Text editors

[Tim Streater]

(e-mail address removed)
says...

Yes, but WordPad edit a text evenwhile being a "word processor" and is not
processing
words.

So does TextEdit on the Mac but I wouldn't use it for programming as it
lacks features I need.

 

[William Gill]

The question was:
What I was expecting was the ability to color text at my will, just
for emphasis, when it wasn't code but just a letter or a list for
myself. .

Therefore WordPad is THE solution evenwhile you did not accept that WordPad is
editing a text ...

What these nice people are trying to tell you is that by definition, a
text editor saves only a simple character set to represent numbers,
characters, and a few symbols. The only non-printing characters it
stores are newline, tab, and form-feed.

Better text editors have features that make it easier on the user while
editing, like syntax highlighting, and spell check.

With syntax highlighting the editor recognizes sequences of characters
that match a known syntax. For example, it you tell the editor the
output will be used as HTML, the editor recognizes the sequence "<p>"
and displays it differently (highlighted). This decode process is built
into the editor and isn't saved in the output document.

A word processor on the other hand (even one with limited features like
Wordpad) allows the user to define a quasi-syntax on the fly (i.e.
"color text at my will.") In order to do this, the word processor must
save special flags with the "text" to afford decoding at a future time.

If I create a document containing only the following:

This is a bold statement.

And I want the word bold to in fact be bold, a text editor will store
only "This is a bold statement." However a word processor will save the
original text along with instructions and flags that tell the next
session what to do.

e.g.

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang1033{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fcharset0
Arial;}}
{\*\generator Msftedit 5.41.15.1515;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs20 This is
a \b bold\b0 statement.\par
}

With the extra hieroglyphics inserted it is no longer a text file, and
would break the file for use as HTML, CSS, a script, or a program.

Its like saying you want a circle with corners. Once you add a corner,
it is no longer a circle.

Bottom line, besides the semantics of text editor vs word processor,
what is your ultimate purpose for the final document? If it is to be
used as an HTML or CSS file it must not contain any of the word
processing "flags." If you still want to "color text at my will", you
can save the file as rtf until complete, and then "save as.." to HTML,
giving you an "rtf" version, and an "HTML" version. Though some editors
will require you to "save as.." to txt and then rename it to html.

If keeping two versions (a development "rtf" and a production "html") of
your file isn't a problem, why limit yourself to Wordpad when there are
fuller featured word processors available? Just keep in mind, many will
add their own markup if you "save as HTML", so you may have to use the
two step "save as txt"; rename as "HTML."

 

[Ray_Net]

I think I understand what you are trying to say, but not sure. WordPad
is a simple word processor. While it can edit text files it is for "word
processing". That is ot can format text and save in a Rich Text or other
word processor formats which have embedded special formatting codes that
are not suitable for HTML or scripting source code. That is why it is
not recommended to use WordPad, or any other word processor to generate
code.

I agree with you WordPad should be avoided if you want to create an HTML page, a
javascript text , a css file, etc ... only "simple text editor" should be used.

But !!! héhé Microsoft Word could be used to create an html page when saving as a
web page

 

[Ray_Net]

If I create a document containing only the following:

This is a bold statement.

And I want the word bold to in fact be bold, a text editor will store
only "This is a bold statement."

I agree .. and the printing result will never be in BOLD

However, if a text editor permit you to be clever by coding:
This is a bold statement.\rThis is a bold statement.\r\n

and if the option in the printer allow him to do a carriage-return without newline
..... the print result is in bold.

I have done that in the past when windows was not born

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

But !!! héhé Microsoft Word could be used to create an html page when saving as a
web page

Yeah, rrrrright. So can MS Publisher of sorts...

To OP: No do NOT follow any of these suggestions above. We are joking!

 

[Lewis]

So does TextEdit on the Mac but I wouldn't use it for programming as it
lacks features I need.

Textedit has two modes, Plain Text and Rich Text. WHen in Plain Text
mode, it is a text editor. Not a particularly full-featured one, but a
perfectly well behaved one.

 

[William Gill]

I agree .. and the printing result will never be in BOLD

However, if a text editor permit you to be clever by coding:
This is a bold statement.\rThis is a bold statement.\r\n

or
This is a bold statement.\r bold \r\n
or
This is a bold\Ox08\Ox08\Ox08\Ox08 statement.\r\n

and if the option in the printer allow him to do a carriage-return without newline
.... the print result is in bold.

I have done that in the past when windows was not born

Yes that's how it was done on impact printers and display terminals in
the old days, and can still be achieved on some printers if you can
crack the control codes the character based printer (typically an impact
printer) uses. This is what print drivers do for you.

However, you still haven't answered what the ultimate end
purpose/destination is for your documents, so we continue to discuss the
symptoms instead of the disease.