Programmer's File Editor

Programmer's File Editor is a freeware text editor targeted particularly to the needs of software programmers. It was written by Alan Phillips of Lancaster University in the north of England.

Development of Programmer's File Editor ceased in 1999, but the program is still in use by some programmers.

Strengths of the editor include:
* easy macro recorder and editor; macros can be saved and assembled into "libraries"
* line breaks, tabs, and other special characters allowed in search and replace
* file type recognition
* using batch files to perform compilation tasks from within the editor
* Customizable screen display; display and other characteristics can be set for specific file types, both pre-fab and user determined
* Multiple document interface (MDI) with tiling and minimizing supported
* Keyboard remapping

Weaknesses of the editor include:
* unique default keyboard shortcuts for search and replace (F2 for search, Shift-F2 for repeat search, F3 for search and replace)
* Tends to lock up when opening unusually long files, or files with excessively long lines (above 16k characters)
* Lack of Unicode support (although this does mean that the characters shown are an accurate representation of the file's actual bytes).

External links

* [http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/steveb/cpaap/pfe/default.htm Programmer's File Editor Home Page]
* [http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/steveb/cpaap/pfe/pfefiles.htm Most recent Programmer's File Editor versions for multiple software platforms]