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In the mean time Sublime Text 2 has all of the Alpha features as well as cross platform support and support for TextMate bundles. You should really give it a sh

In the mean time Sublime Text 2 has all of the Alpha features as well as cross platform support and support for TextMate bundles. You should really give it a shot if you haven't.

daniel_sim 15y ago
I'm sure I'm not the only textmate user who finds Sublime Text hideous. I'd sooner bite the bullet on vim if I'm going the ugly route.
- c4urself 15y ago
  really? i've always thought it was very comparable (I checked out Sublime Text 2)
- Argorak 15y ago
  Not at all. There is something about Sublime Text that I can't put my finger on, but I don't like it. Actually, I always found Textmate the best editor for reading and small edits. When I do huge work on a file, I switch to Vim by habit. Having tried Textmate 2, I will continue to do so - its still very snappy, especially now that it can handle remote folders fine.
- frou_dh 15y ago
  This user made theme should be the default on ST2 for Mac as far as I'm concerned. Cure for ST2 ugliness: https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme
  - coob 15y ago
    Design is not a theme.
    - frou_dh 15y ago
      Pardon? If you're implying that ST2 is somehow inherently bad then I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER HOW MUCH JOY ST2 IS EMANATING.
      - sirn 15y ago
        You have to admit though that Sublime Text 2 is pretty ugly by default. Both theme and initial impression. I really enjoy using it now, but that's after four tries or so after I heard about it few months ago on HN. Initial impression with ST2 is like playing jigsaw puzzles, it's a mix of mouse clicks and some weird text editing until you're comfortable with Cmd+Shift+P. I remembered my experience trying to adjust font size went on like this: Open preferences, hey wait what is default global settings? user file settings? Hm, let's try this one... wait I have to edit settings file? I better use Emacs then! Where I can find all available configuration options? Google search? Oops, that's for Sublime Text 1. ARGH! Even though I do enjoy using it now, it still feel like playing jigsaw puzzles but with majority of pieces in its place. (Like recently: wait, ST2 can do split screens? Hmm, Cmd+Shift+P split... nothing? Let's try Google... none tell me how to enable it. 20 minutes later Ah, it's in the View/Layout!) I can see the whole picture now, just missing a little bits here and there.
        peregrine 15y ago
        I completely agree, the menus and the options are pretty close to archaic. The developer has a bunch of work to do there. Once I got it down to an environment I liked I never had to touch it again, and with the nice package manager I never had to worry about new touching the package system again as well.
        deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
        notJim 15y ago
        I think the settings thing is sort of intentional. The assumption is that most users of ST2 like json, and the default file settings are well-commented in the JSON files. Also, it's weird that you thought you had to use Emacs, since clicking the menu option for a preference file opens that file in ST2. That being said, the whole global default/user default/file default system is pretty confusing to me. I think I get it, but I still put settings in the wrong files, which then don't work, and so on. Another issue with ST2 is that, like you mentioned, for whatever reason, it's very hard to find answers to your questions via Google. You always either end up at some release notes that tell you the feature you want exists, but not how to use it, or at some forum posting from 200 years ago that's wildly out of date, and full of the usual wildly-stupid comments one finds in most internet forums. There are number of features that I now use daily that I only found out about through word-of-mouth. (To be fair, this last part is probably true for many people with many editors: "Oh, you can do $x in $EDITOR? Show me how.")
- sitharus 15y ago
  You're definitely not alone. It's cross platform, so it's not quite at home on OS X, it just feels wrong somehow. Pity really.
  - mjs 15y ago
    Anything specific? I haven't noticed noticed anything very much amiss with Sublime. (It's as native feeling as Chrome, say, or indeed TextMate.)
    - clintonb11 15y ago
      Agreed. I use ST2 on windows at work, and on OSX at home. I think it is great on both.
- mrweasel 15y ago
