Smultron - How very nice

I decided during the redesign that the articles I write now should be about concepts, things, and processes which add value to my life. Being that I am mostly an Apple/OS X/Unix/Linux die hard I figured I would start with a little piece of software a buddy of mine found at work (great find Nate).

I was looking for a BBEdit replacement. This is not to say that I think BBEdit is not worth every single penny they charge, in fact I would rather spot my "It Doesn't Suck" shirt all day, but I do not have purchase authority at my new employer. I simply needed a nice color coded code editor for those quick and simple edits (notice I said color-coded, I know text editors are all over the place). I wanted to try to stay out of the terminal running vi or emacs this time and try some new apps, enter Smultron written by Peter Borg.

The first thing I like about this software, it's free. I did not have to email my new manager asking for a copy of BBEdit or worse yet, Dreamweaver (what the other guys are using). The interface is simple, effective and very OS X intuitive. It seems to have everything just where I need it, without having to move my lazy hand attached to my multi-button, preprogrammed, can access everything with my thumb mouse (no seriously I'm that lazy when it comes to ease of use).

I opened up several files at once and instantly fell in love with the file/window navigator. It reminds me very much of the rawer functionality of preview (by far one of my most favored applications). Color coded text predesigned to cover the basics (for me that was PHP and some PERL). I have not tried any python yet, but it handled HTML and XML without problems. I was also intrigued by some of the functionality including but not limited to partial applescript support, multi document search with grep use, small snippet support, and it can be used as an external editor.

Not bad for FREE huh. There are many other neat-o things you can do with Smultron, I just haven't had the need yet. If you want to find out more just visit the sourceforge page for Smultron, the nifty free text editor I am rapidly falling in love with.