Portable Apps for Development?

Question

Can anybody recommend some good portable apps for development? I'd prefer not to deal with U3, but what I'm hoping for is an IDE/editor with code completion and syntax highlighting.

Edit:

• Notepad++ appears to have completion and some other awesome features. I think I'm going to give that a shot.

Thanks, Greg!

Answer 1

I find Notepad++ to be pretty useful. I don't think it has code completion, but it does have syntax highlighting for a bunch of different languages. You can also get some useful plugins for it.

Answer 2

I realize this isn't for everyone, but I've been real happy using Emacs and putting my configuration in source control (git, in my case). I can run it anywhere, on any OS, and have my entire environment installed with a single checkout.

But like I said, Emacs isn't for everyone. Sometimes, it seems more like a lifestyle than an IDE.

My second-favorite cross-platform IDE would be jEdit, but I can't say that I've used it in the context you're describing.

Answer 3

I swear by Notepad2, it's nothing all that special up against a traditional IDE, but it has really good syntax highlighting, a very pretty printable format (versus Notepad!), and good tabbing/curly-brace tracking functionality. It also runs really well off a thumb drive.

Answer 4

PSPad is an excellent editor, with support for many languages (including custom ones). I did use it for programming in Python, PHP, Visual Foxpro, AutoIt3. Runs perfectly in a thumb drive, it's about 4Mby for the main executable.

PSPad Features

Answer 5

Editpad Pro is excellent (although not free) for text editing/programming as long as you don't need autocomplete/debugging. If I needed free I would probably go with Notepad++, I would really miss the regex functionality though. Other than that I find PuTTY, WinSCP, and Aquadata Studio (again not free).

Answer 6

Try Acme: Stand Alone Complex, a very portable programmer's editor originally created by Rob Pike for the Plan 9 OS. The linked version runs on Windows, MacOSX and Linux. It does not do syntax highlighting and code completion (by choice). But if you're strongly influenced by UNIX and software tools this might be the right choice for you; it comes with a built in shell, and many UNIX-like tools. Its a powerful, portable editor if you're willing to learn something a little different.