Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

TextWrangler 2.0 Freely Available

Posted by pudge on from the yes-beer dept.

Newly released TextWrangler 2.0 is now free (as in beer). TextWrangler is a stripped-down version of the popular BBEdit text editor. TextWrangler has switched identities since 1.0, from being a text editor with an indeterminant purpose to a subset of BBEdit, a BBEdit Lite on steroids. It handles syntax coloring, scripting tools (perl, python, shell), and some Xcode integration. It does not include some of BBEdit's more advanced features like source control, CodeWarrior integration, glossaries, and creating text factories (though it can run existing saved factories). BBEdit remains $200, and TextWrangler still qualifies for BBEdit's $130 cross-upgrade price. Previous purchasers of TextWrangler qualify for a store credit (they will be notified via e-mail).

3 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. They had to do it by Fahrenheit+450 · · Score: 4

    Not a big surprise, really. With the exception of HTML editing, the crop of newer editors for OS X (TextMate, SEE, Smultron, etc.) were making BBEdit look like that smelly old t-shirt stuck at the bottom of the drawer. You used to love that shirt, but now there are a whole lot of new shirts for you to wear, only without all of the rips and stains.

    Since BBEdit is underfeatured and way overpriced for general text editing, Bore Bones had to do something to keep their name recognition alive...

    --
    -30-
    1. Re:They had to do it by commodoresloat · · Score: 3
      I have that smelly old t-shirt... it says "BBEdit: Software that Doesn't Suck." They sent it to me for free back when I ordered BBEdit 3.0. I pretty faithfully upgraded until right before 8.0. Not because 8.0 didn't also look cool, but because for my purposes I'm perfectly happy with 7.1.4.

      BBEdit REALLY doesn't suck. For basic text editing of course there are fine programs that are free, but for HTML and for other tasks that require a lot of text processing (supersmart search and replace, browsing multiple files, etc.) it is a godsend on the Mac. And it is ALL Mac; so intuitive it makes you want to drool with pleasure. There may be newer OSX text tools out there but I've had no need or desire to poke around at them, not with trusty old BBEdit around.

  2. Re:Emacs by McDutchie · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Why not use emacs?
    [...]
    And it works the same under MS Windows or X Windows.

    You answered your own question there, at least as far as most Mac users are concerned. The emacs user interface is completely foreign to a Mac environment.