Windows C++ highlighting

Question

Hi

Could anyone recommend me an Editor with C++ highlighting? I know there is VIM but would prefer an easier one where I could use all the classical WINdows commands.

Many thanks

Answer 1

Notepad2 is a great lightweight editor with syntax highlighting (including C/C++). Displays line numbers, print margin, &c. as well.

Answer 2

Notepad++ is similar to notepad2. Another option for you to check out. Does line numbers as well, code folding, and code auto-complete.

Answer 3

Notepad++

Answer 4

I use SciTE. It is the example project for Scintilla - a free source code editing component.

Edit: Notepad++ also uses Scintilla at the core. I have tested it (nice plugins) and found it to be a bit buggy and slow, one example which came to mind - edit a 350k source file and then vertically select some columns from top to bottom and copy this text, open a new file and then paste - you will have to wait allot!

I'm back to SciTE - blazing fast and stable (like Scintilla).

Answer 5

On windows, If you are looking for free and pretty well featured IDE then the Eclipe CDT is nice. Also check out the Visual C++ Express.

If on a Mac XCode is free and awesome, Eclipse works there as well.

For pay options Visual Studio is still the best on windows.

If you are looking for just an editor then Notepad++ or Context works.

Answer 6

I'd have to recommend UltraEdit It has similar features to notepad++. I like ultra-edit in particular for its ability to edit the syntax highlighing commands (we've added custom languages pretty easily), as well as amazingly well implemented find-in-files.

Answer 7

Don't forget Emacs, especially the EmacsW32 Windows port. Very good C++ syntax highlighting (well, it's got highlighting available for pretty much every programming language known to man, but not all of them are included in the basic package).

Answer 8

Personally I prefer Programmer's Notepad 2 as my lightweight editor of choice on Windows. It is fast, works well and supports a large number of language syntax's out of the box and it is free to boot.

Answer 9

Textpad is free to use (if you don't mind the occasional nag screen) and supports highlighting for C++. It doesn't have a lot of extra features, so if you just want highlighting this might be useful.

Answer 10

I would recommend CodeKana, which is an excellent C/C++/C# code highlighter and visualizer plugin for Visual Studio: http://www.codekana.com/

Answer 11

Pepper is an awesome text editor.

http://theindiecompanyllc.com

Answer 12

I use EmEditor for all my work outside of Visual Studio. It has syntax highlighting and autoindent support for C++ as well as many other languages. It's also fast, unobtrusive and has great Unicode support.

Answer 13

I'm surprised Visual C++ Express Edition doesn't have more positive comments. I use Visual Studio for everything it supports, and Programmer's Notepad 2 or ConTEXT for highlighting file types it doesn't support. The performance difference of Visual Studio against Eclipse is laughable - almost makes you say "wait, you were serious?"

Edit: You didn't say free in the first post. The paid version(s) of Visual Studio is the definitive Windows development IDE.

Answer 14

Zeus IDE

Answer 15

Eclipse CDT. It is more than a plain editor, and yes, it might feel bloatish - even slow - but it has quite some features that make it a worthy tool:

1. Semantic highlighting (highly customizable)
2. Good search & replace functionalities
3. It is highly customizable. It may take some time to configure e.g. the editor to behave like "normal" editors in Windows, but once you've done that, you won't want to look back. Ever.
4. It's free.

Answer 16

EmEditor has syntax highlighting and auto indenting for C++. Works great for everything I've ever used it for!

Answer 17

Crimson Editor