18

Why should I choose one over the other, or should I go another way?

lox
  • 679

6 Answers6

14

I've used them both, and Notepad++ is head and shoulders above Notepad2. It's not even a contest.

Satanicpuppy
  • 7,205
7

At a glance, Notepad++ seems a little more feature rich to me. They're both based on the same framework, Scintilla.

But like Chris says, they're both free. Try both.

Also, feel free to use Vim or emacs.

Of course you could always use butterflies like real programmers

jweede
  • 6,933
4

I prefer Notepad2 because of its lightweightness -- and because it has a nicer interface :) For serious editing, vim.

grawity
  • 501,077
1

They're both freeware or open source so why don't you download and install them both and try them out to see which one you like the best.

I'm using Notepad++ myself, but that's purely because someone recommended it to me. If they'd recommended Notepad2 then I'd probably be using that.

ChrisF
  • 41,540
1

Try PSPad, too. It's the best lightweight Windows editor I've found yet - lots of great features including USB drive compatibility, favorite directories/projects, plugins, and live FTP editing, to name a few.

Sean O
  • 970
0

You should not let anyone to decide which one you should use. You should decide which one you want to use, yourself. Try both, for a day, a week - whatever you feel is a good amount of time to determent what kind of editor it is. Then try the other one, and then you'll know which one is right for you!

Also, may I ask why you only seem to consider these two? If you are looking for power in your editor, try Vim or Emacs, while their learning curve is indeed more steep, I can almost guarantee you it'll be worth it in the long run in terms of productivity, and flexibility. (You can use these editors almost everywhere!)

A friend of mine is very happy with Sublimetext, which is also a Windows editor, try it as well in your little personal test.

Sirupsen
  • 688