  I would have to agree. I tried Sublime Text for two weeks, but I continued to dislike it. It's not a bad editor or anything, it's just not for me. Personally I'm getting a bit tired of reading about how people think that TextMate is done and how we should move on. TextMate 1.5 is still my text editor of choice, it simply fit how I work. Honestly I would be happy if TextMate 1.5 is just maintained as is. There's a lot of complaining about TextMate which I simply don't understand. Split screen editing, really, you care about that? I just open two windows. More frequent update? Why? Do you really need a new feature in your text editor every week? "The new icon is ugly"... No, it's cute, but also not important. The main thing that Allan did wrong was starting to talk about TextMate 2 to early. It would have been much better to have said nothing and just release an alpha or beta when he was ready. People a fascinated by new versions for some reason, they apparently want version two, just because two is higher than one. Perhaps if Allan hadn't said anything people wouldn't feel to entitled to a new version (wrongly entitled in my opinion). Also, let's try to remember that it is actually a pretty complex piece of software that a lot of us will be getting for free. As for Sublime Text, as a replacement for TextMate, yeah, I pick Vim a head of Sublime any day. Then again I would pick Idle a head of Sublime Text.
  - sjs 15y ago
    I agree for the most part, but that sentiment depends on individual usage patterns. For example opening multiple windows works alright until I want to Find in Project at which point I have to switch to the project window. A minor annoyance but day in day out that gets old fast.
  - dextorious 15y ago
    """There's a lot of complaining about TextMate which I simply don't understand. Split screen editing, really, you care about that?""" Hell yes I care. """More frequent update? Why? Do you really need a new feature in your text editor every week?""" No, I just need tons of features 1.5.x lacks. I could care less if they are delivered all in one release of a couple of them in frequent updates, but as we've seen "infrequent releases" doesn't work for Alan.
  - Derbasti 15y ago
- lobster_johnson 15y ago
  To be fair, TM is pretty ugly, too. ST2 with the Soda theme looks much more modern than TM.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
durandal1 15y ago
Sublime text is very clunky and has that very weird "UI app written in a scripting language feel" to it. I know that's not a value which is easy to quantify, but I think it's down to a slightly weird architecture and latency because of its heavy dependency on python.
- wbond 15y ago
  This is a common misconception about ST2. The editor is actually written in C++, but exposes a Python API for plugins.
  - durandal1 15y ago
    Fair enough, I was just speculating on why it feels clunky and misplaced on OSX.
    - frou_dh 15y ago
      How's it clunky? Java GUIs are alien and clunky. ST2 is just alien (and could be a lot worse).
  - applicative 15y ago
    The dependence on Python for configuration is for me a decisive objection. My copy of Textmate has little scripts buried all over it in several languages but with Sublime Text I am completely frozen out, or so it seems.
    - wbond 15y ago
      Actually, Python isn't used for configuration at all, just for writing plugins. JSON is the configuration language. You can even change the menus in the app by editing the Main.sublime-menu. The reason Python is used for the API is because the editor is cross-platform, and Python is the best choice for such a situation. If you want to run other scripts or programs, you can use the python subprocess module. If there is something you are looking to tweak, http://sublimetext.info/docs/en/ http://sublimetext.info/docs/en/ has a lot of good info, and the forum (http://www.sublimetext.com/forum/ http://www.sublimetext.com/forum/) tends to be a pretty good place to ask questions.
AbeEstrada 15y ago
I tried Sublime Text 2 and didn't like it, now waiting for a stable release of TextMate 2
- dkersten 15y ago
  I also tried it some months ago and didn't like it. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it somehow felt awkward to me. I just downloaded it again though - going to give it another try before I make my final decision.
  - clintonb11 15y ago
    I would suggest installing the dark soda theme. It seems to remove any need for your finger to be put on anything. https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme
    - dkersten 15y ago
      I will give it a try, thanks!
superchink 15y ago
The vintage (vim-like) mode is what pulled me into sublime text as my go-to editor. It's just so much faster. I opened the textmate alpha and immediately had a bunch of j characters appear before I realized i don't think I can go back. It's either ST or vim for now…
- godDLL 15y ago
  Try Vico. Textmate bundles and vim editing.
  - superchink 15y ago
