Smultron

Where Taco HTML Edit is featureful for basic HTML editing, Smultron goes without any tag handling beyond syntax coloring, save for a Close Tag command that is really handy. It also operates with a multiple-documents-per-window arrangement that you either tolerate or not — but at least its execution is somewhat more elegant than the BBEdit drawer action. The Smultron window does remain visible even with no documents open, which is annoying, so I wind up hiding the program with a Command-H most of the time.

You can install a CLI utility along with Smultron — check under the Help menu — giving you the ability to issue commands like smultron README.txt to open docs in the program. Piping input from another command doesn’t seem to be available as yet.

Another feature I appreciate, especially as an occasional NaNoWriMo participant, is the ability to have a running wordcount in the status bar.

There isn’t much that is advanced about Smultron, but it’s not trying to be more than a slightly more-than-basic text editor. And it does that job quite serviceably.

This is a work in progress (what open source program isn’t?) but who can resist the jolly, candy-like strawberry icon?