Looking for a text editor with colour changing facility

Davidc316

Hi,
for the past two or three years I've been using Notepad religiously for writting php scripts. However, within the past three weeks or so I've been getting major eyestrain and I've even noticed that my vision is starting to go blurry.

This is a worrying development for me and my theory is that staring at the white background of Notepad all day is what's causing the trouble. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knew of any good text editors where you can change the background colour and the font colour.

I'd have a look around, but can't find any.

Thanks.

LordShryku

Gvim has that...

onion2k

Textpad (www.textpad.com) can alter the background and font colour for different document types.. so you can have PHP files with a dark grey background and light grey text, HTML files with a blue background, and Java files with a white background.

Its a very powerful text editor too.

AstroTeg

I'm pretty partial to Edit+. It syntax highlights for just about anything. It'll allow you to change the colors. I've got a slightly older version and it'll let me change the background, but its not on a per-document basis like the syntax highlighting.

On a health note, do yourself a HUGE favor and get checked out by an eye doctor. I'd take a guess its not notepad that's killing your eyes but the fact you may be staring at the monitor for too long and/or a little too close or far away.

You'll want to take a break between coding runs and look at something off in the distance (and focus in on it). Do this for a minute or so before jumping back to coding.

Also, have you tried fiddling with the video card's refresh frequency? I know if its at a goofy setting it'll drive my eyes nuts.

Also, are you hydrated? Have you gotten enough rest or have you spent the night up late watching TV? That'll make a difference too.

Check with a doc. You may need glasses. If you do, its only to help and allow you to be more productive. Its your health!

Roger_Ramjet

UltraEdit

Does everything you ask for and lots you haven't even thought to ask for yet.

Reasearch has shown that the paper-white background is best in the long term for your eyes.

Take heed of AstroTegs' comments. Every 25 mins you MUST stop, get up move around, focus on something long range out the window. It is not just your eyes that are at risk, but your whole body. Bad posture, repetitive stress injury, wasting muscles, all these are going to happen over the years if you don't GET UP and stretch.
There are some chinese eye massage techniques that you can learn that will slow down deterioration of your sight, but age will get you in the end.

Also, a 2 min break every 25-30 mins will keep your mind tuned, again research has shown that that is the longest attention span for people before their mind starts to loose focus.