Promising New (Freeware) Text/Programmer's Editor for Mac OS X

I have recently come across a promising new text or programmers editor for Mac OS X and thought I would let everyone know. In the world of free editors for Mac OS X, there has been good ol' TextEdit (included with Mac OS X) and TextWrangler, an excellent package derived from BBEdit (I think).

There is a new kid on the block now, with the unwieldy name of Smultron. I ran across it while reading a "new shareware" review. I have downloaded it and tried it and it looks very promising. Nice clean interface, big bright icons, lots of useful extras like snippets (save off and easily reuse routinely occuring text fragments), syntax color coding and more. It looks like a grate package, and it is a Cocoa app as well, which is great.

Give it a go - you may like it! Visit http://smultron.sourceforge.net. A Mac smultron.app file can be downloaded from there.

...no, I am not the author of Smultron. After looking at it, I wish I was!

sounds a bit like textpad for windows (which i miss).

there were no screnshots on the site...
can it basically work like a simple text editor with full clipboard support, good (word/phrase) replacement, multiple files in one window, etc?

i guess i could just dl it and find out eh?

I haven't experimented enough with it yet, but according to the web site, it does multiple files with a tabbed interface or a split screen interface (nice!), basic copy/paste (that's your clipboard question I think) and Find and Replace (your word/phrase replace question). So, sounds good.

Performance is good too. It starts up quite quickly, which I like. It is faster to get going than TextWrangler, and in general faster to get going than many Cocoa apps I have.

So far, I am pleased with the small amount of work I have done with it so far.

Yeah I put a link to Smultron in the seamonkey (mozilla) thread after someone suggested NVu. I have had it here sitting on my hard drive for at least a year but simply have not had the time to mess with it all that much.

I've been using Smultron about 2-3 times a week for awhile and it's great. I've never had any issues at all- it's very useable, definitely the best I've come across, for free.

I have now had the time to do some serious work with Smultron, and I am IMPRESSED. This may be one of the best text editors I have ever used. I am the author of the venerable open source console text editor VE, so I like to think that I know whereof I speak. If I had designed a GUI text editor, it would be Smultron. An excellent package. I am very pleased with it. I have removed TextWrangler from my Dock and replaced it with Smultron.

Now, if I could just figure out where that goofy name ("Smultron") came from...

doesn't it just mean strawberry in the programmer's language?
just from what i remember on the site...

i like it too. probably for different reasons. i just like a decently featured text editor rather than using a full office equivelent or stripped down textpad type program.

I looked it up on Wikipedia. Here is what they say:

"The name of the application is derived from the common Swedish Woodland Strawberry, hence the application symbol."

You had it right eric.

Now for the next question! WHAT does a strawberry have to do with text editing?

mac57 said:

Now for the next question! WHAT does a strawberry have to do with text editing?

Click to expand...

I guess the name helps when you need to create an individual icon for the software.....

I've used Smultron for a few months when I just need a quick note and don't fancy firing up Vim (Smultron is much more 'mac-like', although Vim is still my swiss army knife editor).

cazabam said:

I've used Smultron for a few months when I just need a quick note and don't fancy firing up Vim (Smultron is much more 'mac-like', although Vim is still my swiss army knife editor).

Click to expand...

I agree with cazabam. Vim is a handy editor and it is extremely customizable.

If you are looking for a mac-like editor, try Textmate.

Note however that TextMate costs GBP 39.00, whereas Smultron is FREE!

Heads up, Mac-Forums people!

Smultron has been updated to version 2.2.6 and a freebie plugin for TextMate to add XML and XHTML validity checking in TextMate files.

NICE! I'm a "switcher" and have been having trouble finding a good editor and it looks like the Open Source app with the odd name is a winner!

I see that someone mentioned NVu... that's a crap app in my opinion.

Thanks for filling us in on this one mac57! Great find!