    I did (but admittedly not for long). It didn't have the same level of polish. Has this changed? I can already use TM bundles on Sublime Text, but it just felt more feature complete.
    - SeoxyS 15y ago
      I personally find it much more polished than Sublime Text. It's not quite TextMate yet, but close.
    - shadowfiend 15y ago
      It's more polished now than it was. It's still in its nascent stages, but it's improving on a roughly monthly basis, in a definite excellent direction. The vi approach seems to be at its core, which is notable as new features are being implemented. And it's scriptable in Nu, which is pretty sweet and gives you access to all of Cocoa.
      - superchink 15y ago
        Thanks for the response. Will definitely have a second look, now that I have an idea of what to expect. Competition is definitely good in this space… especially now that the trend includes TextMate bundles & themes so it's not too hard to maintain a similar environment.
  - 15y ago
miles_matthias 15y ago
Sublime was rough for me at first but I really enjoy it now. I wasn't impressed with the TextMate alpha.
emehrkay 15y ago
Honestly, while Sublime is GREAT, it doesn't feel like a Mac app.
- jorisw 15y ago
  Does TextMate 2.0a1 ?
  - emehrkay 15y ago
    I've only used it for an hour or so last night, so I can't really say. However, TextMate 1 with MissDrawer definitely does. https://github.com/jezdez/textmate-missingdrawer https://github.com/jezdez/textmate-missingdrawer
- sirn 15y ago
  Have you try out Soda[1]? It makes Sublime Text 2 feel a lot more Mac-like for me. [1]: https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme
  - fcoury 15y ago
    This is really a fantastic theme. Using it from now on.
- dextorious 15y ago
  Neither does TM. And it's not like "feels like a Mac app" should be a top requirement for a programmer's editor --else we wouldn't use Emacs, Vim and the like.
  - zekel 15y ago
    I humbly disagree on both counts. (Emacs is my ugly #2, though.)
pilif 15y ago
There is one feature in TextMate that's not in Sublime which I really love to the point, where it's an absolute requirement for me: when I edit a file in TextMate and my account lacks permission for saving the file, TM would allow me to sudo right from the GUI in order to still save. This is much better than seeing that I can't save, copy the whole file to the clipboard, reopen it with 'sudo vim' and then pasting it (no. Not even 'sudo subl' works) One of the main reasons I use an editor like TM or S2 for is system administration which often requires root. For development I'm usually using the JetBrains IDE with the respective plugins.
- gosub 15y ago
  Would something like this work for you? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/95072/what-are-your-favorite-vim-tricks/96492#96492 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/95072/what-are-your-favor...
  - nyellin 15y ago
    No blow should pass, without two blows returned: * http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SudoSave http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SudoSave * http://stackoverflow.com/questions/95631/open-a-file-with-su-sudo-inside-emacs http://stackoverflow.com/questions/95631/open-a-file-with-su... (I jest. Vim is an awesome editor and I recommend it to all my friends using Eclipse, Visual Studio, and XCode. But true enlightenment lies in Emacs, where vim is only another mode called evil: http://emacswiki.org/emacs/Evil http://emacswiki.org/emacs/Evil)
    - dmm 15y ago
      With emacs you can use TRAMP (included by default in recent versions) with something like: C-x C-f /sudo:root@localhost:/etc/config_file
    - calloc 15y ago
      Sorry, but there is no true enlightenment, in any text editor. Other than vim off course ;-)
  - 15y ago
markokocic 15y ago
Just downloaded Sublime 2 and it looks very nice at a glance. It will probably replace TextPad as my second editor (still Emacs as primary one). The only missing thing would be Eclipse backed autocomplete and navigation. The first editor that get it seamless will be the one I'll use the most. I know there is eclim project, but it feels slow and cumbersome to use.
sovande 15y ago
Sublime Text 2 is like Java AWT - awful. Cross platform means mediocre. Literarily, because one will have to choose a common denominator. I have tried ST2 several times on OSX and never liked it. Even if TM2 is only an alpha release it feels much better than ST2. I've been using TM2 all day and I really like it. The new stuff comes to light when you start working with the text. Auto-complete, indentation, parsing, highlighting and find/replace are so much better and there are also lots of small nuggets such as multi-selection. It is apparent that the editor/engine part is much improved, more solid and snappy. I think TM2 will be great once it is released.

