Code editors

[zemtex]

I use notepad++, this topic is probably discussed many times over, but I am always open to try new editors. Is there a good one out there that supports tabs?

[donkey]

You should try RadAsm, I have used it for many years and it has about every feature you could possibly want in V3 including code completion, debugging tools, resource editor and tabs.

[zemtex]

It is a good editor, I have downloaded it now. I like the auto complete procedures, but can I make it autocomplete the PROTO type also?

[cman]

You might try notepad2 : http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html . I've been using this for years now , and really love it.  I've only seen this editor crash a handful of times ever ......

[zemtex]

A few annoyances and positives:

Notepad++:
-----------------
Annoyances:
* Charset gets messed up randomly at a random interval on a daily basis
* Does not auto complete PROCS like RadAsm. It has an autocomplete proc function, but it doesn't work, I suspect I have to make it work myself by implementing something, but I don't know where to do that.

Positives worth mentioning:
* Press & Hold CTRL key use mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out, it changes the font size and it is crystal clear at all sizes, very good feature
* Ctrl + L to delete lines, Ctrl + D to duplicate lines, Ctrl + Shift + up/dwn arrow keys to move single or sections of lines up or down (avvoiding the incredibly lame copy and paste like with other editors)
   Ctrl + Shift + U to make selected text uppercase, CTRL + U to make selected text lowercase
* Select a section of text and press TAB it will move text forward, SHIFT + TAB it will move section of text backwards
* Good search and search&replace where you can use different techniques to make advanced replacements
* Beside all of this it has almost infinite functionality that I haven't really used much yet, macro capabilities too of course

AsmEdit:
-------------

Annoyances:
* When pressing and holding down the shift key to type in CAPITAL letters, it doesn't respond when you use the space key, you have to let go of the shift key, very problematic and makes it ineffective when you have a habit of typing some directives in capital letters, to give an example, if I want to type "OFFSET MyString" I have to do this:
1: Press and hold SHIFT
2: Type "OFFSET"
3: Let go of shift key
4: press space key to make a space character between "OFFSET" and "MyString"
5: THEN I have to press SHIFT again to get a capital "M" in "MyString"
6: Finish typing "MyString"

It is very bothersome.

* Another less annoying thing about AsmEdit, is that once you open it, it sort of is like entering the private house of Indiana Jones, you never know what you see, it is sort of a "specialized house", the user interface feel so different than general microsoft programs, it feels specialized in every way, you don't really know where to look for things as you would in a general windows program. This specializatiton can probably pay off when you get to know the editor well later, but to a beginner of the editor, it just feels like visiting Indiana Jones special hut in a mountain.

Good sides:
* About everything else seems to be good about AsmEdit, at least featurewise, it looks like it has plenty of features (but it lacks some useful ones compared to notepad++)

[zemtex]

You might try notepad2 : http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html . I've been using this for years now , and really love it.  I've only seen this editor crash a handful of times ever ......

Thanks, only one problem it doesn't seem to support tabs. Larger projects consists of several .asm and .inc files and I am dependent on tabs.

[donkey]

It is a good editor, I have downloaded it now. I like the auto complete procedures, but can I make it autocomplete the PROTO type also?

There was an addin to autogenerate PROTO's in RadAsm, GoAsm doesn't use PROTO's so I am not sure what happened to it (I rarely if ever use MASM) but if you post in the RadAsm subforum I'm sure a MASM user can help with that.

Edit: Sorry, didn't take long to figure it out. Fired up a MASM program I use for testing libraries and to generate a PROTO simply right-click the procedure in the Properties window (bottom right) and select "Create Proto".

[carlos]

Well I don't want to start a flame wars here, but I toss my two cents of advice

If you want a totally free editor, there is Contex http://www.contexteditor.org/ or if you are willing yo fork 60 dollars, you could buy Ultraedit http://www.ultraedit.com/, I used the later for several years (until I switched to Linux), and is fast, had tabs, macros, and an hex mode

[ragdog]

Hi

Very nice is the MASM syntax file "masm.uew" for UltraEdit from Diablo2oo2

But i use Radasm it have all what a coder need.
Radam3 is very good but it have not a autocomplete for includes and lib files like Radasm2
this is a missing function

[jj2007]

If you want a totally free editor, there is Contex http://www.contexteditor.org/

Just downloaded the portable version. It looks fast and relatively tidy, but

- can't find which key to press for Assemble, Link & Run (although ConTEXT knows the source is x86)

- when I hit Enter at the end of .if eax, I want an extra tab:

Code Select Expand

.if eax
nop

- the "Find" function is lousy: no "found list" as in RichMasm, joker as in SendMessage*WM_ doesn't work

- the "Replace" function lacks the option "within selection"

- it has bookmarks, hooray!, but there is no single-click sidebar showing the selected text as in RichMasm; instead, you have to click twice to see the bookmarks menu, or you have to remember what bookmark #1 meant - very cumbersome

- besides, the bookmarks are offset if you changed the asm file e.g. in notepad, meaning ConTEXT stores a fixed offset only (a minor point since you would not use Notepad anyway...)

- colourful, but to understand complex code I need individual colouring as in...
CalcInput$   = 11+(12-13*14-15)*33/Sin(4)*Cos(5)-2114
CalcToken$   =  +(-*-)*/s*c- 

... not a meaningless Christmas tree:
CalcInput$   = 11+(12-13*14-15)*33/Sin(4)*Cos(5)-2114
CalcToken$ =  +(-*)*/s*c- 


- surprisingly enough, it takes about 3 seconds to load my RichMasm *.asm source, compared to 0.64 seconds with RichMasm (loading the 750k*.asc source in RM is even faster). Three seconds is quite a lot for a 400k plain text file; QEditor does it in milliseconds, same for TopGun.

- last but not least, why is the console output window below the main window? Assembler is a "vertical" language, and the proper place for the output window is a small column to the right of the edit window. Besides, a lot of "real estate" is wasted on top, so that I see (using the same font) 36 lines only, as compared to 45 in RichMasm.

[zemtex]

It is a good editor, I have downloaded it now. I like the auto complete procedures, but can I make it autocomplete the PROTO type also?

There was an addin to autogenerate PROTO's in RadAsm, GoAsm doesn't use PROTO's so I am not sure what happened to it (I rarely if ever use MASM) but if you post in the RadAsm subforum I'm sure a MASM user can help with that.

Edit: Sorry, didn't take long to figure it out. Fired up a MASM program I use for testing libraries and to generate a PROTO simply right-click the procedure in the Properties window (bottom right) and select "Create Proto".

Do you happen to know how I can create my own templates in the template folder, I have a GDI+ template, DX9 template and non-dialog as well as dialog window templates that I want to implement.

About the "space"-key problem I described, it seems like RadAsm have a "wordlist case convert", I want to change "invoke", "offset" and "addr" to uppercase in the wordlist, the question is where it is located  :P

[donkey]

Hi,

Create a template by using the "Create Template" option in the Project menu

To have it change certain keywords to uppercase only, I am not sure, that is one for Ketil to answer. There are several word lists, in the api subfolder are the main Windows api lists, in the [assembler].ini file are the ones specific to your assembler.

[zemtex]

Thanks