Tumult Whisk 2.6 is a small feature and bugfix update to the lightweight HTML and PHP editor with a live preview. It features improved compatibility with the upcoming macOS 12 Monterey.

What’s new in Tumult Whisk 2.6:

• PHP is for Pretty Home Pages: Whisk now includes its own PHP 7.4 installation because the system installation is being removed in macOS 12 Monterey. A new preference UI will automatically detect versions installed on your machine and more simply allow their selection.
• Red Alert!: If your JavaScript style uses alert() calls for debugging, you’ll be back in the game with Whisk’s new dialog windows for alert(), confirm(), and prompt().
• Other Tweaks: there are a few other bug fixes and changes to improve the product.

Read the complete 2.6.0 change list here.

Tumult Whisk 2.6.0 is a free update if you purchased a previous v2 version. Upgrade discounts are available for previous HyperEdit v1 owners and you can read about what’s new in Tumult Whisk 2.6.

v2.6.0 Upgrade Instructions:

How to upgrade the Mac App Store version:

1. Open the App Store by choosing the Apple > App Store… menu item
2. Make sure you are signed in via the Store menu
3. Click on your account on the bottom-left of the App Store window (or the Purchases tab on top if on macOS prior to 10.14)
4. If you have not already automatically upgraded, press Command-R to refresh and then click the Update button located next to Whisk

How to upgrade the Tumult Store direct-download version:

1. Open the Whisk 2 application
2. Choose the Whisk > Check for Updates… menu item (if not automatically prompted to update)
3. Install the update and relaunch

Enjoy!

What’s new in Tumult Whisk 2.5:

• Built for Apple Silicon: Tumult Whisk is built as a Universal application that will run natively on Apple Silicon and older Intel-based Macs. Using one of Apple’s new “M1”-based Macs will make your edits snappier. Read more about Whisk’s long and fruitful lifespan on Mac OS.
• Compatible with macOS 11 Big Sur: A new icon, improved color scheme, and many UI tweaks make Tumult Whisk a natural citizen of the newest version of macOS. Don’t worry if you’re not ready to upgrade your system; it still runs great on OS X 10.11 Yosemite and later (10.12+ for the Mac App Store version).
• Source Editor Refinements: Command-slash will toggle line comments, tabbing on a multi-line selection will indent, and there’s a new preference to set the tab width.
• Localization: The app has been translated into German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese.
• Other Enhancements: there is color swatch opacity, zooming improvements, a save toolbar button, bug fixes, and UI tweaks

Read the complete 2.5.0 change list here.

Tumult Whisk 2.5.0 is a free update if you purchased a previous v2 version. Upgrade discounts are available for previous HyperEdit v1 owners and you can read about what’s new in Tumult Whisk 2.5.

v2.5.0 Upgrade Instructions:

How to upgrade the Mac App Store version:

1. Open the App Store by choosing the Apple > App Store… menu item
2. Make sure you are signed in via the Store menu
3. Click on your account on the bottom-left of the App Store window (or the Purchases tab on top if on macOS prior to 10.14)
4. If you have not already automatically upgraded, press Command-R to refresh and then click the Update button located next to Whisk

How to upgrade the Tumult Store direct-download version:

1. Open the Whisk 2 application
2. Choose the Whisk > Check for Updates… menu item (if not automatically prompted to update)
3. Install the update and relaunch

Enjoy!

We’re happy to share a limited time discount on all our apps. Use the links below to get our apps at 30% off!

Grab a discount for:

• Tumult Hype 4 Professional 
• Tumult Hype 4 Standard 
• Tumult Whisk 2 
• Or use the code CYBERHYPERMONDAY on the Tumult Store

Tumult Hype has been updated to support the new M1 chips released this month and absolutely flies on those machines.

Tumult Whisk is a live preview HTML, CSS, and JS editor and it’s the fastest way to see the effect of your code as you write it:

Both Hype and Whisk have unrestricted 2 week trials, if you need some time to explore. (But our discount code will expire soon…)

For updates on this discount, follow us at @hypeapp.

Tumult Whisk 2.0.1 is a maintenance update addressing top issues with the v2 release. We recommend everyone update immediately.

What’s new in Tumult Whisk 2.0.1:

• Scroll Sync improvements
• Fixed issue where Hype Reflect previews would not show images and other local page resources
• Fixed some issues using Whisk in different languages
• Showing HTML Source Code for PHP in Dark Theme will use a black background and white text
• Fixed issue where Watched Files table would flicker when modifying watched files
• Many other bug fixes and UI tweaks

Read the complete 2.0.1 change list here.

Tumult Whisk is the application formerly known as HyperEdit. See an overview of what’s new in Tumult Whisk 2.0.

