Feb 6

For the next 1 to 2 months I will be stuck on a Windows PC. During this period of time I will still have to design websites and learn Ruby. Writing code is one of the most simple tasks you can do on a computer but any programmer will tell you that notepad just doesn’t cut it. On OSX there is a great application that you can buy for around $60 called Textmate. Textmate speeds up development because it auto completes what you type. For instance you can set the DOCTYPE with only a few key strokes.

There really isn’t been a solid code editor for Windows, until now! A small firm has just released the alpha version of InType. InType is a new lightweight, fast, and beautiful text editor. After playing with it for several hours it is very evident that it is not complete but you can see the developers have the correct ideas.

Cons:

  • not tabbed
  • can not undo
  • several mistakes in the bundles of code
  • no ftp/internet integration (yet)

Benifits:

  • easy language changing
  • great styles
  • wide variety of bundles
  • lightweight & quick

I suggest that you check this out if you are stuck on Windows or don’t want to shell out $60 for TextMate. It still has a long ways to go to be considered a TextMate replacement or equivalent but it is sure a step in the right direction for Windows text editors.