|
Mac360 Power Search
Click below for advanced search options »
Mac360 Archives
By Month, All, Category
|
Faceoff: Which Is The Best Mac Text Editor Ever?
I’m torn between two worlds of text editors; the traditional, the new and hip and chic. Like religion, the text editors choices are numerous as the reasons why we use what we use. Like religion, switching ain’t easy. For the uninitiated, a text editor isn’t a word processor, though some may use an editor for such. At the basic level, a text editor creates clean text-- the kind that’s used in programming code in various languages. Naturally, each text editor creates crisp, clean, acceptable code for the need at hand. What kind of need? Not a report to an executive. Not a chapter for a book. Programming in various languages, such as C++ (featured in the Apple TV commercial Gift Exchange), Perl, Python, PHP, AppleScript, C, JavaScript, Ruby, CSS, XHTML, Ruby, XML, and many others. One of the most popular text editors ever is BareBones BBEdit. I’ve used it for many years, going back to Mac OS Classic days.
BBEdit is a tool worthy of buyiing a Mac. It’s fast, produces clean code, performs wonderful searches through multiple documents, and, for the most part has never failed me. Through the years, I’ve attempted to try other text editors but nothing stuck for long. Familiarity is cruel mistress. Saying goodbye is excrutiatingly difficult. That’s how some Mac people feel about their choice of editors. Last year I tried out TextMate from MacroMates. It’s clean, lean, produces good code, comes with a bunch of time saving “bundles” and the retail price was about the same as the upgrade price to BBEdit. This is where I found myself torn between two worlds. BBEdit and TextMate. BBEdit is familiar, and that means fast. I know where every function and feature sits. Almost. That’s a problem, because editors these days have so many features it becomes difficult to master them all. Worse, no single editor is really perfect, even for the part-time coder, though most let the user customize various functions. That was never easy for me to do in BBEdit, but it’s a snap to do in TextMate. With little work, I could create and control TextMate’s bundles to let the editor work the way I want to work. But I straddled the fence, torn between the familiar and fast, and the pleasure of building add-ons to function the way I want to work (making work to make work easier). Neither BBEdit or TextMate is a perfect solution, or a good tool for a beginner to use as a primary, first-time editor. TextMate is minimalist lean. BBEdit is warm and friendly, if a bit pudgy around the middle.
Which one is better? As it will be with your experience and your choice of an editor, the answer is, “it depends.” Depending on the job at hand, BBEdit is the friend who helps with big jobs. TextMate does XHTML, CSS, and bundles and templates better than any utility I’ve owned. That doesn’t necessarily mean that either editor is perfect for you. Scan the list of available Mac editors and you’re reading a Who’s Who list of famous names. AquaMacs gets four stars as the Emacs editor with a GUI. It’s free, as is CarbonEmacs, both of which have their roots in Unix. For beginners, Jedit X is a great choice from Japan, as is the free Smultron. The former is superb, but carries a price tag. The latter is a great tool and uses the WebKit browser so makes for a capable XHTML and CSS editor. The above are not meant to be a comprehensive look at all the text editors available for Mac OS X. My favorites are popular, one more so than the other. One growing problem I have with Mac applications is that they’re improving with each version, which makes choosing a single tool all the more difficult, as no one editor does everything exactly the way I’d prefer. As always, your mileage may vary. Do you use a text editor? If so, which one? Why? What makes it stand out from others? What don’t you like about BBEdit or TextMate or the Emacs versions for OS X? Share your experience with other Mac360 readers in the Comments Section below. My favorite? I still lean toward the somewhat pudgy BBEdit though I’m using TextMate more because those bundles and templates are so easy to create. • Article by Jeffrey Mincey • Published on Wednesday, June 11, 2008
• Category: Reviews • 20 Reader comment(s) • Email This • Digg This • Shop Now
« Previously Poll: How Many Macs, iPods Have You Purchased?
Nextly » The Most Important Applications On Your Mac.
Talk Back to Kate, Ron & the Mac360 staff Mr Squid says:
I have never tried BBEdit, but I have heard good things about it. If I remember correctly it is not free. — Posted on Sat Jun 14 at 3:03 pm by Mr Squid
Bonobo says:
Lots of editors can do GREP search and replace, but BBEdit does it well, fast and can do extremely complex automatic search and replace strings that can manipulate HUGE files that would take you a year to do by hand, in only seconds. I’ve used it to reformat and cleanup a 120 meg file of a corrupted Exchange email database, and must have done tens of millions of “fixes”, and got most of the emails back. Doing hundreds of thousands of changes or more in less than 5 seconds was routine. — Posted on Thu Jun 12 at 11:51 pm by Bonobo
Mr Squid says:
Emacs is far and away the best text editor out there. It is not much use if you need to do WYSIWYG editing, but for serious writing where getting the words recorded, or for programming, or for jotting quick notes, or for any of the myriad uses that people have for text editor there is not substitute for emacs. The learning curve is rather steep, but if you can get past that then emacs really is the best text editor out there. Apple’s TextEdit has its uses, but it really is too simplistic for most situations. It can’t even handle regular expression, and I have yet to find a way to make it highligh syntax for various programming and scripting languages. Word is great if you need to do formatting, such as in creating an invitation, or writing a report that needs graphics, but it is serious overkill for most text-based writing. And the cost is far too high. The free office suites tend to be almost as good. Finally, there is alphaX, which is nice for programming, but to be honest, who wants to constantly switch from one editor to another. I stick with emacs unless if I absolutely have to use something else. — Posted on Thu Jun 12 at 10:03 am by Mr Squid
Larry says:
garnie...that is the VISUAL font you’re looking at. TextMate will only print in the same font/size as you’re using in the program. There is no setting for “printer font”. So if I want to view things in Monaco 12 and print in Times New Roman 10 it won’t do it. My point is of 20 text editors, some free...it’s the only one with such a constraint...and it’s probably in the top two editors. — Posted on Mon Mar 03 at 8:13 am by Larry
garnier says:
I have a copy of TextMate and it seems to handle whatever font I want to set. It’s in the Preferences. It shows a bunch of “theme” preferences which change colors, highlights, and fonts. Monaco 12 pt. is default, but it’s easy to change. — Posted on Sun Mar 02 at 11:34 pm by garnier
Larry McJunkin says:
TextMate has one serious drawback, and apparently it’s a non-important one for it’s developer. That being, the only font TextMate will print in is the native font used for editing. Come on...I’m supposed to pay $75 for an editor in which I can’t even select the font and size of the print? If it weren’t for that...I’d switch to it instantly. Larry — Posted on Sun Mar 02 at 11:13 pm by Larry McJunkin
traveler says:
There are really only 2 options - EMACS and VIM. — Posted on Fri Jan 04 at 10:24 pm by traveler
∧ Back To Top |
What's in the FORUMS?
Newest Daily Topics
Also in Mac360
Recent Articles
|
| Copyright © 2004 - 2008 PanGeo Media, Honolulu, Hawaii USA. All Rights Reserved.
Mac360 is published and edited by Ron McElfresh, Honolulu, HI USA. Mac360 is served on an Apple Xserve using Mac OS X Tiger Server. Powered by ExpressionEngine at ServerLogistics. |