EditPlus

EditPlus
Name	EditPlus
Developer	ES-Computing
Released	2001
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Genre	Text editor (programming)
License	Proprietary

EditPlus is a proprietary text editor (programming) developed by ES-Computing for Microsoft Windows. It is positioned as a lightweight source code editor that competes with editors and integrated development environments tied to firms and projects such as Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse (software), NetBeans IDE, JetBrains offerings, Notepad++, and Sublime Text. The application is known among users who work with languages and tools including HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and Python (programming language).

Overview

EditPlus originated as a commercial alternative to simple editors like Notepad (Windows) and as a more focused code editor compared to full IDEs from Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, and JetBrains. Its development reflects trends in the early 2000s toward small, extensible tools championed by projects and companies such as GNU Project, Apache Software Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Apple Inc., and independent authors like Don Ho (creator of Notepad++). The software has been distributed primarily to users on Microsoft Windows platforms and adopted in workflows ranging from web development used by teams familiar with WordPress and Drupal to scripting tasks adjacent to PowerShell and Perl.

Features

EditPlus provides syntax highlighting and code folding comparable to features promoted by editors like Vim, Emacs, and Sublime Text. It includes a configurable printing system and a built-in browser preview aimed at developers working with HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. The editor supports regular expression search and replace similar to utilities in Grep and integrates an FTP client for remote file editing reflecting functionality found in FileZilla and WinSCP. Additional conveniences align with tools used in software development such as tabbed document interfaces seen in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, and a customizable keyboard mapping approach reminiscent of Visual Studio Code and Eclipse (software).

Interface and Customization

The user interface emphasizes a compact, tabbed windowed environment comparable to Notepad++ and older versions of Microsoft Visual Studio. Customization options include user-defined syntax files and key bindings that permit adaptation for languages popularized by organizations like Oracle Corporation (Java (programming language)), Python Software Foundation (Python (programming language)), and The PHP Group (PHP). Themes and color schemes can be tuned in ways similar to editors maintained by communities around Atom (text editor), Sublime Text, and Vim. Integration hooks and external tool run configurations facilitate workflows aligned with build systems and tools from projects such as Make (software), CMake, and GDB.

File Formats and Language Support

EditPlus recognizes a range of file formats frequently used in web and application development, including files tied to HTML5, CSS, XML, JSON, JavaScript, PHP, ASP.NET, and Perl. It supports character encodings standard in environments influenced by Unicode and ASCII conventions and handles newline conventions common to Unix and Microsoft Windows. Language support is extended via user-definable syntax files, permitting adaptation for languages and formats associated with communities around Ruby (programming language), Lua (programming language), Go (programming language), and templating systems used in Django (web framework), Ruby on Rails, and Jinja (template engine).

Development and Version History

EditPlus development began in the early 2000s under ES-Computing and evolved through incremental updates responding to changes in web standards such as specifications from World Wide Web Consortium and scripting trends influenced by ECMAScript. Version releases introduced features commonly adopted across the ecosystem by projects like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, including enhanced JavaScript handling and HTML5 previewing. The product’s update cadence and changelogs mirror practices used by small software vendors and independent developers who maintain tools alongside larger projects like Microsoft Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA.

Licensing and Editions

Distributed as proprietary software by ES-Computing, EditPlus is licensed under a commercial end-user license agreement similar in approach to desktop applications sold by companies such as Microsoft Corporation and JetBrains. The publisher has offered trial versions and paid licenses targeting individual developers, small teams, and institutions analogous to licensing models used by Adobe Inc. for desktop tools and by vendors of specialized editors and utilities.

Reception and Usage

Reception among practitioners has emphasized EditPlus’s lightweight footprint and targeted feature set in reviews and comparisons alongside Notepad++, Sublime Text, Atom (text editor), and Visual Studio Code. Users in web development, system administration, and scripting communities that overlap with projects like WordPress, Drupal, Git, and Subversion have reported adopting it for quick edits and remote file changes via FTP. Academic and professional adopters referencing tools from organizations such as IEEE and ACM have noted its role as a compact alternative to larger IDEs when working with languages standardized by entities like ISO and ECMA International.

Category:Text editors