Best Text Editor For Java On Mac

7 min readNov 5, 2021

Text editor is used for reading basic text files and note-taking. Every computer comes with a basic text editor, for ex., Notepad for Windows and TextEdit for Mac OS X. But these text editors lacks in basic functionalities like tabbed interface, search or replace functions.

4) Coda So, here comes a Mac supported Text Editor for the flashy programmers who like speed and optimization in a single code editor. Coda supports OS X 10.7.5 and later versions of Mac and is one of the very few code editors that have been carefully designed for the Mac systems only.

But if you want to add more functionality and do a little more than basic text editing, we are compiling a list of best text editors for Mac. All these editors offers basic functions as well as offers multiple file formats support, compiler integration support, syntax highlighting.

So, have a look on 10 best and free Mac OS text editors for web developers. If you think any other editor which you feel best suited in the list, feel free to drop a link in the comment and share with our readers.

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1) XEmacs : XEmacs is a highly customizable open source text editor and application development system. It is protected under the GNU Public License and related to other versions of Emacs, in particular GNU Emacs. Its emphasis is on modern graphical user interface support and an open software development model, similar to Linux.

2) Bluefish : Bluefish is a powerful editor targeted towards programmers and webdesigners, with many options to write websites, scripts and programming code. Bluefish supports many programming languages like HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML,PHP, C, Javascript, Java, SQL, Perl, ColdFusion, JSP, Python, Ruby, and shell. It focuses on editing dynamic and interactive websites.

3) Vim for Mac OS X : Vim is a highly configurable text editor, freely available for many different platforms. It supports tabs, full-screen editing, and transparent backgrounds. MacVim also has handy syntax highlighting to make editing/reading text files easier.

4) jEdit : jEdit is a mature programmer’s text editor built in Java language. jEdit beats many expensive development tools for features and ease of use, it is released as free software with full source code, provided under the terms of the GPL 2.0.

5) TextWrangler : TextWrangler is the powerful general purpose text editor, and Unix and server administrator’s tool. TextWrangler is a popular text editor for Mac OS X from Bare Bones Software. It was commercial in it starting but become freeware to their famous editor, BBEdit.

6) MadEdit : MadEdit is an Open-Source and Cross-Platform Text/Hex Editor written in C++ and wxWidgets. MadEdit can edit files in Text/Column/Hex modes, and supports many useful functions, e.g. SyntaxHighlightings, WordWrap, Encodings.

7) Komodo Edit : Komodo Edit supports PHP, Python, Ruby, Perl and Tcl, plus JavaScript, CSS, HTML and template languages like RHTML, Template-Toolkit, HTML-Smarty and Django.Everything you’d expect from an editor based on the Komodo IDE, like autocomplete and calltips, multi-language file support, syntax coloring and syntax checking, Vi emulation, Emacs key bindings, and more.

8 ) NEdit : NEdit is a multi-purpose text editor for the X Window System, which combines a standard, easy to use, graphical user interface with the thorough functionality and stability required by users who edit text eight hours a day. It provides intensive support for development in a wide variety of languages, text processors, and other tools, but at the same time can be used productively by just about anyone who needs to edit text.

9) Eddie : Eddie is a programmers editor for MacOSX and Gnome Linux. Inspired by the Macintosh Programmer’s Workshop, Eddie brings some of it’s powerful features into a modern lightweight and capable programmer’s editor. The Worksheet in Eddie is a full-featured shell that combines the power of bash and the ease of editing in a normal text window-like mode. Eddie is equally capable at editing HTML, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Lua and many other languages.

10) Kile : Kile is a user friendly TeX/LaTeX editor for the KDE desktop environment. KDE is available for many architectures such as PC, Mac, and BSD.

Top 5 Text Editors for Mac

Text editing is a very important part of a developer’s life. This is even more significant for Mac developers, who are accustomed to a captivating environment. For them, there is a good selection of software. Here below, is a description of five top text editors for Mac. For each of them, the highlights and downsides are detailed.