How to upgrade the Mac App Store version:

1. Open the App Store by choosing the Apple > App Store… menu item
2. Make sure you are signed in via the Store menu
3. Click on your account on the bottom-left of the App Store window (or the Purchases tab on top if on macOS prior to 10.14)
4. If you have not already automatically upgraded, press Command-R to refresh and then click the Update button located next to Whisk

How to upgrade the Tumult Store direct-download version:

1. Open the Whisk application
2. Choose the Whisk > Check for Updates… menu item (if not automatically prompted to update)
3. Install the update and relaunch

Enjoy!

I can’t help but reminisce — touching such an old codebase transported me back in time. 2003 saw the release of Apple’ 3rd iPod, Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar, and the initial launch of Safari. The movies and music of that year were forgettable, and thankfully no Matrix sequels came out.

HyperEdit began its life as I sat in a session at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (aka WWDC) that year. Gramps unveiled the ability to embed Safari’s WebKit engine into any application. Apple’s marketing was in overdrive touting its rendering speed, a major competitive advantage over the incumbent Internet Explorer.

I decided to put their claims to the test by firing up the Xcode 1.0 beta on a commandeered white iBook. I placed a text view next to the Safari WebView to see if it could keep up with my typing. Sure enough, it could! My friends sitting next to me came up with all kinds of other stress tests like trying out JavaScript or embedding images and video files. Not only did it handle these performantly, it became immediately clear this form of editing with a live preview was an awesome way to write web pages.

I loved being able to experiment with snippets of HTML, and thought others may find it useful too. From there, I worked to make it a more usable editor and released the first HyperEdit beta a few months later.

Throwing software up on VersionTracker (the Product Hunt of its day) was enough to get users and gain press. One early user and journalist, Charles Arthur, wrote a story in The Independent about my endeavor. For a 21-year-old, my worldview was impacted knowing an app I crafted was worth reporting about. He wrapped up the piece with:

I did get that laptop (an iBook G4), but the next shareware idea would have to wait eight years until after my stint at Apple. Charles went on to become The Guardian’s Technology Editor for a while, and now continues to cover technology. I’ve learned he still uses HyperEdit.

With encouragement from that passionate group of beta testers, I was able to bring out version 1.0 a little less than a year later. A few updates followed. Yet HyperEdit was frequently put on the back burner while I focused on my corporate job and subsequently on developing Hype. Some of HyperEdit’s code lived there: the source editor is the same in both apps. I personally kept using HyperEdit and it continued to have a dedicated user base asking for updates. Whisk 2.0 was a labor of love, meant as a fulfillment to the promise of an update for these users.

Most of the development work for Whisk was in modernizing the source code. In 2020 there are plenty of new choices for Mac app development like Swift, SwiftUI, and Catalyst, but Whisk remains old-school Objective-C and Cocoa. Therefore a lot of the work was in replacing deprecated APIs or copying over modern app features from Hype into Whisk. The user interface got an overhaul and now both look like they were developed by the same company. Drawers are gone.

From a user perspective, it is striking how certain areas of Mac app distribution have changed since 2003:

• Internet distribution was common, but magazine CD-ROMs were still a great way to get a curated selection of these shareware apps to try. As late as 2005 I was approached to include HyperEdit on a magazine’s cover CD.
• Calling apps “shareware” fell out of favor in place of “freemium,” which went along with the rise of subscription software and server-backed apps. (For that matter, “apps” would not be common vernacular until the iPhone.)
• Applications like HyperEdit would often have a “Read Me First.rtfd” file packaged with them; a hold over from classic mac days before users would find software on the internet and therefore documentation would need to be placed alongside the application.
• The Disk Image (.dmg) files and the “drag to Applications folder” flow wasn’t common. These became more popular due to the Applications folder gaining significance due to features like Launchpad and becoming the best option to avoid macOS security restrictions placed on unsigned zip files.
• There was no common method for apps to update themselves! The Sparkle framework did not hit the scene until 2006. In fact, only the last release of HyperEdit integrated Sparkle, which means it has never been used (until now). Some apps created their own mechanisms, but otherwise this is why sites like VersionTracker were essential.
• The Mac App Store was introduced in January of 2011. The hope was it would become a definitive source for great apps, but external distribution is common with many important apps (either due to sandboxing or wanting to avoid Apple’s cut).

From a developer perspective, distributing software is significantly harder. In 2003, you could switch the config to Release, hit build, zip the app, and then put on a web server. In 2020, distributing requires learning the intricacies of certificates, code signing, provisioning profiles, hardening, notarization, .dmg creation, gatekeeper, and paying a $99 per year fee. From a mac technology perspective, I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say the amount required to learn to distribute software exceeds the amount I needed to know to write the first beta of HyperEdit! I wonder if it would have gotten off the ground if I started today.

It has been fun taking HyperEdit out of the attic to create Whisk. I’m using it this very moment to compose this post, and still love the live preview workflow inside a native mac app. Given the isolated COVID-19 world we find ourselves in, time traveling back to the simpler time of 2003 was an enjoyable distraction.

As the HyperEdit 1.x versions stood the test of time for 16 years, I am hopeful Whisk will also be built to last.

Get the Tumult Whisk fully-functional 14-day trial.