20 ms·

Sublime Text 2.0 Released

813 points by dave1010uk 14y ago

purephase 14y ago
This is great news. Truly staggering amount of effort for a small gap in build numbers (if you were using the last beta). Love the release and the editor. Worth every penny. The only additional package I use is the Dark Soda Theme, is there any others that people would recommend for Rails development? The default editor seems to provide a lot. I tried SublimeCodeIntel but it kept crashing.
- amirf 14y ago
  I would recommend the ruby test plugin which is really great: https://github.com/maltize/sublime-text-2-ruby-tests https://github.com/maltize/sublime-text-2-ruby-tests and Rails Nav: https://github.com/noklesta/SublimeRailsNav https://github.com/noklesta/SublimeRailsNav which gives you a pretty neat way navigating your app. Much like the common vi plugins.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
wslh 14y ago
Can it be used without purchasing it like in the RC versions?
- endijs 14y ago
  Nothings changed regarding to evaluation "Sublime Text 2 may be downloaded and evaluated for free, however a license must be purchased for continued use. There is currently no enforced time limit for the evaluation.".
  - rjsamson 14y ago
    I'd be really interested to hear about how well this model works for them. I know that I, for one, am a paying customer because being able to use it for a month or so for free really got me hooked.
    - whichdan 14y ago
      I'll most likely end up being the same way. I'm slow to switch editors, but every time I hear news about SublimeText I'll launch it and get closer to just making the switch - and by extension, paying. Compare that to the 7 day trial of Coda 2. Nowhere near enough time to evaluate an editor, let alone wait for the next bugfix if you run into any issues.
    - kellishaver 14y ago
      I used it for free for a long time (longer than I care to admit) but by the time I did pay, I was so in love I would have happily spent 2x on it.
      - Derbasti 14y ago
        Funny, I bought it more or less right away and ended up using Emacs instead. I still don't feel bad about it though. It is a worthy tool in my belt and I love to support it.
- PopaL 14y ago
  Yes, but if you appreciate the work of the author you should buy a license after you try the editor.
ConstantineXVI 14y ago
I've reverted back to Vim (not really ST2's fault, just that it doesn't run in a terminal and I've gotten addicted to split-panes in iTerm), but ST2's a solid editor. Definitely worth your $60. PS: If it got even a basic terminal... EDIT2: ST2 does have split panes, I just can't run a terminal in them.
- mfer 14y ago
  For anyone wondering, ST2 has split panes. Look in menu View -> Layout.
- PopaL 14y ago
  I suppose you know that you split the layout of ST just like you can split the pane in iTerm2 ... You can even have the same file open twice in a side by side view.
  - ConstantineXVI 14y ago
    Right, but that's only for files. My extra panes tend to have REPLs, curls, docs, etc. more often than other files.
    - yuchi 14y ago
      That's the reason behind LightTable. I have to say, a Terminal could be a great addition to ST features.
- Joe8Bit 14y ago
  You can init Sublime (and open/edit files) from the command line relatively easily[1] and there's a plugin that will allow you run shell commands from within Sublime Text[2]. 1: http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/osx_command_line.html http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/osx_command_line.html 2: https://github.com/misfo/Shell-Turtlestein https://github.com/misfo/Shell-Turtlestein (or from Package Control) EDIT: Ahh I see you edited, nevermind! But you can split the windows easily too!
- dsirijus 14y ago
latch 14y ago
Updating from within sublime text, I get a 500 Internal Server Error in the release note window (being served up by a pretty old version of nginx). Still able to update though.
seclorum 14y ago
An absolutely joyful piece of software. I love it so much, I bought it right away. Plus, where else can you experience such a pleasant multiplatform situation? Great Job!
- balac 14y ago
  Joyful is the right word. I love that I can work across windows / linux / mac with the same awesome editor and it looks / behaves almost identically.
- justauser 14y ago
  Vim? Komodo?
- geoffw8 14y ago
  I started writing the same thing, and thought I'd just add onto this instead. Tried using Vim because I like the look of how flexible it is to tile windows, but I just cannot move away from Sublime's file search. I don't even click tabs that I have open any more, I just hit Apple + p and start typing say g-l-o for global.css and I know its there, hit enter and voila. Like you say, multi-platform too, so I get to use it on my little Ubuntu netbook and on my iMac. Love it. Really should buy a licence.
