ConTEXT

Download from… http://www.context.cx

Download size… 1.6Mb
Installation size… 2.7Mb

Like many code editors, ConTEXT has been designed to be pretty non-specific. In fact it’s quite lean – it weighs in quiet light in the Mb front but also in the features. All the usuals are there though, including line numbers, syntax highlighting, etc. The GUI is quite basic, looking like a product 10 years older than it really is.

It has a nice explorer bar at the side for file selection and – importantly – has Project facilities but without forcing you to use them. Nice.

The website is detailed, with FAQs and a forum.

Launching in different browsers can be defined by setting up some user-defined keys. These can also be executed by some icons on the toolbar. 4 are available in total and the set-up is quite powerful (compared to most other editors).

Summary of ConTEXT

A nice clean, if a little old-fashioned looking editor. This could compete to be my editor of choice.

Reviewed by David Artiss on 19th November 2007.

Recently I’ve been looking for a new coding editor to meet my own specific needs. I’ve settled on one, but am always happy to look at potential replacements, if they’ll make my life easier. Anyway, my intention is to add short reviews of these editors as I look at them.

Today I’m looking at Komodo Edit from ActiveState. However, before I start, I should really state what I’m after.

I hand code everything, so I’m not after anything WYSIWYG. However, I would like functionality to preview anything in a number of different browsers (and if I can define them myself, that’s even better). The code should be syntax highlighted with line numbers and, optionally, ident guides. I should be able to word wrap too. Oh, and it has to be free.

And that’s about it. Simple. Sweet.

ActiveState Komodo Edit

Download from… http://www.activestate.com/Products/komodo_edit/

Download size… 29.7Mb
Installation size… 95.5Mb

So… Komodo Edit. It’s a sub-set of the full commercial Komodo IDE and is a rather good, if basic, editor. All the functionality I want is there but the browser support is limited – strangely to my default (Firefox) and those it’s detected – two different routes to, erm, Firefox. I think it wants me to use Firefox. I can’t find anyway to specify anything different.

It’s also very slow to start-up. You can see from the details above that, once installed, it takes a whopping 95.5Mb. In comparison my current editor, which is far more feature-rich and has numerous plugins installed, takes up 3.5Mb.

Code highlighting is good though and it has the full plethora of my display requirements (line numbers, etc).

Summary of ActiveState Komodo Edit

Although it has most of what I want, it’s basic-ness means that the occasional time I am looking for another function, it’s unlikely to be there. Along with its bulk and its browser limitations, it means I can’t rate it too highly

Reviewed by David Artiss on 16th November 2007.

Netgear has recently released a firmware upgrade for its DG834GT router. I have that modem and one of the enhancements was to VOIP, which I’ve started using in the last week. Ideal.

Except I spent many frustrated hours yesterday wondering why the wireless connectivity on my daughers laptop wasn’t working. Then I tried my work laptop and that didn’t work either.

Both are on WEP security (insecure I know, but I also have a Nintendo DS on the network and that doesn’t use WPA). I found that switching to WPA temporarily worked (as did turning off encryption). Eventually I rolled back to the previous version of the routers firmware and it worked again.

Having read about other people having this issue on various Netgear forums, it would seem to be a problem impacting Super-G and G wireless – hence why the Nintendo DS continued to work even with the new firmware installed.

Meantime, Netgear continue to have the firmware download available on their site. I can only assume they don’t read their own forums, so I’ll be submitted a fault report to them. Hopefully they’ll then pull the link.