The Horde of Free Stuff

[Solecord]

It's not free, but I haven't found any other editor that compares to Macromedia HomeSite+. I don't use any of the editing tools - I code everything by hand - but I really like the way HomeSite is layed out and it's color coding of programming languages. It has a bunch of customized settings that some of the free editors lack, or just don't operate the way it does in HomeSite. Plus, HomeSite loads very fast for me and hardly uses any memory.

I used Scite and Notepad+ but just didn't like the feel of them compared to HomeSite+.

I also installed NVU a long time ago - not sure if it's changed since, but it was a memory hog when I used it way back...

[Canadian*Sniper]

notepad+ is nice because you can create the colour format themes for your own programming languages

[Baker]

text [ad is nice but i prefer scitilla

and scite

There are other text editors that probably exceed TextPad's capabilities for a specific task -- like coding C, Java, PHP, HTML or what not -- but what makes TextPad unique is that it:

I have never encountered a bug in it. It does everything (sort text, block select mode, case changes) and just about any time I even imagined something obscure I wanted to do, I've found the feature somewhere in it.

The thing I really like about TextPad however is that the user-interface is friendly and non-cluttered, some of the trillion improved text editors out there end up having very complicated or obscure menus and somehow TextPad manages to keep the user-friendliness ... not easy.

[fridge]

text [ad is nice but i prefer scitilla

and scite

[=peg=]

I *still* haven't found the ideal thing to turn AVI movies into SVCD format. What is SVCD? Your DVD probably supports it and basically you can turn AVI movies into SVCD and play them on your DVD player.

well if it is for ur own usage only then the easy solution would be to buy a DVD player that plays DivX as well.. u should be able to find one for around $50-70.. i got one myself and it rocks.. fit 5 or 6 full movies in .avi format on a single 4.7 GB DVD

[RocketGuy]

TextPad - Does almost everything that Notepad should

yeah thanx for showing me that, its perfect for quakec work

[Monster]

Ya can't forget the INSTANT MESSENGERS

Yahoo
AIM
MSN
IRC
Trillian
Miranda
GAIM
ICQ

[Baker]

Add:



NVU - http://www.nvu.com/

It is a CSS supporting HTML editor/web page authoring software. In my opinion, the only good way to make a web page is either do it with NotePad or ask Solecord to do it , but this is a very solid HTML editor.

OpenOffice.org - A solid and free Office Suite, but I still think borrowing the MS Office CD from work and forgetting to bring it back to work is a better deal

[Baker]

Free applications you like and use.

My list ...

TextPad - Does almost everything that Notepad should

Hexplorer - An excellent Open Source Hex Editor

Speakonia Text to Speech software, reads web pages or whatever

1-Click Answers formerly known as GuruNet. Alt-Click any word in Windows or in a web page for a definition or more information.

Irfanview - It is MSPaint on steroids. Simple and easy to use like MSPaint, but does a lot more for simple image manipulation.

Agent Ransack - Does what "Search -> Find Files or Folders" should do, but doesn't.

PDF995 - I've mentioned this before, can take almost anything and make it a PDF.

ExamDiff - Compares 2 text files or even 2 folders and displays the differences. Very, very cool.

Still looking for ...

I *still* haven't found the ideal thing to turn AVI movies into SVCD format. What is SVCD? Your DVD probably supports it and basically you can turn AVI movies into SVCD and play them on your DVD player.

A couple of years ago I had *almost* the ultimate combination of things to make this happen -- I could make slideshows and put them on a CD and then play them on almost any DVD player. This was my idea for a cheat on how to use pictures without developing them.

But the process was too difficult and I think I had to use Nero for some part of it and Nero isn't free and either way, it was too much work. Still trying to discover the secret formula or something that doesn't involve buying an application (I don't want to pay for something to discover something sucks about it and believe me, some of the surprises I encountered means that it is easy for something to suck when it comes to this.)