> I know it's been popular a long time That alone may explain part of it. BBEdit was on the Macs I used in school back in the 1990s; the keybindings haven't c

> I know it's been popular a long time That alone may explain part of it. BBEdit was on the Macs I used in school back in the 1990s; the keybindings haven't changed since. It carries forward as an institution in the Mac world, like vi or emacs, with many users using it primarily because it's what they already know. Also, a limited version of it (what I first used!) was available for free for many years. Back when free GUI editors were rare, particularly on the Mac. Shareware-style distribution advantage there.