As someone who tinkers with web design and WordPress themes, I frequently re-use lots of code snippets. My development process involves a big amount of copying and pasting code from previous projects or references on the web. It’s getting to become a big headache tracking all these different code snippets so I was happy when I found Code Collector Pro by M Cubed Software.

Code Collector Pro is an application that stores code snippets for the Mac. Simple and functional, it does the job as advertised in a very Mac-like interface and would be a great tool for every programmer’s toolbox.

Code Collector Pro supports lots of different languages besides HTML and CSS which I usually work with, including OSX programming languages like Cocoa and AppleScript. It comes C, CSS, HTML, Java, Objective-C and PHP by default and allows you to install additional bundles which will give you support for additional languages and syntax highlighting. Yup, syntax highlighting is a standard and welcome feature when working with lots of code.

Other features include search, tagging, groups and smart groups (very useful!), customised syntax highlighting and exporting your code library to text files. Also, you can attach additional information to snippets in the library with the Snippet Info panel—great for neat freaks!

I must say that I really like Code Collector Pro. It stands out as one of the few applications in its class for the Mac. I originally had tried using wikis, junk drawer apps and even created a TextMate project just to store all my code snippets, but these alternatives fell short in categorisation and syntax highlighting and frankly were really kludgey.

Overall, Code Collector Pro is a great tool to have for programmers. I think it’s worth its price but additional features would justify the price further. It’s only in version 1.0 so I hope to see other features like clipboard integration to save me from manually copying and pasting my code, and maybe some versioning and .Mac backup. Also I would prefer if the Snippet Info panel would be integrated as a drawer instead of a floating panel.

Code Collector Pro has a demo limiting you to 30 snippets and 3 groups or you could also just use the non-Pro Code Collector. Code Collector Pro costs €20 (about USD27 or RM94.50) and is a Universal Binary requiring Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. You can purchase Code Collector Pro from M Cubed Software’s online store.