SlickEdit
 | |
| Developer(s) | SlickEdit, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2014 |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | source code editor |
| License | proprietary |
| Website | http://www.slickedit.com/ |
SlickEdit, previously known as Visual SlickEdit, is a cross-platform commercial source code editor by SlickEdit, Inc. SlickEdit provides syntax highlighting, code navigation and customizable keyboard shortcuts. Versions from 2007 and later also support programmable code templates.
History
SlickEdit began in 1988 as a character-mode editor for DOS and OS/2. Clark Maurer, currently CEO of SlickEdit Inc. (formerly MicroEdge Inc.), was employed at IBM's Watson research lab. He was one of the developers of the internal IBM editor E; this experience enabled him to quit IBM and begin development of the first SlickEdit releases.[1]
At the beginning of the '90s, most DOS editors were struggling with limitations of the 16-bit address space or DOS memory handling (640k). SlickEdit's programmers found a way to overcome these limitations, with the result that SlickEdit could handle what were at the time "large" files of several megabytes in size.
As operating systems with graphical user interfaces became more popular, SlickEdit continued to produce versions of the program with high functionality and good usability.
Supported languages and operating systems
SlickEdit lists around 60 supported programming languages and file types,[2] including C, C++, Java, HTML, PHP, XML, Windows batch files, AWK, Makefiles and INI files. SlickEdit also supports opening Visual Studio solutions and Xcode projects as workspaces.
Some of these are only supported with syntax highlighting, such as Makefiles and INI files. Like most other code editors, SlickEdit allows the user to add support for additional languages and to modify the way it operates on the ones listed above.
SlickEdit claims to support 76 different encodings[2] and to run on seven operating systems:[3]
- AIX
- HP-UX
- Linux
- Mac OS X[4]
- Microsoft Windows
- Solaris (SPARC and x86)
Until version 4.0b, SlickEdit supported the OS/2 operating system.
Slick-C
Slick-C is the proprietary scripting language of the editor. Much of the editor is actually written in Slick-C, and all the Slick-C source code is included with the product. This means that the user can look at how things work and modify the behavior to suit her/his needs.
As the name suggests, the language resembles C, though it has some elements from REXX (parse, substr, ...). The original author of Slick-C liked the string parsing features of REXX and added similar features to Slick-C .
Support
In addition to direct support for customers, SlickEdit also hosts a web forum where users can help one another.[5]
Criticisms
According to some, SlickEdit suffers from an overabundance of features. In a review of version 11 of SlickEdit, released in 2006, Tom Plunket wrote:
| “ | SlickEdit ends up being a very complex piece of software. Some of its most promising features are hard to use, and configuring the program to work to any one developer's tastes can be tedious... its power can only be harnessed by people who are ready to spend considerable time learning how to truly use it.[6] | ” |
Related products
See also
Further reading
- Ayers, Larry (June 2000). "Visual SlickEdit 5.0". Linux Journal (Seattle, WA, USA: Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.) 2000 (74es). ISSN 1075-3583.
References
- ↑ http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3823
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 SlickEdit's supported languages
- ↑ SlickEdit's supported operating systems
- ↑ "SlickEdit for Mac". SlickEdit Inc. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
- ↑ SlickEdit Community
- ↑ Plunket, T. (2006, August). Skunk Works: SlickEdit's SlickEdit 11. Game Developer, 10-11.
- ↑ SlickEdit Plug-In page