You can merge the contents of a file into another one, for example.
So if you're familiar with the Unix grep function, you can create really complex search and replace patterns that can save you hours.īeyond editing and manipulating strings of text, TextWrangler can manipulate entire files. TextWrangler's search functionality is based on Perl Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE), a common library for search functionality. Anyone can use them to find and replace text, add editing and formatting, filter. System administrators depend on them to manage and edit system logs and configuration files and scripts. Text editors are indispensable tools for programmers who need to write source code and want to be able to highlight the code syntax to easily see what they're doing. You can certainly create and edit readable documents with text editors, but that only scratches the surface. While Pages, Microsoft Word and others may make your text look pretty and give you powerful layout tools besides, text editors specialize in actually doing things with text. Text editors serve important roles that word processors do not. Bare Bones Software makes a terrific one called TextWrangler that ought to be a part of every discriminating Mac user's app arsenal. Whether you're looking for a no-nonsense text input system or are looking for something to do transformations to big chunks of text-based data, a text editor fits the bill like nothing else.
