TextMate is one of the older pieces of Mac OS X software still in use, mostly because version 2.0 never released in its complete form.
The software's author, Allan Odgaard, stated that the second version of the text editor was 'largely completed' way back in June.... 2009! Even so, it never released as such. It took until December 2011 for an alpha build to reach GitHub.
Now, Odgaard has open-sourced the project. He's encouraging you to tinker with his software. However, he's using the GPLv3 license. This license stops people from creating proprietary forks of his software, but also that he's doing this to challenge a growing trend with Apple trying to close down the Mac OS X platform.
The software took years to go from incomplete to usable, but still incomplete. The switch may allow some people to build their own tools to integrate into TextMate 2. If you're prepared to compile a version of it for yourself, you can get a taste for the future of the program.
Alternatively, you can play it safely and pay for the last release, TextMate 1.5.11. Licenses for it for €45.63; just shy of £36.
It seems this does not signify Odgaard leaving the project. He has stated that he would still be working on it. Concerns were raised about whether Osgaard was open-sourcing the project so he did not have to continue to work on it, allowing the fans to carry on the software.
If you don't remember the original TextMate, it was pitched as "the missing editor for OS X", due to the wide variety of features it offered. As well as being suitable for code it could also be used as a lightweight text editor, offering integration with other projects as well.
Thanks to Neowin reader tiagosilva29 for tipping us about the news, and you can read his forum thread on the topic here.
Source: H Online
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