Why even bother with notepad?

[Jason]

After some serious thinking, I've got a big question? Why does Microsoft even install notepad on Windows? They also put wordpad on, which does everything that notepad does, and then does some more! So am I missing something? Does notepad perform some crucial function that wordpad doesn't? Does anyone have input on this?

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Jason M. DesRoches
Co-Founder / Business Development
Big Resources Network (http://www.bigresources.com)
jason@bigresources.com
ICQ: 17947522

[This message has been edited by Jason (edited 10-17-2000).]

[jalouda]

i can't figure it out jason.
personally speaking, i was never a fan of wordpad and i use notepad a fair bit but i am not sure why. i think it is just that notepad is so small and so plain and basic that it has a kind of charm about it and so survives along with the fancier editors :)
uh oh..getting all sentimental about a text editor..i think i'm losing it! :D

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~jalouda~
moderator 123webmaster (http://www.123webmaster.com)
* jalouda@iol.ie
* http://www.geocities.com/jaloudasworld/

[Ian]

I use notepad HEAPS, its a good we tool for copy and pasting text, scriptlets and things, and you don't get the wasted space with the header and buttons and stuff that you see with wordpad. The only time I ever use wordpad is if the source of a page or the file I am opening is to large to be opened in notepad, if it wasn't for that, wordpad wouldn't even be installed on my pc.
Notepad on the other hand I could not live without, it is common for me to have 18-20 windows open while working, 5-6 of these are notepad with bits of source code, bits of icq conversations that a want to have handy if they contain info regarding to what I'm doing, bits a piecse of javascript code that I might be working on or refering back to as a guide.....the list goes on.
notepad is my little life line :)
do you know whats best about it? It doesn't have buttons and other useless things, so it doesn't look like a microsoft product..hehe

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Ian

Web Development - BIG Resources Inc
Head Guide - 123Webmaster.com (http://www.123webmaster.com/)
ian@123webmaster.com
BIG Resources.com (http://www.bigresources.com)
ICQ: 25828668

[2bone]

You might want to check out Ultraedit as an alternative to notepad. Why? Well, you can work on large files for one thing, use line numbers while you're coding (just for reference & debugging), macros, automatic backups, etc...

I WAS a notepad user.. but Ultraedit makes your life much easier. There's a 45 day trial at www.ultraedit.com (http://www.ultraedit.com) . Even if all you want is -simple- , this proggy is still way easier to use than notepad!

Really.

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# insert witty sig line here

[whkoh]

Notepad is a great ASCII editor, because it saves only plain text, which is understood by all editors, not like Microsoft Word, which has colors and all, but takes quite some space compared to files saved by Notepad. Alternatives to notepad like NoteTab Pro (http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-4003353-100-4158233.html?tag=st.dl.10001-103-1.lst-7-19.4158233) are even better if you use notepad for editing HTML.

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Koh Wei Han
Network Engineer
Contact: whkoh@apexmail.com , whkoh@mailandnews.com , whkoh@020.co.uk

[jonirvine]

I also use Notepad tons! Although I managed to find a slightly better version a while back. Those who use notepad for HTML scripting would probably like it.

It's on my current project site below

jon

[Dr. Web]

I still don't understand the allure of black text on a white background. When I use homesite/ coldfusion/ kawa...they color code the scripts to mact each other. Style sheets in pink, tables in green, javascript in red, java in gree, erranious in blue. It makes it much more "visual" even though you are still coding by hand. I mean, once when I was at my dad's place, and I noticed an error on a page I made, I opened his notepad and made the changes...but thats it! The only reason I mention it, is that it seems like some of the moderators here prefer notepad.

[kevin]

I believe the allure of NotePad has something to do with the fact that it has a zero learning curve. It's just so easy to use, but of course that's it limitation also. I bet if MS excluded NotePad from Windows they wouldn't hear the end of it.

I still use it, but I really prefer NoteTabLight that allows you to work on multiple documents and has tons of features, and it's a free program. For basic editing, 1st Page 2000, which is also free, is nice because it color codes, can display line numbers, displays hidden characters, has built in HTML validation and will tidy up HTML code, plus lots more features.

Regards,
Kevin