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HTML

Posted by Jesper Ravn
Jesper Ravn
1,155 Points

the best code editor

which tools and code editors are you using for Mac, are you using Textmate or something like that ? thanks for your time

Tunde Adegoroye
Tunde Adegoroye
20,597 Points

I use brackets and never looked back as you edit using html and css it does live updates and even highlights elements so its easier for you to see which item it is your targeting and its free as well here's the linkhttp://brackets.io

9 Answers

Dustin Matlock
Dustin Matlock
33,856 Points

Hey Jesper, I'm not sure anyone can say which is best, but rather what works best for their use. However, below is a list of code editors that are my personal favorites. You could maybe see it as a list of what most developers would call some of the best. The first five are Mac apps, and the rest should be available on most platforms.

  1. Coda 2
  2. Espresso
  3. Textastic
  4. Chocolat
  5. TextMate 2
  6. Atom
  7. Zed
  8. Brackets
  9. Sublime Text
  10. Light Table
  11. TextWrangler
  12. BBEdit 10
  13. Notepad++
  14. Komodo Edit
  15. PhpStorm
Christian Andersson
Christian Andersson
8,712 Points
Christian Andersson
Christian Andersson
8,712 Points

Sublime Text is pretty good and is also what you will see used in many of the courses here on TTH.

Steven Walters
Steven Walters
10,573 Points
Steven Walters
Steven Walters
10,573 Points

I am using PhpStorm and PyCharm and really like them.

The Jetbrain stuff is free for students now so if you are in any sort of school take a look. http://www.jetbrains.com/student/

Jonathan Musso
Jonathan Musso
3,760 Points
Jonathan Musso
Jonathan Musso
3,760 Points

On OS X I have always used Coda and Coda 2. It is a great editor. As of late I am back on Windows so I am using Brackets and Atom.

Christian Sanchez
Christian Sanchez
3,616 Points
Christian Sanchez
Christian Sanchez
3,616 Points

I can't recommend Brackets enough. It trumps Sublime Text 2 in my opinion.

Wayne Priestley
Wayne Priestley
19,579 Points
Wayne Priestley
Wayne Priestley
19,579 Points

I have Coda 2 but I've been using Sublime Text for a long time now and i wouldn't use anything else now.

Juan Aviles
Juan Aviles
12,795 Points
Juan Aviles
Juan Aviles
12,795 Points

Another vote for Brackets although I'm on Windows.

Jesper Ravn
Jesper Ravn
1,155 Points
Jesper Ravn
Jesper Ravn
1,155 Points

well thnx guys for your answers!

Dustin Matlock
Dustin Matlock
33,856 Points

Jesper, not to steer you in any direction, but if you wanted an opinion out of the ones listed, Atom, and Brackets are great code editors. Brackets keeps getting better, and so does Atom. Sublime is the pioneer out of the group, and it's also very good, but it doesn't receive updates as much as Atom or Brackets. I'm leaning towards those because not only are they are nice to use, but they're built with front-end languages and open source.

rayorke
rayorke
27,709 Points
rayorke
rayorke
27,709 Points

I've used many, many text editors throughout my career, from vi to emacs to Atom, Coda, Coda 2, Espresso, Notepad++, etc.

The choice of editor usually comes down to an individual's needs.

Currently, a lot of my development is very general purpose - both front-end and backend, so Sublime Text is the editor I'm using. I tried out Atom, but just recently switched back to Sublime about a month ago because of poor performance in Atom as well as crashing due to bugs. Sublime Text provides me with a tool that is fast, stable, and pleasant to work with.

I wouldn't necessary say that the speed at which your text editor is updated and maintained should be a deciding factor for you. The editor is just a tool, and it shouldn't be required to be cutting edge. I can apply cutting-edge methods to my code as easily on emacs and I can on Atom. I would take stability and slower updates over a quick development cycle any day. My tool only had to break once due to a poor update to realize the wisdom in this approach ;)

Dustin Matlock
Dustin Matlock
33,856 Points

Great analysis! I just gave Zed a try. Not sure how I feel about it, but seems like an interesting idea for Chrome users.