Nikolai Krill released a major update to CodeRunner today, and I highly recommend it to all programmers no matter what languages you use.

In my case I write a lot of code in C++, Objective-C, Ruby, Javascript and HTML as part of large, complex projects. Often I am unsure how best to write a snippet or function. One way would be to create a branch in the project, run and experiment, deal with compiling, branch again to try another solution, compile some more and work it out. But that is a slow process (and quite dangerous if you leave these experimental branches in, or forget to branch at all).

Instead, I jump over to CodeRunner, select my language and attempt several approaches (in tabs) to solving the problem. I use CodeRunner to write, run, test and debug to figure out which solution is best. Once I get the code working, fast and looking good, I copy and paste it back into my project and keep going. No branching, no risk.

CodeRunner 2 is no longer available in the App Store, I’m guessing sandbox restrictions. CodeRunner 2 comes with a bunch of new features including Code Completion, themes, multi-file support and Yosemite support. It’s a paltry $9.99 as of writing (or free for those who purchased CodeRunner on the App Store).

Highly recommended.

Follow the author as @hiltmon on Twitter.