UltraEdit's file handling is designed to prevent it from using all the available memory, which would stop other applications from running. What does this mean to you? UltraEdit has no real limit on file size - and can easily open, edit, and save large text files in excess of 4 GB!
- Notepad Notepad is a free text editor that comes with a plugin for editing the XML files.
- 010 Editor (Windows, macOS, Linux) – Opens giant (as large as 50 GB) files. SlickEdit (Windows, macOS, Linux) – Opens large files. UltraEdit (Windows, macOS, Linux) – Opens files of more than 6 GB, but the configuration must be changed for this to be practical: Menu » Advanced » Configuration » File Handling » Temporary Files » Open.
They highlight Large File Support (up to 248GB) as one of their biggest selling points. I just discovered this editor recently when I was looking for an editor that can open open large files. Once every month or two, I seem to have a need to look at a large text file and I decided I would hunt down my definitive tool(s) for doing as such.
I love how it easily handles large text files.I have a db log file that is several GB, and UE quickly opens the file, and I can search the entire document very easily. It also searches the entire file surprisingly fast. I also love how IDM is continuously maintaining, and updating UE to keep up with the constantly changing IT world... John S.See more reviews
There are several configuration settings that can be configured to optimize the editing of large files. We will take a look at the following:
1. Disable temp files
This is probably the most important tweak you can make to improve performance when opening very large files.
As mentioned above, UltraEdit is a disk based editor, which means it only loads small portions of the file into memory. As UltraEdit uses 64-Bit handling for the file it has no real limit on file size, and does not use excessive RAM for editing. However, when opening the file with a temporary file, UltraEdit must first create a copy of the file in your temporary directory. Copying the file can cause the initial loading to be very slow, especially with huge multi-gigabyte files. By disabling temp file creation on load, UltraEdit will not first copy the file to your temp directory.
This setting may be accessed in Advanced » Settings » File handling » Temporary files. Enable the option to 'Open file without a temp file.'
Important note: This does mean you are directly editing the original file so any changes will be permanent.
We recommend that you set a threshold for the temp file setting for files above a certain size (specified in KB). The threshold will set a limit for using temporary files on files that are over the specified amount. For example, if you set this to 51,200 KB (which is a good threshold for most), UltraEdit will not use temporary files when you open a file that is more than 51,200 KB (50 MB).
Note: for more information on how UltraEdit uses temp files, please see our temporary file power tip.
2. Disable line numbers
Disabling line numbers on large files will help make navigation much quicker. You can access this setting in Advanced » Settings » Editor display » Miscellaneous: 'Disable line numbers'.
If you plan to edit and move around quite a bit in large files, make sure to enable this option. UltraEdit requires more processing to calculate line numbers when moving to different places in extremely large files. This option disables line number calculation, and thus, improves performance.
3. Disable line terminator conversion
If you've set UltraEdit to automatically convert line terminators to DOS format, you will want to disable this, as this will take a very long time for very large files. You can access this setting in Advanced » Settings » File handling » DOS/Unix/Mac handling.
This option is designed to allow you to determine if the editor should automatically detect and convert Unix (LF only) or Mac legacy (CR only) files to DOS (CR/LF) format on open.
4. Disable code folding
Code folding requires parsing of the entire file on open in order for UltraEdit to calculate where a fold should begin and end. As your file grows in size and more and more nested folding sections of code occur, the amount of system resources (RAM, CPU) required to display code folding increases as well. For very large files, it's a good idea to disable code folding.
You can disable code folding by going to Advanced » Settings » Editor display » Code folding. Uncheck 'Enable Show/Hide Lines and Code Folding' here.
5. Disable the function list
Like code folding, the function list parses an entire file when it is opened in order to locate and display functions. You can disable (hide) the function list by pressing F8 or in the Layout tab.
6. Set a large file threshold for the XML manager
The XML manager is another feature which will parse your entire file on open. You can prevent the XML manager from automatically parsing files larger than a specified size in Advanced » Settings » XML manager. Set the 'Auto parse XML documents less than' value in MB here.
7. Disable syntax highlighting
To really free up resources for extremely large files, disable syntax highlighting completely (if your large file is source code with syntax highlighting). Disabling syntax highlighting will also automatically disable code folding and function listing as well.
You can completely disable syntax highlighting before opening a large file by going to Advanced » Settings » Editor display » Syntax highlighting and unchecking 'Enable syntax coloring'.
