Meet Brackets, Adobe’s New Open Source HTML Editor

Mike Rankin

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Adobe has released an early beta version of a free, open source code editor for the web, written in JavaScript, HTML and CSS. It’s called Brackets and it promises to provide some unique benefits for web designers and developers.

First of all, it has an innovative simplified user interface. Brackets doesn’t come cluttered with many tools and panels. Instead, it puts puts context-specific code and tools inline so you have what you need just when you need it.

Second, a feature called Live Development allows Brackets to work directly with your browser so you can see the effects of your edits instantly. There’s no copy and pasting of code, no switching back and forth between applications. You don’t even have to refresh the view.

Finally, since Brackets is actually built in the same stuff that it helps you edit (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), by definition users already know how to customize and extend the application. And that’s exactly what Adobe is hoping will happen. The project is hosted at github, where you can download the latest build of Brackets, and read up on the project details.

There’s also a Brackets blog. And you can learn more about Brackets and other Adobe projects related to open source and web standards (like Adobe Shadow, Edge, and PhoneGap) at the Adobe & HTML website.

Here’s an introductory video on Brackets: