I agree. Highlighting would be a great addition to the editor. Even basic things like highlighting braces, variables, and identifiers would be a great enhancement.

Personally, my solution is to use my favorite editor, and the following script I wrote:

Code:
;For people who use external editors for their mIRC
; scripts, this little script will check for when files are
; modified, and prompt to reload them.

on *:start:{ CheckReload }

alias CheckReload {
  if (!$timer(CheckReload)) .timerCheckReload -oi 0 1 if ($isalias(CheckReload)) CheckReload $chr(124) else .timerCheckReload off
  var %n = $script(0)
  while (%n > 0) {
    var %fn = $shortfn($script(%n)) 
    if ($hget(Scripts, %fn) && $file(%fn).mtime > $v1 && $input(The file $script(%n) has changed. Do you want to reload it?,y,File changed)) { reload -rs $script(%n) }
    hadd -m Scripts %fn $file(%fn).mtime
    dec %n
  }
}


It's not a perfect solution, but it gets the job done. I'd still love to see this script become useless, though.