User Name
Password
AppleNova Forums » Programmer's Nook »

Need a good basic text editor


Register Members List Calendar Search FAQ Posting Guidelines
Need a good basic text editor
Thread Tools
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2012-04-21, 23:50

So I'm having a hard time finding a basic text editor that will let me save the file with what ever extension I want. I want to be able to open up a .command file and not have formatting crap thrown in. I'm kinda looking for something like vi without having to open Terminal. There are so many things that I want to be able to do a quick edit that opening the file in DreamWeaver seems overkill.

So what's a good (free if possible) basic text editor that doesn't care what extension you give it? Bonus if there is a Mac App store link though I don't care that much.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2012-04-22, 02:00

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle View Post
I'm kinda looking for something like vi without having to open Terminal.
http://code.google.com/p/macvim/ ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle View Post
There are so many things that I want to be able to do a quick edit that opening the file in DreamWeaver seems overkill.
Change the default app in Finder?

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle View Post
So what's a good (free if possible) basic text editor that doesn't care what extension you give it? Bonus if there is a Mac App store link though I don't care that much.
TextEdit doesn't care about the extension. Exactly what problems has it been giving you?

Though, I've been using Sublime Text 2 a lot lately (not free, but just nagware for now).

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
  quote
torifile
Less than Stellar Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Durham, NC
Send a message via AIM to torifile  
2012-04-22, 03:33

I hear good things about Text Wrangler. I sprung for BBEdit a while back and I've been very happy.
  quote
Wyatt
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Near Indianapolis
 
2012-04-22, 07:15

I love Text Wrangler. It's free, so give it a shot!
  quote
turtle
Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
 
2012-04-22, 10:43

TextEdit adds formatting to my documents. This doesn't do well when writing scripts. Plus, if I open a plain document I can't just save it as plain text. Maybe I can and haven't figured it out, but why am I having to put that much effort into writing a plain text file/shell script? I did install MacVim and it works well.

I'll check out Sublime Text and Text Wrangler too. Thanks for the input guys.

Edit: Hmmm..... so I was able to save as plain text and it had no formatting... with TextEdit. Maybe I missed something last time I tried.

Louis L'Amour, “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.”
Visit our archived Minecraft world! | Maybe someday I'll proof read, until then deal with it.
  quote
Capella
Dark Cat of the Sith
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Rochester, NY
Send a message via AIM to Capella  
2012-04-22, 10:53

Quote:
Originally Posted by turtle View Post
Edit: Hmmm..... so I was able to save as plain text and it had no formatting... with TextEdit. Maybe I missed something last time I tried.
By default it's in RTF mode, which doesn't save unformatted texts, but can be switched to pure txt via menu or I believe cmd+shift+T.
  quote
Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2012-04-22, 11:01

MacVim with the Janus extensions.

https://github.com/carlhuda/janus

Add in the vim-LaTeX extensions and you've got my environment for last 18 months. So lightweight but so much power.

If you're using MacVim, somewhere out there is a far prettier icon. I found it awhile ago so I don't remember the source but it's a necessity IMO.
  quote
Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2012-04-22, 12:54

Quote:
Originally Posted by Capella View Post
By default it's in RTF mode, which doesn't save unformatted texts, but can be switched to pure txt via menu or I believe cmd+shift+T.
Yep, exactly.

Also, you can change the default behavior in Preferences: New Document: Format: Plain Text. While you're in there, you might as well change the horrid default plain text font too. I use Menlo Regular 12 as the plain text font in Terminal and my various editors.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
  quote
Brad
Selfish Heathen
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Zone of Pain
 
2012-04-22, 13:04

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wyatt View Post
I love Text Wrangler. It's free, so give it a shot!
I've never been sold on Text Wrangler or BBEdit. Something about the look and feel always makes me think I'm stuck in a transitionary Carbon half-OS9-half-OSX app that doesn't feel like ever made the jump. I just tried the latest version and, yeah, a lot of things just feel "off" to me.

The quality of this board depends on the quality of the posts. The only way to guarantee thoughtful, informative discussion is to write thoughtful, informative posts. AppleNova is not a real-time chat forum. You have time to compose messages and edit them before and after posting.
  quote
ezkcdude
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
 
2012-04-23, 14:24

I've been using TextWrangler forever. Trying out TextMate now, though.
  quote
tomoe
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
 
2012-04-23, 19:09

I love vim. Has an initial learning curve while you get comfortable with its different modes and keybindings, but after that it's fantastic. Pretty much the only text editor I bother with at this point.
  quote
Posting Rules Navigation
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Post Reply

Forum Jump
Thread Tools
Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Best FREE text editor? rand0m3r Programmer's Nook 80 2007-03-23 10:25
Basic backup plan using Terminal, Script Editor, and iCal gusmore Apple Products 0 2006-09-10 12:03
Simple Text Editor App.. Saving mooty Programmer's Nook 13 2006-07-06 08:50
Visual Basic editor cyrusmekon Genius Bar 2 2005-04-28 12:55
Text Editor dfj225 Third-Party Products 8 2004-08-04 19:51


« Previous Thread | Next Thread »

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:52.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004 - 2024, AppleNova