BBEdit 8
Michael Tsai - Blog - BBEdit 8
However, we're not quite there yet, because the codeless language modules are a little under-powered. They don't support regular expressions so, for example, the Apache module can't color the pseudo HTML tags. Only one set of keywords is supported per language. And there is no way to take advantage of BBEdit's existing language modules, e.g. to embed your new language (or one of the built-ins) into HTML. Language modules are still limited to coloring and the function pop-up; there is no language-sensitive indentation or navigation assistance, as in Emacs.
And those limits are the reason that I'll be saving my 49 bucks and not upgrading. For the first time in a long time, I might add; I upgraded pretty regularly in the past. I really can no longer justify spending the money, and too much at that, for a text editor which works on only one platform and has maybe a tenth of the capability that emacs has. Especially since BBEdit's language support is primitive at best - it's not much more than syntax coloring. Spend 10 minutes editing XSL using emacs-nxml-mode, or perl code using cperl-mode, and you'll see how language support should be done.
Comments
In fairness to BBEdit (which I rail on constantly) they do have a better text engine than Emacs or vim; what they lack is decades of bored hackers with an itch to scratch, and an extension system designed to encourage solving problems. Right now their extension system is designed to solve a *certain class* of problems rather than the generic notion of a problem.
They're moving forward - CLM is a start - but oh the miles they have left to go. By version 10 or 11, it'll be a really awesome editor.
Posted by: Gregg | September 5, 2004 12:11 PM