Text Editor For Mac For Python

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Not into Python? Prefer Ruby instead? Here are the most popular editors and IDEs for Rubyists.

Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. Syntax coloring, indenting, autocompletion, and source-navigation tools for Python. Can be scripted in Python.

So, you’ve decided to learn Python? Great! Python is a really interesting programming language, that has been described as a descendent of ABC that appeals to Unix/C developers. And you can’t go wrong with a language named after Monty Python!

So yes, you have many exciting things waiting for you.

But one of the first things you’ll need to do is pick an editor you’ll use to write your Python program. Well, here comes the confusion. You’re faced with tons of editors out there, each with a community trying to get you attracted to using that editor. “Use vim!” “Use Emacs!” “Use Sublime Text!”

You recoil in fear… what if you make the wrong choice?

This feeling inspired me to interview Pythonists about their favorite Python editor. This will show which editors are used by the most Pythonists, and from there we can try to work out why. My hope is that it’ll serve as a guide for newcomers to Python, or even for those already working with Python.

I’ll start by discussing the most popular editors, then take a look at the advantages (and disadvantages) of the winner, before moving on to looking at how to install it onto your system.

The Survey

I spoke to 100 Pythonists, who brought up the following editors (presented here in order of popularity):

  1. Sublime Text
  2. Vim
  3. Emacs
  4. Notepad++
  5. TextWrangler
  6. IDLE
  7. Atom
  8. Aquamacs
  9. GNU Nano
  10. Kate
  11. gedit

Sublime Text was by far the most preferred editor, used by 45% of the interviewees. The charts below tell the tale:

From the figures above, we can see Sublime Text rules as the favorite Python editor from the sample I have interviewed. This seems to go hand in hand with Sublime Text’s slogan: The text editor you’ll fall in love with.

Sublime Text’s Advantages

So what makes Sublime Text so special?

Like others, I use Sublime for my Python work. I like the features mentioned in this post about Sublime Text. Briefly, these are:

  • Packages: Sublime Text comes with a fully-featured package manager that helps the programmer to discover, install, update, and remove packages for Sublime Text.

  • Macros: Instead of retyping simple strings of text, you can simply record macros and create a keyboard shortcut to output that text into your document.

  • Colors: In Sublime Text, you can quickly pick colors for the interface and text.

Other useful features for Sublime Text, as mentioned in this SitePoint Smackdown post, are as follows:

  • Comprehensive language support with TextMate-compatible grammar

  • “Goto Anything” quick navigation to locate files and code

  • A command palette to access all features

  • Extensive customization, great themes and numerous plugins

Sublime Text’s Shortcomings

However, Sublime Text still needs some improvements to become a better editor for Python.

Text

Here are some ways Sublime Text could be improved to work better with Python:

  • In Sublime Text, some deep language specific integration features such as static analysis and refactoring, also available through plugins, are not that polished.

  • Dynamic analysis of code and autocomplete need to be enhanced.

  • Sublime Text could be made more friendly to new Python programmers. For example, if one needs to configure the application’s preferences, this is done by writing/editing lines of code. This is something a new programmer may feel uncomfortable attempting.

  • As a continuation to the previous point, Sublime Text needs to be simplified a bit, as it has a steep learning curve, and plugins need to be simplified, since they can be confusing.

  • While the app can be equipped with impressive features, these have to be installed separately, and some of them are not free.

  • Sublime Text is inaccessible via the terminal.

How to Set Up Sublime Text for Python

So, you want to give it a try? In this section, I’ll show you how to setup Sublime Text to work with Python. I will be demonstrating this on a Microsoft Windows 8.1 machine. If you want to do that on a MAC OS X machine, you can follow this tutorial, and on an Ubuntu machine, you can refer to this thread.

Let’s get started.

Installing Python

Download Python from here. I will download Python 3.4.2. This will be an msi file. Thus, the file you will get downloaded is python-3.4.2.msi. Run the installer, for which it will display the wizard shown in the figure below:

Navigate through the steps until you finish the setup wizard. You’ll notice that Python was installed in C:Python34, if you kept the default location.

Installing Cygwin

The next step is to setup Cygwin, a tool for providing Windows with similar functionality to a Linux distribution. If you’re on a 32-bit Windows, download the setup file from here. If you are on a 64-bit Windows, download the setup file from here. After you download the appropriate setup file, run that file, for which you will get the following start page in the wizard:

Keep navigating through the installer until you reach the following step:

In this step, we’ll be installing three software packages: curl, git, and openssh. For this, let’s use the Search box. For example, for curl, type the word in the search box, but, be careful, don’t hit the enter key, as this will continue the Cygwin installation. When you type curl in the search box, you should get something like the following:

What we want to do now is install each of the packages above. Click on the + sign. You will notice skip, click on skip, so you get the latest version number of the package, which we want to install. In this case, you should get something similar to the following:

Click the Next button, and wait until the packages are downloaded. This might take some time to finish.

Do the same for the other two packages, git and openssh.