In the mean time Sublime Text 2 has all of the Alpha features as well as cross platform support and support for TextMate bundles. You should really give it a shot if you haven't.

daniel_sim 15y ago

I'm sure I'm not the only textmate user who finds Sublime Text hideous. I'd sooner bite the bullet on vim if I'm going the ugly route.

c4urself 15y ago
really? i've always thought it was very comparable (I checked out Sublime Text 2)
Argorak 15y ago
Not at all. There is something about Sublime Text that I can't put my finger on, but I don't like it. Actually, I always found Textmate the best editor for reading and small edits. When I do huge work on a file, I switch to Vim by habit. Having tried Textmate 2, I will continue to do so - its still very snappy, especially now that it can handle remote folders fine.
frou_dh 15y ago
This user made theme should be the default on ST2 for Mac as far as I'm concerned. Cure for ST2 ugliness: https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme
- coob 15y ago
  Design is not a theme.
  - frou_dh 15y ago
    Pardon? If you're implying that ST2 is somehow inherently bad then I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER HOW MUCH JOY ST2 IS EMANATING.
    - sirn 15y ago
      You have to admit though that Sublime Text 2 is pretty ugly by default. Both theme and initial impression. I really enjoy using it now, but that's after four tries or so after I heard about it few months ago on HN. Initial impression with ST2 is like playing jigsaw puzzles, it's a mix of mouse clicks and some weird text editing until you're comfortable with Cmd+Shift+P. I remembered my experience trying to adjust font size went on like this: Open preferences, hey wait what is default global settings? user file settings? Hm, let's try this one... wait I have to edit settings file? I better use Emacs then! Where I can find all available configuration options? Google search? Oops, that's for Sublime Text 1. ARGH! Even though I do enjoy using it now, it still feel like playing jigsaw puzzles but with majority of pieces in its place. (Like recently: wait, ST2 can do split screens? Hmm, Cmd+Shift+P split... nothing? Let's try Google... none tell me how to enable it. 20 minutes later Ah, it's in the View/Layout!) I can see the whole picture now, just missing a little bits here and there.
      - peregrine 15y ago
        I completely agree, the menus and the options are pretty close to archaic. The developer has a bunch of work to do there. Once I got it down to an environment I liked I never had to touch it again, and with the nice package manager I never had to worry about new touching the package system again as well.
      - deleted 15y ago
        [deleted]
      - notJim 15y ago
        I think the settings thing is sort of intentional. The assumption is that most users of ST2 like json, and the default file settings are well-commented in the JSON files. Also, it's weird that you thought you had to use Emacs, since clicking the menu option for a preference file opens that file in ST2. That being said, the whole global default/user default/file default system is pretty confusing to me. I think I get it, but I still put settings in the wrong files, which then don't work, and so on. Another issue with ST2 is that, like you mentioned, for whatever reason, it's very hard to find answers to your questions via Google. You always either end up at some release notes that tell you the feature you want exists, but not how to use it, or at some forum posting from 200 years ago that's wildly out of date, and full of the usual wildly-stupid comments one finds in most internet forums. There are number of features that I now use daily that I only found out about through word-of-mouth. (To be fair, this last part is probably true for many people with many editors: "Oh, you can do $x in $EDITOR? Show me how.")
sitharus 15y ago
You're definitely not alone. It's cross platform, so it's not quite at home on OS X, it just feels wrong somehow. Pity really.
- mjs 15y ago
  Anything specific? I haven't noticed noticed anything very much amiss with Sublime. (It's as native feeling as Chrome, say, or indeed TextMate.)
  - clintonb11 15y ago
    Agreed. I use ST2 on windows at work, and on OSX at home. I think it is great on both.
mrweasel 15y ago
I would have to agree. I tried Sublime Text for two weeks, but I continued to dislike it. It's not a bad editor or anything, it's just not for me. Personally I'm getting a bit tired of reading about how people think that TextMate is done and how we should move on. TextMate 1.5 is still my text editor of choice, it simply fit how I work. Honestly I would be happy if TextMate 1.5 is just maintained as is. There's a lot of complaining about TextMate which I simply don't understand. Split screen editing, really, you care about that? I just open two windows. More frequent update? Why? Do you really need a new feature in your text editor every week? "The new icon is ugly"... No, it's cute, but also not important. The main thing that Allan did wrong was starting to talk about TextMate 2 to early. It would have been much better to have said nothing and just release an alpha or beta when he was ready. People a fascinated by new versions for some reason, they apparently want version two, just because two is higher than one. Perhaps if Allan hadn't said anything people wouldn't feel to entitled to a new version (wrongly entitled in my opinion). Also, let's try to remember that it is actually a pretty complex piece of software that a lot of us will be getting for free. As for Sublime Text, as a replacement for TextMate, yeah, I pick Vim a head of Sublime any day. Then again I would pick Idle a head of Sublime Text.
- sjs 15y ago
  I agree for the most part, but that sentiment depends on individual usage patterns. For example opening multiple windows works alright until I want to Find in Project at which point I have to switch to the project window. A minor annoyance but day in day out that gets old fast.
- dextorious 15y ago
  """There's a lot of complaining about TextMate which I simply don't understand. Split screen editing, really, you care about that?""" Hell yes I care. """More frequent update? Why? Do you really need a new feature in your text editor every week?""" No, I just need tons of features 1.5.x lacks. I could care less if they are delivered all in one release of a couple of them in frequent updates, but as we've seen "infrequent releases" doesn't work for Alan.
- Derbasti 15y ago
lobster_johnson 15y ago
To be fair, TM is pretty ugly, too. ST2 with the Soda theme looks much more modern than TM.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

