Question

I’m looking for very specific text editor:

• Closes on ESC, no project management or tabs
• Syntax highlighting – preferably with color themes (e.g. can apply different color themes without changing C# coloring definition) or, at least, can load/save themes; support for C/C#/XML/HTML/JavaScript/etc – common MS/.NET world – out of box
• Configurable keys, or: Shift-Tab shifts blocks
• XML/HTML auto-completion support – well, optional

I use synplus plugin for Total Commander currently, but it has few drawbacks (e.g. crashes sometimes ;-), no auto-completion, etc).

Basically I want fast Visual-Studio-like editor that I open, do edits, and then close using ESC. I remember I tried Notepad++, etc – most of them open files in tabs, don’t close on ESC… – that is, behave like IDE.

At least I’ve just downloaded Notepad++, it doesn’t close on ESC even if I setup keybindings to do so.

Autocompletion is optional (though it is to be simple as just tags completion), what I really look for is closing on ESC, not getting in the way with all the tabs and IDE-like, and good coloring. Plus shift-tab is must have for blocks manipulation.

Update: any open-source one that I can easily tweak to close on ESC? 😉 Seems like ESC (and reasonable color highlighting) is the core requirement. I’ve just tried many editors – Programmer’s Notepad, E, Crimson, etc – I can’t set any of them to close on ESC. Any external tool to close selected program on ESC? 😉

UPDATE: Hm, found an awesome utility for my latest thought: http://www.autohotkey.com. Easy to setup to close any window on ESC (as well as many other tricks). Seems like the most tough requirements is gone – I can use ANY text editor 😉

Answer 1

So, I close this because I’ve found a fix for the main issue with ESC key: http://www.autohotkey.com. Here’s a sample script that do the trick for e text editor:

SetTitleMatchMode, 3
#IfWinActive ahk_class wxWindowClassNR
Esc::WinClose, A
return

Now I’m free to choose from wide range of editors.