Unix tools: what if a file is named minus something?

View Source options in IE 6 Win XP Pro sp1

• I am interested to find a lightweight View Source editor that I can invoke from IE using the View --> Source command, or the right-click context menu. Constraints: :: must have syntax coloring :: syntax coloring must be configurable :: must be lightweight -- load as (or nearly as) quickly as notepad :: must be able to handle spaces in file names* :: must be able to correctly identify cached browser files as HTML** * I've used notepad.exe replacement tools in the past that had trouble recognizing a file was HTML-formed. This seems to be the way in which IE caches the current file and names it an arbitrary name, like "index[1]" with no .htm or .html suffix. This rendered the syntax coloring features of the view source tool impotent. (NoteTab Pro, TextPad have this problem.) There are published Windows registry hacks to set any .exe to the be the default View Source tool; I don't need that extra info. I would be thrilled to find something like BBEdit for Windows, but sadly, my search for such an elegant little program has be fruitless. I currently use Dreamweaver MX 2004 for most HTML development, but this program is a pig and isn't well-suited to just Viewing Source in the browser. For one, it fails to identify a cached page with no .htm/l suffix (so syntax coloring doesn't work for pages named like "index[1]". Secondly, it's just too slow to load. Good luck. -- Font9a

• Answer:

  Hello, font9a: This question reminds me a problem I had some time ago, so my answer is based on my own experience, in any case, don't hesitate to request for any clarification, I'm here to help you until you get what you need. My choice to replace the notepad on IE when using the option View Source..., is HTML-Kit, you can find it here: HTML-kit http://www.chami.com/html-kit/ HTML-kit features http://www.chami.com/html-kit/features/ You can download it from here: Download HTML-Kit http://www.chami.com/html-kit/download/ After you install it and execute it for the first time, you will be prompted for several questions, one is to make it the default View Source option for IE, so you don't need to change anything on your registry. Regarding your constraints: :: must have syntax coloring :: syntax coloring must be configurable "Real-time syntax highlighter with the ability to customize colors and font styles to make it easier to read code. Maintain multiple colorizer views and/or highlight only specific parts of code, such as text, tags, comments, scripts, strings, ASP, etc. Includes language-level color coding support for HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS / XLS / XSLT Style Sheets, JavaScript / JScript / LiveWire, VBScript / Visual Basic, ASP, PHP, Perl, iHTML, Java, Python, C/C++, .NET C#, Delphi / Pascal, INI, and IE 5 conditional HTML files with customizable file extensions. Coloring of JSP blocks is also supported." :: must be lightweight -- load as (or nearly as) quickly as notepad -It loads very fast and it's very lightweight, not as fast as notepad, but very fast. :: must be able to handle spaces in file names* :: must be able to correctly identify cached browser files as HTML** -It works with cached pages without HTML extensions, just try it and tell me I suggest you to try it, but if in any case, it doesn't fit your needs, just request for any clarification and I will look for another solution. Regards.