simple (embedded) code editor

I want to bounce this idea off of anyone - just in case I'm re-inventing the 
wheel or digging myself into a big hole...


Summary:

I need to add a "simple" code editor to my Windows (LWW-based) product, with 
a "familiar" Windows user interface (like Notepad).  I need to control the 
editor programmatically (i.e. load/save via toolbar buttons, etc).  In the 
future, I'm going to want to add stuff like syntax colouring (for a 
proprietary, app-specific language).

I'm currently doing this by using a capi:editor-pane with no echo pane 
(customers are confused by the existence of the echo pane) and 
reading/writing the buffer manually (as demo'ed in the capi user manual)[*].  

To deal with the lack of echo pane (you get an error if a command tries to use 
a non-existent echo pane), I am going to have to trap all commands that try 
to use the echo pane and either disable them or write replacements that use 
dialog boxes (e.g. Notepad-like "Find", "Replace", etc).  Probably by making 
my own local hacked copies of msw-key-binds.lisp and 
selection-key-binds.lisp.


Questions:

a) Has this been done before and is the code available?

b) Is this the most reasonable approach, or am I missing some other capi 
doo-dads that are closer to my requirements?

c) Is there some emminently COM-programmable 3rd party (free or cheap, low 
learning curve) Windowsy editor already out there for me to harvest via ffi / 
COM?  (It needs to be integrated into my gui.)


thanks for any advice
pt


[*] I'm using only a single buffer, because I can't seem to be able to 
reliably control the multi-buffer system of the lw editor - esp. which window 
a buffer appears in.  And, I don't really need multi-buffering in the 
product.