10 ms·

It's software like Sublime that sustains my faith in the software industry and why I'm still a developer. It's beautiful, efficient software that single-handed

• k__ 5y ago
  At least the technolgy of those "shit, low quality side show SaaS apps and mobile" allowed people to build apps that wouldn't be able to do so before.
• kwanbix 5y ago
  I tried Sublime text and I really like it. But I have been a user of UltraEdit for many many years (maybe 20?) and I still find it much more natural to use. I found it while looking for an editor to replace Semware's Qedit (DOS). I wonder why UltraEdit has not much love here. I do find Sublime's price much better than UltraEdit.
  • choicenotchance 5y ago
    Never heard of UltraEdit in 10yrs of my career, or came across it when searching for editors and IDEs.
    • frou_dh 5y ago
      Just wait until 2030+ and then you may be the metaphorical boomer sticking with software no one else has heard of!
      • copperx 5y ago
        I mean, Emacs is a bit like that. Newer text editors and Vim captured all of the younger generation. I haven't met anyone using Emacs as their daily driver, except professors.
    • kwanbix 5y ago
      That is what I wonder, UltraEdit is really nice. I have no relation to them by the way, latest version that I own is 26 something. While the latest release is 28 something. Maybe it is because 28 years ago, when it first released, internet was just starting. Sublime is "only" 13 years old, so internet was already very much mainstream. But it is really good. Very fast. I love the column mode. If I search for UltraEdit in HN, the latest post if from 10 years ago, when they announced the Mac version: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2019148 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2019148 Crazy.
      • rattray 5y ago
        That's incredible. From the website it looks like a Windows-oriented tool. If it weren't for your product I wouldn't have even guessed they had a Mac version. I bet they'd do much better with adoption if they customized their homepage screenshots to the platform viewing the page… For others curious about Column Mode, here's their link with a nice video: https://www.ultraedit.com/support/tutorials-power-tips/ultraedit/column-mode.html https://www.ultraedit.com/support/tutorials-power-tips/ultra... Apparently in VS Code you can do similar things: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/codebasics#_column-box-selection https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/codebasics#_column... 1. Hold ⇧⌥ and drag for box select. 2. Press ⇧⌥⌘↓ for "column select down" 3. Run "Toggle column selection mode" and ⇧↓. (Still looks like UltraEdit has some very powerful features for manipulating text in columns, like aligning whitespace). TIL. Looks great!
        • kwanbix 5y ago
          It could be because they started as a Windows only product, then they produced a Linux version, and finally the Mac version. I have only used the Windows/Linux versions. By the way, with one license you can use all 3 platforms. I actually use the Portable Windows version, for when the company I work for won't allow me to install software :)
          • erwincoumans 5y ago
            Indeed, I purchased a perpetual Ultraedit license for Windows, Mac and Linux many years ago. I like the hex editing, huge file support, column editing.
    • free652 5y ago
      I used ultraedit like 15 years ago, but switched to notepad++. I think due to performance problems. I don't like sublime3, too much tinkering via a command line.
      • kwanbix 5y ago
        Yeah, notepad++. I also tried it. The price was better (free), but it lacked column mode, "reformat paragraph" (it basically takes separate lines and makes it into a paragraph), and trim trailing spaces, at least when I tested it, which I used a lot.
        • ableal 5y ago
          Column mode and trim spaces have existed in notepad++ for years, but may be a bit hard to find. I just checked, and that may have improved: both are on the Edit menu, bottom half.
          • kwanbix 5y ago
            Yes, I couldn't find at the time how to use them. I am talking again probable 15 or 20 years ago, so it might have been version 0.1 of N++.
    • quickthrower2 5y ago
      I remember using it in 1999 it was outstanding compared to what else was available on windows and I’m not a vim/emacs kinda person. Might give it another try
    • thebrain 5y ago
      You've probably never needed to work with really large files or edit/examine a fie in HEX, it really shines for these use cases. It's not really an IDE and I've never used it to write code.
    • ok123456 5y ago
      UltraEdit was the best editor for Windows in the late 90s early 2000s. I remember asking my boss for it. The niche it filled was surpassed by Notepad++ and other free tools.
  • fouc 5y ago
    I think a lot of developers on macosx were using Textmate before they switched to Sublime Text
    • nobleach 5y ago
      Yup, this was my exact experience. In Windows land, I used whatever IDE was built for whatever language I was using (Turbo Pascal, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual FoxPro, Borland Delphi) When I started doing web, it was all Notepad++ and BBEdit, Dreamweaver. Then I found Textmate. It was so perfect. Having no Windows version was so upsetting. When Sublime showed up, I was so happy. I had always used Vim in my IT career though, so once I started learning how to make that work for more than editing config files, that became my daily driver.
