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It's a very dumb reason to stick with an editor, but I have trouble going back to Sublime after VSCode despite preferring most things about Sublime, because I a

It's a very dumb reason to stick with an editor, but I have trouble going back to Sublime after VSCode despite preferring most things about Sublime, because I always forget how to manage packages using Sublime's command prompt and have to screw around with it for a while each time, while VSCode has a GUI for that so the memorization required is zero, and can easily browse available packages without bouncing out to a browser, and it often prompts me to install relevant plugins so it's just a matter of clicking "OK". Every time I try to go back to Sublime, this annoys me right off the bat and I'm back in VSCode by the end of the day.

ghshephard 4y ago
Ctl-Shift-P is used in VSCode as well as Sublime. And then, "Install Package" Or through the Gui - "Preferences --> Package Control"
- corrral 4y ago
  Sure, I find that every time I google for how to do it :-) In VSCode, I can browse info about packages without having to remember a thing aside from "one of the six big icons on the left is 'Extensions'". One mouse click, start typing, click anything that looks like it might be good, get a ton of info and an "install" button. There are filters! So I can simply sort by "most popular" if I want, or by name, or a bunch of other things, all without having to remember anything for this somewhat-infrequent operation, because it's in the GUI. It's mainly the integrated package exploration that's missing. And the auto-suggestion for plugins—in fact, I rarely have to do any of the above, and just click "OK" to whatever VSCode suggests, and everything's fine. Sublime has (I just checked) a "package discovery" command, which... opens a web browser, to the exact same page you'd have ended on if you'd started by just googling it (which is what I do). So you have to find what you want on there, then go back to Sublime and find it again. The result is that in the best case it takes me 1% as long to install what I need on VSCode (just click OK), and worst case it takes me perhaps 50% as long, compared with Sublime. I'm also way less likely to go poke around and see if there's anything that might be useful, in Sublime. [EDIT] "Why aren't you way more familiar with the command palette?" ephemeral shells as anything more than dead-simple launchers make me really uncomfortable. I hate using them. Apple spotlight? I use it extensively—only for launching programs, period, nothing else. I'd much rather have a persistent shell environment I could attach from any terminal and leave open.
  - ghshephard 4y ago
    That's super fair. I'll admit I'm entirely in the same boat - if nothing happens on a new tool when I type Ctrl-Shift-P, I usually just shrug and go back to using all the other tools I have that do that. I do love the fact that, with Sublime, that 75%+ of the time when I want to do something, say, pretty-print a JSON text document, it's just: Ctl-Shift-P, "json" (Don't see anything obvious) [hit backspace to clear json] "Install Package", "json" See the "Pretty Print" option, install it in 2 seconds, and on my way.
d_watt 4y ago
My even dumber reason 5 years go was sublime's extension system at the time didn't allow styling of the file explorer, so git status wasn't available. The entire editor being easily tweakble is the killer feature of web-tech based editors. Sublime may have opened up more customizability since then... It's amazing how much a minor annoyance can drive someone to a completely different solution.
- SenHeng 4y ago
  A minor annoyance that happens often is actually a huge problem. I think we as engineers understate how important these little, often UX related issues really are because we understate how important UX is overall.

ghshephard 4y ago

Ctl-Shift-P is used in VSCode as well as Sublime. And then, "Install Package" Or through the Gui - "Preferences --> Package Control"

corrral 4y ago
Sure, I find that every time I google for how to do it :-) In VSCode, I can browse info about packages without having to remember a thing aside from "one of the six big icons on the left is 'Extensions'". One mouse click, start typing, click anything that looks like it might be good, get a ton of info and an "install" button. There are filters! So I can simply sort by "most popular" if I want, or by name, or a bunch of other things, all without having to remember anything for this somewhat-infrequent operation, because it's in the GUI. It's mainly the integrated package exploration that's missing. And the auto-suggestion for plugins—in fact, I rarely have to do any of the above, and just click "OK" to whatever VSCode suggests, and everything's fine. Sublime has (I just checked) a "package discovery" command, which... opens a web browser, to the exact same page you'd have ended on if you'd started by just googling it (which is what I do). So you have to find what you want on there, then go back to Sublime and find it again. The result is that in the best case it takes me 1% as long to install what I need on VSCode (just click OK), and worst case it takes me perhaps 50% as long, compared with Sublime. I'm also way less likely to go poke around and see if there's anything that might be useful, in Sublime. [EDIT] "Why aren't you way more familiar with the command palette?" ephemeral shells as anything more than dead-simple launchers make me really uncomfortable. I hate using them. Apple spotlight? I use it extensively—only for launching programs, period, nothing else. I'd much rather have a persistent shell environment I could attach from any terminal and leave open.
- ghshephard 4y ago
  That's super fair. I'll admit I'm entirely in the same boat - if nothing happens on a new tool when I type Ctrl-Shift-P, I usually just shrug and go back to using all the other tools I have that do that. I do love the fact that, with Sublime, that 75%+ of the time when I want to do something, say, pretty-print a JSON text document, it's just: Ctl-Shift-P, "json" (Don't see anything obvious) [hit backspace to clear json] "Install Package", "json" See the "Pretty Print" option, install it in 2 seconds, and on my way.

d_watt 4y ago

My even dumber reason 5 years go was sublime's extension system at the time didn't allow styling of the file explorer, so git status wasn't available. The entire editor being easily tweakble is the killer feature of web-tech based editors. Sublime may have opened up more customizability since then... It's amazing how much a minor annoyance can drive someone to a completely different solution.

SenHeng 4y ago
A minor annoyance that happens often is actually a huge problem. I think we as engineers understate how important these little, often UX related issues really are because we understate how important UX is overall.