jEdit: a Syntax-Aware OpenSource Program Editor
Dave Aiello wrote, "The other day, I asked my friend Brett Tofel from the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College what Integrated Development Environment he would use to develop an understanding of Java Server Page development if cost was a consideration? Brett said, '...{I} don't use an IDE per se. I do my editing in jEdit which is
syntactically aware of jsp and highlights/ formats/ etc. correctly (cost=free).'"
"After a little further research, I located the jEdit Web Site and got more details about the program. JEdit is a programmer's text editor written in Java, being developed by a team led by Slava Pestov. It provides all of the features that Brett mentioned out of the box. It also has a large number of plugins which extend its functionality, and a plugin manager that makes it easy to install the plugins and try them out."
"I just started using this program, so I can't say I swear by it. But, initial indications are that it will be useful. And, it's definitely interesting to try an OpenSource product for this task, when the alternatives are definitely commercial and many of the good alternatives are quite expensive."