  • globular-toast 5y ago
    UltraEdit is probably the best text editor there is. Not the best IDE or anything, just the best text editor. It seems thoroughly underappreciated, though, for some reason. It's the only editor I'm aware of that can do do disk-based editing, that is you can open a file of multiple gigabytes quickly and edit it because it doesn't load the whole file into RAM.
    • rjzzleep 5y ago
      Another underappreciated editor is visual slickedit[1] It will happily allow you to edit TB large files [1] https://www.slickedit.com/ https://www.slickedit.com/
      • rstupek 5y ago
        I've used slickedit for at least 20 years on windows. It's definitely a good editor as well
    • quickthrower2 5y ago
      That’s pretty cool. I use vim for this particular need and it’s quick to search through big files too
      • istjohn 5y ago
        Really? I've found Vim slows to a crawl on multi-GB files. Maybe that's changed recently or it was down to the plug-ins I was using?
        • ok123456 5y ago
          It's probably from creating a backup copy. Compare performance when invoking 'view' instead of 'vim'. It could be from your plugins if they're doing something goofy.
        • quickthrower2 5y ago
          I use vim out of the box with no plugins and on windows. Not sure if that makes a difference. I’m also typically not editing the file but searching logs.
  • JaggerJo 5y ago
    > I wonder why UltraEdit has not much love here. Just from looking at the screenshots on their site I wouldn't install it (because of it's ugly UI).
    • kwanbix 5y ago
      The UI is pretty configurable. You can use Menus, Menus with toolbars, or Menus with Ribbon. I use it only with menus.
    • Al-Khwarizmi 5y ago
      First thing I do when installing it is to turn off the ribbon and set it to the good old menu-based UI. Which of course, might be "ugly" for you as well.
  • biztos 5y ago
    I used UltraEdit a million years ago and I think it’s just a matter of familiarity. I remember being unable to go back to BBEdit when I switched back to Mac from Windows, I was so tuned in to UE’s power features. When I tried Sublime 2 I wanted to like it but it just felt weird, so I went back to… TextMate, which probably feels weird to other (especially younger) people. But I’d been using TextMate forever and had a lot of things integrated with my shell so that was my “normal.” I’ll give Sublime another try though: I want their business model to work, I love that they’re cross platform, and the plug-in API looks pretty nice now that I’ve done a bunch of Python work.
  • twh270 5y ago
    QEdit on DOS... now that brings back some memories! I went in for their flagship TSE (The Semware Editor) when it came out and was duly impressed. I have used Notepad++ as my regular non-IDE editor for probably 15 years; there are a handful of (semi-)unique features that I really appreciate. I'm guessing UltraEdit keeps its user base for similar reasons.
    • mrspuratic 5y ago
      A long time ago... used it a lot in 80x50 line text mode, lightening fast, good macro and configuration options (ISTR a separate tool to "reconfigure" the main binary). Had many of the same default bindings as the Borland IDEs, handy since the TurboC IDE used to run out of steam around 1000 loc or so, that's when I learned Makefiles. Never took to TSE, sequence of bad experiences with stability.
  • pkphilip 5y ago
    Then there is SlickEdit which has been around for decades as well. I wonder how they are able to continue to be in business with all of the editors such as Visual Studio Code being available for free. https://www.slickedit.com/ https://www.slickedit.com/
    • paulryanrogers 5y ago
      Good question. I tried it for an embedded project and it didn't strike me as anything special. It could also be there are some great features hiding there that polyglots will never have the time to explore.
    • GiorgioG 5y ago
      I still have my original SlickEdit installation CD from long long ago. As far as how they can continue to be in business, easy - corporate maintenance licenses...
  • BunsanSpace 5y ago
    my work makes us use UltraEdit (custom langauge) and frankly I hated it so much I wrote a custom language plugin for sublime my self so I could switch back. UltraEdit just feels like it's stuck 10 years in the past.
    • kwanbix 5y ago
      In what way? I have used Sublime2 and 3, which might feel faster, VS Editor (I think is the name), much heavier, and Atom I think is the other. Never felt "wow, this is the future".
      • BunsanSpace 5y ago
        UltraEdit is clunky, the UI is very dated and the fonts are not well rendered. It's not fast and has a large lack of theme support (there's no solarized theme for it, which is industry standard at this point). I just didn't like it and would rather use a more modern editor, e.g. sublime. Only took a day or two to write the required plugins to get our language support for it.
        • kwanbix 5y ago
          I cannot disagree more with all that omyou said. The UI can be whatever you want. It has themes, and I understand you can create your own. I don't see how sublime is more modern. For me are very similar.
  • Al-Khwarizmi 5y ago
    Another long-time UltraEdit user here. I love it in general, but in particular there's one feature that I can't do without: column mode. I don't understand why other editors haven't copied it (at least to my knowledge. If you know any other that has it, I'd like to know). For those of us that often work with CSV-like formats, it's a real time saver. It's also better behaved for huge files than any other editor I've tried.
