Visual SlickEdit

Description

Visual SlickEdit is a powerful programmable multi-platform software development editor that is based on the IBM E3 editor (a predecessor to EPM/NEPMD) concept and originally written by some of the same authors. Introduced by Microedge Inc. in 1988 as SlickEdit and was a text mode application that ran under DOS and 16 bit OS/2, over the next couple of years the editor was ported to almost every Unix platform in existence at the time. Its primary selling points were the ability to handle huge text files, something that most editors at the time had difficulty with, and an extensible kernel/programming feature similar to EPM except that instead of REXX SlickEdit used a custom built scripting language called Slick-C that mimicked the parsing features of REXX, but otherwise was C like.

Over the next couple of years the company added some advanced development features to the package but hit a bump when IBM introduced the EPM editor that was not only free, it ran under a GUI and although in some respects not as fully featured as Slickedit, it did offer some features and a level of speed that SlickEdit did not. Also the REXX language offered as an extensions programming language by EPM was deemed to be easier to use than Slick-C and a vibrant community of EPM users soon had a huge variety of extensions available for IBM's editor.

MicroEdge responded by introducing Visual SlickEdit for OS/2, an graphical editor that offered much stronger project handling and programming utility features than EPM could offer and with versions two and three of VS in particular offered a host of features not generally available on other editors or only by linking them to external utilities. Some of the features from classic Visual SlickEdit have since disappeared from the modern product. VS was soon after the introduction of v1 ported to Windows and a couple of years later to Unix systems that offered X windows capability. At the same time the company continued to offer the text mode version of SlickEdit for DOS and Unix systems that were discontinued or lacked X Windows capability and later as a lower cost option to Visual Slickedit on modern Unix variants. However sales of the text mode version slowed down to such a degree that they were discontinued around 1997.

While VS sold reasonably on the OS/2 platform it never regained the market share it had before the introduction of EPM, and many OS/2 users remained unaware of its existence. This relative lack of sales lead to version 4.0b being the last one for OS/2, however despite its age it remains an excellent tool if you can get hold of one. Currently SlickEdit Inc. offers the product for MS Windows, AIX, HPUX, Linux, Solaris and Max OSX.

The company has from time to time sold versions of the editor designed to integrate into IDE's from other companies, in the 1990's they sold a Borland Delphi and CA Jasmine TND compatible versions of VS, more recently offered a version that integrated into Microsofts Visual Studio and currently have a version that integrates into Eclipse. In the late 90's the company also made a short stop in the mainframe world with a version of the editor especially tailored to develop S/390 software.

A few features beyond the usual list for programming editors -

• Project handling
• File and directory compare (v3.0?)
• Symbol tagging (fully configurable)
• Fully configurable compiler/linker error message parser
• Column awareness (fill, tab, delete etc.)
• ...

Version

• Last OS/2 version of Visual SlickEdit: v4.0b
• Last version of the 3x branch of Visual SlickEdit: v3.0b
• Last OS/2 SlickEdit text mode/16 bit version is unknown, but it is believed to be of the 1.x branch and certainly had been discontinued when v2.3 hit the ground.
• Last Visual SlickEdit version that runs under Win3.x or WinOS/2: v2.0
• Last DOS, MIPS EP/X, Sequent Dynix and Motorola System V/88000 SlickEdit text mode version: v2.3
• Last known SCO Unix/Xenix/SVr4, Unixware, Interactive Unix, SunOS/Solaris, QNX, DG AviiON, SGI Irix, Digital Unix and Linux SlickEdit text mode version: v2.4
• Current version for other platforms: v18 for Unix platforms, v19 aka SlickEdit 2014 for Windows and Mac OSX.

Language Support

• English - Built in.

Articles

• Visual SlickEdit 2.0 The EDM/2 Editor Shootout

Publications

• http://www.edm2.com/0505/editors1.html
• An old review of the text mode Linux version of SlickEdit v2

Links

• http://slickedit.com MicroEdge homepage
• SlickEdit on the C2 programming Wiki

Author

• MicroEdge Inc. (Original author)
• Slickedit Inc.
• J. Clark Maurer

License

• Commercial - OS/2 and DOS versions discontinued and no longer sold.