Bare Bones Software has released BBEdit 9.0
(http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.html), an upgrade to
the HTML and text editor for the Macintosh. The upgrade introduces
such new capabilities as Projects, non-modal Find and Multi-File
Search windows, editing in browsers, text completion, and a
Scratchpad.
BBEdit 9 also offers revamped Ruby language support, enhanced
JavaScript support, updates to the ObjC, Obj-C++ and YAML language
modules, transparent support for bz2 compression, and more. The new
Projects feature supplants file groups by offering direct editing
within the Project window, and direct manipulation of items within a
project, including the ability to rename, create, and delete files
and folders. Projects can contain any combination of directories and
individual files, and their contents can be directly searched as well
as processed by text factories.
BBEdit’s search and replace power is now channeled through modeless
Find and Multi-File Search windows, which sport new options and still
offer extensive keyboard controls for streamlined operation. BBEdit 9
can also directly search Xcode projects.
The Find Differences command now generates more usable results for
file comparisons. It’s now possible to review and apply discrete
differences that occur within lines.
Extensive changes to BBEdit’s text engine now support editing text in
disk browsers, search results, and other text panes within the
application, says Rich Siegel, founder and CEO of Bare Bones
Software. Text completion, another major new feature in BBEdit 9,
accelerates the creation of code and content by suggesting
completions as typing is paused, or upon request, as desired, he
adds. Possible completions include words in the current documents and
other sources, such as the system spelling dictionary, BBEdit’s own
clippings, and ctags. Text completion support applies to any language
and can be configured on a per language basis.
BBEdit 9 provides a new Scratchpad window for quickly editing or
transforming text without having to create temporary files. The
Scratchpad, available via the “Show Scratchpad” command from the
Window menu or Dock, automatically saves its contents.
Siegel says that BBEdit 9 brings improvements in its Ruby language
support, including improved support for text folding, handling
interpretive strings, and more, as well as in its JavaScript support.
The Objective-C and Objective-C++ modules have been updated to
include language keywords from Objective-C 2.0. The YAML module has
also been enhanced.
BBEdit 9 can now transparently read and write files compressed with
bz2. A new Document Statistics display presents the number of
characters, words, and lines in each text view’s status bar. BBEdit 9
customers can now automatically sync their BBEdit application support
folder via .Mac/MobileMe. Other enhancements include improved
awareness of Xcode, support for additional ctags formats, a new
clippings set for PHP, enhancements to the HTML and Markdown
clippings sets, and more.
BBEdit 9 is available at a suggested retail price of US$125. Any
registered owner of BBEdit can upgrade for US$30. Anyone who
purchased BBEdit 8.5 to 8.7 on or after Jan. 1, 2008, is eligible to
receive a free upgrade. Customers who purchased directly from Bare
Bones Software will be notified automatically via email. Educational
discounts and site license pricing are also available.