Review: Alleycode HTML Editor
Editor: Alleycode HTML Editor
Version: 2.16.2
Developer: Konae Technologies
Platform/OS: Windows
WYSIWYG: No
Price: Free
While some of the software I’ve reviewed so far could have easily been classified as HTML IDEs [Integrated Development Environments], Alleycode is strictly an HTML editor — think Notepad with a few more buttons and a clip library. While it’s certainly lightweight, fast, and free, Alleycode’s feature set pales in comparison to the many other HTML editors on the market, offering only one real, usable benefit.
What I Like
- Synchro View. This is pretty much the only reason you might want to download Alleycode, as I haven’t seen this feature elsewhere in a non-WYSIWYG environment. Synchro View allows you to select content in either the HTML code or the rendered Preview and have it highlighted in both views.
- Extensive list of Library Items (text snippets) for HTML, CSS, and PHP. Essentially, these are included because there is neither code hinting nor code completion.
- It’s free.
Gripes
- At the risk of repeating myself: no code hinting/code completion.
- Syntax highlighting is based on file extension and only displays highlighting for one language at a time! In other words, if you have a file that includes HTML and PHP, only one of those languages will be highlighted, depending on the extension of the file itself. Moreover, there’s no syntax colouring (as far as I could tell) for CSS.
- The mouse wheel doesn’t work in the Preview pane. Scroll all you want — it’ll only move the editor window up and down.
- Synchro View, even if turned on, doesn’t display when you load a new page. You have to turn it off then on again in order for the Preview pane to show up.
Wish List
I wouldn’t even know where to begin… Maybe they could sell their Synchro View technology to makers of a more established, feature-rich editor.
Overall
While Alleycode isn’t bug-filled or crash-prone, it’s simply too limited, especially considering all the other great software available to web developers, free or otherwise. Having said that, Alleycode may serve a very specialized purpose: If you’re ever handed a FrontPage/WYSIWYG special (aka, Tag Soup du Jour) to update and you don’t want to wade your way through a bunch of mind-numbing code, you can simply load the pages into Alleycode, fire up Synchro View, and edit to your heart’s content without a lot of fuss.
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