    • slim 5y ago
      What is column mode?
      • hunter2_ 5y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27232874 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27232874
    • LegionMammal978 5y ago
      I've been using ST3 for the past few years, and I have a go-to keyboard sequence for a column mode equivalent: Select the entire block, press Ctrl+Shift+L to split the selection into individual lines, press Home to create a cursor at the start of each line, and use the right arrow to navigate the cursor to the desired column. (You can also edit the end of each line by pressing End, move by entire words with Ctrl+Left or Right, and so on.)
    • gavinray 5y ago
      VS Code has column mode
    • adrian_b 5y ago
      Column-mode in editors comes from ancient history. The BRIEF editor for MS-DOS, intended to be a "Programmer's Editor", some time before 1990, already included column mode and many other features that few editors have today.
    • ybbond 5y ago
      FWIW Sublime Text do have "multi cursor editing" mode that can do some basic column mode editing. Add to that vi keybindings to ST, and you can get better and faster "column mode-like" editing.
  • calvin_ 5y ago
    Windows based editors are a dying breed. The Unix and web-based editors have sucked the oxygen out of the room.
  • robdelacruz 5y ago
    Back then I loved UltraEdit. It was the fastest editor at the time and could open even the most humongous files. Since then, I've used notepad2 for quick editing. And even for coding. Really loved notepad2. It could only edit one file at a time but that was part of its charm. I would have multiple notepad2 files open while coding. Back in the DOS days I used Brief, Multi-Edit (syntax highlighting!!) and the Borland SideKick TSR notepad, remember that? Nowadays on Linux, I code and write everything on Vim. Can't live without it. Cured my carpal tunnel too because I don't have to move my fingers to use the arrow keys or mouse.
  • sigzero 5y ago
    I have UltraEdit. It's okay. The wordfiles are woefully anemic to define languages. The snippet system as well. It really needs a revamp. Also, the MacOS version IS different from the Windows version. ST is the same on both platforms and that is important to me.
  • rajandatta 5y ago
    Same here! Made the journey from QEdit to Vim to UltraEdit to Notepad++. These days I'm dabbling in Emacs and Notepad++. Emacs for Org-mode - arguably the most revelatory single piece of software I've seen in 40 years of working with Software. Notepad++ is a safety crutch that I haven't let go. Visual Code is OK. Not exciting though lots of respect for it. UtlraEdit's smoothness, speed and polish are highly commendable. Just don't have the need to spend on the annual licensing for it.
• postit 5y ago
  I don't use sublime on my day to day, but I'm always happy to purchase their new licese when a new version ships for this reason.
  • ctf1er 5y ago
    I buy mostly nothing, use ms alternatives like libre office, blender, gimp, resolve, darktable, etc, but sublime text has been a fantastic lightweight ide, like a notepad++ or gedit. Even when other big companies are coming out with nice free smaller than before apps, I'm happy to have bought sublime. I find I can use many editors at the same time for different uses to separate my minutia.
  • dvdyzag 5y ago
    Version 4 accepted my version 3 license purchased in january 2019. Yay me!
    • mobilemidget 5y ago
      Yes accepts a max 3 year old v3 license. Mine is 8 and been worth it, just not another 70$ now that I’m force learning myself vi :-) 3 will remain fine for the quick things I want it to do
• popotamonga 5y ago
  All nice i use it a lot but why does it take way too many seconds to open large files? And its not the cpu i have top cpu ram and ssds.
  • jffry 5y ago
    A plausible explanation is that it's doing some kind of preprocessing of the file into a data structure that allows for faster or more responsive scrolling and editing of huge files. For example a rope or similar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(data_structure) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(data_structure)
• catillac 5y ago
  I don’t use sublime in my day to day, but always keep it on hand because it’s the only IDE that quickly opens for viewing very large csv or similar files without a hitch. PyCharm, VSCode, Aton all barf under these conditions.
  • xkuhg 5y ago
    It's not an IDE, it's a text editor
  • softawre 5y ago
    Sublime will barf if the file gets big enough too. In that case use something like HxD
    • mroche 5y ago
      How big of a file are we talking? I've had to open multi-gig Maya ASCII flies before to find broken nodes and Sublime was always my go to solution. Scrolling performance takes a hit, and the file can take some time to open, but overall works reasonably well.
  • enahs-sf 5y ago
    For these instances I just use vim or sed/awk/etc.
    • dharmab 5y ago
      Sublime easily handles files that make my Vim slow to a crawl. Agreed on using sed/awk/(rip)grep/other pipeline tools where it makes sense.
      • You_All_R_Cunts 5y ago
        Vim is for skunks.
  • yingbo 5y ago
    Just for the speed of large file, on macOS, I find the BBEdit is great too. The basic functions of BBEdit can be used for free even.
