P1 BTEC IT Level 3 Unit 28 + 20
Introduction:
Introduction:
In this document I will be describing and comparing Notepad and Komodo
Edit, these two pieces of software allow the user to code in HTML and create a
webpage. The comparison will compare usability, how clean the interface is and
how easy it is to begin coding and understand.
Notepad:
Notepad is a basic text editor,
it allows one to enter text, you can’t format the text and the software won’t
try anything automatic with it either. It’s a programme mainly used for taking
notes, or creating small manuals for another piece of software. However notepad
has another use, and that is the ability to code in HTML to create a webpage.
Notepad is one of the most basic applications found in any Operating System
(OS); although notepad itself is only available on Windows. Since .HTML files
do not require third-party compilers to compile them you can just save a piece
of code as a .html and it will run fine as a webpage since the web browser is
what interprets the .html file.
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Advantages:
Notepad has a clean interface with no clutter, just a whitespace that can be filled with text, it’s also lightweight and loads extremely quickly, which means it’s getting you into the action as soon as possible. Simple and easy to understand, and you don’t need to learn how it works to start using it. Comes with the Windows OS which I use constantly.
Notepad has a clean interface with no clutter, just a whitespace that can be filled with text, it’s also lightweight and loads extremely quickly, which means it’s getting you into the action as soon as possible. Simple and easy to understand, and you don’t need to learn how it works to start using it. Comes with the Windows OS which I use constantly.
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Disadvantages:
Notepad has no helpful additions like coloured syntax, or auto-tag during html coding. If you make a mistake you’ll have to look for it yourself since notepad doesn’t tell you that you have made a mistake. It only comes with Windows so if you own Linux or iMac you won’t have access to it.
Notepad has no helpful additions like coloured syntax, or auto-tag during html coding. If you make a mistake you’ll have to look for it yourself since notepad doesn’t tell you that you have made a mistake. It only comes with Windows so if you own Linux or iMac you won’t have access to it.
Komodo Edit:
Komodo edit is an IDE primarily used for HTML files, but can also
be used for a number of different coding languages like Jquery and Javascript.
Komodo edit is a complex programme but has automatic correction features like
adding the end tag when you type in the first tag. It also colours your text
based on what you type in and even has a internal web browser to test your
webpage. However the interface is quite cluttered and can disorientate people
used to a clean interface like note pad, however it has a number of features
that allows a coder to code a lot faster.
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Advantages:
The advantages of Komodo Edit are relatively straightforward, it has coloured syntax to allow you to identify different parts of code. It also auto-tags a newly created tag so you don’t have to type it again at the end of your line/paragraph. It has an internal web browser which you can use for testing the webpages you have created.
The advantages of Komodo Edit are relatively straightforward, it has coloured syntax to allow you to identify different parts of code. It also auto-tags a newly created tag so you don’t have to type it again at the end of your line/paragraph. It has an internal web browser which you can use for testing the webpages you have created.
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Disadvantages:
The disadvantages of Komodo Edit are also straightforward, you have to download it, so you have to wait a little before you can actually code. It has a long loading time since it’s a full-fledged IDE, you’ll need some sort of reference or manual before you get to code. Since it has so many features, it has a cluttered interface and can be hard to use for people who have small screens.
The disadvantages of Komodo Edit are also straightforward, you have to download it, so you have to wait a little before you can actually code. It has a long loading time since it’s a full-fledged IDE, you’ll need some sort of reference or manual before you get to code. Since it has so many features, it has a cluttered interface and can be hard to use for people who have small screens.
The
Comparison:
The advantage of notepad is that it’s light-weight and it costs
almost nothing in terms of data and storage. However with Komodo Edit, it’s a
lot bigger and takes up more memory and storage, you also have to download
Komodo Edit, while with Notepad you do not have to download it, it comes with
your OS. However the true Notepad is only available on windows while Komodo
Edit is free to all users but you have to download it, which means Komodo is
more available to others.
When looking at Notepad you’ll probably notice the clean interface, there’s absolutely no clutter, just you and the white space in which you can fill text in. But then you have Komodo Edit, which can feel a bit cramped sometimes depending on your screen size, but on the upside this is because of the amount of features in Komodo Edit. For example Komodo Edit has a feature that allows your syntaxes to be coloured accordingly so that you can differentiate between tags a lot easier. Komodo Edit also contains an internal web browser which you can use to test your code, it even has an auto-correct tool which automatically creates the end tag of the primary tag you just typed in.
Notepad has none of these, so some of you are already turned off by sticking with notepad, but the reason people code with note pad is the light weight, and clean interface. Some people also prefer the text to not be auto-corrected, as this can cause more mistakes than less for an advanced user. Komodo Edit also has some help and support features, since it’s a bit more complicated than notepad. This also means Komodo Edit is a lot harder to start using, and almost always will require some sort of reference to get going. While with Notepad you can just get on and code, you just open it up and type inside the whitespace and save, and there’s your webpage.
When looking at Notepad you’ll probably notice the clean interface, there’s absolutely no clutter, just you and the white space in which you can fill text in. But then you have Komodo Edit, which can feel a bit cramped sometimes depending on your screen size, but on the upside this is because of the amount of features in Komodo Edit. For example Komodo Edit has a feature that allows your syntaxes to be coloured accordingly so that you can differentiate between tags a lot easier. Komodo Edit also contains an internal web browser which you can use to test your code, it even has an auto-correct tool which automatically creates the end tag of the primary tag you just typed in.
Notepad has none of these, so some of you are already turned off by sticking with notepad, but the reason people code with note pad is the light weight, and clean interface. Some people also prefer the text to not be auto-corrected, as this can cause more mistakes than less for an advanced user. Komodo Edit also has some help and support features, since it’s a bit more complicated than notepad. This also means Komodo Edit is a lot harder to start using, and almost always will require some sort of reference to get going. While with Notepad you can just get on and code, you just open it up and type inside the whitespace and save, and there’s your webpage.
It also means Notepad is a sort of quicker programme to boot and
load, which gets you into coding quicker, what objectively the fastest
programme is, is yet to be seen.
Conclusion:
Since both are pretty much equal, it all depends on preference and
what you want from your coding IDE, do you want a simple clean interface where
all your mistakes and corrections are your own doing? Or do you want a helpful
IDE filled with features and helpful colour identifiers that help you identify
what you are creating?
In my honest opinion I do believe Notepad is the greater of the two; it’s clean, simple and doesn’t control what I type. Since I’m quite a stubborn person myself, I don’t like it when what I do is corrected or created for me, like Komodo’s auto-tag system. Komodo Edit definitely has it’s place, however I find it easier to code in Notepad since there isn’t unnecessary clutter. For example, there’s no need to know what line number you’re on for such a basic language, which Komodo displays.
In my honest opinion I do believe Notepad is the greater of the two; it’s clean, simple and doesn’t control what I type. Since I’m quite a stubborn person myself, I don’t like it when what I do is corrected or created for me, like Komodo’s auto-tag system. Komodo Edit definitely has it’s place, however I find it easier to code in Notepad since there isn’t unnecessary clutter. For example, there’s no need to know what line number you’re on for such a basic language, which Komodo displays.
I’m also quite an impatient person, and dislike the loading times
of Komodo Edit, but I also like to have choices with what I code with. This
means I actually like using both, but if I had to choose one, I would choose
Notepad, and since Windows is my main OS that I use on most of my systems, I’ll
always have notepad on my PC or laptop.