  - vaneck 14y ago
    Command-T gives you similar functionality in Vim. It's great. https://github.com/wincent/Command-T https://github.com/wincent/Command-T
    - agscala 14y ago
      CtrlP is newer and is arguably much better than Command-T https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim
      - xyzzyb 14y ago
        Yes, CtrlP is faster and easier to install because it's just a vimscript. It also supports all of Command-T's functionality, so it's pretty much just great.
webjunkie01 14y ago
Great news!, this is turning out to be one of the best text editors for Windows, Mac and Linux. Congratulations!.
fideloper 14y ago
We crashed their site I think.
- swah 14y ago
  His site I think :)
v33ra 14y ago
I was an active user of Notepad++, but ever since I started using Sublime text, I never turned back to NP++ (or any other editors). Totally love the Sublime experience.
- andere 14y ago
  I've been using Notepad++ as my log-viewing problem for a while and I periodically use it to edit a bit, but when I tried out Sublime I didn't see anything to make me drop Notepad++. It did the same things equally well, but not much more from what I noticed.
PopaL 14y ago
This is one of the best programming editors I've ever used. I like the idea of using same editor (and interface) on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Nogwater 14y ago
Now that it's official, I hope that the documentation gets the attention it needs. Congrats!
- elomarns 14y ago
  I'm trying to improve this by writing an ebook about Sublime Text 2. If you're interested, here is the first chapter: http://cl.ly/0N0X1j401o22353m2V2V http://cl.ly/0N0X1j401o22353m2V2V
  - dnsauve 14y ago
    Yes, please. I am very interested in this. I feel as though I've only scratched the surface of what ST2 can do even though I've been using it for the last year and experimented with writing my own plugins. I'd also love to see a "cheat-sheet" for shortcut keys.
    - elomarns 14y ago
      To be honest, my ebook is on initial stage, but I'm actively working on it. If you want to track its progress, here's its repository on GitHub: https://github.com/elomarns/sublime-coding https://github.com/elomarns/sublime-coding Anyway you can find a great cheat sheet on the links below: PC: https://gist.github.com/1736542 https://gist.github.com/1736542 Mac: https://gist.github.com/1839777 https://gist.github.com/1839777
  - Nogwater 14y ago
    Thanks, I'll take a look.
esschul 14y ago
My go-to editor all grown up. Feel a tear coming.
moe 14y ago
As a die-hard Vim'er I like this more every time I look at it. What I'm still missing in vintage-mode is search/replace (mostly ':s' and ':%s') and block visual mode (^V in vim). The latter habit I could probably break, but the search/replace stuff gets me all the time. Is there perhaps a plugin/workaround already to get Vim-style search/replace or do I have to hold out for another version?
- jscoder 14y ago
  Maybe take a look at VintageEx: https://github.com/SublimeText/VintageEx https://github.com/SublimeText/VintageEx I'm not sure if search/replace is included but if not you could open an issue and maybe someone adds it. :)
  - moe 14y ago
    Thanks man, that does indeed add working search/replace! Giving Sublime a whirl now. If nothing else it's going to be an interesting discovery of which Vim features I really use in my daily workflow. Edit: Sadly bumped right into the next issue. It seems in addition to the lack of Vim's visual-block-mode the native multi-select (Ctrl-Shift-L) doesn't work in vintage either. No multi-line editing at all is a bit of a showstopper. Anyway, there's always a next version, I'm not giving up hope. :)
    - jscoder 14y ago
      I'm not that much into Vi(m) but a visual mode is available in Vintage mode? Press ESC, v.
      - dguaraglia 14y ago
        I think he's referring to the "column" visual mode, that allows you to make a rectangular selection and delete/insert/replace it.
        moe 14y ago
jscoder 14y ago
Sublime Text is really awesome! It's remarkable work, especially since there is just one developer working on it: ST2 works very well on all 3 platforms, it's very fast and has a lot of cool features. :) I just hope that it keeps getting new features, the thing I'm really really missing is a terminal that runs in a ST2 tab.
- iansinke 14y ago
  Install the SublimeREPL plugin from Package Control. Works like a charm!
