gnotepad+ older news

May 6th, 1999 - development is slowing down.

Greetings, gnotepad+ fans and users:

As you might have noticed, development on gnotepad+ (gnp) has slowed down in the last couple of months.  This is *not* because I have lost interest.  Some of it can be attributed to a slight lack of time, but the plain truth is that gnp has reached its limit.  Keep in mind that one of gnp's goals is that it is supposed to be an easy-to-use and simple, text editor.  That means it is not meant to be:

  1. a programmer's text editor (although you could probably use it to write simple code)
  2. a word processor
  3. a WYSIWYG HTML editor
Consequently, there are a number of "major" features people have asked for which are not present:
  1. syntax highlighting and/or multiple text colors. (see #1 above)
  2. ability to have multiple fonts within the same document (see #2 above)
  3. WYSIWYG HTML editing (see #3 above)
  4. plugins, which are a totally useless "feature" for a text editor.
So here are my suggestions, if you are looking for a GTK-based program which serves as:
  1. a programmer's editor: try Vim (www.vim.org).  Yes, Vim has a GTK interface.  There is even a patch for very basic GNOME support too.  I helped with the GTK interface to Vim, and still actively add/fix things to it.
  2. a word processor: you can try AbiWord, though it's far from functional.  There's also a feeble attempt at an office suite for GNOME, but it's nowhere close to being useful or ever finished.
  3. a WYSIWYG HTML editor: unfortunately, there is none at the present, and I don't know if there is anyone working on such a thing.
I may start writing a WYSIWYG HTML editor using GTK some time this summer, since it's an idea that's been floating around in my head, but I don't guarantee anything.

In the meantime, I will continue to support gnotepad+, and fix bugs as they are found/reported.  But as for new features, they will be fewer and further between because of the reasons as outlined up above.

If you have any questions and/or comments, please let me know.

Last updated on May 6th, 1999 by Andy Kahn.
© 1998 Andy Kahn. All rights reserved.