You can also disable syntax highlighting for the active file only, which in the case of large files is only helpful if done very quickly after open, by selecting 'No Highlighting' under 'View » View As (Highlighting File Type)' or, in UE v19.00/UES v13.00 and later, selecting 'No Highlighting' in the status bar control (if the basic status bar configuration setting is not enabled).
8. Disable the Line Change Indicator (LCI)
If you plan to make changes and edit your large file after you open it, it is a good idea to disable the LCI for the file. The LCI records saved and unsaved changes per line into memory.
To disable the LCI, go to Advanced » Settings » Editor display » Syntax highlighting and uncheck 'Enable line change indicator (LCI).'
You can make writing code as complicated as you want, but at the end of the day, all you really need is your favorite, trusty text editor. You can use a simple one like Microsoft's Notepad, but oftentimes it's helpful to have a text editor that has syntax highlighting/coloring, support for multiple languages, a robust find and replace feature, and other features and options that make writing code just a tad bit easier.
If you're in search of a good, free text editor – you've come to the right place. Below you'll find 12 first-class free text editors that are designed with coders' needs in mind. Whether you use a Windows, Mac, or Linux machine – you'll find a few options here that will satisfy your code-authoring needs.
NOTEPAD++
(Windows)
NOTEPAD++ is the premier replacement for Microsoft's Notepad. It has an auto-completion feature (for most supported languages) that guesses what you're trying to write, a tabbed interface which is great for working with multiple files without cluttering your task bar, a powerful RegEx find-and-replace feature, code folding, support for a large array of languages (even Assembler!) and much more. These are just some of the features that make NOTEPAD++ my personal default text editor.
Bluefish Editor
(Mac, Linux)
Bluefish Editor is a robust, open source text editor geared towards programmers and web designers. It's known as being a fast, lightweight text editor that can open 500+ documents with ease. It has a built-in function reference browser (for PHP, Python, CSS, and HTML) so you can quickly learn about with particular syntaxes. Check out the Screenshots section to find movies/screencasts (such as learning about working with remote files) and screen shots of Bluefish Editor.
TextWrangler
(Mac)
TextWrangler is a multi-purpose text editor for the Mac OS. It is a programmer-friendly text editor and Unix/Server Admin text editor. It has a useful 'plugin' system allowing developers a way for extending TextWrangler's built-in features. It also has a function browser so that you can quickly find and jump to the function you're looking for (very helpful for those really long files).
Smultron
(Mac)
Smultron is an easy-to-use text editor. Its simple interface makes it perfect for the minimalist coder. It has the basic features you'd expect from a text editor such as syntax highlighting/coloring but also has cool, helpful features such as the ability to split the viewing pane in two so that you can view files side-by-side, a code snipplet library to allow you to store your often-used code blocks, and a full-screen mode that's intended to make you focus on the task at hand.
Caditor
(Windows)
Caditor is an open source portable text editor written in the .NET framework (C#) that puts speed and performance at the forefront of its design. It has a convenient search box built into the tool bar of the text editor's interface so that you don't have to open another dialog box to perform a search. It has other handy features common to developer-oriented text editors such as line numbering, a compiler feature to allow you to hook it up with your compiler, and FTP feature.
gedit
(Linux)
gedit is the official text editor of the GNOME desktop. Unlike Microsoft's built-in text editor (Notepad), gedit is a more feature-packed text editor geared towards usage for programming and mark-up. With its syntax highlighting, tabbed interface for editing multiple files, and spell-checking feature – gedit is an excellent, free text editor for coders.
GNU Emacs
(Windows, Mac, Linux)
GNU Emacs (more commonly referred to simply as Emacs) is a cross-platform, extendable text editor geared towards programmers. One of its defining features is Emacs's ability to be extended – offering you the ability to use it as your project planner and debugger, among other things. It has a file-comparison feature (M-x ediff) that highlights differences between two files (useful for figuring out changes in a file made by coders who don't document/comment their revisions).
Crimson Editor
(Windows)
Crimson Editor is a lightweight text editor for Windows that supports many languages. It has a 'Macros' features which lets you record a sequence of tasks so that you can reuse the sequence with a click of a button. It has a built-in FTP feature, allowing you to upload/download files from your FTP server. Crimson Editor is a solid option for Windows users.
ConTEXT
(Windows)
ConTEXT is another excellent, light-weight, freeware (meaning it's free – but close-sourced) text editor for Windows. It has countless of handy features such as text sorting (helpful when you need to sort things in alphabetical order, for example), the ability to export configuration options so that you can share your configuration or import it into several machines, and a macro recorder for repeating a sequence of tasks. In 2007, ConTEXT development was turned over to David Hadley but continues to be freeware.
