

The best editors relieve you of the small operations that slow your progress and take your focus from coding or writing. You can use them to very literally 'repeat yourself' by recording yourself performing a task once, and then playing it back to repeat that action wherever and whenever you want! Once you record a macro you can save it and even assign it to a shortcut.New York, October 11: Whether you are new to web development or just starting out on a writing career, one of the most important tools you need is a reliable and powerful text editor.The correct software allows you to do things quickly and efficiently. But sometimes there are things that you can't avoid repeating and which you can't create a function for - this is where macros come in. This saves you time and hassle and makes your code less bulky and more readable. The golden rule of programming is DRY - don't repeat yourself - but macros are the one exception to this rule! If you find yourself writing the same piece of code over and over again you should generally create a function which you can call to run that code for you.

Macros are a very handy tool that can automate boring repetitive tasks.

OK, so I know that most beginners opening up Notepad++ for the first time and looking about at the various features will be wondering what the hell 'Macros' are and what those play and record buttons are doing in a text editor. For my example of Python code, PyNPP is a good tool which lets you run your code from Notepad++ rather than having to go over to the GUI or shell to run it, and Python Indent is great for helping you with formatting.ĭon't Repeat Yourself, Unless Using Macros You won't find every plugin that could be relevant to your language like this, but it's a good place to start. For example, if you are learning Python then scrolling down to the letter P will bring up at least three plugins for Python programmers.
