Hurting for a good palmtop text editor

[Dave Britten]

I recently got ahold of a stack of Borland manuals, including Turbo Assembler 2.0, which I've been dabbling with on my 200LX. Naturally, I'm in need of a good MS-DOS programming text editor, but I'm having a heck of a time coming up with something that checks all the boxes.

Things I want:

• Auto-indenting (doesn't need to be anything fancy with brace detection, just indenting new lines to match the previous line)
• Adjustable hard tabs (if I hit the tab key, I want it to insert a 0x09 character, and display with 4-space tab stops)
• Small memory footprint, so I can shell to DOS and run a compiler/assembler/linker
• Reasonably good compatibility with the mid (64x18) zoom mode
  

I looked at a bunch yesterday, and I found some that are close. A number of small editors are listed on this page: http://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/txtedit1.htm

• E: Not bad, but I had it crash a couple times, and block operations are limited (whole lines only). The batch file "macro" feature is nice. No hard tabs, and you can't press Tab to indent an existing line.
• Sled: Probably what I'll go with in lieu of finding anything better, as it has a few more features than E, but still suffers from handling tabs the way I want.
• VDE: Also very close, but doesn't seem to auto-indent properly if you're in hard-tabs mode. Quite a bit bigger memory footprint, though.
• Freyja: Promising, but I'm not an emacs whiz. Anybody have more experience with it?
• Terse: Includes a build formatted for the 95LX low-res text mode. Doesn't seem to auto-indent.
  

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(05-10-2018 12:42 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  I recently got ahold of a stack of Borland manuals, including Turbo Assembler 2.0, which I've been dabbling with on my 200LX. Naturally, I'm in need of a good MS-DOS programming text editor, but I'm having a heck of a time coming up with something that checks all the boxes.

I heavily used Multi-Edit (not the Lite version mentioned in your link) but I sincerly don't know how it would cope with a tiny screen. I loved column editing, to say a thing.

[cortopar]

You should be able to find DOS versions of vim, emacs, elvis and other vi clones. Then there are language-specific “IDEs”, I say with tongue in cheek. Turbo C++, Turbo Pascal, Watcom C++, Turbo BASIC, GW-BASIC, etc.

I used to run a vi port on my Atari Portfolio. Fun days...

[cortopar]

This list might be useful... http://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/txtedit1.htm

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(05-11-2018 04:45 AM)cortopar Wrote:  This list might be useful... http://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/txtedit1.htm

Isn't it the same link shared by Dave?
;)

[Massimo Gnerucci]

Multi-Edit 7.0 available here.

[Dave Britten]

(05-11-2018 09:19 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  

(05-11-2018 04:45 AM)cortopar Wrote:  This list might be useful... http://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/txtedit1.htm

Isn't it the same link shared by Dave?

Well, he's not wrong: I did find that list useful.

(05-11-2018 09:20 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  Multi-Edit 7.0 available here.

Thanks, I'll have to give that one a look. Yesterday I came across QEdit 3.0, which seems to get about 95% of the way there. Tab handling isn't quite my ideal, but is probably close enough. Plus it can swap itself out to disk or EMS if you need to drop to DOS to run a compiler.

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(05-11-2018 11:19 AM)Dave Britten Wrote:  

(05-11-2018 09:19 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  Isn't it the same link shared by Dave?
;)

Well, he's not wrong: I did find that list useful. :D

Exactly: I never said he was wrong. ;)

(05-11-2018 11:19 AM)Dave Britten Wrote:  

(05-11-2018 09:20 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  Multi-Edit 7.0 available here.

Thanks, I'll have to give that one a look. Yesterday I came across QEdit 3.0, which seems to get about 95% of the way there. Tab handling isn't quite my ideal, but is probably close enough. Plus it can swap itself out to disk or EMS if you need to drop to DOS to run a compiler.

Still I don't know how Multi-Edit would fit what you are looking for. I just know I extensively used it from 30 to 20 years ago, on a larger screen and with a greater keyboard, though.

[Dave Britten]

(05-11-2018 12:45 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  Still I don't know how Multi-Edit would fit what you are looking for. I just know I extensively used it from 30 to 20 years ago, on a larger screen and with a greater keyboard, though.

Yeah, that's always the trick with finding palmtop software: how well will it work with the small, monochrome screen, non-standard keyboard layout, slow CPU, and limited RAM? Late '80s/early '90s stuff tends to be the best place to look, in my experience. It's too bad the 300LX ended up being Windows CE, rather than a 386/486 machine more in line with the OmniBooks.

[Thomas Radtke]

MicroEmacs. If you already know readline/history libraries (e.g., bash) editing will be familiar, otherwise it has a learning curve. Macro (keystroke) programming is very powerful. When I need to do a search within a macro, I use Emacs on Linux or Jasspas MicroEmacs on Windows. Unbeatable.

[cortopar]

(05-11-2018 12:45 PM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  

(05-11-2018 11:19 AM)Dave Britten Wrote:  Well, he's not wrong: I did find that list useful.

Exactly: I never said he was wrong.

No messages may be held against the author after bedtime or late at night.

-The Department of Redundancy Department

[polbit]

I'm a fan of QEdit, very fast and customizable. I've used it on my 200LX for years.

[ArneStolti]

A very good DOS text editor at its time I found was TKO/boxer which could already use multiple files, block copy and paste (columns), search and replace in multiple files etc. It was so good I actually bought it!

[Dave Britten]

(05-12-2018 08:24 PM)ArneStolti Wrote:  A very good DOS text editor at its time I found was TKO/boxer which could already use multiple files, block copy and paste (columns), search and replace in multiple files etc. It was so good I actually bought it!

Looks like Boxer is still around, but they don't sell their DOS version anymore. I'll keep the name in mind in case I spot it in various seedy establishments on the internet.

QEdit has been working well so far. The block functions aren't quite intuitive for anybody accustomed to the modern shift+arrow-keys method, but I can probably get the hang of it. I have to spend a little time exploring the key customization and macro capabilities.