Smultron

by peterborgapps

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Current version4.1 Last release19/11/2011

As the preferred work environment for developers, graphic artists, and creative professionals, the Mac OS X ecosystem boasts a wide array of text editors to suit every taste and satisfy any need. Some text editors like Coda, TextMate, and BBEdit shoot for mainstream appeal, and manage to achieve it with great success. Others prefer to target a more underground, niche audience. Smultron is one such Mac editor that's squarely targeted at web developers and designers who value simplicity when it comes to editing on their Macs.

Features and Benefits
Smultron's quirky name is a result of its origins, as it's the pet project of Swedish developer Peter Borg. In light of the Swedes' love for distinctive yet functional design, Smultron's birth country makes sense. Aside from its handy features like built-in support for Mac OS X's spell checker, incremental search, HTML preview, and syntax highlighting for many languages, Smultron also boasts one of the most attractive user interfaces available. It features a unique take on column view, as well as multiple tabbing for a slick and productive end user experience.

Upsides and Downsides
For starters, Smultron is almost unbelievably inexpensive. Retailing for a mere $4.99 from the Mac App Store, it's one of the most affordable text editors around. More importantly, Smultron is incredibly easy to use, as it doesn't overload the user with a million different options and choices. With Smultron, you get basic functionality that's rock-solid in terms of stability and speed. The only real downside to Smultron is that it's not as full-featured as some of the more popular editors. However, it's perfect for web developers who need to bang out pages quickly and easily.

What The Cool Kids Are Saying
Before you opt for any particular text editor, it's worth taking a moment to look at what others are saying. Smultron has a small but devoted following among hard-core web developers who appreciate its simple, no-fuss layout and user-friendliness. Those who swear by it seem to have trouble coming up with one particular reason as to why it's their favorite. With Smultron, it's the overall experience that eventually wins users over.

Closing Arguments
While it lacks the resources and massive followings of other, more popular Mac editors, Smultron is nevertheless a viable option for those that need a solid editor that won't get in their way. Though releases are few and far between, Smultron is still in active development and offers users one of the best development experiences you can find on the Mac OS X platform. If you're looking for a cheap, full-featured editor for hammering out code until the wee hours of the morning, Smultron is ready for business.