editing scripts on a mac

[James Stroud]

Thomas Nelson wrote:
> On Apr 27, 11:37 am, Tommy Grav <t... at mac.com> wrote:
> 
>>>him> I do not have a text editor, but here are the answers to
>>>him> questions 1-5.
>>
>>>Now, frankly, I don't think this answer is correct, since I know OS  
>>>X is
>>>a UNIX derivative, but I am loathe to involve a programming noob  
>>>with vi
>>>or something similar. So I wondered if one of the c.l.py mac users  
>>>could
>>>give brief instructions for firing up a visual text editor of some  
>>>sort
>>>and saving a file somewhere it can easily be accessed from a terminal
>>>window (which I presume starts up in his home directory).
>>
> 
> 1) Open Finder, click "Applications", and open "TextEdit".
> 2) hit shift-apple-T, or select Format -> Make Plain Text,  to put you
> in plaintext mode (It's .rtf by default)
> 3) Make sure you save in the home directory (usually a picture of a
> house).
> 
> HTH,
> Tom
> 

I would recommend against the TextEdit recommendation. First, it is not 
a full-featured text editor, so you will switch soon to a real one. 
Second, its too easy to save as rtf, even with the txt extension--and it 
will take some time and frustration to realize your mistake. The best 
option is TextWrangler for non-vi, non-emacs people. Sometimes its even 
a good option for vi & emacs people.

James