The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera web browser

One of the programs I use most often on a day-to-day basis is a text editor. On Windows, I've been using UltraEdit for several years. Things are a bit more interesting on the Mac. The text editor that comes with OS X, TextEdit, is a more advanced than Wordpad on Windows, raising the bar for text editors on the Mac. It supports rich text editing and does basic search and replace. It's probably enough for the casual text editor. Considering the three most used programs on my system are my e-mail client, browser, and text editor, TextEdit just isn't enough.

When I started using a Mac a couple years ago, it seemed like BBEdit was the way to go. Fortunately, TextWranger, a stripped-down and free version of BBEdit, came along shortly thereafter. It had all of the features I would have used in BBEdit anyway, so I started using it. It wasn't quite UE, though, as it was missing a lot of the stuff I had come to love about UE. One of the great things about UE is that every time I realized there was a feature I needed, UE already had it. Some of the features are:

• User-definable blocks of text (templates/stationary) that can be inserted into a document either on creation or while editing, i.e. an HTML block with doctype, and other required elements already there
• The ability to send the current document to the default viewer, such as a browser
• The ability to trim whitespace characters at the end of lines with the push of a button
• Automatically reopen all files from previous session
• Similarly, allow separate workspaces that make it easy to open groups of files
• Search and replace with regular expressions
• User-configurable syntax highlighting
• Edit multiple documents within one window
• Line numbering
• Soft wrapping, so text that reaches the end of the line wraps to the next line without increasing the line number
• Configurable fonts and colors
• SFTP/SCP integration

Bonus features I'd like that aren't in UE:

• Check spelling as you type
• CVS/SVN integration

When I got my MacBook Pro, I set to the task of finding a replacement for UltraEdit (UE) on the Mac. I had already heard about a number of editors, such as SubEthaEdit, TextMate, Smultron, and skEdit, but I went and did a bit more searching anyway. Luckily, digg.com (the SlashDot of Mac news) had a story about the Top 10 must-have Mac applications (it may have been 10 Apps Every New Mac User Should Download), which helped a bit, too. VersionTracker is another great resource for software reviews, so I did a bit more digging there.

After trying a handful of text editors, I settled on TextMate and have been using that for roughly the past month. My trial period ran out over the weekend, so I'm going to give some other editors a good testing before I invest in TextMate. Though TextMate doesn't have the full list of features above, it supports many of my must-haves, including workspaces (though I don't quite have them working ideally yet), templates, and line numbering. To top that, there's great documentation and a helpful bunch of folks on the TextMate IRC channel. I'll probably get a license sooner or later since I doubt any of the other Mac text editors can live up to it.

One of the other text editors that's worth mentioning is SubEthaEdit due to its unique multi-user capabilities. Another new Mac user gave a really good description of a live demo, where multiple users edited the same document simultaneously. I don't do much interactive editing, but it may come in handy for CVS and SVN work. I was lucky enough to pick up a free license yesterday thanks to BlogZOT 2.0 over at macZOT. Getting free software rocks.

Fellow Mac users: Are there any other editors I should give a try?

I recently attended my first Drupal User Group (DUG) meeting in Washington, DC. That night, a bunch of Drupal users and coders met at a coffee shop to chat and code, something that's been happening all over the world. I think it's about time we start doing something similar for Opera users. Thus, I propose the establishment of an Opera User Group (OUG) in the Washington, DC metro area.

As Opera users, there's a lot we can learn from each other. Every person I've talked to uses Opera differently. I'd like for an OUG to be a place where users young and old can come together and teach each other things about Opera and figure out ways to make Opera better. For instance, we could discuss ways we can promote Opera, give some tutorials on using Opera features, discuss bugs and test cases, talk about feature requests, etc. There's also plenty of customizations we can do, like making and sharing widgets, User JS, skins, menus, toolbars, and keyboard shortcuts.

If you're in the Baltimore-Washington area and you're interested in getting together with some Opera users, I'd like to know what you want to get out of such a meeting and where we might meet. One warning: I am not doing this to lecture about Opera, talk about internal information, or anything like that. I have a unique perspective into the Opera world and a lot I can bring to the table, but this is not a company-sponsored event. This is meeting by Opera users for Opera users.

