Free Tools for GIS Developers
Navigation:
  Main Page
 
GIS Tools:
  AVPython
  NTXShape
  SHPTRANS
 
Other Tools:
  SciTE
  Tomcat
 
Background:
  About Me

SciTE: Scintilla Text Editor 1.51 with Extensions (wbd-1)

Scintilla Text Editor (SciTE) is a very nice small-footprint source code editor based on the Scintilla text editor widget. SciTE and Scintilla itself are made by Neil Hodgson <neilh@scintilla.org>.

There are many useful extensions to SciTE. One really handy extension is the Windows Explorer Context Menu Handler by Andre Burgaud <andre@burgaud.com>.

I've put together a setup wizard that bundles Neil's SciTE with Andre's context menu handler, as well as several other configuration enhancements available on the net, and my own tweaks to the configuration files (making SciTE work the way I like it, not necessarily the way you like it!). The wizard is about 1MB; the installed application is about 2MB. Not bad for a full-featured editor!

[DOWNLOAD 1.51-wbd-1]

This version includes a small change that change that I have made (see below), but is otherwise the same as the 1.51 offical release, as published by Neil Hodgson on Feb 16, 2003.

The previous version 1.50 is still available. 1.50 included the previous official release of SciTE, with no changes in the compiled binaries.


Here is the full content of my installation package:

  • SciTE for Win32 as published by Neil Hodgson at www.scintilla.org.
    The current version of the installer uses a custom build, based on SciTE 1.51, with a customization to the behavior of the Home and End keys when line-wrapping is turned on. See the documentation for wrap.aware.home.end.keys for more information. I have assigned a unique version number in "About SciTE" so you'll know that you're not using the official release. (If you require the source code for these changes, you'll find it in 1.51-wbd-1.patch in the SciTE installation directory. That's a unified diff against the original 1.51 sources.)

  • From Andre Burgaud, an updated version of his context menu handler
    Since this must be registered as a component, this is actually one of the main reasons I wrote the setup wizard. The wizard has a checkbox to disable this option. (This option is only available if you have administrative priviledges.)

  • Configuation modified according to my preferences
    e.g. I like monospaced font and line numbers, and I don't like tabs in my source code. I also included many of the API and Keyword files from the extras section of the Scintilla / SciTE web site. Also, since I often use word-wrap mode when editing text files, CTRL-F12 is mapped to toggle word-wrap off or on, and as I mentioned before, the behavior of the home and end keys is customized. (Initially, I published a setup where wrapping was on by default, but I got tired of that quicky. Word wrap is great for text, terrible for source code.)

  • The wizard is created using Inno Setup by Jordon Russel, using the scripting extension by Martijn Laan. As of SciTE 1.50, I have switched from Inno Setup and ISX 2.0.18 up to 3.0.6.1. If this switch causes any problems, please let me know (bruce underscore dodson at hotmail). For the sake of full disclosure, and in case you want to improve upon it, the installer source script is included in the package.

I wrote this installation package for myself because it brings me value in my work: it fits on a floppy, and makes it easy for me replicate a familiar editing environment when I go to a client who only has Notepad. If you think you'd find it useful, too, it's here for the taking. If you don't think it will bring you value, don't use it.

Now that we've cleared that up, those who choose to use it, enjoy!


The installation package is distributed under a license which is essentially a composite of Neil's license for Scintilla and SciTE; Andre's license for the context menu handler; and my own terms for the installation package (I grant the same rights and disclaim the same things that Neil does). I've posted the license notice here.

|