1. UltraEdit

UltraEdit is a commercial software that has been in the market since 1994. However, it has a free trial period of 15 or 30 days, depending on usage. It is well received amongst developers, and in 2006 Softpedia considered it as excellent.

UltraEdit stands out because of its multiple features, which are true aids to development. These features include many editing tools, such as automation via macros and scripts, configurable syntax highlighting, code folding, file type conversions, regular expression find and replace, column edit mode, and Unicode and hex editing mode. These utilities are complemented with an interface for APIs.

In addition, UltraEdit has functionality for comparing files, file encryption and decryption, remote editing via FTP, and project management.

Overall, UltraEdit is a best text editor for Mac as its comprehensive collection of utilities are a definite aid to any developer.

2. Brackets

Brackets is an open source and free text editor, initially created by Adobe Systems, and at present maintained on GitHub. It has been available since 2014, and it is regularly updated. This text editor Mac is written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It is cross platform, and aimed at Web Development.

This free text editor Mac has an impressive set of functionalities. They include Quick Edit, which allows for inline editing of CSS, Color Property, and JavaScript elements; and Live Preview, which puts code edits instantly to the browser, presenting an updated webpage as the code is changed. Live Preview is based on a Node.js backend, which predicts what the code does as the developer types the code.

Other popular functions include element highlighting, where elements selected in HTML and CSS files are highlighted within the browser; and Split View, which creates splits of windows either vertically or horizontally.

Brackets supports multiple file formats, covering over 38 file types, including C++, C, VB Script, Java, JavaScript, HTML, Python, Perl, and Ruby.

In addition, this free text editor Mac includes a feature named PSD lens, which enables the extraction of pictures, logos and design styles from PSD files without the need of opening Photoshop. Brackets richness is enhanced by its extensions, which empowers users to create additional functionality.

Summarizing, Brackets presents a popular and great choice, which in addition to being free, has many very useful features for code development.

3. Komodo Edit

Komodo Edit is an open source free text editor Mac, with a very good user interface that makes it useful for writing code and other things. This app has several useful tools for editing, such as the capacity to track changes, autocomplete, multiple section, skin and icon sets, and a markdown viewer.

Coupled with them, are multi-language support, a friendly toolbox, commando, and a projects and places manager. This editor is an offprint of the well-known Komodo IDE, from where it inherits many of its good characteristics.

Overall, it is a very professional and complete tool, with an interface that stands out. In addition, it is free and open source, meaning that the code is available to anyone wanting to use it.

4. Sublime Text

Sublime Text is a commercial text editor Mac. However, it offers an evaluation version for unlimited time, making it free in practice. Currently it is in version 2, with a beta version 3.

This editor comes with a Python Application Programming Interface (API), and supports many languages. Besides, its functionality can be enhanced via plugins, typically developed by communities and available under free software licenses.

Sublime Text has a user friendly interface, with 22 different themes to choose from. Amongst its most interesting features is the distraction free mode, which consists of having only the text in the center of the screen.

Other functionalities are an advanced customization capacity, based on simple JSON files; and split editing, which can be done with two different files or with different parts of one file.

In brief, its quick navigation to files and lines, its cross-platform support, and project-based preferences, make this app being frequently rated as “best text editor for Mac”.

5. Atom

Atom is a free and open source text editor Mac, written in Node.js and embedded in GitControl. It can be used as a plain text editor Mac, or a source code editor. Through the use of plug-ins, this app supports many languages such as HTML, CSS, C/C++, Objective-C, Java, Go, C#, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Perl, XML, Mustache, Clojure, Ruby, and several more, making it a useful tool for the modern developer.

Best Java Ide For Mac

Some of its useful characteristics include multi-tabbed editing, auto-completion, multiple panes, a file system browser, good navigation options, and a package manager. In addition, a very important feature of Atom is the availability of virtually thousands of free packages, which completely increases its functionality.

Its user interface is friendly, and it comes with several themes that permit the user to select a visual environment of his liking.