old freeware or shareware.
One such gem is the Crimson Editor, and it's possibly the best text-or-equivalent editor that I've used, with the sole exception of good ol' vim. Since I use a Windows box more than I use Linux though, Crimson makes for a very acceptable substitute to the arcane complexity of Visual Editor Improved.
As far as features go, Crim covers all the bases:
- tabbed windows for multple documents,
- window splitting,
- built-in directory and project browser,
- syntax highlighting,
- macros.
All the body needs to be able to edit text, code or the like. It even has a few nifty skills that set it apart from the crowd like
- FTP functionality,
- column marking,
- column/"square" highlighting,
- and tabs/spaces translation
The editor I would most likely compare it to is UltraEdit-32, which is a bit of a hit with some friends of mine, and the only thing I think that Ultra can do that Crim can't might be SSH, but I'm not even too sure about that one. Still, UE32 requires either monies or skullduggerous cracks or keys to use willy-nilly, whereas Crimson only comes in free flavour.
I've essentially abandoned the use of Office for my personal use, using mainly plaintext* for anything that I need to take down. On Linux, this means the use of vi since I'm a masochist that way, but for Windows, give me Crimson Editor or give me... well, death is kind of harsh. Notepad, I suppose. Ick.
-------------------------------
* There isn't really any such thing as plain text on a computer. One way or another it needs to be encoded, and while ASCII is sometimes the result, it's not always. Just because it looks like unformatted letters doesn't mean it isn't marked up in cryptic Unicode or something. But this is really just a formality--I don't know how to use Asian characters or the Cyrillic alphabet, so ASCII is more than enough for a whitey like me. ¶ 7:28 p.m.
