JED is a popular Linux text editor that uses S-Lang library. This cross-platform tool is available for a variety of other platforms as well, including Unix, VMS, OS/2, BeOS, Windows, OpenVMS, etc.
If you are a developer or an entry-level programmer for Mac then text editor is a must for you. Nowadays, the necessity of text editor is essential for any computer user. Any OS has its own built-in tool but most of them have some limitations. If you want more functionality you need the best tool for your work done. Let us look at some of the best text editors for Mac.
Best Text Editors for Mac
1. Brackets
Bracket is the simplest and the most famous text editor for Mac. It is an open source and has been developed by Adobe. Bracket is unique from other text editors due to its interface and design. It consists a feature named “Extract” which permits you to take different fonts, colors and measurements. You can use these features and select them from a PSD file interested in a clean CSS file that is prepared to use for a web page. Bracket also consists some other features like extension support, previews and inline editors.
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Also Read: Best Free PDF Editor For Mac
2. BBEdit 11
BBEdit 11 text editor has to be on this list of best text editors for Mac. It is the most powerful text editor developed by the Bare Bones. It consists rich text and HTML editor which is specially designed for web designers. It also includes various features like searching, modification in text and advanced editing etc. This tool also permits the user to use command files, text, folders and servers in a single utility. The special feature of this Code editor for Mac consists “biggest syntax of text support” along with color coding which helps the user in a good vision of coding.
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3. TextWrangler
TextWrangler is the most popular text editor between Mac users after Bracket. Like BBEdit tool, it has also come from the box of Bare Bones. It is the smaller version of BBEdit. TextWrangler is used by most of program designers instead it is not designed for them. It is made for normal user as it can be used for general editing like you can perform the basic function change columns to CSV.
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4. TextMate
Text Mate is also a free tool for text editing which carries Apple’s tactic to Mac OS into the text editor’s world. This is the most powerful tool for UNIX command with a very interactive GUI. Basically, it is created for novice user and programmers. It consists various features, for example, it permits auto-indentation, word completion, column selection, regular expression support etc. Using this tool, you can build XCode projects. It also contains various themes to look nice.
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5. Atom
Atom is the latest text editors for Mac and it is a very advanced text editor from recent periods. Atom is open source and free tool for editing. It is maintained by GitHub. It contains a huge packaged library along with key features like fuzzy search, code folding, quick edition, multiple panes for editing, extension library etc.
6. Sublime Text
Sublime Text Editor is a famous and powerful text editor. It seems user-friendly and simple due to its remarkable interface. Sublime Text Editor supports the same style as code and markup. This best code editor for Mac consists a speediest search engine which offers many shortcuts and amazing features. The tool has a powerful API and a user can customize it as per his need. To use the full features of Sublime Text Editor you need to purchase the full version of it. However, if you wish to use limited functionality, you can use the free version.
7. Textastic
Textastic is a versatile cross-platform text editor for all the apple users. We called it versatile due to its availability for all platforms like Mac, iPhone and iPad. It consists a huge collection of features for coders like you can sync all your work done on the cloud, so it will help you to access from anywhere whether you work on iPad or Mac. It will help you for on-the-go edits for the real-quick fix. It is the most versatile tool which supports around 80 coding and markup languages.
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8. CodeRunner 2
It is a good choice for the hardcore programmers as it offers more than prose writing. However, it does not have a free version, you need to pay some amount to use this tool. It offers the variety of features like autocomplete for words, symbol navigation, argument execution with input sets, bracket matching, an impressive console, and much more. It is the best tool for Mac which you can use for coding.
9. UltraEdit
UltraEdit designed by IDM Computer Solutions, they have their established reputation in the market as they have already developed many more user-friendly utilities from the past years. The main strength of the company is for HTML, JavaScript, PHP, C/C++, Python, Perl, and many more other programming languages. This tool also consists of the variety of features like you can highlight the syntax, file/data sorting, column/block editing etc. It also supports SSH/telnet. It is a paid utility.
10. MacVim
MacVim is version of popular Vim text editor for Mac OS X. It is a tool with a full bundle of features and it has the primitive graphical interface. The most important feature of the MacVim is standard shortcuts of OS X keyboard. It has a are transparent backgrounds along with full- screen mode which is very helpful for distraction-free coding. It is the tool which supports tabs and multiple windows with ODB.