durandal1 15y ago

Sublime text is very clunky and has that very weird "UI app written in a scripting language feel" to it. I know that's not a value which is easy to quantify, but I think it's down to a slightly weird architecture and latency because of its heavy dependency on python.

wbond 15y ago
This is a common misconception about ST2. The editor is actually written in C++, but exposes a Python API for plugins.
- durandal1 15y ago
  Fair enough, I was just speculating on why it feels clunky and misplaced on OSX.
  - frou_dh 15y ago
    How's it clunky? Java GUIs are alien and clunky. ST2 is just alien (and could be a lot worse).
- applicative 15y ago
  The dependence on Python for configuration is for me a decisive objection. My copy of Textmate has little scripts buried all over it in several languages but with Sublime Text I am completely frozen out, or so it seems.
  - wbond 15y ago
    Actually, Python isn't used for configuration at all, just for writing plugins. JSON is the configuration language. You can even change the menus in the app by editing the Main.sublime-menu. The reason Python is used for the API is because the editor is cross-platform, and Python is the best choice for such a situation. If you want to run other scripts or programs, you can use the python subprocess module. If there is something you are looking to tweak, http://sublimetext.info/docs/en/ http://sublimetext.info/docs/en/ has a lot of good info, and the forum (http://www.sublimetext.com/forum/ http://www.sublimetext.com/forum/) tends to be a pretty good place to ask questions.

AbeEstrada 15y ago

I tried Sublime Text 2 and didn't like it, now waiting for a stable release of TextMate 2

dkersten 15y ago
I also tried it some months ago and didn't like it. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but it somehow felt awkward to me. I just downloaded it again though - going to give it another try before I make my final decision.
- clintonb11 15y ago
  I would suggest installing the dark soda theme. It seems to remove any need for your finger to be put on anything. https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme
  - dkersten 15y ago
    I will give it a try, thanks!

