I've downloaded various windows text/programming editors and have decided to use either EditPlus or UltraEdit for most of my PHP development. I've read other posts on this site concerning these editors but people usually just say they like this or that, not WHY. I've only begun to use them and would love to hear from those that have used them extensively. I'm not going to ask which is "better" since that's so subjective and largely a matter of personal preference. However, I would like to know which you prefer and WHY -- what features do you feel make the biggest difference? Both seem like good editors and the registration price is the same ($30).
UltraEdit vs EditPlus
Homesite does a great job of PHP, JavaScript, HTML and every other language I use on web sites. If there was a Linux Gnome version, it would be perfect for my use.
EditPlus is by far a excellent authoring tool. Once installed you can download new and different addon files to display syntax and auto-completing files.
The only down side is PHP within HTML or vise versa.
I have a quite oldish UltraEdit and mine doesn't allow syntax formating.
Regards,
Paul Goodyear
I use ultra edit. The best features in my view are:
direct open and save to ftp (very very useful)
syntax highlighting in many languages
block highlighting and rewriting
read and save on windows and unix without carriage returns
Andre
I would add a kickass "find and replace in multiple files" with recurse_into_sub directories option. Also does a decent job of diff'ing.
Ultraedit is also extremely lightweight. Almost instantaneous load time. Can't remember how EditPlus was but I ditched it in favor of Ultraedit.
The tab to spaces and auto-trim trailing whitespace features are extremely nice as well. You can also create macros but I haven't devled into that yet.
The syntax highlighting stuff is a bit simplistic but is enough. On the plus side you have syntax highlighting schemes for well over 100 different languages and file types.
The UltraEdit web site says UltraEdit has an English dictionary for spelling. EditPlus does not say so I presume it has only an American dictionary.
The UltraEdit web site lists a PHP4 editing file. If it can be kept that up to date, that is a real advantage.
Neither site mentions Linux so I sent both an email asking the big question. I will move from NT to Linux as soon as I can replace a few apps with Linux equivalents.
Linux is a big issue. I use 20-30 apps every day. I am not going to try to relearn every one in one big hit so each month I replace one application with a brand that runs across both NT and Linux. Even though Netscape 4.76 mail is rubbish, it is currently the most viable choice for NT and Linux.
So I need an editor that runs on Linux or will have a Linux version within 6 months. Most times when I ask a developer about their Linux version, they say they can move as soon as their development software is ported to Linux. bad luck if they use a dead end product.
How does UltrEdit FTP work for synchronising a workstation to a server?
I use Homesite and am looking at a change. Allaire were unresponsive about Homesite's future, locked in to Microsoft and were taken over by Macromedia which seems even less responsive and more Microsoftish.
Homesite FTP sort of works but I end up having to go back to WS_FTP to do some things so I end up using WS_FTP for everything.
Both have a problem copying a directory with subdirectories. Neither has a good way of syncing a set of directories on a workstation with a web site on a server.
From UltraEdit:
"We have had several users report running UltraEdit on Linux under Wine."
Has anyone here tried UltraEdit under Wine? What is it like?
I've never used UltraEdit or EditPlus, but after a few years of trying different setups I've settled on something that works really well for my purpose (developing sites on Windows which will eventually be moved, usually to Linux).
I'm running Apache, PHP, and MySQL locally. Then I use Allaire HomeSite for editing PHP/JS/HTML/CSS/etc. files. The best feature of HomeSite as compared to a few other editors I've used is that it has an internal browser which supports server mapping, meaning that I can set it up to view my PHP files through http://localhost so that the PHP code gets parsed. I don't know if UltraEdit or EditPlus has this same feature, but I wouldn't settle for them if they didn't.
HomeSite also has very nice PHP syntax highlighting which comes with the program.
The only problem I've found with it is that it's a bit slow, especially when you have several files open at once and you need to switch between them often.
-Keegan
Editplus have an English UK and an English US dictionary on their site.
6 months later
The beauty of UltraEdit & EditPlus is how lightweight they are. People use them for their efficiency. Homesite is not really in the same league, it's a bit more heavy.
I'd put homesite in the class of processor intensive rubbish like Dreamweaver, and MS Interdev!!!!
10 months later
One thing I love about EditPlus is its ability to do find/replace using regular expressions. Does anyone know if this is supported in UltraEdit?
a month later
Yes, Ultraedit is able to find/replace using regular expressions.
23 days later
There is one feature that Editplus have that made me change to it from UltraEdit.
The project management. In Ultraedit you cannot have remote files in a project, you can in Editplus.
Other then that i think they are pretty similar in functionallity and such.
mvh
Beej
Editplus can do this for you.
You just set your web servers host to localhost and enter the directory of it in another option and voila. When you preview .php files with CTRL-B they are parsed and run correctly. Smooth and nice.
(NB! I just wound that out, so thanks for inspiring me to search for it 
)
Beej