3 ms·

> I think Sublime HQ showed that making a multiplatform editor is not much more difficult, but hey... The developers of Sublime have a different view on that:

> I think Sublime HQ showed that making a multiplatform editor is not much more difficult, but hey... The developers of Sublime have a different view on that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29638810 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29638810

saagarjha 5y ago
Indeed. If you ever poke around in the app you’ll spot platform-specific code all over the place. Sublime Text is one of the rare non-native apps that spends time caring about each platform, which generally gives them a huge boost when it comes to adapting to the platform.
- KerrAvon 5y ago
  Your last sentence….. The macOS version is awfully not-Maclike in ways that matter and that you can’t fix with plugins (last I checked). They’re pretty far from a native Mac editing experience, and nothing about Sublime actually requires that divergence; TextMate 2 is still a much better native-feeling experience. Edit: that said, I’ve now realized it’s been at least three years since I tried Sublime, so this could be improved?
  - saagarjha 5y ago
    I mean I know it doesn't look very Mac-like but text editing matches native controls almost 100%, and they put in at least minimal effort to make windows and state restoration and whatnot work correctly–it's far better than most other cross-platform apps. It's no TextMate, of course, but is there anything in particular that's bad aside from the UI?
stephc_int13 5y ago
I've done similar work (cross-platform toolkit) so I know that it is not trivial but doable. Sublime HQ is not a big company, if they can do it most companies can. I am pretty sure they are enjoying the payoff of the early decision of going cross-platform and using their own custom built toolkit. Also, you don't have to do everything from scratch, libraries like glfw are well maintained and can help a lot.

3 ms·

> I think Sublime HQ showed that making a multiplatform editor is not much more difficult, but hey... The developers of Sublime have a different view on that:

by shaicoleman 5y ago

saagarjha 5y ago
Indeed. If you ever poke around in the app you’ll spot platform-specific code all over the place. Sublime Text is one of the rare non-native apps that spends time caring about each platform, which generally gives them a huge boost when it comes to adapting to the platform.
- KerrAvon 5y ago
  Your last sentence….. The macOS version is awfully not-Maclike in ways that matter and that you can’t fix with plugins (last I checked). They’re pretty far from a native Mac editing experience, and nothing about Sublime actually requires that divergence; TextMate 2 is still a much better native-feeling experience. Edit: that said, I’ve now realized it’s been at least three years since I tried Sublime, so this could be improved?
  - saagarjha 5y ago
    I mean I know it doesn't look very Mac-like but text editing matches native controls almost 100%, and they put in at least minimal effort to make windows and state restoration and whatnot work correctly–it's far better than most other cross-platform apps. It's no TextMate, of course, but is there anything in particular that's bad aside from the UI?
stephc_int13 5y ago
I've done similar work (cross-platform toolkit) so I know that it is not trivial but doable. Sublime HQ is not a big company, if they can do it most companies can. I am pretty sure they are enjoying the payoff of the early decision of going cross-platform and using their own custom built toolkit. Also, you don't have to do everything from scratch, libraries like glfw are well maintained and can help a lot.