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The creator of Sublime Text tends to go silent for long periods between stretches of activity, which always makes me wonder about the future of the project. It'

by klum 9y ago

The creator of Sublime Text tends to go silent for long periods between stretches of activity, which always makes me wonder about the future of the project. It's a shame, since ST is a well-thought-out editor with great attention to detail, and of course the speed argument (compared to Atom and VS Code), while beaten to death, still holds true. Of course, it's up to the author himself to choose how he communicates, most likely the current method is working out just fine for him :). And the editor works very well, and the updates eventually return. Just saying that some occasional communication regarding the future of the project, or the current development model ("I spend half the year perpetually wasted in Ibiza, radio silence expected"), would be nice!

wbond 9y ago
I've been very active on the forum, Discord, IRC and the Packages repo on GitHub. I don't think the stereotype of Sublime HQ being radio silent holds true any longer. We don't, however, make blog posts or tweets saying "we're still working on the next build." However, whenever anyone asks on the forum (twitter, etc) I'll be happy to tell you we are still working on the next build! :-)
- coldtea 9y ago
  >I've been very active on the forum, Discord, IRC and the Packages repo on GitHub. I don't think the stereotype of Sublime HQ being radio silent holds true any longer. Yeah, it's the blog posts/tweets stuff that might be needed. Because most devs don't bother checking the forums (much less irc). In fact, and this is 100% true, I just spoke to a guy in the next office asked him enthusiastically "did you get the new ST update?", and he looked at me quizzically: apparently he still uses ST2 (which has bought 2 years ago or so) and didn't even know there was a ST3 out at all. (which motivated me to post this thread on HN)
  - nasmorn 9y ago
    What this is already the release build?
    - coldtea 9y ago
      Not sure what you're asking. If you mean if this is a major release, then no. It's a new dev build for the ST 3 series. It is however "major" in features.
  - SippinLean 9y ago
    Your co-worker is technically correct, the last release of ST was version 2 in Sept 2016.
    - coldtea 9y ago
      That's the worse kind of correct. Have been using ST3 trouble-free for 2+ years, and all new development happens there anyway.
  - jrochkind1 9y ago
    The ST page _still_ says "Sublime Text 3 is currently in beta. ". This leads the cautious and uninitiated user to install ST2 instead. I used ST2 for years after everyone else was using ST3, before I realized that ST3 was basically what everyone else is using -- which I mostly only realized as more and more packages were available only for ST3 and not ST2. I have no idea why the author still calls ST3 beta, but I am curious.
- klum 9y ago
  Thanks for the reply! I'm sure you're right about the stereotype not holding true, I haven't really been following things closely. I also understand that time spent convincing people all over the internet that you're still working on the next build may be better spent... well, working on the next build :)! What I had in mind was more along the lines of "what's happening to Sublime Text in the long term", though that may not even be relevant.
  - tedmiston 9y ago
    If there is a public roadmap, that would be nice to see.
- doktrin 9y ago
  > We don't, however, make blog posts or tweets saying "we're still working on the next build." Why not? I think it would definitely be in ST's best interest to be more engaged with the community. It's only natural for users to worry that ST will go the way of TM, and nipping those concerns in the bud seems to make eminent business sense.
- icc97 9y ago
  Ignoring all the other rather skeptical replies, thanks for all the work you're doing! It's the most beautiful of all the editors I've used and works perfectly across all platforms. I don't even really see the problem with the demand for new updates. If ST3 stopped now, it's still got an awesome set of plugins and it will remain an awesome editor. I had one issue with a recent release, that was answered quickly via the Github and dealt with in a day or so. So I can verify that @wbond is true with what he says.
kowdermeister 9y ago
Total Commander isn't updated for a long time now and still one of the most useful windows file manager out there. With ST we see slow but constant development, personally I don't care if the author is not a Twitter addict.
- tmottabr 9y ago
  Total Commander released version 9 last dec, the first beta for version 9 was available a few months before in june. The previous version before that was 8.52 that was released in Sep 2015, so less them a year between the last two released. This hardly count as not updated for a long time.
  - kowdermeister 9y ago
    Oh, my bad. I never noticed it was updated for a long time. Probably the lack of online checks.
    - tmottabr 9y ago
