Suggestions: jEdit and Bluefish
For people who do computer programming or coding, the search for the ideal text editor can be a lifelong quest. Just when they think they’ve reached nirvana, they discover another text editor that just might be better.
On the Mac, the received wisdom is that the best freeware text editors are TextWrangler and Smultron. But if you’re willing to slightly expand your notion of the Mac universe, there are a couple of others that might fill that gnawing gap deep down inside.
From the suggestion box comes two ideas: jEdit and Bluefish. Both are cross-platform — and as such are not imbued the Mac interface sophistication that we take for granted.
jEdit is built with Java and Bluefish requires a package from Fink. In the past, I’ve been reluctant to recommend any program created with Java, because they’ve always seemed a bit flakey compared with native Mac apps. jEdit, though, is quite stable (with the latest Java update from Apple). I didn’t have the courage to install Bluefish, but the movies show some great features. For example, working with remote files looks quite easy.
The big question is whether either of these apps is worth the discomfort of working in an interface that is workmanlike at best. One advantage is that both are full featured and under constant development. In other words, the people behind these programs are giving it all they’ve got. TextWrangler, on the other hand, is a baby brother to BBEdit — a sort of loss leader offered with the hope that you’ll eventually upgrade. And Smultron, while open source, was basically a one-man show. That man got busy with other projects, and Smultron — while still quite good — will not advance unless someone else steps in.
While neither jEdit nor Bluefish will likely offer the holy grail that programmers dream of, they are both options worth considering — even if it’s only for occasional use when special needs arise.
Posted Wednesday, December 16, 2009 in Suggestions
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