The Tools: Text and Source Code Editor

Although IDE is the main tool to edit the source code, in some cases, you might need a good text editor too. Sometimes you just need to edit some text files (readme, license or something else), in some cases, you might even want to edit the source code without firing the IDE - a good text editor with syntax highlight is very handy in such situations.

Everyone could simply get away with Microsoft Notepad, although it's crappy if we talk about source code editing. The best free editor I've used so far is Notepad++. It isn't all that great all by itself, but it has some plug-ins that turn it into a very good source code editor. Namely, the Function List, TextFX and Light Explorer plug-ins are great!