

BBEdit has always been good at opening large files too, which is something that other editors can’t really match (maybe because that fancy syntax highlighting requires too much processing power). I have always found things that BBEdit just does better than other editors: see for example Zap Gremlins or Process Lines Containing or Process Duplicate Lines or Sort Lines. But it has some very powerful functionality, most notably Text Factories, AppleScript support, Automator Actions, Clippings, and Stationery. BBEdit is not the most modern editor around: it doesn’t do code completion, for example. I don’t think it has ever crashed on any of my Macs, but I’ve been using it so long that it must have at some point. All of the apps below do this, all in different ways.īBEdit has been around basically forever and is mature, fast, and reliable. Editors can’t do everything, so it’s important that they expose some kind of scripting engine so that you can do all the tweaking you need. Great support for Plugins, Clippings, Scripts, Triggers, and what have you. All the permutations of Find should support regular expressions. The find should also have a Find in File option, and a Replace function that is flexible and fast (I often have to do a find and replace on URLs in MySQL. I also want a key command like Command Shift F that will let me find any string, and it should default to the currently open project. When I’m editing a file I want a simple key command to add a new file to the same folder, and for Command S to open a save dialog that saves by default in that folder (I know this seems obvious).


I like to be able to drag a folder from the Finder onto the app and have it open a new project browser. The main things I look for in a text editor apart from speed and stability:
Reliable text editor in mac for mac os#
Here are my candidates for best text editor for Mac OS X, with some pros and cons of each. Whether you are a developer switching to the Mac or you’re just shopping around for a nice new editor, you are spoiled for choice when it comes to text editors.
