I code in html, css, php, javascript, the list goes on. The most important feature of an editing program to me is speed. For several years I have used Textwrangler, but this week I have switched. In fact…I paid actual money for a text editor. The features it has are great. Here is my synopsis of TextMate (for mac).
1. lightweight. loads very fast, no frills
2. powerful. it understands many many languages. autocomplete tags, auto-close brackets.
3. shortcuts. for end tags, forward and backwards indent, selecting whole lines, typing MULTIPLE LINES at the same time (think large list of ‘li’ tags you want to setup)
4. ability to open a folder structure in the program and keep the folder structure visible and in place as you flip between pages to edit. Very useful for editing themes in wordpress & drupal. in fact, you can save that folder structure as a project for re-opening.
5. pasting from history. that’s right, there is a clipboard history that will allow you to copy things from multiple places in the document, then iterate through your clipboard to paste them one by one elsewhere.
I work for a school, meaning I was able to get the educational discount. But I think with the time that this is going to save me would be well worth the investment even of the full price version.
Download your copy at Macromates.com
Happy coding!
