Is TextPad going away?
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Is TextPad going away?
I checked today to make sure there wasn't an available upgrade to the version that I'm running and I still have the latest version. I'm surprised by that since I've had it since June of 2004. Newer versions of TextPad have never taken this long. Does this mean that TextPad is being abandoned? Or is a new version on the horizon?
I wouldn't want them to "bow to pressures" either. I just find it unusual that there isn't even a mention of possible future enhancements. I can't think of any widely used software product that doesn't release new versions every now and then to introduce new functionality. Usually, there is a forum like this one which discusses the new enhancements and sometimes there's even a beta available for wannabe testers to try out.
Helios has been much quieter than I would expect regarding the future of TextPad. I've been using TextPad for years now and would be terribly disappointed to see it go.
Helios has been much quieter than I would expect regarding the future of TextPad. I've been using TextPad for years now and would be terribly disappointed to see it go.
Even bug fixes would be nice
TextPad is certainly stable, but there are still bugs that could be fixed (if it were in development, which is an understandable question). For example, leaving files open after they've been closed in TextPad is one of the biggest annoyances for me.
No software is perfect, and it's reasonable to wonder whether anyone is working on it.
Does anybody know?
No software is perfect, and it's reasonable to wonder whether anyone is working on it.
Does anybody know?
That was informative. Sounds like a non-denial denial.
Five year ago, UltraEdit-3 was comparable to TextPad 4 and I preferred TextPad.
Now, UltraEdit 11 is in beta - yes Eleven - and TextPad is still in version 4. Version numbers don't really matter, but the feature differences are now vast.
I still prefer TextPads UI, but the glacial pace of development is a real concern.
Why should I not purchase UE, and abandon TextPad? That message doesn't persuade me.
Plus - the spell checker fails to find mispelled words regularly.
Five year ago, UltraEdit-3 was comparable to TextPad 4 and I preferred TextPad.
Now, UltraEdit 11 is in beta - yes Eleven - and TextPad is still in version 4. Version numbers don't really matter, but the feature differences are now vast.
I still prefer TextPads UI, but the glacial pace of development is a real concern.
Why should I not purchase UE, and abandon TextPad? That message doesn't persuade me.
Plus - the spell checker fails to find mispelled words regularly.
I agree with dloren.
Any programmer who has done any kind of commercial programming will tell you that when a client asks for progress on the project, the last thing the client wants to hear is "Oh, it's coming along just fine. I cant tell you what it will have in it, what it will do, or when it will be done though. You will just have to wait and see. But trust me, it is worth your waiting for it." It won't matter how great the software is, the customer will not be happy and will look elsewhere.
Helios must be mangaged by their engineers and not a proper management staff or they would not let the customers go this long without something to give them.
I'll go check out Ultraedit.
Any programmer who has done any kind of commercial programming will tell you that when a client asks for progress on the project, the last thing the client wants to hear is "Oh, it's coming along just fine. I cant tell you what it will have in it, what it will do, or when it will be done though. You will just have to wait and see. But trust me, it is worth your waiting for it." It won't matter how great the software is, the customer will not be happy and will look elsewhere.
Helios must be mangaged by their engineers and not a proper management staff or they would not let the customers go this long without something to give them.
I'll go check out Ultraedit.
While I think some previous posts have been rather melodramatic, I'd agree that it would be nice to get some indication of a) upcoming feature enhancments and/or b) an approximate ETA for the next version.
I've been using Textpad for...well I'm not even sure how many years now -- it's my primary work tool (I'm a full-time web developer, mainly using PHP) -- and I'm not about to stop. I've tried pretty much every single IDE and editor at one time or another -- dozens of them, including UltraEdit. But I keep coming back to TextPad because it's amazingly fast, stable and -- above all -- simple and uncluttered.
A code explorer would be nice, though
I've been using Textpad for...well I'm not even sure how many years now -- it's my primary work tool (I'm a full-time web developer, mainly using PHP) -- and I'm not about to stop. I've tried pretty much every single IDE and editor at one time or another -- dozens of them, including UltraEdit. But I keep coming back to TextPad because it's amazingly fast, stable and -- above all -- simple and uncluttered.
A code explorer would be nice, though
No, they're not managed by their engineers or we would have had ten versions in the last two years instead of ... none.Dracos wrote:Helios must be mangaged by their engineers and not a proper management staff or they would not let the customers go this long without something to give them. I'll go check out Ultraedit.
Check out UltraEdit, but UE's regex implementation is FULL of bugs. I registered both about three years ago, used mostly UE, but finally switched because of I use regex too often to live with UE's problems.