• flobosg 5y ago
  Craig Mod puts Sublime Text in the “fast software” category: https://craigmod.com/essays/fast_software/ https://craigmod.com/essays/fast_software/ > (…) Sublime Text has — in my experience — only gotten faster. I love software that does this: Software that unbloats over time. This should be the goal of all software. The longer it’s around, the more elegant it should become. Smooth over like a river stone. I have full trust in the engineering of Sublime Text because I’ve used it for over a decade, but also because it always feels like a fast, focused tool (even though it’s actually very complicated) and has only become faster the longer I’ve used it. The whole essay is a nice read. EDIT: Something else I wanted to add: I’ve tried other programs (file managers, for instance) that attempt to emulate Sublime Text both in interface (keyboard-driven, command palette, etc.) and speed, but they mostly manage to hit the former while blowing the latter. Fast software is hard!
  • aikinai 5y ago
    This is a great essay! Completely agree with all of his points and really wish well-crafted software got more respect.
• racl101 5y ago
  I love me my Sublime. I like an editor that's fast enough, isn't bloated and isn't Vim. Don't always need the IDE. And although I can use Vim, I'm just not as efficient with it to use it 100% of the time. I learned a little to be able to work on remote servers but that's all I need. I can use a GUI editor like Sublime for the rest. Sublime is versatile.
  • dharmab 5y ago
    Before I switched entirely to Vim I used a remote editor plugin for Sublime that let me edit files over SSH. Didn't work for every case but was handy for editing webpages live on my dev server before the age of Vagrant and Docker.
• api 5y ago
  Desktop software is superior to web in virtually every way except: (1) Collaborative features and syncing are easier to build when all the data lives in the cloud. There are currently no easy ways to build collaborative decentralized apps that scale and perform well and don't lose data. The best compromise solution today is probably cloud syncing, which is the Apple approach and keeps most of the brains local while using the cloud as a cache and a relay... but that tends to lead toward more and more stuff going to the cloud over time. (2) The cloud is the only DRM that works. Cloud software can't be pirated because the user doesn't even have most of the software. At best the user gets the UI frontend in the form of obfuscated JavaScript or WASM. (3) Due to #2, it's possible to easily collect recurring payments. "Recurring revenue" is the holy grail of virtually all businesses. Some VCs don't even consider non-recurring revenue in valuing a startup company. If your company collects $1M in one-time licenses and $100/month in subscriptions, some investors will literally chalk you up as having $100/month MRR. (4) Cloud SaaS is a political loophole around free-as-in-beer ideology. The "information wants to be free" ideology tends to poo-poo commercial software and insist on the freedom to pirate everything, but cloud SaaS gets a free pass. Even better: with cloud SaaS you can use FOSS software without giving anything back! ... unless the license is AGPL, BSL, or Commons Clause, but those are not "true" FOSS licenses according to the FSF. (The AGPL sort of is, but it's also not strong enough to really prevent SaaSification.) (5) Last but not least: shipping software sucks, especially on Windows. The Windows MSI installation subsystem is a horror from the deepest smoldering pit of hell. Be sure your company offers mental health benefits for PTSD treatment if you have to ask an engineer to deal with it. Mac and Linux are a little better but they are collectively only about 1/4 of the desktop market. The web offers a zero-friction "install" process that makes adoption and updates seamless and easy. If those problems can be addressed, we can see a renaissance for real software that serves the user and doesn't have 100+ms latency for every action.
  • fouric 5y ago
    I don't think that (1) is true at all - you have the same problems in building a collaborative application using a web app as you would desktop software (e.g. let's say that you want to do multi-user real-time collaboration - you're going to need to use CRDTs no matter if you're writing C++ or JavaScript). (2), (3), and (4) are true (they're why I've stopped making my tools available to others), although from a business sense, which is separate from a pure quality sense. (5) can be addressed with some basic tooling and meta-tooling. I don't think that these are that hard - and, more importantly, the web has a complementary problem, which is that you have to do a lot of engineering to get things you get for free on desktop (most notably, persistence - compare the ease of setting up a database service for your cloud app with just writing to a file on desktop).
• pdpi 5y ago
  Their Git client (Sublime Merge) is the first graphical git tool I've felt happy with.
  • rolleiflex 5y ago
    I took a bet on Sublime Merge with some amount of skepticism and boy it has paid off. After two years of using it, git sort of makes sense now.
  • ncann 5y ago
    Same. I've used a lot of git UI tools in the past (SourceTree, TortoiseGit, GitKraken, Tower, GitHub Desktop, SmartGit to name a few), but when I first tried out Sublime Merge I was blown away and never looked back. It was insanely fast. The UI makes sense and intuitive. Plus the killer feature which is customizable commands in every menu you can think of.