Text Editor with Split Screen Views

BBEdit/TextWrangler can do split view of the same file vertically (split so you have a top and bottom view). Aquamacs Emacs can also multiple split views vertically/horizontally. Emacs likely can as well. Komodo Edit is able to and supposedly can do vertical or horizontal split by choosing to rotate group after turning split on.

linux2mac said:

Thanks! Do you use any of the editors you mentioned? Do you have a favorite?

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BBEdit is what I like the most personally. It's powerful and very lightweight compared to others. I like that you can extend it using AppleScripts and other command line tools.

I have all of those editors installed though. NetBeans, which I didn't mention, is also very good from the development standpoint as it has auto-completion and refactoring tools among others. Unfortunately, NetBeans is very bloated often taking up more memory than Firefox (500MB+) so I don't use it very often.

linux2mac said:

Thanks! Do you you use any of the editors you mentioned? Do you have a favorite?

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You really can't go wrong with emacs. Once you get over the initial learning curve (which is not as bad as the rumors would have you believe) the options are endless. As far as window/frame configurations go, you can not only split horizontally and vertically (any number of times) but also store various configurations in buffer registers to recall them at will. As you'd expect, navigation among windows is possible by both keyboard and mouse.

I'd argue that if you're learning an editor from scratch, choosing one that's cross-platform makes a lot of sense. Pretty much any UNIX system will have some version of emacs available and it's easily installed on windows.

I use this build: http://emacsformacosx.com/ but http://aquamacs.org/ is also widely used. Anyway, good luck!

k.

Coda

Overall by far my preference, after having tried all mentioned, as well as larger IDE's like netbeans, to shell level editors like vi.

ssh (&vi) + coda = my fav Web dev setup.

Just a pointer that if you're playing at all with vim on a Mac, you owe it to yourself to check out MacVim. Free and fabulous.

I use emacs for that. I've always got a vertical split open so I can view one file (or part of one file) on the left side of the screen and another file (or another part of that same file) on the right side of the screen (I have a 24" LCD widescreen).

C-x 3 FTW.

I highly recommend Zend Studio for all web based development.

Expensive, but worth worth it.

I hate the standard text editors that doesn't allow to adjust split screens as you like them. For large/multiple screens there is no alternative to Zend. I'm used to Java development with Eclipse, so from times to times when I'm forced to do some web based development, I'm very pleased to have a program that allows me to split several program listings across 3 screens.

There is an very similar PHP plugin for Eclipse, too. Same GUI, less functions but free!

I've always used Dreamweaver and just tested Coda out. Holy crap. I've now switched over. The remote file access is incredibly fast compared to Dreamweaver. The built-in SSH and browser is really nice too. It also has HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP guides. I totally recommend this to everyone. Only $100 too. It also has shortcut code inserting as well. This program rocks.

CANEHDN said:

I've always used Dreamweaver and just tested Coda out. Holy crap. I've now switched over. The remote file access is incredibly fast compared to Dreamweaver. The built-in SSH and browser is really nice too. It also has HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP guides. I totally recommend this to everyone. Only $100 too. It also has shortcut code inserting as well. This program rocks.

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Indeed, Coda is amazing. I can't wait for version 2.0...should be coming out really soon. Would love to see what Panic does with it.

Another vote for coda!

montuori said:

[blah blah blah emacs blah blah blah

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Tch. Vim is the One True Editor.

I wish Coda let me use vim instead of SubEthaEdit.

Evoken said:

Indeed, Coda is amazing. I can't wait for version 2.0...should be coming out really soon. Would love to see what Panic does with it.

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Do you have an idea of when? I'm trying to find features or estimated dates and I'm not finding anything.

CANEHDN said:

Do you have an idea of when? I'm trying to find features or estimated dates and I'm not finding anything.

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Panic is very secretive and doesn't announce future releases (kinda like Apple). But as far as I know, it should be out rather soon.

TextWrangler Split Screen

TextWrangler has a sweet split view. Still kinda two windows but check it out. command+click to highlight the two docs you want to compare, then right (control) click and choose compare. Observe the awesomeness.

That and a lot of other great tips here:

http://magp.ie/2010/06/16/textwrangler-tips-compare-files-keyboard-shortcuts/