After you finish, you should get a Cygwin shortcut at your desktop, like this:

Through this terminal, you’ll be running your Python code, in addition to accessing the packages installed above. If you double click the icon shortcut, you should get something like the below image:

To make sure that the packages were installed, and get an idea of their locations, we will use the
which command, as follows:

I was able to install Python through Cygwin using the following step (notice ‘Python’ at the end):

If you happen to miss this step, or you want Cygwin to find and use the Python version you installed above, you can issue this command in the terminal:

Installing Sublime Text

Now, for the easiest part. To install Sublime Text, go to the Sublime Text homepage, download, and set it up. Very easy!

Text Editor For Mac For Python Snake

Test Your Installation

At this point of the tutorial, let’s test if our setup works, and we’re ready to use Sublime Text to work with Python.

Open Sublime Text, and type this line of code:

Choose File -> Save. In the Save As dialog box, choose where to save the file, name the file, and in Save as type:, choose Python. For instance, this is what I chose:

Now, open the terminal (Cygwin icon shortcut), and navigate to where you saved your Python file. In my case, it was on the Desktop. In my case, the file path would like like the following:

Finally, type the following command in the terminal to run the Python program:

In which case, you should get the following output:

You now have everything setup, and ready to delve through the Python world with Sublime Text! One of the first things you should do now is check out this collection of plugins for Python development with Sublime Text.

Conclusion

While Sublime Text has a commanding lead in numbers, that’s but one consideration. There are many popular editors, and it may not be right for every Pythonist. Nevertheless, it’s always good to know how the majority handle their projects, and there is something to be said for using a popular app or technology.

What is your favorite Python editor? How do you set it up for working productively?

Windows and macOS come pre-installed with a program that can open and edit text files. It's called TextEdit on Macs and Notepad on Windows, but neither are quite as advanced as some of the third-party applications that are available today.

Most of the text editors below need to be downloaded to your computer before you can use them, but all of them provide their own unique set of features that set them apart from the default software programs that come with Windows and Mac.

Why Use a Text Editor?

A text editor lets you open a file as a text document, something that can be useful for a number of reasons:

  • Create a file from scratch using a specific programming language, like an HTML or CSS file for use on a website
  • Edit or build files that end with the TXT, REG, XML, CSV, ASP, BAT, AU3, PHP, AHK, SVG, or JS file extension, among many others
  • View the text version of a file that you don't know the format for
  • Quickly remove formatting like bold, custom font types, URL hyperlinks, etc.

Best Text Editor For Mac Python

If you just need a super quick way to strip the formatting from some text, try this online text editor. To make a .TXT file online without downloading a program, try Edit Pad.

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Notepad++

What We Like

  • Tabbed interface

  • Automatically restores recently opened, unsaved files

  • Auto-completes as you write

  • Includes tons of really helpful features like macros, syntax highlighting, and plugins

  • Opens basically any file as a text document

  • There's a portable version available

Notepad++ is the best alternative notepad application for Windows computers. It’s really easy to use for basic users who just need a text file opener or editor but also includes some really advanced features for those interested.

This program uses tabbed browsing which means you can open multiple documents at once and they'll display at the top of Notepad++ as tabs. While each tab represents its own file, Notepad++ can interact with all of them at once to do things like compare files for differences and search for or replace text.

Probably the easiest way to edit files with Notepad++ is to right-click the file and choose Edit with Notepad++ from the context menu.

This program can open nearly any file as a text document and supports lots of helpful plugins. It also includes a really handy text search/replace function, highlights syntax automatically, auto-completes words, and is the best offline text file converter.

The Notepad++ Find option lets you search for words with criteria like backward direction, match whole word only, match case, and wrap around.

Also supported is bookmarking, macros, auto-backup, multi-page searching, resumed sessions, read-only mode, encoding conversions, and the ability to search for words on Wikipedia and quickly open the document in your web browser.

Notepad++ also supports plugins to do things like auto-save open documents, merge all the text from open documents into one main file, align programming code, monitor open documents to refresh them as they change, copy and paste more than one item from the clipboard at once, and lots more.

Notepad++ lets you save text documents to a huge variety of formats like TXT, CSS, ASM, AU3, BASH, BAT, HPP, CC, DIFF, HTML, REG, HEX, JAVA, SQL, VBS, and many others.

Notepad++ works with Windows only, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. You can also grab a portable version of Notepad++ from the download page; one is in the ZIP format and the other is a 7Z file.

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Brackets

What We Like

  • Perfect for an uncluttered, minimal working space

  • Supports split-screen editing

  • Includes code-specific syntax highlighting

  • Can view updates for some files live in your web browser

  • Lets you use keyboard shortcuts

  • Works on Windows, Linux, and macOS

  • Plugins are supported to add extra features

What We Don't Like

  • Built mainly for people with code development in mind, so most of the features are centered around project files, displaying code, etc.

Brackets is a free text editor that's primarily meant for web designers, but can of course be used by anyone to view or edit a text document.

The interface is extremely clean and modern and feels really easy to use despite all of its advanced settings. In fact, nearly all of the options are hidden away from plain site so that it's easy for anyone to use, which also provides an extremely open UI for editing.

