Rob van der Woude's Scripting Pages

Script Editors, IDEs & Validators

There is nothing wrong with a simple editor like EDIT or Notepad.
In fact many of the older pages on this site were created with OS/2's "E" (OS/2's Notepad equivalent) and, later, File Commander's built-in text editor.
But sometimes an editor with built-in support for one or more scripting languages can help speed up our code writing.
And some editors have evolved to full-blown multi-language IDEs.

What to look for in editors?
That depends entirely on what you are going to use it for.

Do you want to use it for a single scripting or programming language only?
If so, try the editors and IDEs specializing in that language.
And look for built-in debuggers, compilers/packagers, and if your language of choice is object aware, object browsers.

Some editors don't have their own debugger, but do support external debuggers.
The same goes for compilers/packagers.

To me, an important feature in specialized editors is the capability to run the script within the editor itself and view the script's output in a window.
Most editors with this option also support at least external debuggers. These are, in fact, IDEs.

In case you want a "universal" editor, you may find some with syntax highlighting and word lists for all the languages you'll be using, but features like debugging and compilation will be a "challenge" at least. The best you can hope for is support for external debuggers.

You may also want to look at snippets/code libraries, and regular expressions based search and replace options.
And customizable tools, which means you can add your own (external) tools to the editor's menu.

Download the trial versions, and test, test, test and test.

A note on the features listed in the "Features" column:

Hover your mouse over, or click on, the "codes" (like "LT" or "DILOT") in the "Features" column to get a human readable list of selected features.
Hover your mouse over, or click on, the "Features" column header to see the list of selected features I have looked for. I'll list them here as well:

D Integrated Debugger
I IntelliSense ™ like code completion
L Snippets Library
O COM Object browser
P Integrated script Packager
T Configurable external Tools and macros
V Code Validator

This list is by no means "complete".
I did not buy and/or try all editors listed here.
For comparison, I tried to find lists of all features on the manufacturers' web sites, in help files or (for the programs I "own") in the menus.
However, I cannot guarantee the list is 100% accurate.
Features may have been overlooked by me, or may have been added or discontinued afterwards by the authors.
In some cases, like debuggers, it wasn't always clear if the editor/IDE comes with an integrated debugger or supports only external debuggers. Besides, "not all debuggers are created equal", some seem to do a syntax check only, others support break points and variable view windows.

Note that some features are available only after purchasing a license (e.g. the integrated packager in VbsEdit).

And there are more, other features than the ones I listed here.
Feel free to send me corrections for this list.
Again, to get (close to) 100% certainty, download the program's trial version, and try for yourself.

Script Editors, IDEs & Validators
Product Name Programmer / Manufacturer Supported Scripting Languages Features Download Purchase
Amaya W3C HTML, CSS, XML, XHTML, MathML, SVG   💾 Free
Arachnophilia P. Lutus HTML
(T)
💾 Careware
Authentic Browser Edition Altova XML
T
💾 Free
Authentic Desktop Edition Altova XML
T
💾 Free
AxScripter IEInspector Software LLC JavaScript, JScript, VBScript, HTML
D
💾 🛒
BatCodeCheck (Batch Code Checker) Rob van der Woude NT batch
V
💾 Free
BatHL (Batch code HighLighter) Rob van der Woude NT batch
V
💾 Free
Boxer Text Editor Boxer Software AutoIt, C#, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, JScript, KiXtart, PHP, Python, VBScript & more
ILT
💾 🛒
BrineSoft Script Editor BrineSoft JScript, VBScript, WSF
ILOT
💾 🛒
CodeLobster Free CodeLobster Software HTML, PHP, JavaScript, CSS   💾 Free
CodeLobster Lite & Professional CodeLobster Software HTML, PHP, JavaScript, CSS, SQL   💾 🛒
Eclipse PHP Development Tools Zend HTML, PHP
DT
💾 Free
Editeur Studioware Cobol, HTML, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Rexx & XML; other file types can be configured manually
T
💾 🛒
EditPad Lite JGSoft Text (DOS & Unix, ASCII & Unicode) & HTML; other file types can be configured manually   💾 Free
(for non-commercial use)
EditPad Pro JGSoft batch, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, XML & many more
LT
💾 🛒
EditRocket Richardson Software batch, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, XML and more
LO
💾 🛒
EmEditor Standard Edition Emurasoft 50+
LT
💾 🛒
EmEditor Professional Edition Emurasoft 50+
LT
💾 🛒
foxe (firstobject xml editor) firstobject XML, HTML   💾 Free
JustStyle CSS Editor UCWare CSS   💾 Shareware
Komodo Edit ActiveState CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl, XML   💾 Free
Komodo IDE ActiveState CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl, XML
DIL
💾 🛒
LINQPad Joseph Albahari LINQ
(I)L
💾 Free
MemPad Horst Schaeffer plain text   💾 Free
Notepad++ Notepad++ team batch, KiXtart, Perl, VBScript & many more
T
💾 Free
nPad2 Source Viewer/Editor Nikola Dachev HTML, PHP, ASP, C++, Object Pascal, Java, Basic, CSS, JavaScript, SQL   💾 Free
OnScript XLnow VBScript, JScript, WSF, WSC, batch files, HTA, INI files, PerlScript and Python
DILO
💾 🛒
Open Perl IDE Jürgen Güntherodt Perl
D
💾 Free
Perl Express Perl Express Group Perl
DL
💾 🛒
PerlEdit IndigoStar Perl
D
💾 🛒
PFE (Programmer's File Editor) Alan Phillips Configurable   💾 Free
phpDesigner MPSOFTWARE PHP, CSS, HTML, JavaScript
DT
💾 🛒
PowerShell Plus Idera PowerShell (editor: C#, HTML, PowerShell, VB.NET, XML)
DIL
💾 Free
PrimalScript Scripting IDE (Standard, Professional & Enterprise Editions) Sapien 39+
(D)ILOT
💾 🛒
Professional Notepad ATech Group HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, PERL, SQL, Delphi, C++   💾 🛒
Programmer's Notepad Simon Steele Configurable
LT
💾 Free
PSPad Jan Fiala batch, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, KiXtart, Perl, PHP, Python, Unix ShellScript, VBScript and 120+ other languages   💾 Free
Script Debugger IDE Stas Semenov ActiveX (ASP, VBScript & more), CSS, HTML
DILO
💾 🛒
Simple CSS hostm.com CSS   💾 Free
SystemScripter ScriptInternals.com VBScript
DILOT
💾 🛒
TextPad Helios Software Solutions HTML, Java, Pascal, VBScript & more   💾 🛒
UltraEdit IDM Computer Solutions almost all
T
💾 🛒
UEStudio '06 IDM Computer Solutions almost all
DIOT
💾 🛒
VbsEdit Adersoft VBScript
DILOT
💾 🛒
VIM vim.org "highly configurable"   💾 Careware
Visual Studio Code Microsoft C++, C#, HTML, JavaScript, Node.js, PHP, PowerShell, Python, TypeScript
DIT
💾 Free
WEB-ED JSWare (D)HTML, CSS, ASP, VBScript, JavaScript
DIO
💾 Free
XMLFox RustemSoft XML   💾 Free
XMLFox Advance RustemSoft XML   💾 🛒
XML Notepad 2007 Microsoft XML, HTML   💾 Free
XMLSpy Altova CSS, DTD, OOXML, WSDL, XML, XSLT & more
DIL
💾 🛒
ZionEdit Zionmaster C/C++ (Java), Perl, Ruby, Python, LISP, HTML (+JavaScript, PHP etc), Fortran77-9X, Makefile & Batch file   💾 Free

 

 

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