Having the ideal (i.e. “right”) text editor when working on code is important. I spent years and years finding one I liked, and then stuck with it ever since. That editor was TextPad for Windows, probably not the best one out there but it handled text in a way that I was very comfortable with. If I hadn’t changed to Mac I would probably still use it.
Lots of people have still yet to find the ideal text editor, and sometimes it’s just hard to find.
However, while I can use the excellent VMware Fusion software to run a virtual Windows machine on my Mac – something I do for testing purposes – I feel that using virtualization to get my text editor of choice is a bit of an overkill, don’t you think?
So I went looking for the perfect Mac editor, landed briefly on an opensource one called Smultron, and then I found it.
Coda.
I already used Panic’s excellent FTP program Transmit, so giving Coda a go wasn’t a big decision. And boy does it do it for me! I’ve got lots of syntax options, I can upload files from within the editor, there’s a clip library that can be edited, “sites” let me manage my projects easily enough…
In short, Coda is great. I love it.
This isn’t a review of this editor, though, but rather a shoutout to the magnificent Devlounge readers. Lots of people have still yet to find the ideal text editor, and sometimes it’s just hard to find it.
So please make good use of the comments and tell us a little bit of the text editor of your choice. Hopefully we’ll be able to do a follow-up on this, highlighting some of the best ones out there.
