Textmate

by Macromates

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Current version1.5.10 (r1631) Last release18/11/2010

Using a particular piece of software can be like a relationship in many ways. In the beginning, everything is fresh and exciting. Once the honeymoon is over, however, we often go looking for the next big thing. Many coders have left TextMate at one point or another in search of a superior Mac editor, only to return after finding the alternatives lacking in some crucial area. More often than not, they realize that TextMate has all the features they ever needed to begin with.

Core Features
TextMate basically offers everything you could possibly think of that a text editor should have. Featuring Commands, Snippets, Bundles, Project Management, and much more, TextMate is about as full-featured as you're going to get. All that functionality comes at a price. TextMate's not as sprightly as it once was, but it's still a fairly responsive and agile development environment. After seven years without a new version release, TextMate is getting a bit dated. Fortunately, Text Mate 2 is already in the works.

Strengths and Weaknesses
One of the biggest advantages that TextMate has over the competition is its stability. Having been around for a while now, all the kinks have been worked out to the point where using it is about as seamless an experience as you're going to find. That's also one of the only problems with TextMate: it's a bit set in its ways at this point. It's tough to change a particular UI feature without the user base howling about it. But once you're familiar with TextMate, it's a dream to code on.

User Consensus
Go to any Mac-centric forum online and ask the community what they recommend for code editing. You can usually count on at least one-third them to advocate TextMate. There's a reason so many people use it. It's a terrific editor that's fast, not unreasonably bloated, and fairly straightforward. Favorite code editors are like favorite bands; in other words, “the best” will be different from person to person. But it's incredibly popular simply because it's one of the top editors around.

The Final Word
TextMate isn't going to throw any curve balls your way. What you see is what you get. That's a good thing, because editors are supposed to be used for serious work. Trying new software is important, because there's no way to tell if a program is an effective tool or not unless you test it out. But at the end of the day, predictability is ultimately something to strive for when it comes to productivity software. It may not always light your fire, but TextMate gets the job done in its own uniquely stylish way.