Notepad++

[Bonesnap]

TL;DR version: I'm looking for a way to custom style specific keywords of PHP (and perhaps other languages, such as JavaScript). Google has failed me.

Long version:

I've recently started using Notepad++ in a bid to break out of my comfort zone with Dreamweaver, the IDE I've been using for the past five or six years. My biggest problem though is I'm extremely picky about syntax highlighting, probably due to the fact that I'm so used to the way Dreamweaver does it.

Notepad++ provides a theme editor and a bunch of options to change the styles of languages, and it works great; however, it "groups" together keywords (and doesn't recognize others which puzzles me) when in my opinion it shouldn't.

For example, in Dreamweaver, certain keywords such as if, else, return, true, false, switch, etc. are coloured green. PHP defined functions, like strlen, trim, in_array, etc. are coloured blue. They're both keywords but they're also obviously both different. They're used in different contexts (I believe keywords such as if, else, etc. are called constructs and the others are functions).

In Notepad++, it colours these words the same. Whatever colour you choose for colouring functions, it also uses to colour reserved words like if, else, return, etc. Since I am so used to them being different, it kind of messes with me and makes me want to drop Notepad++ like a bad habit and go back to Dreamweaver.

At first I thought I'd just ignore it and chalk it up to "breaking out of my comfort zone", but then I kept thinking about and I sincerely think they should be coloured differently. Simply put, they're used differently. I've looked into plugins and searched Google but haven't found anything other than people uploading their own custom styles, which doesn't solve this problem (it just colours it in a different way :p).

Does anyone know of a way to create custom styles for specific keywords?

I'm going to stick it out with Notepad++ regardless to finish a mini-project, but once the project is finished I won't continue with it if I can't find a way to do this. 🙁

Thanks in advance for any insight!

[Weedpacket]

If I recall, Notepad++ stores language definitions in XML files. Find those, and edit them.

But...

Bonesnap wrote:

They're both keywords

No, they're not. Function names are identifiers and keywords are keywords. They're different parts of the grammar.

[Bonesnap]

bradgrafelman;10995350 wrote:

I personally have replaced Notepad (from Microsoft) on all PCs I use (both at home and at work) with Notepad2. I use it for pretty much all of my scripting/programming except all of the C/C++ I do at work.

One of my coworkers uses Notepad2 and has said for what I am looking for, it's not for me. He told me all it will do for me is indent my code and highlight it. Nothing else. shrug

Was he over-simplifying it?

bradgrafelman;10995350 wrote:

However, I've always been a fan of Eclipse, and I see they have their own flavor of an IDE for PHP, namely the Eclipse PHP Development Tools (PDT).

Another coworker of mine uses Eclispe and swears by it, but it's just so... different to me. I guess because there are just so many options and things to do. I've also had issues getting it to run on my system. Also I don't want to have to deal with workspaces and projects, etc. I just want to be double-click a file and have it open without any trouble. I understand the need for organizing projects, but I do that already through Explorer with folders.

There are some pretty awesome features in Eclipse that I wouldn't mind having, I'll give it that.

Weedpacket;10995351 wrote:

If I recall, Notepad++ stores language definitions in XML files. Find those, and edit them.

I did some more digging and came across a thread on their support forum (somehow didn't think to look there first) and it looks like you cannot edit these kinds of things for predefined languages without recompiling one of the DLLs, which I don't even know where to begin.

Weedpacket;10995351 wrote:

But...No, they're not. Function names are identifiers and keywords are keywords. They're different parts of the grammar.

Sorry, I meant keyword as in it's reserved.

[laserlight]

I use Geany for programming in PHP and Python. It is similiar to Notepad++ and Notepad2 in that it is mainly a text editor rather than a lightweight IDE, though it does have features of a lightweight IDE. For me, its advantage over Notepad++ and Notepad2 is that it is cross platform.

Bonesnap wrote:

Does anyone know of a way to create custom styles for specific keywords?

I have never messed with custom styles in Geany, but for the general categories that you were concerned about (keyword versus function), that is easily changed by editing the filetypes.common configuration file to change one colour value to another. Further specialised configuration is also possible.

[Bonesnap]

bradgrafelman;10995371 wrote:

Eh... yes and no, really. For a lightweight Notepad replacement, it's actually got some really nifty features packed into it. The developer has insisted, however, on keeping the "lightweight" approach in mind, which is why you won't find certain conveniences other Notepad replacements or full-blown IDEs offer, such as code completion or even a tabbed interface.

Then again, my development outside of the C/C++ I do at work has been limited these days, so perhaps my needs are just more simple/basic than yours are.

You know what, I'll give it a shot anyway. I've already tried another editor called InType, but after about 15 minutes I realized it's essentially unusable (for me, anyway). But it never hurts to try.

bradgrafelman;10995371 wrote:

Aye, Eclipse has branched into so many different flavors and sets of plugins that it can have a bit of a learning curve depending upon what type of environment you're coming from and/or expecting to end up with.