      Just saw that version 9 have automatic online check, its default is disabled, but when you check for updates the first time (in the help menu) it will offer to do it automatically.
- ivanche 9y ago
  4 months is a "long time" nowadays?
  - enraged_camel 9y ago
    In this day and age, I think 4 months is pretty long, yeah. But that's just my personal opinion. I think Chrome and Firefox has the right idea, with updates every 6 weeks.
    - coldtea 9y ago
      >In this day and age, I think 4 months is pretty long, yeah. Most commercial desktop software, and even web services like Gmail, go on for years on end without an update. Browsers are always adding crap (like Firefox's nth cosmetic update), they should be stabler too. Once every 6 months or so at worst.
__roland__ 9y ago
Instead of writing blog posts as a vital sign, maybe it would help to offer some regularly updated pre-defined "bundles" of ST together with package sets for a certain audience (JS/TS/Python developer, etc.). Many packages have a higher update frequency, so even when there is no new ST build it would make sense to also update such bundles on a more regular basis (I know packages are updated automatically -- but this would give a better impression regarding the activity and the size of the ST community for new users). I imagine the introduction of something like "Sublime Text distros" in package control, which would provide ST users something akin to the different Eclipse flavors (or the various .vimrc settings available online) could be quite useful. While the package control setup is already pretty straightforward, it is still rather confusing for new users that they have to manually install such a 'basic' feature (and Atom, for example, is much more polished in that regard).
- evook 9y ago
  > While the package control setup is already pretty straightforward, it is still rather confusing for new users that they have to manually install such a 'basic' feature If that confuses you, why bother trying to code at all?
  - jamesgeck0 9y ago
    By that logic, it's not worth bothering to improve the usability of any dev tools.
  - quadrupleslap 9y ago
    Yes, it's simple, but it's on almost every installation of Sublime Text, and moreover, package management is a baseline expectation in modern editors, so having it built-in makes a lot of sense.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- morinted 9y ago
  There's a command to "install package control" with the newer versions of ST3 that doesn't require manually copying and pasting a script into the console. It's a big improvement and still allows users who don't want package control to not have it.
ndh2 9y ago
That is exactly the reason why I haven't bought a license yet. I consider the license an investment in Sublime's future. Since I don't have to pay, buying a license is more of a donation in order to show support. But the communication seems a bit too sparse/erratic for me to have much trust in this project. The time spans between updates, blog posts, or even tweets are simply way too long. I also consider the existence of http://docs.sublimetext.info http://docs.sublimetext.info a bad sign. The way I perceive this: At some point, an enthusiastic user was so fed up with the sub-par documentation that they decided to take matters into their own hands, and create a better documentation. But instead of working with the community, the Sublime project people/person just... did nothing? Was there any communication? I don't know. Why not provide the documentation on github and accept PRs? The Sublime project should push for docs.sublimetext.info to be merged into the official documentation. Same with https://github.com/SublimeTextIssues/Core/issues https://github.com/SublimeTextIssues/Core/issues. Why is the bug tracker "community run"? What does that even mean, considering the "community" can't fix any bugs? I absolutely cannot understand why the author of the software doesn't seem to participate at all in the bug tracker. Here's a quote from https://github.com/SublimeTextIssues/Core/issues/594 https://github.com/SublimeTextIssues/Core/issues/594 (from 2014, so I don't know whether it is still true) > Unfortunately, the only thing I can say is it'll get fixed if Jon Skinner sees it as a big enough priority. Our intent in creating this unofficial Issues page was to have a curated place where known issues can be collected together and triaged, and he can use it as he sees fit to fix bugs in upcoming releases. Without a more direct feedback mechanism, this is the best we can do, at the moment. What I'd also like to see is a road map for the future with regular (2-4 weeks) status updates.
- criddell 9y ago
  > The time spans between updates, blog posts, or even tweets are simply way too long. Is there a lot that you think ST still needs? As long as bugs are fixed, I'm happy with the functionality of the software today. The software feels done to me.
  - jhasse 9y ago
    Integrated debugger similar to VSCode.
helthanatos 9y ago
What speed differences are there in ST compared to VScode? I only open small projects in them, but I don't notice any difference between them.

