jEdit, Total Edit, EDXOR, all have one thing in common -- whatever they save in what they call "Unix" encoding and line endings inevitably shows up in a CLI text editor like pico or vim having garbage characters somewhere close to the beginning or, though this is more rare, somewhere in the body of the text. Try one setting or another, it all comes out the same. And don't get me started on those so-called "Notepad substitutes."

Okay, if you're coding for VB or Borland C++, I can see where there would be some call for a near-Unix format to the files you create. And I'm sure people who maintain WinNT-based servers have no problem at all with the not-quite-Windows-yet-not-quite-not output of these freeware/annoyance-ware editors. But for the rest of us, it's a pain in the neck.

All the way back before Apple re-thought their paradigm and came out with OS X, there were already three text editors (one payware and two freeware) that did what no free GUI editor save one (read on and you'll see it named) in Windows nowadays does -- save with true ASCII or Unicode and Linux line-endings when such are selected in the prefs. The two freeware apps were SaintEdit, which disappeared soon before OS 7.6 yielded to OS 8, and TextWrangler by BareBones Software. BareBones' payware "piece of elegant magnificence," BBEdit, still holds its own in the OS X era, but those who came of age in the Copland color scheme days know it was pretty much always around for those who had the scratch.

So which one is the standout in the Windows XP world today? Crimson Editor. Freeware, and when you, like I did from force of habit, run it through its paces to see if, indeed it will save garbage-free ASCII and Unicode with the right line endings, you (like me) are unlikely to be disappointed. I thought I was back in TextWrangler, I was so pleased. A simple GUI, tabs -- though those little pimples that look like close buttons should indeed allow one to close a doc or a project and they, so far in the progress of development of this app, don't -- and color formatting that even recognizes a shell script when one is saved as such and gives it a nice, not too tacky or gimpy but nice, color mix in the visible text.

I highly recommend it.

BZT