At my work we have the "Ganymede" flavour installed, and I tried installing it at home but had issues. It eventually worked but it just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe one day I'll go back to it and do what I am doing now: do a small project entirely in a different IDE/editor.

bradgrafelman;10995371 wrote:

Okay, but an IDE is much more useful than just keeping your files organized; things like code completion, debugging, refactoring, searching (e.g. the ability to select a function call in your code and immediately jump to it's declaration and/or definition), etc. etc. are all made easy by an IDE vs. a simple code editor (at least, I would think that's the goal for a given IDE).

I don't disagree with this; I like all those features, too, but what I was getting at is I don't want my IDE organizing my files and projects for me. I will do that. All an IDE/editor needs to do for me, in terms of project organization, is have a collapsible file tree on one side of the screen (like Dreamweaver, Eclipse, etc.). Then I can access my files which are already organized into folders. And to be honest, it doesn't even need to do that because I usually have my project folder open in Explorer on a different monitor anyway (but it would be nice if it had it).

laserlight;10995376 wrote:

I use Geany for programming in PHP and Python. It is similiar to Notepad++ and Notepad2 in that it is mainly a text editor rather than a lightweight IDE, though it does have features of a lightweight IDE. For me, its advantage over Notepad++ and Notepad2 is that it is cross platform.

I have never messed with custom styles in Geany, but for the general categories that you were concerned about (keyword versus function), that is easily changed by editing the filetypes.common configuration file to change one colour value to another. Further specialised configuration is also possible.

Hmm, I'll take a look, but how does Geany handle other languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript? One thing that really attracts me to Dreamweaver is the seamless integration between them. There are times when all four are in the same file and they behave beautifully (something the IDE InType didn't do well at all). Cross-platform isn't an issue for me since I do all my development work on Windows.

Also, how well supported is Geany? I went to the website and it seems the latest version is 0.21. I know it's just a version number (anyone can write anything), but just wondering how the releases go.

[Derokorian]

You should give komodo edit a try. I find its easy to customize the syntax highlighting, it has great auto complete and and hints, and file explorer tab that's pretty nice.

[laserlight]

Bonesnap wrote:

All an IDE/editor needs to do for me, in terms of project organization, is have a collapsible file tree on one side of the screen (like Dreamweaver, Eclipse, etc.). Then I can access my files which are already organized into folders.

The lightweight IDE aspect of Geany includes that, along with a simple code symbol viewer (e.g., for quick access to functions in a large source file).

Bonesnap wrote:

how does Geany handle other languages like HTML, CSS and JavaScript?

Best that you try it yourself. The default is good enough for me, but then I do not do much work in CSS and Javascript (and the work I do in HTML is just to lay the groundwork for the developers who will add the style and clientside scripting to complement my serverside scripting).

Bonesnap wrote:

Also, how well supported is Geany? I went to the website and it seems the latest version is 0.21. I know it's just a version number (anyone can write anything), but just wondering how the releases go.

There does not seem to be any set schedule announced, but there is a release every half a year or so.

Derokorian wrote:

You should give komodo edit a try.

If I remember correctly, NogDog uses that editor.

[traq]

I use notepad++ on windows, but I prefer Kate (Linux).

[NogDog]

If I remember correctly, NogDog uses that editor.

Yeah, I've been using Komodo Edit (the free editor from their not-free IDE) for the last 2 years or so and quite like it, especially once I found a plug-in to embed Git functionality. Two or three other guys (out of 8) where I work use it, too. I may be trying some Eclipse-based editors soon, though, to look into using XDebug (or see if I can get management to buy Komodo IDE 😉 ).

[Derokorian]

I used the komodo IDE for a free trial but I didn't really use it right I guess because I just used it the same as I do with just the editor.

[Bonesnap]

I tried out Notepad2. It's a nice little editor but it's not for my purposes.

Next up was Geany. Not bad at all. I liked some of the random, obscure features such as choosing which types of brackets/parentheses to auto-close. I also liked that the "<?php ?>" tags had their own colouring. The default syntax highlighting wasn't bad but I didn't see any options to customize it.

Lastly, Komodo Edit. This wins by a landslide. Very customizable syntax highlighting that differentiates between keywords and identifiers. My only gripe is there's no way to specifically target the "<?php ?>" tags without changing the colouring of operators, which I rather not do. Also the file tree tab on the left doesn't seem to let me see my entire system and the highest level it goes is in my user directory.

One awesome thing about it that I wasn't expecting is it natively supports phpDocumentor comments and allows you to see the information of custom functions throughout your project (without having to actually create a project). I also like that it has what I call "smart" suggestions when writing code and closing HTML tags.

I still have some tinkering to do, but I think I may have found my new code editor. 🙂 Thanks for the suggestion! Geany was a good runner-up. I'm not even going to bother continuing with Notepad++ anymore and move my project to Komodo Edit.

One last question: What's the difference between Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE? The free version seems to do everything. 😕

[Derokorian]

Bonesnap wrote:

Also the file tree tab on the left doesn't seem to let me see my entire system and the highest level it goes is in my user directory.