by klum 9y ago

wbond 9y ago

I've been very active on the forum, Discord, IRC and the Packages repo on GitHub. I don't think the stereotype of Sublime HQ being radio silent holds true any longer. We don't, however, make blog posts or tweets saying "we're still working on the next build." However, whenever anyone asks on the forum (twitter, etc) I'll be happy to tell you we are still working on the next build! :-)

coldtea 9y ago
>I've been very active on the forum, Discord, IRC and the Packages repo on GitHub. I don't think the stereotype of Sublime HQ being radio silent holds true any longer. Yeah, it's the blog posts/tweets stuff that might be needed. Because most devs don't bother checking the forums (much less irc). In fact, and this is 100% true, I just spoke to a guy in the next office asked him enthusiastically "did you get the new ST update?", and he looked at me quizzically: apparently he still uses ST2 (which has bought 2 years ago or so) and didn't even know there was a ST3 out at all. (which motivated me to post this thread on HN)
- nasmorn 9y ago
  What this is already the release build?
  - coldtea 9y ago
    Not sure what you're asking. If you mean if this is a major release, then no. It's a new dev build for the ST 3 series. It is however "major" in features.
- SippinLean 9y ago
  Your co-worker is technically correct, the last release of ST was version 2 in Sept 2016.
  - coldtea 9y ago
    That's the worse kind of correct. Have been using ST3 trouble-free for 2+ years, and all new development happens there anyway.
- jrochkind1 9y ago
  The ST page _still_ says "Sublime Text 3 is currently in beta. ". This leads the cautious and uninitiated user to install ST2 instead. I used ST2 for years after everyone else was using ST3, before I realized that ST3 was basically what everyone else is using -- which I mostly only realized as more and more packages were available only for ST3 and not ST2. I have no idea why the author still calls ST3 beta, but I am curious.
klum 9y ago
Thanks for the reply! I'm sure you're right about the stereotype not holding true, I haven't really been following things closely. I also understand that time spent convincing people all over the internet that you're still working on the next build may be better spent... well, working on the next build :)! What I had in mind was more along the lines of "what's happening to Sublime Text in the long term", though that may not even be relevant.
- tedmiston 9y ago
  If there is a public roadmap, that would be nice to see.
doktrin 9y ago
> We don't, however, make blog posts or tweets saying "we're still working on the next build." Why not? I think it would definitely be in ST's best interest to be more engaged with the community. It's only natural for users to worry that ST will go the way of TM, and nipping those concerns in the bud seems to make eminent business sense.
icc97 9y ago
Ignoring all the other rather skeptical replies, thanks for all the work you're doing! It's the most beautiful of all the editors I've used and works perfectly across all platforms. I don't even really see the problem with the demand for new updates. If ST3 stopped now, it's still got an awesome set of plugins and it will remain an awesome editor. I had one issue with a recent release, that was answered quickly via the Github and dealt with in a day or so. So I can verify that @wbond is true with what he says.

kowdermeister 9y ago

Total Commander isn't updated for a long time now and still one of the most useful windows file manager out there. With ST we see slow but constant development, personally I don't care if the author is not a Twitter addict.

tmottabr 9y ago
Total Commander released version 9 last dec, the first beta for version 9 was available a few months before in june. The previous version before that was 8.52 that was released in Sep 2015, so less them a year between the last two released. This hardly count as not updated for a long time.
- kowdermeister 9y ago
  Oh, my bad. I never noticed it was updated for a long time. Probably the lack of online checks.
  - tmottabr 9y ago
    Just saw that version 9 have automatic online check, its default is disabled, but when you check for updates the first time (in the help menu) it will offer to do it automatically.
ivanche 9y ago
4 months is a "long time" nowadays?
- enraged_camel 9y ago
  In this day and age, I think 4 months is pretty long, yeah. But that's just my personal opinion. I think Chrome and Firefox has the right idea, with updates every 6 weeks.
  - coldtea 9y ago
    >In this day and age, I think 4 months is pretty long, yeah. Most commercial desktop software, and even web services like Gmail, go on for years on end without an update. Browsers are always adding crap (like Firefox's nth cosmetic update), they should be stabler too. Once every 6 months or so at worst.

