Decision Guidance ⇒ Wanted: editor for XeTeX

[kelp]

Hello everyone,

at the moment I'm looking the perfect editor for all my XeTeX-needs. Can someone please help me? I'm really lost!

Okay, so this what I need:

• - something that is Windows XP compatible
  - something that can open, DISPLAY and save Unicode
  - something that lets me input characters in decimal
  - something that displays in a font or lets me choose a font that includes ALL the weird and freaky characters I'll need

Apart from that, it would be really nice if the editor had syntax highlighting for (La)TeX (and buttons/shortcuts [or a way for me to make them] to compile & preview my documents).

I think that concludes my wishlist ...

-kelp

(PS: I have tried a few editors; neither of them has really worked for me. My search is complicated by the fact that I seem to have some other issue with XeTeX ... I'm not quite sure what it is.)

[josephwright]

I'm not sure I quite follow the issue. There are lots of UTF-8 editors around on Windows: surely you just have to pick one. Ultimately, you can only display characters you've got the fonts for, so the display is at least partly a function of what fonts are installed. You don't say which editors you've tried and rejected: it might help if we knew which ones these were!

By the way, when you say "input characters as numbers" I guess you mean using the short-cuts from Character Map?

[kelp]

I know there are editors around, and I know that I can just pick one. The question is: Which one? And to help me answer that question, I posted here - in decision guidance.
I was hoping there is someone here who could recommend an editor to me.

I have tried and rejected WinShell (the TeX-editor I normally use), TextPad and Jedit. And before I tried any more I thought I could just ask someone for a tip ...

By the way, when you say "input characters as numbers" I guess you mean using the short-cuts from Character Map?

I'm not sure what you mean, but it might be what I mean. Hexadecimal would work for me too.

Ultimately, you can only display characters you've got the fonts for, so the display is at least partly a function of what fonts are installed.

I know, and I'm pretty sure that my fonts are fine.

So ... has anyone got any recommendations?

[josephwright]

I'm happy with TeXworks, which handles UTF-8 fine as far as I'm concerned. However, I don't do lots of complex character work, so I might be wrong!

[benibela]

Have you tried my TexMakerX?
It has fully Unicode support and works on WinXP.
(To be honest, I don't know if it works with XeTeX instead of Latex, and if numerical character input works)