UltraEdit makes the leap to Mac OS X
UltraEdit for Mac was officially released this month. A favorite of Windows developers, UltraEdit was first released in 1994 as one of the earliest "Notepad" replacement text editors for programmers on Windows.
When you use your computer for programming, you live in your text editor. Mac developers love TextMate's project management and plug-ins, BBEdit's built-in code validation, or its freeware sibling TextWrangler's fantastic find and replace. For web development, I use Coda with built in syntax highlighting, source code versioning and a CSS editing mode.
But for Windows users, switching from Windows to Mac has meant giving up a favorite Windows editor, which can feel disorienting. TUAW readers who switched from Windows have been wanting UltraEdit for years, some even running Windows in a VM (virtual machine) just for their text editor. Back in 2007, reader Jon Niola commented, "As a switcher, the app I miss most on Windows is UltraEdit ... I wrote to IDM (makers of UltraEdit) to ask them if they were ever going to port to OS X and ... it sounds like it is something they are headed towards eventually."
After 15 years, it's here.
UltraEdit for Mac is a true native Mac app using the OS X look and feel, but you can customize the interface to your preferences. I replaced the default Courier with Snow Leopard's Menlo, while switchers may prefer Microsoft's Consolas.
UltraEdit offers advanced find and replace functionality, such as column-based find and replace, both inside and across files. Unlike most editors that support searching only open files, UltraEdit will search directories and subdirectories, with support for regular expressions (Perl and Unix flavors). You can edit on remote FTP/SFTP servers with the built-in FTP client and FTP account manager. It even offers a built-in hex editor.
Developers who have to work across Mac, Windows and/or Linux will be especially happy about the multi-platform license with unlimited updates, so they can run UltraEdit on all three platforms and never pay for upgrades again.
"UltraEdit does just about everything I've ever wanted to do with an editor and now it does it natively on all platforms. That's pretty important for me because at home I mostly use Linux. On the road I mostly use OS X. I sometimes use VMs with Windows. Having an editor that works natively in all three environments is great," writes Tim Hall of the Oracle Base blog.
UltraEdit for Mac has been released as version 2.0, with most of the same features as the Windows version 16.x. There's also a Linux version at 1.2 released earlier this year, expected to reach feature parity this spring. The Mac development team is currently working on the next implementation of features and enhancements, with an aggressive update schedule planned for the beginning of 2011.
UltraEdit for Mac runs on all OS X systems 10.5 and later (Leopard and Snow Leopard), with support for Intel-based processors only. You can buy the Mac version for US$79 or a multi-platform license for $99.95, switch from a Windows version to Mac for $49.95, or upgrade the Windows version to multi-platform for $79.95. Though this is the first Mac release, UltraEdit for Mac was tested by nearly 4,500 beta testers, and new users get a 30 day free trial and a 100 percent money back guarantee.
You can download UltraEdit for Mac here.
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UltraEdit for Mac was officially released this month. A favorite of Windows developers, UltraEdit was first released in 1994 as one of...
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Textmate = bacon
end of story;
I used UE for a couple of years, having used Textpad before it.
Frankly, you can get Open Source stuff that is far better, and the developers listen to you and make improvements that actually work.
Other than the cost, and the iffy features, I eventually got fed up with IDM's proselytising. However much I respect someone else's faith, I do not want to pay good money for someone to try and ram it down my throat!
I'd like to see a comparison review of Coda, BBEdit and UltraEdit. I used UltraEdit when I was working in Windows more, now I use Coda on Mac.
Based on these reviews, I don't even want to waste the bandwidth to download UltraEdit.
4500 testers tolerated this awful, un-Mac-like UI? Guessing they were Windows users.
> Its the worst. It is everything a Windows conversion could do wrong.
> I had a long email discussion with them about how a Mac app should
> feel and look and they ignored everything.
Alas, stuck in the Windows Reality Distortion Field, it seems. (:-(
Way back when I still had Windows I looked at this once - it was one of the more annoying windows apps.
This is 2011 so my apologies if I don't get excited about code markup. Trying out TextMate or one of its alternatives after developing in Eclipse for 10 years is certainly a throwback to another era. It's like I am getting out of an Audi TT to see what others are driving and it's all ox-carts. Some of them with Oxes on steroids, which they're very proud of.
Any programming environment that doesn't take FULL advantage of ALL the knowledge the compiler has about the code is inadequate. It's 2011, folks. The ones I know of are Eclipse/Java, IntelliJ, Visual Studio.
I've used XCode for iOS development and it's maybe the most tricked-out text editor ever but it's not a proper modern IDE. Clearly suffering from the old NIH syndrome at Apple.
$80 for a text editor with free alternatives like Text Wrangler out there? Sorry, but I can't imagine anyone feeling the have to have this. weird.
January 01 2011 at 3:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHi.
I got a kick out of getting quoted by your article. :)
It surprises me there are some negative comments out there. I would have thought the fact IDM have come into the Mac space would be seen as a positive, even if you don't like the editor itself.
I see the recent entry into the Mac space by companies like IDM (UltraEdit) and TechSmith (SnagIt) as a really positive move. The fact they see enough market share in the Mac space to make it worthwhile has got to be a positive sign.
Regarding the issues with interfaces etc. I guess most users would actually prefer it if it looked exactly like the Windows version. :) I know this goes against the Mac look & feel, but for someone like me who works across platform, consistency is more important that having an aesthetic ideal... :)
Cheers
Tim...
Are you kidding me. UltraEdit is a true native Mac app?
Its the worst. It is everything a Windows conversion could do wrong.
I had a long email discussion with them about how a Mac app should feel and look and they ignored everything. It is not even build with XCode.
This is a nightmare and it not even has half the features the Windows version offers.
The only thing I really missed about UE was being able to customize toolbars and even use your very own icons. This sort of feature is essential for standardizing interfaces so that your employees all are on the same page.
It looks to me like this version will definitely have some shortcomings but maybe it'll help the other developers (like BareBones) innovate their products more.
BBEdit is still my editor of choice.
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