Archive for JavaScript

Updated Quick Edit for InvisionFree

My InvisionFree scripts have gone to Google Code! Updating the repository for me is a cinch, and server reliability is no longer an issue. In addition, there’s no more of that domain expiration business that plagued several forums over the last few days (with nasty advertisement redirects). I also took the time to update Quick Edit a bit, finally adding Safari support (took only two changed lines, too), and updated the design for the form. For those using an InvisionFree forum, I encourage you to go install the Quick Edit script immediately. Quick edit is so de facto nowadays, mainly because it’s so useful.

Quick Edit screenshot

JavaScript Source Code Editors

CodePress and EditArea have become rising stars of the edit-code-in-your-browser scene, but which one fits your needs?

EditArea

EditArea, hands down, has the features. There’s cut and paste, full block/line forward and backward tabbing, search and replace, smart tabs, and spaces as tabs. So what’s the catch? EditArea loses its charm when you become friends with its slow response time. A file with 500 lines is a no-no. EditArea aligns another layer over a TEXTAREA element to color code the text. The bottom line: go for EditArea if you want the features, sacrificing speed.

CodePress

CodePress instead uses an IFRAME with edit mode enabled, giving CodePress the response time akin to a native text editor, but CodePress lacks many of the “vital” features. You won’t find smart tabs, spaces-as-tabs, tabbing blocks of code forward and backward, and the ability to paste cleanly to outside the editor. The bottom line: go for CodePress if you want to edit large files.

By the way, there are two more options: CodeArea 2 and Helene. The former uses the same mechanism as CodePress, but it has unfortunately fallen out of development. Helene was one of the first (if not the first) to edit code, but it does itline by line, so the interface is a little awkward.