This time it’s with TextEdit, which is probably WAAAAAY better than Notepad, because Micro$oft didn’t write it.

Well, true to Apple’s form of thinking its users are too dumb to know how to use a computer, I found out that TextEdit does not let you choose what extension to put on a file.  I’m doing a MySQL create table statement, and copying/pasting the results of a show create table statement was overloading the terminal window– really weird text was coming out, and MYSQL couldn’t make sense of it.  So I decided to paste it into a simple text editor, save that as a .sql file, and then import that into the database via the command line.

Now, I know that file doesn’t have to have a .sql extension.  I like it that way though, and seeing how I’m the user, the computer should listen to me.

So what happens when one goes to specify one’s own extension on a file in TextEdit?  One is treated to the following dialog box (which is modal, of course):

It isn’t particularly difficult to save a file with a different extension, and Apple’s philosophy of hiding any sort of file-system-level issues from ALL users weakens TextEdit’s usefulness.  When I’m using a Windows machine and need to quickly test something in HTML (for example), I load up Notepad, quickly enter the snippet under test, and then save it as an HTML document.  I would not have any such luck as a TextEdit user.

Am I left the option of changing the extension in Finder after?  Sure.  But that requires leaving TextEdit, finding the file, praying that I can even see the extension, and so forth.  Not the gold standard of usability.  Do I have a more able text editor on the machine?  Yes, TextMate, but it’s a bloated monstrosity (ever done a ‘Find in Project?’) without the power of Visual Studio, and it doesn’t come to mind for quick editing tasks.  And yes, in this particular example, the extension didn’t actually matter because thankfully mysql is better software than TextEdit.  The point is, I should be able to use a different file extension if I want to. Not all users are as scared of the file system as you think Apple.  Leave us the option!

This is yet another reason why I would never spend any of my own money on an Apple computer.

Edit: So, I got mad and wrote the post.  Then I gave the file the extension I wanted and tried importing it into my database, only to be greeted by the following error: ERROR 1049 (42000) at line 1: Unknown database ‘tf1ansiansicpg1252cocoartf949cocoasubrtf350′.  I thought, “I sure don’t remember specifying database tf1ansiansicpg1252cocoartf949cocoasubrtf350.”  TextEdit is serious when it says it only does .rtf files.  That polution of a .sql script is quite normal for an .rtf.  So Apple does not provide a plain text editor, or if TextEdit does do plain text, it isn’t readily apparent.

2nd edit: apparently it does other file formats, if you choose them from a drop-down menu on the save dialog box.  However, you’re still locked into the extension associated with the format.  And it doesn’t have a plain-text option.  TextEdit still loses.