Although I use Visual Studio 2008 and Ruby In Steel it is not a light weight option if you need to install it on another PC.
In terms of alternatives I have tried Notepad++ and although it seems very good I just have not taken to it. It is hard to know exactly what it is, maybe the clutter of the menus. It certainly has a lot of plugins and I would definitely want to use the File Explorer one if I was to use Notepad++ regularly.
Previous experiences using Intype and E Text Editor had been mixed and I don’t believe there has been any significant recent changes with either of these.
Then I read a number of positive posts about Komodo so decided to give it a try. This is not by any means all the features but some highlights :-
- File / Project Explorer which to me is an absolute must for Ruby on Rails given the number of files to update. In Komodo Edit this is implemented as a Project Explorer which does have the advantage that you can “hide” files you know you won’t edit. To “hide” a file you select delete which gives the option of removing a file from a Project which could be a bit more intuitive
- Overall it has an uncluttered elegance. The dialogs are clean and clear. Similarities to Firefox are I am sure not a coincidence considering Komodo Edit is built on the Mozilla code base
- Keyboard options seem to default to the same as those in Visual Studio. Just one example is the very useful “find in files” which is Ctrl+Shift+F
- Comprehensive feature set with everything I can think of included. There is even the ability to record macros and edit them in Javascript
- As noted on the features page it supports all the platforms which could be very handy if I decide to use Linux
As an aside apart from the clear leader of TexMate editors for Ruby on Rails development it is a very open field with Komodo at about 1% usage according to Ruby Survey Results . Generally in the comparison of text editors there seems to be one particular feature that each particular advocate considers critical. For example folding (code folding, html folding etc) is very important for some people’s usage but something I could personally take or leave. However overall I feel that Komodo Edit has almost got something for everyone.
Posted by Norman 
