Visual SlickEdit 8.0

asp:review

Visual SlickEdit 8.0

By Michael Riley

Visual SlickEdit has been receiving praise for years forhitting the code-editor sweet spot. Version 8.0 will perpetuate the accoladeswith its new features: XML Schema Tagging and Tree Editing support; three-waymerge support designed to identify and eliminate code conflicts; built-inSecure FTP support; and, most importantly for .NET language aficionados,improved VB .NET and C# language support.

Probably the most exciting selling point SlickEdit offers.NET developers is its flawless cross-platform support. Combining SlickEditwith various C# compiler projects underway on the Linux platform such asXimian's Project Mono (http://www.go-mono.org),you finally have a robust, full-featured, class-browsing, auto-completing codeeditor that can effectively manage C# server-side projects on these competingplatforms. Not only does the C# application behave as expected on bothplatforms, but - even more amazing - the Visual SlickEdit environments wereidentical. Absolutely no disorientation resulted from switching between the twoSlickEdit platforms. Needless to say, I was impressed.

In addition to being as flexible as possible to the .NETlanguage developer, Visual SlickEdit also sports full language support for morethan 40 languages, 60 character encoding types, and it runs on Windows, Linux,Solaris, and AIX. To execute macros on these multiple environments, SlickEdithas created its own easy-to-learn C-like macro language named Slick-C. You candownload several useful macros written by Visual SlickEdit users from theSlickEdit Web site.

The product also is packed with code-editing timesavers.API Apprentice lets you pick functions and enter parameters from a peppy, cleaninterface. You can embed and manage different languages in the same file (suchas HTML syntax within a C# coded file). Unlimited undo, even with past filesaves, is like having a poor man's version-control system built into theproduct. The DIFFzilla dialog box provides text and multifile comparison.SlickEdit can edit files of any size and intelligently load the parts of thefile it needs to via demand file loading. And, you can tailor its color-codingability for any unique or future language syntax, making the productobsolesce-retardant.

One of my favorite features is its - dare I say - slickinterface. Unlike the corporate cubicle feel of Visual Studio, VisualSlickEdit's style is more like an open office space that you can remodel tosuit your needs. From the way it handles the chameleon job of effortlesslyswitching between languages to its ability to format the source in the best wayto suit its user's needs, Visual SlickEdit does almost everything right. Areaswhere it falters are minor. One option I would have preferred was a real-time"Beautify" function. Although SlickEdit does a standard job of intending codeblocks, I found myself visiting the Tools, Beautify Source... option for eventhe slightest code changes. SlickEdit also must replace its spell-checklibrary. Common words such as e-mail and Internet are nowhere to be found inits dictionary. At least the appalling spell checker counters with its abilityto locate misspellings in HTML tags.

Nevertheless, even with these minor issues, I quicklyadopted Visual SlickEdit as my coding editor of choice. If uniformcross-platform, multilanguage development is the real world you live in,consider moving into Visual SlickEdit.

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Web Site: http://www.slickedit.com

Price: US$299