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Honest question here: I was a user of Textmate for Mac for years. I'm not a web developer, so I just needed it as a programming text editor. But it wasn't upda

Honest question here: I was a user of Textmate for Mac for years. I'm not a web developer, so I just needed it as a programming text editor. But it wasn't updated for, like, a decade. Then I discovered Atom. I know a lot of people who don't like Electron apps, but honestly, it's been fabulous for me. At this point is there any reason to go back to a paid text editor like Coda or TextMate?

chipotle_coyote 7y ago
This may come across as glib, but the answer is "if you like the paid text editor more." If you're being paid to program, you're probably making enough money that the cost of the editor isn't a meaningful issue -- so you can judge on the functionality, the ecosystem, and the perceived future. I've bounced back and forth for years post-TextMate between Sublime Text, Atom, VS Code, and most recently MacVim. (Every year or two I really try to make Emacs and Vim work for me out of some sense of principle; so far neither one has really stuck, although counterintuitively Vim comes closer. Yes, I've tried Spacemacs, people, don't @ me.) But what I actually get paid to do is documentation work: huge trees of Markdown files we treat like source code. And for reasons that I'd have to spend a lot of time trying to elucidate, BBEdit just works better, for me, for that purpose than anything else I've tried. Paying for it and keeping it up to date is absolutely worth it for me. When it comes to programming, including web development, this gets to be a murkier question for me personally -- but I could absolutely see someone who's learned the ins and outs of their favorite editor just sticking with it through thick and thin. TextMate certainly seemed like it was going to go to the great editor farm in the sky for a while, but it's still actively being developed (as GPL 3 software, no less).
ridiculous_fish 7y ago
I am excited about Nova. It's such a pleasure to use a real Mac app whose UI is fast, consistent, and predictable.
whywhywhywhy 7y ago
> I was a user of Textmate for Mac for years .... But it wasn't updated for, like, a decade Still a Textmate user, it was updated 16 days ago. Honestly I'm so close to moving full time to Windows on all machines for performance reasons, Textmate is the only reason I use a MBP for my laptop.
- GlenTheMachine 7y ago
  It’s good that they’re updating it again. I stopped using it about two years ago.

chipotle_coyote 7y ago

This may come across as glib, but the answer is "if you like the paid text editor more." If you're being paid to program, you're probably making enough money that the cost of the editor isn't a meaningful issue -- so you can judge on the functionality, the ecosystem, and the perceived future. I've bounced back and forth for years post-TextMate between Sublime Text, Atom, VS Code, and most recently MacVim. (Every year or two I really try to make Emacs and Vim work for me out of some sense of principle; so far neither one has really stuck, although counterintuitively Vim comes closer. Yes, I've tried Spacemacs, people, don't @ me.) But what I actually get paid to do is documentation work: huge trees of Markdown files we treat like source code. And for reasons that I'd have to spend a lot of time trying to elucidate, BBEdit just works better, for me, for that purpose than anything else I've tried. Paying for it and keeping it up to date is absolutely worth it for me. When it comes to programming, including web development, this gets to be a murkier question for me personally -- but I could absolutely see someone who's learned the ins and outs of their favorite editor just sticking with it through thick and thin. TextMate certainly seemed like it was going to go to the great editor farm in the sky for a while, but it's still actively being developed (as GPL 3 software, no less).

ridiculous_fish 7y ago

I am excited about Nova. It's such a pleasure to use a real Mac app whose UI is fast, consistent, and predictable.

whywhywhywhy 7y ago

> I was a user of Textmate for Mac for years .... But it wasn't updated for, like, a decade Still a Textmate user, it was updated 16 days ago. Honestly I'm so close to moving full time to Windows on all machines for performance reasons, Textmate is the only reason I use a MBP for my laptop.

GlenTheMachine 7y ago
It’s good that they’re updating it again. I stopped using it about two years ago.