Review of BBEdit 6.1.2 for OS X

[gregor42]

Disclaimer: I posted this under meditations under the suggestion of tye-sama, for lack of a more specific area to post to.

BBEdit for OS X and for Mac O/S 9.x has been released. It now includes a number of Perl integrations. I ordered a copy @ MacWorld last week & have been playing with it all weekend.

I will be reviewing it under OS X, since this is what I'm running and since being a UN*X flavor, this gives BareBones Software a foot in the door of a bigger world. This is strictly a Macintosh app at this time. I think this gives them everything they need to start porting to other UN*X flavors... but that's just my idle speculation/wish list...

There is now a Perl menu. It is easily identified as being a camel icon. (O'Reilly licensed logo? I'm not sure, but it also resembles the MacPerl Icon)

All of the Perl functionality is accessible through this menu, however, you can also now bring up three floating palettes for ease of use.

Functionality includes:

• check syntax - just like perl -c filename except it checks the current code being edited
• run - runs the code currently being edited
• run in terminal - invokes a terminal and runs the code currently being edited
• run in debugger - invokes the perl debugger with the code currently being edited
• run file... - opens a dialog box to select a perl file to run
• Find in reference - brings up a dialog box to enter a text entry. The response is generated from perldoc
• view POD - self explanatory

The palettes available are Perl Tools which includes all of the commands listed above, Perl Filters which are intended to be run against open files in the editor and are assignable to hot keys, as well as Perl Scripts, which are also assignable to hot keys.

When searching through the Perl reference via their interface I discovered that it was indeed calling to perldoc since I called up the abstract of VRML.pm, a non-standard module, which I installed last week.

When you purchase BBEdit 6.1.2 you get executables for both Mac/OS 9.x & OS X. Under OS 9.x the program uses MacPerl. Under OS X it uses 'real' Perl.

All in all, I find this a very healthy & needed addition to an already feature-rich GUI IDE. BBEdit has always been my GUI editor of choice. (& vi in the shell. 8-} ) This is just one more step in the right direction.

Granted, having all of the HTML tools right there is very tempting to use while coding, but as Merlyn-sama regularly preaches....use CGI.pm !!!

With the ability to run Perl scripts & filters on text in the editor from a hot key, the possibilities start to boggle the mind. Add to that a layer of AppleScript to call to BBEdit itself as a software component & suddenly you're talking about unleashing all of the power of Perl from any application... Meditate on that one.

Wait! This isn't a Parachute, this is a Backpack!

[belize]

I have been using BBedit since 4.5 and have always found it a solid programming tool. The plugin for Perl has had much of the same power that the new integrated menu has (except for the POD and the reference) and it is about time that Perl is more tightly integrated with this tool.

For those that use a Mac and have not yet experienced BBedit, I highly recommend it. I too find it VERY tempting to use the powerful HTML tools while programming instead of CGI.pm, in fact I did until coming on board here.