So, there is no perfect editor world out there.
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richardtallent
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I've avoided upgrading to UE since v.9.10, but the new features in 11 (including code folding and multiple languages per file) finally got me, and the lack of needed enhancements in TextPad in the same time period leave me with no choice but to move back to UE. So, after checking this forum today looking for news about any impending options, I went and upgraded UE and re-mapped my file types.
As a programmer, I've taken to being *very* skiddish about products that fail to have releases over a long period of time. My experience has been that either (a) the programmer has moved on to the Next Big Thing and is leaving the project stagnant (what the UE people did when they were working on UltraCompare, which is why I switched to TextPad in the first place), (b) they are trying to re-architect the whole thing at once (i.e., not applying principles of agile methodologies), (c) business sucks and they've decided to move the business to nights/weekends and get a day job (common issue with mom&pop software), or (d) the product has fundamental flaws that make enhancements nearly impossible (the IE6 problem).
I'm not trying to spread FUD. I'm a happy TextPad user, and when TextPad v5 comes out, I'll probably upgrade, but I have to keep moving, even if it means switching my primary editor as they leap-frog past each other.
As a programmer, I've taken to being *very* skiddish about products that fail to have releases over a long period of time. My experience has been that either (a) the programmer has moved on to the Next Big Thing and is leaving the project stagnant (what the UE people did when they were working on UltraCompare, which is why I switched to TextPad in the first place), (b) they are trying to re-architect the whole thing at once (i.e., not applying principles of agile methodologies), (c) business sucks and they've decided to move the business to nights/weekends and get a day job (common issue with mom&pop software), or (d) the product has fundamental flaws that make enhancements nearly impossible (the IE6 problem).
I'm not trying to spread FUD. I'm a happy TextPad user, and when TextPad v5 comes out, I'll probably upgrade, but I have to keep moving, even if it means switching my primary editor as they leap-frog past each other.
I used to be TextPad's greatest cheerleader years ago, but without continued development, TextPad is now abandonware. Text editors are no longer simple derivations from Windows Notepad anymore. As a long-time registered TextPad user, I'd love to pay for an upgrade sometime this decade, and from the previous comments, I'm not alone.
Zaine Ridling
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I, too, have been a big avocate of TextPad, but lately I got a "wandering eye." I just spent a couple of days checking out the latest UltraEdit (11.0). It has some nice features, but it doesn't seem to have the professional polish of Textpad. For one thing, TP is a lot faster. I have a pretty modern machine, and UE is not as responsive. Just selecting a block of code and using TAB to shift it over, the type-ahead buffer fills because UE cannot keep up (i.e., release TAB and watch it keep going until the buffer empties). I also think TextPad's interface is much, much cleaner. The one thing I wanted to look at in UE--code folding--I didn't like. It is too simplistic to support languages with more than a simplistic block structure. It is great for my C and C++ code, but I want to use it with my Ada too. There is no way to setup the folding for anything more complex than "these strings start blocks" and "these strings end blocks." Plus, I like the fact that TP lets me define different tab settings for different languages! There is only two things I really, really want in a future version of TextPad:zridling wrote:I used to be TextPad's greatest cheerleader years ago, but without continued development, TextPad is now abandonware. Text editors are no longer simple derivations from Windows Notepad anymore. As a long-time registered TextPad user, I'd love to pay for an upgrade sometime this decade, and from the previous comments, I'm not alone.
1) Code-folding that is fast and efficient (AE is slow and affects the smoothness of its scrolling), and versitile enough for languages that need more support than checking for "{" and "}" or "begin" and "end". Maybe regular expressions would be good enough (better than static strings). The really bad thing about how AE does it, is that ANY start block string can match any end block string; they aren't matched together.
2) Support for CTags for something comparible. For a large code base, being able to find definitions and their points of usage is essential. I currently have tools setup to do this, but not as cleanly as it could be with built-in support.
Actually there is an AddOn available for TextPad which adds basic ctags-support. Since it's an addon it's not integrated very well, but it works very well for my case and I wouldn't want to miss it.Drxenos wrote:2) Support for CTags for something comparible. For a large code base, being able to find definitions and their points of usage is essential. I currently have tools setup to do this, but not as cleanly as it could be with built-in support.
Sargon
I know, but it don't work any better than my tools do. As you said, it's "not well integrated." I'd like something supported by the editor.Sargon wrote:Actually there is an AddOn available for TextPad which adds basic ctags-support. Since it's an addon it's not integrated very well, but it works very well for my case and I wouldn't want to miss it.
Sargon