Code writers might like that Brackets highlights syntax, can split the screen to edit more than one document simultaneously, lets you click one No Distractions button for a really simple interface, and supports lots of keyboard shortcuts so that you can quickly indent, duplicate, move between lines, toggle line and block comments, show or hide code hints, and more.

You can quickly change the file type you're working with to instantly change syntax highlighting rules, as well as change the encoding of the file if you need to.

If you're editing a CSS or HTML file, you can enable the Live Preview option to watch the page update in real time in your web browser as you make changes to the file.

The Working Files area is where you can open all of the files that belong to a single project, and quickly move between them without leaving Brackets.

Some examples of plugins you can use in Brackets includes one to support W3C validation, Ungit to make it easier to use Git, an HTML tag menu, and Python tools.

Brackets comes installed with both a dark and a light theme that you can change at any time, but there are dozens of others that you can install through the Extensions Manager.

Brackets is available as a DEB, MSI, and DMG file for use in Linux, Windows, and macOS, respectively.

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Komodo Edit

What We Like

  • Very attractive and modern interface

  • You can make virtual projects to bring together files from various locations

  • Supports unique features not found in similar text editors

  • Changing the interface setup is easy with one click

  • The tabbed interface is easy to work with

  • Runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows

What We Don't Like

Python Editor For Mac

Text Editor For Mac For Python

  • It's a bit complex — even with its minimal UI — for people who want just a simple text editor

Komodo Edit is another free text editor with a super clear and minimal design that still manages to pack some awesome features.

Various view modes are included so that you can quickly open or close specific windows. One is “Focus Mode” to hide all of the open windows and just display the editor, and the others show/hide things like folders, the syntax checker results, and notifications.

This program makes it very easy to open text documents even while one is currently open. At the very top of the program is the path to the currently opened file, and you can select the arrow next to any folder to get a list of files, any of which will open as a new tab in Komodo Edit if you select it.

Notepad For Mac

The folder views off to the side of Komodo Edit are also really useful since they let you browse through the file system as well as create virtual projects that link folders and files together to better organize what you need to work on.

A unique feature in Komodo Edit is the area at the upper-left side of the program that lets you not only undo and redo like most programs, but also go back to the previous cursor location, as well as go forward to return to where you just were.

Here are some other Komodo Edit features worth noting:

  • Can connect to a remote FTP server to open and/or save files
  • Supports bookmarking specific areas of the document
  • Lets you switch to a huge number of file types to highlight syntax differently and to save under that format
  • The 'Go to Anything' search box lets you search for files to open, install add-ons, run scripts and commands, open menus, install other languages, change the color scheme, and more
  • Recently closed tabs and files are easy to re-open
  • Lets you preview files in a web browser
  • Templates can be built out of existing files
  • A 'Watch File' option can open a document in a new window for reference withouting being added to the tabbed list of files you're editing
  • Records macros that can be played back to repeat things

This text editor works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

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Visual Studio Code

What We Like

  • Whole folders can be opened at once to open all of the text files

  • A minimal interface is just one click away

  • Supports tabs for easy file tracking

  • Includes a debugger; perfect for source code editing

What We Don't Like

  • Centered primarily around editing and debugging code, so it could be too much for the average user

  • Settings are difficult to change

Visual Studio Code is a free text editor that's used primarily as a source code editor.

The program is extremely minimal and even has a 'Zen Mode' option one click away that immediately hides all the menus and windows, and maximizes the program to fill the whole screen.

The tabbed browsing interface seen with other text editors is supported in Visual Studio Code as well, which makes it really easy to work with multiple documents at once.

You can also open entire folders of files at once if you're working on a project, and even save the project for easy retrieval later.

Simple Text Editor For Mac

However, this text editor probably isn't ideal unless you plan to use it for programming purposes. There are entire sections dedicated to debugging code, viewing command outputs, managing source control providers, and even using a built-in Command Prompt.

The settings are also not as intuitive to adjust since you have to modify them using the text editor; the settings are entirely text-based.

Here are some features you might find useful in this program:

  • You can open whole folders at once from the right-click context menu
  • A 'Change All Occurrences' option makes it easy to select and edit text you want to change throughout the entire document in one sweep
  • Similar is the 'Rename Refactoring' option to change the name of a symbol in every instance of it across all the documents in your project
  • Opening recently closed documents is easy since they're listed in the same place
  • The 'IntelliSense' feature helps to automatically fill in code based on surrounding text and the location of the cursor in the document
  • Files can be auto-saved if you turn the option on
  • A document can quickly be reverted back to the state it was in when you last saved it
  • The editing space can be split into multiple windows for side-by-side reading and editing
  • Dozens of keyboard shortcuts are allowed and fully editable, such as one to copy/paste an entire line of code directly above or below the current position
  • You can change the color theme of the program as well as the theme of icons
  • Extensions can be installed to add more features to Visual Studio Code, such as one to debug JavaScript code in the Chrome browser and another to run programming code directly from the text editor
  • When searching for text strings, you can define whether to match the case and/or the whole word

Best Text Editor For Mac

Visual Studio Code can be installed on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.