__roland__ 9y ago

Instead of writing blog posts as a vital sign, maybe it would help to offer some regularly updated pre-defined "bundles" of ST together with package sets for a certain audience (JS/TS/Python developer, etc.). Many packages have a higher update frequency, so even when there is no new ST build it would make sense to also update such bundles on a more regular basis (I know packages are updated automatically -- but this would give a better impression regarding the activity and the size of the ST community for new users). I imagine the introduction of something like "Sublime Text distros" in package control, which would provide ST users something akin to the different Eclipse flavors (or the various .vimrc settings available online) could be quite useful. While the package control setup is already pretty straightforward, it is still rather confusing for new users that they have to manually install such a 'basic' feature (and Atom, for example, is much more polished in that regard).

evook 9y ago
> While the package control setup is already pretty straightforward, it is still rather confusing for new users that they have to manually install such a 'basic' feature If that confuses you, why bother trying to code at all?
- jamesgeck0 9y ago
  By that logic, it's not worth bothering to improve the usability of any dev tools.
- quadrupleslap 9y ago
  Yes, it's simple, but it's on almost every installation of Sublime Text, and moreover, package management is a baseline expectation in modern editors, so having it built-in makes a lot of sense.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
morinted 9y ago
There's a command to "install package control" with the newer versions of ST3 that doesn't require manually copying and pasting a script into the console. It's a big improvement and still allows users who don't want package control to not have it.

ndh2 9y ago

That is exactly the reason why I haven't bought a license yet. I consider the license an investment in Sublime's future. Since I don't have to pay, buying a license is more of a donation in order to show support. But the communication seems a bit too sparse/erratic for me to have much trust in this project. The time spans between updates, blog posts, or even tweets are simply way too long. I also consider the existence of http://docs.sublimetext.info http://docs.sublimetext.info a bad sign. The way I perceive this: At some point, an enthusiastic user was so fed up with the sub-par documentation that they decided to take matters into their own hands, and create a better documentation. But instead of working with the community, the Sublime project people/person just... did nothing? Was there any communication? I don't know. Why not provide the documentation on github and accept PRs? The Sublime project should push for docs.sublimetext.info to be merged into the official documentation. Same with https://github.com/SublimeTextIssues/Core/issues https://github.com/SublimeTextIssues/Core/issues. Why is the bug tracker "community run"? What does that even mean, considering the "community" can't fix any bugs? I absolutely cannot understand why the author of the software doesn't seem to participate at all in the bug tracker. Here's a quote from https://github.com/SublimeTextIssues/Core/issues/594 https://github.com/SublimeTextIssues/Core/issues/594 (from 2014, so I don't know whether it is still true) > Unfortunately, the only thing I can say is it'll get fixed if Jon Skinner sees it as a big enough priority. Our intent in creating this unofficial Issues page was to have a curated place where known issues can be collected together and triaged, and he can use it as he sees fit to fix bugs in upcoming releases. Without a more direct feedback mechanism, this is the best we can do, at the moment. What I'd also like to see is a road map for the future with regular (2-4 weeks) status updates.

criddell 9y ago
> The time spans between updates, blog posts, or even tweets are simply way too long. Is there a lot that you think ST still needs? As long as bugs are fixed, I'm happy with the functionality of the software today. The software feels done to me.
- jhasse 9y ago
  Integrated debugger similar to VSCode.

helthanatos 9y ago

What speed differences are there in ST compared to VScode? I only open small projects in them, but I don't notice any difference between them.