SciTE
(Windows, Linux)
SciTE, written on top of the open source Scintilla code-editing component, is a speedy text editor aimed for use in source code editing. It has a standalone .exe version which you can use for portable storage drives (i.e. USB flash drives) so that you can conveniently carry it around and use it on any computer without having to install it. SciTE is compatible with Windows and Linux operating systems and has been tested by the developer on Windows XP and on Fedora 8 and Ubuntu 7.10.
Komodo Edit
(Windows, Mac, Linux)
Komodo Edit is a freeware, cross-platform text editor created by ActiveState. It is a simple text editor based on the popular integrated development environment – Komodo IDE. It has a convenient and flexible Project Manager feature to help you organize and keep track of your project files.
jEdit
(Windows, Mac, Linux)
Smultron is an easy-to-use text editor. Its simple interface makes it perfect for the minimalist coder. It has the basic features you'd expect from a text editor such as syntax highlighting/coloring but also has cool, helpful features such as the ability to split the viewing pane in two so that you can view files side-by-side, a code snipplet library to allow you to store your often-used code blocks, and a full-screen mode that's intended to make you focus on the task at hand.
Caditor
(Windows)
Caditor is an open source portable text editor written in the .NET framework (C#) that puts speed and performance at the forefront of its design. It has a convenient search box built into the tool bar of the text editor's interface so that you don't have to open another dialog box to perform a search. It has other handy features common to developer-oriented text editors such as line numbering, a compiler feature to allow you to hook it up with your compiler, and FTP feature.
gedit
(Linux)
gedit is the official text editor of the GNOME desktop. Unlike Microsoft's built-in text editor (Notepad), gedit is a more feature-packed text editor geared towards usage for programming and mark-up. With its syntax highlighting, tabbed interface for editing multiple files, and spell-checking feature – gedit is an excellent, free text editor for coders.
GNU Emacs
(Windows, Mac, Linux)
GNU Emacs (more commonly referred to simply as Emacs) is a cross-platform, extendable text editor geared towards programmers. One of its defining features is Emacs's ability to be extended – offering you the ability to use it as your project planner and debugger, among other things. It has a file-comparison feature (M-x ediff) that highlights differences between two files (useful for figuring out changes in a file made by coders who don't document/comment their revisions).
Crimson Editor
(Windows)
Crimson Editor is a lightweight text editor for Windows that supports many languages. It has a 'Macros' features which lets you record a sequence of tasks so that you can reuse the sequence with a click of a button. It has a built-in FTP feature, allowing you to upload/download files from your FTP server. Crimson Editor is a solid option for Windows users.
ConTEXT
(Windows)
ConTEXT is another excellent, light-weight, freeware (meaning it's free – but close-sourced) text editor for Windows. It has countless of handy features such as text sorting (helpful when you need to sort things in alphabetical order, for example), the ability to export configuration options so that you can share your configuration or import it into several machines, and a macro recorder for repeating a sequence of tasks. In 2007, ConTEXT development was turned over to David Hadley but continues to be freeware.
SciTE
(Windows, Linux)
SciTE, written on top of the open source Scintilla code-editing component, is a speedy text editor aimed for use in source code editing. It has a standalone .exe version which you can use for portable storage drives (i.e. USB flash drives) so that you can conveniently carry it around and use it on any computer without having to install it. SciTE is compatible with Windows and Linux operating systems and has been tested by the developer on Windows XP and on Fedora 8 and Ubuntu 7.10.
Komodo Edit
(Windows, Mac, Linux)
Komodo Edit is a freeware, cross-platform text editor created by ActiveState. It is a simple text editor based on the popular integrated development environment – Komodo IDE. It has a convenient and flexible Project Manager feature to help you organize and keep track of your project files.
jEdit
(Windows, Mac, Linux)
jEdit is a text editor that specifically caters to programmers. It's written in Java and runs on any operating system that supports You can download a ton of plugins (check out the Plugins Central on jEdit's website) to extend its built-in features. jEdit was designed to combine the best features of Windows, Mac, and Unix text editors.
Additional Resources
- Comparison of text editors (Wikipedia)
- Hive Five: Best Text Editors (Lifehacker)
What do you think?
Find one that you like the best and stick to it, as everything down to the text can influence your clients' web reputation whether they are a golf course or a restaurant. There's a ton of text editors out there so be sure to share your experiences and opinions on the text editors above, and if your favorite isn't on the list – please tell us about it in the comments.
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