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ascii text editor

Ok so I am a PC user, but my new job requires the use of macs (with os x). With that in mind I am looking for any ascii text editors (that HOPEFULLY) are free. If you are a windows user basically something that is equivalent to the notepad.exe program.

I have been living off of vi from the terminal but it's too much work using that when I have to do a lot of copying and pasting. I tried usign TextEdit (which is installed on this computer), but anytime I drag (or select open) a PHP or HTML file in it to edit the source code, it just attaches it as a file in the document, or it opens it up in a HMTL editor, which is not what I want.

Any help would be much appreciated!

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paradox814
Posting Whiz
351 posts since Oct 2004
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Well, macs used to have simpletext built in. There is a program called BBEdit Lite, which is now discontinued but still available. The makers of BBEdit also make TextWrangler, which is also freeware.

Links
BBEditLite
TextWrangler

DavidRyan
Posting Whiz in Training
229 posts since Jul 2006
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TextWrangler has been rated "the best free text editor available" by MacWorld. Other editors I like are:
Aquamacs Emacs - Aqua port of the popular Emacs editor
Xcode - Comes with a decent built-in text editor (to get it, you'll either need the Developer Tools CD with came with the Mac, or you'll need a free Apple Developer account to download from Apple's website)

John A
Vampirical Lurker
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Personally I am a large fan of the preinstalled textedit

mesamb1
Junior Poster
125 posts since Feb 2006
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Personally I am a large fan of the preinstalled textedit

I would use textedit, but for the reasons I mentioned above it never allows me to open the files as a text file

paradox814
Posting Whiz
351 posts since Oct 2004
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I would use textedit, but for the reasons I mentioned above it never allows me to open the files as a text file

sorry about that, I have never really tried editing source code in it so my mistake.

mesamb1
Junior Poster
125 posts since Feb 2006
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sorry about that, I have never really tried editing source code in it so my mistake.

The only gui OSX text editor you need.

Not free, I know, but at €40 not bank breaking

pty
Posting Pro
530 posts since Oct 2005
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Ok so I am a PC user, but my new job requires the use of macs (with os x). With that in mind I am looking for any ascii text editors (that HOPEFULLY) are free. If you are a windows user basically something that is equivalent to the notepad.exe program.

I have been living off of vi from the terminal but it's too much work using that when I have to do a lot of copying and pasting. I tried usign TextEdit (which is installed on this computer), but anytime I drag (or select open) a PHP or HTML file in it to edit the source code, it just attaches it as a file in the document, or it opens it up in a HMTL editor, which is not what I want.

Any help would be much appreciated!

The Mac equivalent of Notepad is TextEdit, but an excellent all purpose FREE text editor is TextWrangler from Bare Bones Software which has a ton of features for geek types and ordinary folk. I use it to open all sorts of esoteric stuff. If you need even more power, Bare Bones big gun is BBEdit. Check them out.

carl

carlsfrog
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7 posts since Oct 2006
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This article has been dead for over three months: Start a new discussion instead

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