superchink 15y ago

The vintage (vim-like) mode is what pulled me into sublime text as my go-to editor. It's just so much faster. I opened the textmate alpha and immediately had a bunch of j characters appear before I realized i don't think I can go back. It's either ST or vim for now…

godDLL 15y ago
Try Vico. Textmate bundles and vim editing.
- superchink 15y ago
  I did (but admittedly not for long). It didn't have the same level of polish. Has this changed? I can already use TM bundles on Sublime Text, but it just felt more feature complete.
  - SeoxyS 15y ago
    I personally find it much more polished than Sublime Text. It's not quite TextMate yet, but close.
  - shadowfiend 15y ago
    It's more polished now than it was. It's still in its nascent stages, but it's improving on a roughly monthly basis, in a definite excellent direction. The vi approach seems to be at its core, which is notable as new features are being implemented. And it's scriptable in Nu, which is pretty sweet and gives you access to all of Cocoa.
    - superchink 15y ago
      Thanks for the response. Will definitely have a second look, now that I have an idea of what to expect. Competition is definitely good in this space… especially now that the trend includes TextMate bundles & themes so it's not too hard to maintain a similar environment.
- 15y ago

miles_matthias 15y ago

Sublime was rough for me at first but I really enjoy it now. I wasn't impressed with the TextMate alpha.

emehrkay 15y ago

Honestly, while Sublime is GREAT, it doesn't feel like a Mac app.

jorisw 15y ago
Does TextMate 2.0a1 ?
- emehrkay 15y ago
  I've only used it for an hour or so last night, so I can't really say. However, TextMate 1 with MissDrawer definitely does. https://github.com/jezdez/textmate-missingdrawer https://github.com/jezdez/textmate-missingdrawer
sirn 15y ago
Have you try out Soda[1]? It makes Sublime Text 2 feel a lot more Mac-like for me. [1]: https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme https://github.com/buymeasoda/soda-theme
- fcoury 15y ago
  This is really a fantastic theme. Using it from now on.
dextorious 15y ago
Neither does TM. And it's not like "feels like a Mac app" should be a top requirement for a programmer's editor --else we wouldn't use Emacs, Vim and the like.
- zekel 15y ago
  I humbly disagree on both counts. (Emacs is my ugly #2, though.)

pilif 15y ago

There is one feature in TextMate that's not in Sublime which I really love to the point, where it's an absolute requirement for me: when I edit a file in TextMate and my account lacks permission for saving the file, TM would allow me to sudo right from the GUI in order to still save. This is much better than seeing that I can't save, copy the whole file to the clipboard, reopen it with 'sudo vim' and then pasting it (no. Not even 'sudo subl' works) One of the main reasons I use an editor like TM or S2 for is system administration which often requires root. For development I'm usually using the JetBrains IDE with the respective plugins.

gosub 15y ago
Would something like this work for you? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/95072/what-are-your-favorite-vim-tricks/96492#96492 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/95072/what-are-your-favor...
- nyellin 15y ago
  No blow should pass, without two blows returned: * http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SudoSave http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/SudoSave * http://stackoverflow.com/questions/95631/open-a-file-with-su-sudo-inside-emacs http://stackoverflow.com/questions/95631/open-a-file-with-su... (I jest. Vim is an awesome editor and I recommend it to all my friends using Eclipse, Visual Studio, and XCode. But true enlightenment lies in Emacs, where vim is only another mode called evil: http://emacswiki.org/emacs/Evil http://emacswiki.org/emacs/Evil)
  - dmm 15y ago
    With emacs you can use TRAMP (included by default in recent versions) with something like: C-x C-f /sudo:root@localhost:/etc/config_file
  - calloc 15y ago
    Sorry, but there is no true enlightenment, in any text editor. Other than vim off course ;-)
- 15y ago

markokocic 15y ago

Just downloaded Sublime 2 and it looks very nice at a glance. It will probably replace TextPad as my second editor (still Emacs as primary one). The only missing thing would be Eclipse backed autocomplete and navigation. The first editor that get it seamless will be the one I'll use the most. I know there is eclim project, but it feels slow and cumbersome to use.

sovande 15y ago

Sublime Text 2 is like Java AWT - awful. Cross platform means mediocre. Literarily, because one will have to choose a common denominator. I have tried ST2 several times on OSX and never liked it. Even if TM2 is only an alpha release it feels much better than ST2. I've been using TM2 all day and I really like it. The new stuff comes to light when you start working with the text. Auto-complete, indentation, parsing, highlighting and find/replace are so much better and there are also lots of small nuggets such as multi-selection. It is apparent that the editor/engine part is much improved, more solid and snappy. I think TM2 will be great once it is released.