In this article, as a result, we will not be limiting our search by narrowing it further to the type of text editor. On the other hand, we will be looking at those Mac OS developers‘ text editors that have been designed with the needs of coders in mind. In short, a text editor that can provide a maximum number of features for generating code and compiling/interpreting it on a Mac OS platform.”
For the Mac users who are still using TextWrangler, they are quite behind the time. But they don’t need to know yet, because there are plenty of great Mac TextEdit alternatives out there. If you’ve tried TextEdit before but are not satisfying your coding needs, here is another option. It has syntax highlighting for most languages and you can even code on the go with this text editor app on your Android or iOS smartphone.
Some of the best code editors for Mac are free, and they’re definitely powerful! For instance, Atom is a great free text editor with peer-to-peer collaboration, built-in git capabilities, and the ability to add plugins. If you want your text editor to include features like finding and replace in files, autorun macros, syntax highlighting options for hundreds of programming languages, auto-indentation options, syntax checking with compilers, and more, look no further than Sublime Text 3. It’s a feature-rich code editor for macOS that will change the way you write code. And don’t forget Visual Studio Code which was built with JavaScript developers in mind.
CotEditor 2.0
CotEditor is a relatively new and fresh development for everyone who doesn’t need his editor on a daily basis and simply wants a good editor with syntax highlighting. You can consider CotEditor as Notepad++ for OS X. It provides, besides a viable code completion, a very good search-and-replace function, a split view to partition the editor window in several fields, good syntax highlighting for 40 programming languages, and comes with eight themes. For a simple editor, you can customize the application more than you’d have expected; the editor is certainly worth trying out.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code or VS Code is a freeware source-code editor from Microsoft. It is built on the Electron framework and is compatible with all major operating systems: Linux, macOS, and Windows.
One aspect of VS Code that separates it from other source-code editors is that, instead of using a project-based system, it allows you to work with multiple directories and isolate them into different workspaces — kind of like a language-agnostic code editor.
Talking about functionality, you can use VS Code to write programs in various languages: C/C++, Java, Python, JavaScript, and Go. It provides an extensive set of features to help you in the coding process, such as support for syntax highlighting, snippets, code refactoring, debugging, intelligent code completion (or autocomplete), and Git integration. Moreover, you also get the ability to collaborate and work remotely with your peers in real-time.
If you are just getting started, Visual Studio Code provides features like IntelliSense and Peek Definition to help you understand various aspects of programming languages.
Atom
Atom is a modern IDE and HTML code editing program for Windows, Mac, and Linux. This program comes loaded with features, including compatibility with other web development languages. This free and open-source cross-platform HTML editor allows users to share projects between operating systems and allows for easy collaboration via Github connectivity.
This advanced text editor has many features that are usually limited to high-level coding programs. Atom allows developers to access numerous open-source packages online, which can dramatically speed up project time.
Atom is one of the top multifunction HTML editors for Linux, Mac, and Windows. The program integrates multiple programming languages including JavaScript, Node.js, and CSS. Atom allows users to edit complex website code in one place, creating an ideal environment for programmers.
Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a downloadable HTML text editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux. This cross-platform tool features advanced functionality, including a proprietary command palette and syntax highlighting.
One of Sublime Text’s key features is ‘GOTO Anything’ and ‘GOTO Definitions.’ These features make it easy to find and replace code throughout a large coding or web content project. Sublime Text also includes a unique multi-project feature, which allows users to seamlessly switch between multiple projects.
The Sublime HTML editing program is among the best available for download and packs numerous practical features to make markup easier and more accurate. The program was designed in-house and includes unique capabilities that often aren’t available from other software. While the full-featured program is a paid version, it has a free version that many regularly use.
BBEdit
BBEdit is a Mac-only text editor from Bare Bones Software. It is essentially a free version of the popular TextWrangler text editor, which got discontinued a few years back and is available exclusively on macOS.
Unlike TextWrangler, though, BBEdit’s free tier offers enough features and programming functionalities that make it a noteworthy option among the plethora of other text editors out there. You can use it as a simple text editor to work with plain text files and also to write code or create custom scripts. BBEdit’s list of supported languages includes AppleScript, Python, Perl, RegEx, and Shell scripting.
As for features, BBEdit provides project definition tools, syntax coloring, code folding, auto code completion, and quick search and replace functionality, to name a few. Additionally, you also get support for FTP and SFTP for file transfer, along with the integration of code management systems.
BBEdit is available on Mac App Store.
Brackets
Brackets is a robust editor with numerous practical features, but without unnecessary extras to hamper user experience. This program features the essentials, plus helpful tools like live preview. These features make Brackets ideal for a wide range of text editing projects.
Many developers prefer live preview features, like those offered by Brackets. As a result, changing the style or layout of a web page is interactive. This allows users to experiment with multiple designs before applying the text to their site.
Brackets is an open-source program, which many programmers prefer. It’s available for Mac, Windows, and Linux users, and offers a pleasant and functional interface for text editing. This premium HTML text editor is available for free.
Google Web Designer
Yes, Google also provides tools for web designers. However, Google Web Designer works more like Adobe Dreamweaver. It is not a pure HTML editor, but a combined WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) and text editor. You can work with both interfaces, the graphical interface, and the code-view. Google Web Designer is supposed to generate correct HTML5 and CSS3 code from the graphical interface. Whether it does so correctly, will be determined by an extensive test. Stay tuned…
Without thorough testing, there is little to be said about this editor. Even the information on the website of the editor is rather sparse, which may be down to the fact that it is still in its beta phase. However, the concept is interesting.
Vim
Vim or Vi Improved is a clone of Vi with a series of improvements. Vi is a POSIX standard editor that comes pre-installed on most traditional Unix-compliant operating systems, including macOS. When put up against other text editors on this list, Vim has a completely different look and feel to it.
While most modern text editors focus on offering a nice-looking interface filled with a tonne of features and functionalities, Vim focuses on getting the basics right. And, it does that very well. You do, however, get extensive plugin support, with new plugins being developed continuously, to configure the editor to suit your coding style and workflow.
The lack of a graphical interface on Vim means all your interactions happen on the command line or terminal window. Plus, being a modal editor, there are different modes on Vim that might take you some time to get used to before you become comfortable using it. However, that said, once you learn Vim, you can do a whole lot more with it efficiently. And, you probably would not switch back to a regular text editor.
GNU Emacs
GNU Emacs is a popular real-time Linux HTML editor. It runs on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and even BSDs. It’s completely free, and it features full Unicode support, supporting type in anything from Thai to Hebrew. It also has content-aware syntax coloring, a customizable Lisp interface, the ability to extend into a full IDE, and a built-in calendar.
The star feature of Emacs is its extensibility and the ability to customize and automate your work. The Lisp-based interface allows for an amazing amount of control over the software. It also features an open channel for writing extensions and tools to do everything from autocompleting code to playing Tetris.
Conclusion:
Did you know there is a wide variety of code editors out there? From free to paid ones and most with different features and functionalities. But with the wide variety of editors, I think we can find what we need to use in our coding. The tech world is constantly changing. New tech tools pop up every day to help developers, designers and others do their job better. There are many code editors available for Mac, however, some of them simply aren’t up to snuff.
I am pretty sure most of you have either created a blog post at some point or have used tools to create one. But have you ever wondered how it is written or created? For e.g., You copy-paste code from something, then there is just some text that is not code, then it shows up as ASCII art, then you copy-paste some more, then it shows up as just regular text.