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Apple's "Property List Editor.app"


irrational John
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I realize that pretty much everyone is apparently happy as clams to edit their XML based plist files using a text edit.

 

I am not one of them. :dev: Especially when better alternatives are freely available.

 

One of the most fundamental reasons I switched to a specialized code editor years ago was because I was constantly dealing with bracket nesting errors (e.g., the <> in XML text). Using an editor allows me to avoid dealing with tedious {censored} like that. IMO it is well worth any time invested in tracking down an editor just to avoid puzzling out where the bracketing may be unbalanced.

 

It happens that for property lists Apple provides a good, freely available :dev: editor, "Property List Editor.app". It is distributed as part of Apple's Xcode development environment.

 

A recently discovered bonus is that this editor allows you to transparently work with multiple plists formats and to easily convert between them. This includes the binary plist format which you are not going to edit with a text editor.

 

Perhaps the easiest completely Apple sanctioned way to get "Property List Editor.app" is to install the Xcode development environment from your (retail) Snow Leopard install disc.

 

Alternatively, you could also download Xcode from the Apple DeveloperConnection website. (I think you can get Xcode without having to sign up for an ADC id. But even if you can't, you can signup using the free plan so all you'd loose is the time to signup.)

 

-irrational john

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