Smultron - A nicely-done text editor
Jul 03, '06 07:30:00AM
Contributed by: robg
The macosxhints Rating:

[Score: 8 out of 10]
- Developer: Peter Borg / Product page
- Price: Free (open source)
I'm always on the lookout for nice text editors. For many years, jEdit has been my editor of choice -- not necessarily because I find its interface the prettiest, nor its features the easiest to use and figure out, but simply because it has the right combination of features I'm looking for (more on that in a bit). However, the main downside of jEdit is that it's written in Java, and Textpander (now TextExpander shortcuts just don't work right in jEdit (it's got something to do with the pasteboard). This impacts my workflow (I have to toggle out/in of jEdit to make a new shortcut work), but the feature set in jEdit keeps me coming back. There's also no on-the-fly spellchecking, which I find nicer than running my completed text through a spell checker.
Smultron was first released a couple years back, and showed promise but was missing some features, at least based on my needs. The recent release of version 2, however, has addressed those missing features, with just a couple of exceptions. And just what are these features that I find so compelling in jEdit? There are really just three things that jEdit does that seem to be somewhat unique:
- Split a window and show a different file in each split. jEdit can actually do this vertically and horizontally, as many times as you have the screen real estate to handle. But just one simple horizontal split is really enough for me. I use split view all the time with a CSS file open in one split, and an HTML file in another, so I can easily see the class assignments. Smultron 2.0 now allows a single horizontal split, with a different file open in the split area.
- Easily close open HTML tags. In jEdit, typing </ will close the presently-opened HTML tag. In Smultron, Command-T will close the open tag.
- Work with files directly on servers, via FTP or SFTP. jEdit has a very nice File System Browser that shows the directory structure and file for the currently-active directory, be it local or remote. Smultron, unfortunately, lacks this feature, but it does allow itself to be registered as the external editor for FTP/SFTP apps, such as Transmit, which is at least a halfway solution.
Some are probably saying 'BBEdit is it, why muck with anything else?' Well, BBEdit doesn't support split windows with different files in each split, and that's probably the most important item on my list. It also has a number of other little things that seem to annoy me, so I don't use it much.
The other upsides of Smultron over jEdit are also quite nice -- my Textpander shortcuts work perfectly, and there's on-the-fly spell checking. You can also run Unix commands, and the Services menu is fully functional, unlike in jEdit, so I can use the HumaneText.service to format my text into XHTML.
Overall, I'm very impressed with Smultron 2.0, especially given that it's open source and free (donations are accepted). As of version 2.0, it's got a very polished feel, and has very nearly every feature I find important in a text editor. It's now been put into the macosxhints production cycle, as I'm using it for the daily hint publication (including this one) -- though I'm still falling back on jEdit for working on the site's PHP and HTML files, as the in-program SFTP support is just so convenient. But for most everything else I do, Smultron has earned a spot on my very short list of preferred text editors.
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