Over the past few weeks, I have made an effort to demonstrate that Sigasi 2.0 is better than Emacs VHDL mode. I have also argued that Emacs VHDL mode used to be the best VHDL editor on the planet. In summary, I wrote about:

• Why Emacs VHDL mode is so great,
• Why engineers are smart enough to change editors,
• Emacs has lousy error checking,
• Emacs does not support VHDL libraries,
• Emacs does not support VHDL renames,
• Emacs' code coloring is outdated,
• CTAGS and Emacs do a bad job at navigating through VHDL code,
• Which things are still lacking in Sigasi

One of the most common comments I got was that Emacs is free. I know there is a bit of ambiguity in the word free, but I get the feeling that most people are worried about their money. They don't want to pay for an editor. It seems hard for people to compare a €599 tool, with one that comes at a flat €0.00.

Tomorrow, we will launch the Sigasi 2.0 Starter Edition. The Starter Edition will be free. Not just for a week or for a beta period, but forever.
The Starter Edition is designed to be better than Emacs for any VHDL work you do. If your VHDL design is small enough, you even get access to all of the nice features that paying customers will have. Stay tuned for more info.