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Python Text Editor Mac
11. Emacs
Emacs is powerful text editor which consists of an effective file manager and customizable keyboard for editing. It includes various specifications with an extension language called Emacs Lisp. File manager of Emacs permits you to distinguish between two files. It also gives you the visual selection and text objects. It is a very good text editor with perfect features.
That’s all folks! These were our best 11 picks in text editors for Mac OS X. We hope this post will helps you decide one from the list of best text editors available for mac. If you have any comment or suggestion you can write in comment section below.
I'm about to start a new job where the coding practices are heavily centered around TDD and refactoring, and whose primary development language is Python. I come from the Java world, and have been a confident user of Eclipse for a good, long time. When not working in Java, I use emacs.
I'm looking for an IDE for Python that will give me a lot of the capabilities I've grown used to with Eclipse, not only for refactoring but in terms of code completion, project management, SCM integration (currently CVS, but likely to switch to git one of these days) et al.
What IDE should I use?
Dave Hillierclosed as off-topic by l4mpi, jb., Dismissile, Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan, LarsTechMay 21 '14 at 14:07
This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:
- 'Questions asking us to recommend or find a tool, library or favorite off-site resource are off-topic for Stack Overflow as they tend to attract opinionated answers and spam. Instead, describe the problem and what has been done so far to solve it.' – l4mpi, jb., Dismissile
22 Answers
Have tried many different (Kate, Eclipse, Scite, Vim, Komodo): each one have some glitches, either limited functions, or slow and unresponsive. Final choice after many years: Emacs + ropemacs + flymake. Rope project file open dialog is extremely quick. Rope refactoring and code assist functions are super helpful. Flymake shows syntax mistakes. Emacs is the most configurable editor. I am very happy with this config. Python related part of config is here: public.halogen-dg.com browser/alex-emacs-settings/configs/cfg_python.el
My 2 pennies, check out PyCharmhttp://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/
(also multi-platform)
TimTimI use TextMate for all my Python programming needs. It's not an IDE per se, but it does a lot of stuff that an IDE does (without all the cruft of an IDE). It has syntax highlighting, code folding, integration with various SCMs through the use of additional bundles (I know it supports SVN, Git, Mercurial, Darcs, and probably a few others). It's also quite extensible and customizable (again, through the use of bundles). It also has a basic concept of projects. One place where it doesn't shine, though, is in code completion; some bundles have limited support for code completion, but it's generally not as amazing as that of most language-specific IDEs. Given how awesome TextMate is, though, I don't know sacrificing that. TextMate's definitely made me much more productive.
mipadimipadiPydev for Eclipse, as others have mentioned, is good.
Netbeans has a beta Python plugin that is a little rough around the edges, but could turn into something really cool.
Additionally there is a long list of programming centric text editors for the mac, that may or may not fit your needs.
- Textmate - costs money, people love this program, but I haven't used it enough to see what all the fuss is about.
- Jedit - Java based text editor, has some nice features, but the startup time isn't great (due to Java).
- CarbonEmacs - Decent Emacs port.
- AquaEmacs - Better Emacs port.
- TextWrangler - Lite, free (as in beer) verision of BBEdit.
- BBEdit - The old guard. The defacto editor before Textmate stole its limelight. Expensive.
- Smultron - Very nice editor, the UI is similar to Textmate.
- Idle - Python's own little editor, has some nice features, but also some major problems. I've personally found it too unstable for my usage.
- Sublime Text - This is really sweet text editor that has some surprisingly good Python support.
- Pycharm - Another solid full on IDE for Python.
Eclipse with Pydev works best for me on any platform.
ismailismailI really enjoy using PyCharm. http://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/
I usually use either komodo edit or aquamacs with ropemacs. Although I should warn you, IDE features won't be what you're used to if you're coming from a Java or C# background. I personally find that powerful IDEs get in my way more than they help.
UPDATE: I should also point out that if you have the money Komodo IDE is worth it. It's the paid version of Komodo Edit.
Jason BakerJason BakerI like Spyder, it has many tools, such as profiling, intelligent indentation helper and a good autocompletion support
linellolinelloIf you have a budget for your IDE, you should give Wingware Professional a try, see wingware.com .
