TEA (text editor)
| Company type | Software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Text editor software |
| Founded | December 30, 2001 |
| Headquarters | Cross-platform |
| Products | Graphical text editor |
| Website | semiletov |
TEA is a graphical text editor crafted for advanced users, emphasizing minimal resource usage, broad capabilities, and high flexibility. It operates on all desktop operating systems that support Qt versions 6, 5, or 4.6 and above, including less common platforms such as OS/2 and Haiku OS. The user interface is available in several languages.
UI concept
More than a conventional text editor, TEA acts as a text-editing desktop environment featuring five tabs aligned along the right edge:
- edit: The principal text editing area with a tab bar to handle multiple open documents simultaneously. Positioned beneath the editor are panels displaying edit history and the "Famous Input Field" (FIF), a command line dedicated to TEA commands. Both the history and FIF panels persist across all tabs.
- files: A file explorer designed for browsing and opening files.
- options: Configuration settings for tailoring TEA’s functionalities and menu bar.
- dates: A calendar tool.
- manual: An extensive user guide that includes instructions for using the FIF.
Features
- Syntax highlighting available for many programming languages such as C, C++, Bash, C#, D, Fortran, Java, Lua, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Python, TeX/LaTeX, Verilog, XML, HTML, MediaWiki markup, among others.
- Variety of color themes and schemes.
- Highlighting of the current line ("tune" mode), particularly useful for reviewing OCR-processed or scanned text.
- Bookmarks within the file manager for rapid access to frequently used directories.
- Integrated spellchecking functionality.
- Ability to create customizable text snippets.
- Support for formatting in HTML, XHTML, DocBook, LaTeX, Lout, DokuWiki, and MediaWiki formats.
- Tools for text transformations such as case conversion and Morse code encoding.
- Text analytics including word extraction and substring frequency counting.
- Basic arithmetic operations.
FIF
The Famous Input Field (FIF) serves as a unique command line interface within TEA for conducting find-and-replace tasks. Users input commands formatted like SOURCETEXT~TARGETTEXT and then choose options such as Replace, Replace All, or Replace all in opened files from the Search menu to apply changes. Additionally, three distinct search buttons are positioned on the right side for convenience.
History
TEA originally debuted as a Windows application with version 1.0.0.49 released on December 30, 2001; at that time, TEA stood for Text Editing and Authoring. Subsequently, a GTK+ variant was developed to enable cross-platform compatibility with Windows and Linux systems. Eventually, TEA was completely rewritten using Qt technology, similar to other applications like VLC.
Initially available exclusively in Russian—which limited its distribution mainly to Ukraine and Russia—the software's reach was constrained by language barriers. Over time, the official website became bilingual (Russian and English), and TEA was localized into numerous languages to broaden its global user base.
| Release date | Win32 API | GTK+ | Qt | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 19, 2001 | 1.0.0.46 | — | — | Alpha release |
| April 26, 2006 | 12.1 | 13.0 | — | Initial GTK+ version alongside Win32 |
| July 4, 2008 | — | — | 18.0.0 | First Qt release (Qt 3 & Qt 4; full rewrite) |
| August 6, 2008 | — | 17.6.6 | — | Final regular GTK+ 2 release (not compatible with modern systems) |
| December 24, 2010 | — | — | 28.1.4 | Last version supporting Windows 98 |
| April 27, 2013 | — | 17.6.7 | — | GTK+ 2 update for contemporary systems |
| July 3, 2013 | — | 18.0.0 | — | Port of updated GTK+ 2 to GTK+ 3 |
| April 21, 2016 | — | — | 41.1.1 | Most recent version compatible with Qt 4.6+ & Qt 5 |
Website evolution:
| From | To | Site |
|---|---|---|
| December 2001 | June 26, 2006 | http://www.roxton.kiev.ua/ |
| June 26, 2006 | March 24, 2013 | http://tea-editor.sourceforge.net/ |
| March 24, 2013 | present | semiletov.org/tea/ & tea.ourproject.org |