Warp wrote:

>   Can notepad automatically color your code? Can it autoindent your code?
> Can you perform a search&replace using a regexp? Can you hex-edit a binary
> file (with a typical hex editor layout)? Can you convert between DOS and
> UNIX newlines?
> 
>   Can you configure a key combination to scroll the view one line at a
> time while keeping the cursor visually in place, and another key
> combination to scroll the view one line at a time while keeping the
> cursor in its current line in the text? Can you configure a key combination
> to insert a binary file at the cursor position uuencoded?
> 
>   Does notepad support versioning (eg. with git or svn)?
> 
>   How many operating systems has notepad been ported to?

OK, so nobody is _seriously_ suggesting that Notepad is a good text 
editor. But, for example, SciTE quite happily syntax hilights code, 
autoindents it, closes XML tags for you, does search and replace, 
converts between DOS and UNIX newlines, and has a bazillion 
configuration options. It can also call external compilers and viewers 
and so forth.

It's true that SciTE doesn't allow configuration down to the level that 
Emacs evidently does. (E.g., you can't *arbitrarily* remap keys. You 
can't build whole new syntax hilighting rules, only tweak existing ones. 
Etc.)

My goal here is not really to prove that Notepad is better than Emacs - 
Notepad is obviously inferior to just about every editor known to man. 
I'm just trying to find out what Emacs users consider to be its strengths.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message