UTF-8 text editors

[Juan G]

Now that Unicode's utf-8 is displacing iso-8859-1 (latin-1) as the main standard charset for websites (for instance, Google, Yahoo, etc. are in utf-8 encoding now), I'm considering editors to convert and write text in utf-8 (on Windows), before updating my sites to utf-8.

Windows' Notepad can do it, but it adds the BOM mark at the beginning of utf-8 files, which is all right for Windows, but not so much for Linux servers.

Better possibilities are OpenOffice Writer and Notepad++. Also, there are Windows versions for Emacs and Vim, however they take time to learn. The other two seem simpler to use. All these are free.

There is of course UltraEdit (paid), but people say Notepad++ (GPL, free) is almost as good (also for programming work).

There are of course many more text editors but, which one you think is better, faster, more practical to write a lot every day in utf-8? Thanks for your advice.

[Vonunov]

I like Notepad++ on the Windows side. For the site, I like to SSH in and use vi. Too much of using Unix shell accounts, you know. ;)

[Juan G]

I like Notepad++ on the Windows side.
I'm also heading to Notepad++ for UTF-8 text on Windows. I've discarded OpenOffice Writer for UTF-8, because it's adding the usually unnecessary BOM mark like the default Windows Notepad, which can cause problems with php, etc. Notepad++ has options for UTF-8 with and without BOM.

KompoZer (for HTML and CSS) doesn't add the BOM mark to UTF-8 web pages, so probably I will also use it (it's an opensource editor derived from Nvu, which derived from Mozilla Composer). Notepad++ seems a very good option for UTF-8 text and scripts, and OpenOffice Writer for DOC files and similar formats (not UTF-8). An additional possibility is using Notepad++ to edit HTML and CSS source, running browser previews from Notepad++ with Ctrl+Alt+Shift+X (for Firefox) and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I (for Internet Explorer).

A way to see the normally invisible BOM is viewing the UTF-8 file with Firefox, forcing View > Character Encoding > Western (ISO-8859-1) instead of Unicode (UTF-8). In this way, the BOM mark appears as three characters () at the beginning of the file. Of course, Spanish accents, Japanese kanji, Russian letters, etc., also become strange characters with this view, until changing again to UTF-8 view.

For the site, I like to SSH in and use vi.
I've just seen that telnetting to my FQuest accounts (I use Token 2), and typing "vi" or "vim", the editor Vim (Vi IMproved) starts. At first sight, it seems powerful but only for computer gurus, so for now I think the easier Notepad++ is enough for me. Thanks for your suggestions. :)

[Kevin]

I've just seen that telnetting to my FQuest accounts (I use Token 2), and typing "vi" or "vim", the editor Vim (Vi IMproved) starts. At first sight, it seems powerful but only for computer gurus, so for now I think the easier Notepad++ is enough for me. Thanks for your suggestions. :)
You just need to keep one of these handy: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/mugs/7bbe/

Also, better to use an ssh (secure shell) client instead of telnet.

[Vonunov]

Yup. If you'll run Wireshark on your NIC as you telnet, you can see all your credentials zooming by . . . in plaintext. Lovely. Was enough for me to want never to have to authenticate over telnet again.

I like all those choices, though. OO.org is win, and I used to use Nvu and Kompozer. Good stuff.

You're right, too, vi aliases to vim. It's vim I like, actually, pretty colours and all. :P

http://www.google.com/search?q=vi+cheat+sheet

[Kevin]

If you run dsniff it is even easier. It reassembles the packets for you and gives you a nice easy to read
Host: xxxxxx
User: xxxxxx
Password: xxxxxx

Does the same for pop, imap, ftp, http, and pretty much any other unencrypted authentication.

[Vonunov]

Ooh, fun.

[Juan G]

Well, I'm using the open source SSH client PuTTY from now, instead of telnet, as suggested (http://www.aota.net/Telnet/putty.php4) by FQuest. Thanks!

BTW, interesting Vi mug, Kevin. ;)

[Kevin]

I have an older version of a vi mug that doesn't have any color on it. Also, when I got it they came in a 4-pack for almost $40 so I ended up splitting the order with three friends.

PuTTY is probably the best SSH client for Windows users. There are commercial clients available but they add very little and cost an awful lot. PuTTY even has pageant which is convenient for people who use ssh keys. Of course there is also plain ssh under cygwin.