One of the things that's continued to amaze me as I've watched Sara Ellen grow is the number of things she has to learn along the way. For instance, she's started laughing just within the last two weeks. It seems like the only things she knew how to do when she was born were breathe, fill her diaper, and cry. Within the first couple of days, she learned to breastfeed. She had to learn our smell, the sound of our voices, and the way we look. Soon, she learned to smile, bat at objects, and suck her fists. Lately, she's been opening up her fists, attempting to roll, and laugh.

There's nothing quite like a baby's laugh. There's this magical quality to it that can instantly brighten even the dullist day. And thanks to the wonders of technology, you can listen to and watch Sara Ellen's very first laugh to see exactly what I mean. Enjoy.

One of the big differences with Macs is that there isn't as much free (as in beer) software as on Windows or UNIX. It's like Windows about five to ten years ago when everything was shareware. I have to admit that it's taking some getting used to. Don't get me wrong; I don't expect everything for free. On Windows, I own several applications, including Microsoft Office, UltraEdit, mIRC, and Agent. However, I also run many free applications, such as Winamp, Opera (which I actually bought long before it was free), and AVG, not to mention Drupal and Gallery on my web site.

Now that I've switched to a Mac, not only do I have to find a bunch of software to replace the programs I used to use every day, I also have to pay for them. Most shareware is fairly inexpensive, but when you get into things like TextMate (39 Euros), it can get expensive. That's why I'm happy I ran across macZOT! With macZOT!, I get introduced to new applications every day and I get a great deal on them.

If you're not familiar with it, macZOT! is for Mac users only (obviously). Every day, they feature a discounted piece of software, sometimes at ridiculous savings. I've just been following their site for a couple of days, but I went ahead and made by first purchase today. I wouldn't normally do something like this, but the deal is too good to pass up.

Today's macZOT! is called a MyzteryZOT! Instead of just offering one discounted application, they're offering 7 mystery applications, which normally retail for a total of 131.85USD, for just 15USD! Seriously, how can you pass up something like that? Even if I don't get anything I want, I figure it's worth it. See, part of macZOT!s purpose is to help application developers make a wad of cash and get a ton of exposure. Working for Opera Software has given me a lot of empathy for those trying to get the word out about superior products. If only Opera weren't free, I'd ask 'em to make a deal with macZOT!

So, if you're a Mac user, check out macZOT! You're bound to find something you want. Already a macZOT! fan? Let 'em know what application you're dying for them to discount by leaving a comment here. As mentioned above, my killer macZOT! would be TextMate, the best text editor I've found on the Mac. What's yours?

I've been a PC man my entire life. I grew up playing games under DOS and doing file management via Norton Commander. I graduated to Windows 3.1 briefly, then on to Windows 95 and 98, (thankfully) mostly skipping ME before upgrading to 2K (due to stability problems from trying to do too much web browsing, no less). Finally, on to XP, which I'm currently using on my personal desktop PC.

But that's not what I'm here to write about. I've been a backup Mac tester since shortly after I started working for Opera Software. I'm not really sure what it was that got me started. At the time, we were working on Opera 7.5, our first Presto-based release of Opera for Mac. I did most of my work on my Windows XP desktop PC and did testing on the Mac as needed. At first, there were things that just drove me nuts. Over time, I got used to some of the Mac idiosyncracies and learned to appreciate many of the OS features.

When I moved back to the US, Opera left the choice of which laptop to get up to me. I shopped around a bit, but really didn't like what I saw. One of the main problems I have with Windows laptops is all the extra software pre-installed that I don't want. And to compound that, you rarely get an actual OS disc, so you can't wipe the drive and install just the OS. That, plus my previous experience with a Mac and the sexiness of the new MacBook Pro made the decision clear: get a Mac.

Sure, I'd used a Mac before, but never as my primary system. Switching OSes is hard. It's not just getting used to the OS conventions, but you have to refind all the software that made up for OS deficiencies. Not to mention most of the software I use every day isn't cross-platform, so I have to find replacements for all that stuff. All the places you used to look for help won't help anymore. All the places you used to look for software don't have anything you can use. And all the years of experience with your previous OS just barely helps you scratch the surface with your new one.

It's worth it. OS X is beautiful. Everything just looks great, especially the fonts. I really enjoy how things work, too. This is how an OS should be. I have a feeling I won't be buying a computer with Windows ever again. And I can't help wanting to show my laptop to everyone I know. It's so curvy and gorgeous.

Don't get me wrong, there are problems. But for some funny reason, I'm so happy with my laptop that I don't really care. Somehow, Apple just does that to you.