My Mac is home to more than a few digital collections. Music, photos, movies, TV shows, games, (particularly anything to do with poker), backup apps, and text editors.
Every Mac geek probably has a collection of text editors; one of which is used most of the time, another some of the time, yet another occasionally, and the rest get looked but spend most of their days in static mode because, well, you know– collection.
One that I’ve kept on my Mac for years, because it’s good, gets better, and doesn’t cost much, is Smultron, available from the Mac App Store or the developer as a trial download.
What sets Smultron apart from the general riffraff of text editors for Mac users is the steady, ongoing development, the low initial price tag, and the intuitive user interface which is less imposing and nominally geeky (as text editors go).
Smultron does the basics with ease, including a document list, tab bar, quick look preview panel, syntax coloring for all kinds of code from Arduino to Swift to Zimbu, and some I’ve never seen or used, including Final Cut Pro XML. Search and replace is enhanced, too, and features support for multiple folders, an option to merge windows, a customizable toolbar and other niceties that make Smultron a very good text editor, but an especially good entry-level editor.
The only quibble I have is that Smultron has multiple versions available on the Mac App Store. The original MAS version from 2011, Smultron 6, last updated earlier this year, and now Smultron 7– each with a $4.99 price tag.