In the top right of the file tree pane, click the little gear then click open directory, from here you can open any directory you choose whether it be a local disk drive, flash drive, or network drive / location.

Edit: You can also right click any sub-directory in the file tree pane and choose make root to make that the top folder in the pane.

[NogDog]

I think that Komodo IDE gives you more non-editing functions, like built-in support for xdebugger, Git, FTP, and so forth -- things supporting team devlopment and such. (I found a Git plug-in for Komodo Edit online that seems to work.) I, too, love the support for PHPDocumentor comments. 🙂

[Bonesnap]

Derokorian;10995455 wrote:

In the top right of the file tree pane, click the little gear then click open directory, from here you can open any directory you choose whether it be a local disk drive, flash drive, or network drive / location.

Edit: You can also right click any sub-directory in the file tree pane and choose make root to make that the top folder in the pane.

Wow, not sure how I missed that. Any way to move it to the right of the screen?

NogDog;10995457 wrote:

I think that Komodo IDE gives you more non-editing functions, like built-in support for xdebugger, Git, FTP, and so forth -- things supporting team devlopment and such. (I found a Git plug-in for Komodo Edit online that seems to work.) I, too, love the support for PHPDocumentor comments. 🙂

It appears Edit also has support for FTP. 🙂

[Derokorian]

Bonesnap;10995458 wrote:

Wow, not sure how I missed that. Any way to move it to the right of the screen?

http://community.activestate.com/forum/how-move-places-right-side

[Bonesnap]

Derokorian;10995459 wrote:

http://community.activestate.com/forum/how-move-places-right-side

Thanks for the link!

I feel silly now though because I installed the add-on, restarted Komodo Edit but I don't see any options anywhere to move it to the right. 😕 I've been through the entire Preferences window twice.

[Derokorian]

Edit -> Preferences
Appearance -> Tabs
Select single tab for left pane layout then click ok
you should get a little drop down button next to the x on the left pane, right click on it and move to right tab group. Then to hide the toolbox and places tab, right click on toolbox and move it to the left pane, then open the preferences again and go to the tabs and select single tab or horizontal for right pane.

[laserlight]

Bonesnap wrote:

The default syntax highlighting wasn't bad but I didn't see any options to customize it.

It is in a default configuration file that can be accessed either by your file explorer, or by Tools -> Configuration Files -> filetypes.common. Apparently further customisation is possible, but that seems far less friendly as new configuration files are required.

NogDog wrote:

I think that Komodo IDE gives you more non-editing functions, like built-in support for xdebugger, Git, FTP, and so forth -- things supporting team devlopment and such.

Yeah, the integrated debugger for Komodo IDE was touted as a big difference when I was reading up on them, if I remember correctly.

[Weedpacket]

Bonesnap;10995370 wrote:

Sorry, I meant keyword as in it's reserved.

No, PHP's function names aren't reserved, either.

If "preg_replace" was a reserved word then the following wouldn't even parse, let alone run:

if(!function_exists('preg_replace'))
{
    function preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $string)
    {
        return 'fnord';
    }
}

PHP's list of reserved words is given on the pages listed in its section on [man]reserved[/man] words. There are the keywords, some constants, and some classes. Names of functions in the standard library are not included.

In Notepad++, it colours these words the same.

I remembered I had default installation of Notepad++ on a virtual machine. I had a look and found that reserved words were printed in bold blue and functions were printed in normal black. I also found a "Style Configurator" that apparently gives an interface to editing the style XML definitions at both global (theme) and language-specific levels, and also allows themes to override the default lists of which tokens are to be styled as keywords and which aren't.

[Bonesnap]

I also forgot I looked at Aptana as well. I like it because it's a stripped down version of Eclipse, but in the same regard, it's too similar to Eclipse for my liking. That said, I keep it around for it's auto-format feature which apparently Komodo IDE has (but Edit does not).

Derokorian;10995467 wrote:

Edit -> Preferences
Appearance -> Tabs
Select single tab for left pane layout then click ok
you should get a little drop down button next to the x on the left pane, right click on it and move to right tab group. Then to hide the toolbox and places tab, right click on toolbox and move it to the left pane, then open the preferences again and go to the tabs and select single tab or horizontal for right pane.

Ah, okay, thanks. I feel a little less silly now. :p I've been experimenting with it on both sides. At home I have it on the right, and at work I have it on the left. One thing that bothers me is there's no horizontal scroll bar for it, but I've already gotten used to switching the root directory when needed so I think I'm already passed that, plus I tend to hide it unless needed; I definitely like the ctrl+shift+p keyboard shortcut.

laserlight;10995473 wrote:

It is in a default configuration file that can be accessed either by your file explorer, or by Tools -> Configuration Files -> filetypes.common. Apparently further customisation is possible, but that seems far less friendly as new configuration files are required.

Gotchya. Actually you already mentioned that earlier in the thread. Silly me. Geany will probably be my backup editor if for some reason Komodo Edit isn't available.