After using the Arduino IDE for a period of time, advanced users or experienced coders often find it quite limiting. Although the IDE itself is open-source, and thus anyone can get the code and modify it to suit their personal requirements - doing so can often be a chore. Another option is to find an editor that suits your needs and can be modified more easily, and this has been demonstrated by Felix Obée.
As he is a Mac OS user, Felix shows us how to set up the a text editor called "TextWrangler", including syntax highlighting to make code much more readable. The only downside to this is the fact that sketches still have to be uploaded to hardware via the original IDE.
Nevertheless it's an interesting alternative for Mac users, so for more information check out Felix's website. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
If you're an experienced Arduino user and interested in more advanced Arduino projects and usage - get yourself a copy of "Practical Arduino" by Jonathan Oxer and Hugh Blemings:
Create your own Arduino-based designs, gain an in-depth knowledge of the architecture of Arduino, and learn the easy-to-use Arduino language all in the context of practical projects that you can build yourself at home. Get hands-on experience using a variety of projects and recipes for everything from home automation to test equipment. For more information and to order, click here.
