Is textpad dead ???

[Richard Thomas]

Hi,

I've emailed Keith at Helios, copying in the URL for this thread. Hopefully he'll reply with some useful information!

Cheers

Richard

[Simon Hudson]

Presumably the reason why Helios are still paying for the web hosting is that there are still a few people like me who have purchased TextPad relatively recently, and other peoplewill register in the future so there is still an income to be had.

I appreciate the comments about TextPad being dead but for me at the moment that is a side issue, it's the only editor I have found with syntax highlighting support for SAS which is a 'must-have' feature for me. So I am content to pay a few pounds for something that makes my working life a lot easier,and for the moment that's enough as there's no need to part with any more money unless and until a newer and better version appears.

[Jørgen Sundvor Smith]

I surely hope it isn't so. I've been a licensed user of TextPad for quite a few years now, and whilst it remains the best editor out there for my uses I certainly wouldn't mind seeing some development put towards it.

I'd be interested in paying for a license upgrade for the next version.

[Alex Angelopoulos]

In re Richard's comments - and asking Keith to respond - I certainly DO think a little bit of coming out and waving to us would be nice.

Frankly, here's my opinion, based on what I've seen of TextPad over the past two-three years, since I bought it (was it 4.1?) ...

(1) The TextPad developers always have been somewhat low-profile. That makes a lack of updates very scary because it honestly DOES NOT mean TextPad is "dead".

(2) Key to the flexibility and growth of TextPad has been its excellent support for fundamentals, and I think this is where the issues with current slow development may come in. ( OK, we have a couple of niggling issues here and there with regexes, and the macros can't be edited or use expandable variables... but by and large it does all the good stuff and does it right).

.NET IS indeed heavier, and I suspect that the entire underlying architecture has to be redone. Also, all of the major components of TextPad may be in the middle of revamp - after all, almost the only thing that could be transferred as a "pure" algorithm is the regex support and that's one thing that needs some rework.

It would be nice if in the interim we could get more information about critical components inside TextPad, though - I'm at the limit of what I can do without trying to pull out a debugger and start building TextPad plugins the hard way.

[Richard Thomas]

I suppose one thing that gives us an idea that Textpad may return is this page, where a syntax definition's been added on the 6th November this year (something called ACME, whatever that is!).

http://www.textpad.com/add-ons/syna2g.html

Which implies that the hosting's still being *used*, rather than just staying up due to a non-cancelled Direct Debit...

there is hope )

[Simon Mikkelsen]

I too hope TextPad 5 will come, and be better and just as fast as TextPad 4. But as the time goes by my hope slowly disappears, and when I heard about the .net thing I lost hope of the speed part.

If you take TextPad and subtracts it's speed, the result is about the same as a lot of other editors.

Now I only hopes for a new and better TextPad, but when I get a faster computer I dosn't wait anymore, but starts using another editor, properly jEdit.org, witch has the features but lacks the speed.

[Craig M. Rosenblum]

We can not give up hope, but neither can we idly wait.

We need to establish a petition that we want a new version.

Now my needs are going to be different than everyone else's.

I love Textpad, in it's simplicity and complexity.

Interface is my favorite aspect. Most people in my profession use ColdFusion Studio or HomeSite, I prefer Textpad. Being that I am somewhat of a purist, and love to work on the code in it's purity.

I would change nothing about the interface, keep it simple for those who only need a bare bones editor, but have the complex functionality for those of us who love to customize our editors to the max to take advantage of every possible feature.

Does that make sense?

If we can demonstrate a popular need, they will have to respond, what do you say?

[Kevin Lind]

Does Helios Software Solutions have any other products besides Textpad that they are not supporting? It would be nice if they could at least acknowledge that they have a lot of users waiting and wondering about an update.

[Richard Thomas]

Hi

I've had another email from Keith.

There's *definitely* a new version of TextPad, and it seems like it'll be out soon. The original release date of the end of August 2002 was put back (due to technical difficulties, I assume). I think it should be with us soon.

But yeah, there's definitely a new release soon!

Richard

[Eric Vitiello]

It might be smart of them to post information themselves - it appears people are jumping off the ship because of their lack of communication.

[Richard Thomas]

Yeah, it would definitely help.

All they really need to say is "A new version of Textpad is being developed", and update the ETA of the product depending on how the coding goes, so that people can see that the project really is happening.

[Alex Angelopoulos]

Richard Thomas wrote:
>
> I suppose one thing that gives us an idea that Textpad may
> return is this page, where a syntax definition's been added
> on the 6th November this year (something called ACME,
> whatever that is!).
>
> http://www.textpad.com/add-ons/syna2g.html
>
> Which implies that the hosting's still being *used*, rather
> than just staying up due to a non-cancelled Direct Debit...
>
> there is hope )

If you submit an addon of some kind, you usually get a response within a couple of business days from inside Helios; I have no doubts about people being at work on things.

[Arjo Hooimeijer]

Hmz time to give this topic another kick... why isn't there anybody from Helios responding?

[chris]

very good question! one i'd like answered after PAYING for the software.