I got a free version of SlickEdit in return for blogging about the experience. So here is my feedback, good and bad.
Good: First thing I noticed when I installed it: this is not your ordinary text editor. I've been using UltraEdit for several years now, and I like it. UltraEdit has some developer-centric capabilities, but they are not integrated tightly into the product as is the case with SlickEdit. For example, SlickEdit will automatically expand if and for statements, and try blocks, although I didn't see a way to have it automatically generate the finally clause. Honestly, despite any negative criticism that I have of SlickEdit, I think that this is the kind of application that has so many features that in order to properly appreciate them you must use it for a long time, so I plan to revisit this evaluation in the future.
Good: Ctrl-F worked for find, but I'm used to F3 doing the "Find Next" (From Visual Studio and Ultra Edit). A quick look in the Options menu allowed me to change my keyboard emulation from CUA () to Visual Studio Defaults. Problem solved. Very nice.
Annoying: The next thing that came up, when I hit ctrl-N to open a new page, instead of just giving me a new untitled page, it gives me a window in which I have to choose the type of file I want to create. Its default is "automatic", which gives me what I want but still requires me to click an "OK" button. I'd rather eliminate this step and have it figure this out the file type on its own after I do a save-as and assign it an extension.
Annoying: I created two unsaved files containing some xml, and when to compare them to find out the difference(s) in the two files. I found a "File Difference" option under the Tools menu. It gives me a dialog with two file path inputs, both empty. I would expect the two most recently edited/opened files to be pre-populated there as they are with UltraEdit. I thought this was going to be a lot of extra clicks but then I saw the little "B" button next to the two path inputs that allowed me to choose the "buffers" (the files I had open in the editor). Only like 6 extra clicks. Not so bad, but could have been smarter.
Annoying: I wish it had asked me during the install process if I'd like to update my file associations. Instead I have to go searching around in the menus for it.
Good: The code navigation feature is sooooo useful. If you are editing code, and you want to see the definition of a particular call, just hit ctrl-. and SlickEdit will jump to the definition. I use this fairly often.
Good: Built in backup history allows you to view previous versions, and even merge and diff different versions. Awesome!
Overall, I'd have to say this is a great app. Incredibly powerful. I will post more details about this later, as I continue to compare with UltraEdit.
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