NotepadMac

A fast, native macOS text editor inspired by Notepad++ — built entirely in Swift and AppKit.

---

Switching from Windows to Mac and missing Notepad++? NotepadMac brings the familiar editing experience to macOS as a true native app — no Electron, no cross-platform compromises. Zero external dependencies, 100% Swift.

Features

• Piece Table engine — efficient editing of large files with unlimited undo/redo
• Syntax highlighting for 19 languages (Swift, Python, JS/TS, HTML, CSS, Go, Rust, and more)
• Multi-cursor editing and column (block) selection
• Code folding — brace-based, indent-based, and region markers
• Find & Replace — regex, whole word, case sensitivity, Find in Files
• 16 built-in themes — Monokai, One Dark, Dracula, Nord, Catppuccin, and more
• Tabs with drag-and-drop reordering and session restore
• Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P) with fuzzy search
• Macro system — record, save, and replay editing macros
• Markdown preview with live rendering and dark mode support
• Minimap with viewport indicator
• Split view — horizontal and vertical editor splitting
• Encoding support — UTF-8, UTF-16, EUC-KR, Shift-JIS, GB2312, and more
• File watching — detects external file changes via FSEvents

Installation

Download DMG

Download the latest .dmg from the Releases page, open it, and drag NotepadMac to your Applications folder.

Note: The app is not yet code-signed. macOS may show a "damaged" or "unidentified developer" warning. Run this in Terminal after installing:

xattr -cr /Applications/NotepadMac.app

Build from Source

Requires macOS 13+ and Swift 5.9+.

git clone https://github.com/freedom07/notepadmac.git
cd notepadmac

# Build and run
bash Scripts/build-app.sh
open .build/debug/NotepadMac.app

# Or build a release DMG
bash Scripts/create-dmg.sh

Run Tests

swift test

Architecture

NotepadMac is organized into 12 independent Swift modules with zero external dependencies:

Sources/
├── NotepadNext/          # App shell — AppDelegate, menus, command palette
├── NotepadNextCore/      # Core logic — macros, plugins, preferences, CLI
├── TextCore/             # Piece Table text engine, line indexing
├── EditorKit/            # Editor view, line numbers, minimap, split view
├── SyntaxKit/            # Syntax highlighting, 19 languages, code folding
├── ThemeKit/             # Theme system, 16 built-in themes
├── SearchKit/            # Find/Replace, Find in Files, regex
├── FileKit/              # File I/O, encoding detection, file watching
├── TabKit/               # Tab bar UI, tab management
├── MarkdownKit/          # Markdown → HTML renderer, WKWebView preview
├── PanelKit/             # Dockable panel framework
└── CommonKit/            # Shared utilities and extensions

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to:

1. Report bugs — open an issue
2. Suggest features — describe your use case in an issue
3. Submit PRs — fork, branch, and open a pull request

License

MIT — free for personal and commercial use.