Section: Mac Software, Writing / Publishing, Features, Hands On / First Looks
Peter Borg’s formerly freeware text editor Smultron—written in Objective-C using Apple’s Cocoa API—is a text editor for Mac OS X Snow Leopard. It’s designed to neither confuse newcomers nor disappoint advanced users, and is suited for variety of needs: programming, script editing, making to do lists, and so on. Unfortunately, Borg announced last year that he no longer had the time to devote to continued Smultron development, although he did manage to put out a Mac OS�X v10.6 Snow Leopard compatibility patch update (version 3.5.1).
However, the advent of the Mac App Store has given Smultron the wherewithal for a second life, and last week Peter Borg released a new, fully-updated for Snow Leopard, Smultron version 3.8. It’s no longer freeware, but is selling for a reasonable $4.99, only through the Mac App. Store—the software fee evidently making it worth the developer’s while to concentrate on this program again.
Smultron displays all open Smultron documents (the program can edit and save many different file types, as well as popular programming languages, including C, C++, LISP, Java, Python, Ruby, HTML, XML, CSS, and D) in a list with reference icons in a sidebar to the left of the main window, similar to the iTunes interface, so you can easily switch between documents (you can also choose to display them as tabs if you prefer). Its user interface can be shrunk down to a scale that makes it usable on my MacBook’s 13.3” display with text wrapping, thus without cramping functionality. The user interface window is clean and functional, and the button selections are useful. The little wild strawberry application icon is whimsically attractive as well!
Because Smultron is a full-fledged text editor, it has more comprehensive and powerful word crunching capabilities than NotePad Deluxe. For instance, it colors text content depending on what the code does (for example, text between quotation marks rendered in red), and works with OS X?s Services menu and built-in spell checker. You also have many ways to search for words, including a quick entry search field always ready on the UI toolbar, including multi-document find and replace with regular expressions, and line numbers to help finding the text you’re looking for. You can split the window in two to display two parts of the same document or to compare two different documents side by side or vertically stacked.
You can also preview HTML files directly in Smultron and save snippets of text and insert them simply with a shortcut. And if you don’t want to be disturbed by other applications or the desktop, you can let Smultron cover the whole screen to let you concentrate on your work, although that’s the diametrical opposite of the way I use Smultron in a minimized window.
For the more advanced users, Smultron can find all those system files that are normally hidden and can run commands and scripts, preview HTML-files directly, and save text snippets and insert them simply with a shortcut. All of Smultron’s features are explained in a basic but thorough Help document.
I’ve found Smultron stable and unbuggy, A deeper set of text cleaning and manipulation features would be nice, as would easy AppleScriptability ala Tex Edit Plus. However, Smultron is quick and doesn’t hog a lot of system resources, which helps make it easy to like.
More Smultron features:
- Flexible
It’s easy to program with Smultron, as it colours the content depending on what the code does. And you also have many ways to search for words and line numbers to help find code you’re looking for. You can also split the window in two to display two parts of the same document or to compare two different documents side by side.
- Multiple views
You can also preview HTML files directly in Smultron and save snippets of text and insert them simply with a shortcut. And as mentioned earlier, if you don’t want to be disturbed by other applications or the desktop, you can let Smultron cover the whole screen to let you concentrate on your work. - Advanced users
For the more advanced users, Smultron can find all those system files that are normally hidden, and it has authenticated open and saves for them. Smultron can also use regular expressions and it can run commands and scripts.
- International users
For all international users, there is full support for all encodings.
Smultron requires Mac OS X v10.6 or later, and is available for $4.99 on the Mac App Store.
Product [Smultron]
Incidentally, there is still an Open Source alternative to Smultron in the form of an almost indistinguishable doppelg�nger from French developer Jean-Fran�ois Moy, called Fraise. This is not a ripoff, since Smultron code was released as Open Source. You can find out more about Fraise at fraiseapp.com.
For my review of Fraise, see Low End Mac.
If your needs require a text cruncher hybrid with a real light database function, other alternatives include Tropical Software’s $39.95 TopXNotes and Devon Technologies’ $24.95 DEVONnote. TopXNotes supports Mac OS X v10.4 and up, while DEVONnote requires 10.5 or later.
In terms of a true database, FileMaker’s user-friendly consumer database application Bento ($49.00) is a polished and powerful solution.
Full Story » | Written by Charles Moore for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »
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