Alex MartelliAlex MartelliI've used WingIDE and have been very happy. Intellisense is pretty good, some other things are a bit wacky but overall it's a very productive tool
jeanjeanIf you are looking for an interactive environment and not needing to code modules, I would suggest IPython. Though this is developed with scientists/statisticians in mind, it will run just as well without any of the scientific packages installed. The features are powerful, with code completion, integrated help, integrated debugging, etc., and it functions as a notebook with Markdown and MathJax integration. By far the best choice for those that need powerful features without wishing to load megabytes of GUI into RAM--since it is browser based, it is used in your always loaded chrome/safari instance. ;-)
DallasDallasEclipse PyDev plugin.
jbaskojbaskosince you are familiar with Eclipse maybe you are interested in Pydev
KonstantinosKonstantinosPython support on netbeans is surprisingly good, and comes with most of the features you're looking for.
TextMate or Panic's Coda. NetBeans works very well, if you want a full-blown kitchen sink IDE.
I've searched on Google for an app like this for a while, and I've found only options with heavy and ugly interfaces.
Then I opened Mac App Store and found CodeRunner. Very nice and clean interface. Support many languages like Python, Lua, Perl, Ruby, Javascript, etc. The price is U$10, but it's worth it!
Jan K. S.Jan K. S.'Which editor/IDE for ...?' is a longstanding way to start a 'My dog is too prettier than yours!' slapfest. Nowadays most editors from vim
upwards can be used, there are multiple good alternatives, and even IDEs that started as C or Java tools work pretty well with Python and other dynamic languages.
That said, having tried a bunch of IDEs (Eclipse, NetBeans, XCode, Komodo, PyCharm, ...), I am a fan of ActiveState's Komodo IDE. I use it on Mac OS X primarily, though I've used it for years on Windows as well. The one license follows you to any platform.
Komodo is well-integrated with popular ActiveState builds of the languages themselves (esp. for Windows), works well with the fabulous (and Pythonic) Mercurial change management system (among others), and has good-to-excellent abilities for core tasks like code editing, syntax coloring, code completion, real-time syntax checking, and visual debugging. It is a little weak when it comes to pre-integrated refactoring and code-check tools (e.g. rope, pylint), but it is extensible and has a good facility for integrating external and custom tools.
Some of the things I like about Komodo go beyond the write-run-debug loop. ActiveState has long supported the development community (e.g. with free language builds, package repositories, a recipes site, ...), since before dynamic languages were the trend. The base Komodo Edit editor is free and open source, an extension of Mozilla's Firefox technologies. And Komodo is multi-lingual. I never end up doing just Python, just Perl, or just whatever. Komodo works with the core language (Python, Perl, Ruby, PHP, JavaScript) alongside supporting languages (XML, XSLT, SQL, X/HTML, CSS), non-dynamic languages (Java, C, etc.), and helpers (Makefiles, INI and config files, shell scripts, custom little languages, etc.) Others can do that too, but Komodo puts them all in once place, ready to go. It's a Swiss Army Knife for dynamic languages. (This is contra PyCharm, e.g., which is great itself, but I'd need like a half-dozen of JetBrains' individual IDEs to cover all the things I do).
Komodo IDE is by no means perfect, and editors/IDEs are the ultimate YMMV choice. But I am regularly delighted to use it, and every year I re-up my support subscription quite happily. Indeed, I just remembered! That's coming up this month. Credit card: Out. I have no commercial connection to ActiveState--just a happy customer.
Jonathan EuniceJonathan EuniceYou might want to look into Eclim, an Eclipse server that allows you to use Eclipse functionality from within your favorite text editor. For python-related functionality, it uses Rope, PyFlakes, and PyLint under the hood.
mindthiefmindthiefText Editor For Python
I've been using an Evaluation copy of Sublime Text
. What's good is it doesn't really expire.
It's been good so far and was really easy to get started with.
Sagar HatekarSagar HatekarI may be a little late for this, but I would recommend Aptana Studio 3.x . Its a based on eclipse and has everything ready-to-go for python
. It has very good support for DJango, HTML5 and JQuery
. For me its a perfect web-development tool. I do HTML5 and Android
development too, this way I do not need to keep switching different IDE's. It my all-in-one solution.
Note: you need a good amount of RAM for this to be snazzy !! 4+ GB is awesome !!
FreakyuserVisual Studio Code + Official Python Plugin
Here you see an overview of its current Python features:
Chocolat
It's lightweight and offers Code Completion. Costs money.
EDIT:Apparently Chocolat was an interesting option in 2013 but since then many others came up and development stalled. Nowadays I recommend Visual Studio Code + Python Plugin.
BijanBijan