  - jscoder 14y ago
    Yeah, I've been using that one for some days already. It's really nice but not what I really want. :) For example I can't hit tab to auto complete. I'm also missing all the zsh awesomeness, so a real terminal running in some tab would be the best solution!
singingwolfboy 14y ago
I'm an avid user of Sublime Text 2, and I was really hoping that they would clean up their API before they made a stable release: http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/112486-api-better-use-of-context-managers/ http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/112486-api-better-use-... http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/112485-api-better-use-of-python-properties/ http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/112485-api-better-use-... With the need to maintain backwards compatibility with a stable version 2.0, that's not going to happen now. :(
obituary_latte 14y ago
As a Textmate'r, I have to say using ST for the last few months has been a pleasure. There is one thing that ST doesn't do as well though: pasting blocks of code while retaining the formatting/indentation. i.e. if I copy a loop and try and paste it into another function/whatever and the cursor isn't on the same column, the indentation gets messed up. It's a minor quibble and far from a deal-breaker, but it is a bit of a shock when it happens.
- jskinner 14y ago
  It sounds like Paste and Indent is what you're after: Command+Shift+V, or some users prefer to just bind this to Command+V, a la TextMate.
  - obituary_latte 14y ago
    I love you edit: if anyone is curious, Preferences > Key Bindings > Default [edit: should use User as noted below] ctrl+f paste, and change { "keys": ["super+v"], "command": "paste" }, { "keys": ["super+shift+v"], "command": "paste_and_indent" }, to { "keys": ["super+shift+v"], "command": "paste" }, { "keys": ["super+v"], "command": "paste_and_indent" },
    - demetris 14y ago
      Even better, put that in Preferences, Key Bindings, User. Using the user file has two advantages: First, you avoid mishaps when some future version makes changes to the default bindings file. Second, you can quickly check what are your non-default settings.
      - obituary_latte 14y ago
        Duly noted. Thanks!
    - Sottilde 14y ago
      Keep in mind that updating Sublime will revert this file. Add the bottom two lines to your Preferences > Key Bindings > User file if you want to keep them. This goes for all preferences files in Sublime. Any declarations in the User file overrides Default settings, and Default settings are overwritten on any upgrade. This caveat has bitten me quite a few times with my packages in Package Control.
aggarwalachal 14y ago
Awesome work guys. I have been using the beta since the early days and I think this is the only cross platform editor which works really well.
leeoniya 14y ago
i really hoped that he would get a fix in for customizable/better matching brackets indicators before release :( those underlines are just impossible to see, and the alternative plugins that do this are not as good as SynWeb component-based editors or NP++ (scintilla) http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/19331-better-or-customizable-match_brackets-style/ http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/19331-better-or-custom...
UnoriginalGuy 14y ago
I just tried Sublime 2 and I must admit I don't "get it." It seems like a basic editor with several features which Notepad++ already had. Specifically for programming I cannot see why you would use this as opposed to something like Visual Studio with its context aware auto-complete (massive productivity increase). But then again I also don't get why someone would use Vim or Emacs when you have GUI based tools available (even freely). Even for non-Windows programming Eclipse exists and has a decent (if slow) context aware auto-complete for many languages. The only justification I've ever heard for people's continued use of tools like this boil down to either "I know the shortcut keys" or "I don't have to use the mouse." Which to me is odd within its self as very little of my programming efficiency is lost mousing around, and a lot more lost having to jump around code blocks because auto-complete didn't magically know what an object's members were...
- de90 14y ago
  For me the biggest reason is speed. I use visual studio at work and love it, but when I am at home writing javascript. All those extra features just make it such a slow experience.
- simonsarris 14y ago
  I used sublime text and my interns all use visual studio. I love both, but I can give a few points: * No CTRL+D duplicate line in VS * Can't use middle-mouse in VS to select multiple columns * Can't place your cursor in many multiple locations at once in VS * You can use ALT+DRAG to select columns in VS but there's no way to put a carat at the end of each of a bunch of lines of varying sizes * CTRL+J to append the next line to the current one, removing all whitespace. I feel as if this has saved me a year of life. Those five alone are extremely useful when writing JavaScript and HTML. * The autocomplete in VS does not "learn" like the sublime text one does. * No good incremental search in VS (might have changed on the very newest version?) * CTRL+B opens the current HTML page being edited in my browser on sublime text. There's probably an equivalent in VS though * highlighting a string of text highlights all similar ones in sublime text. In VS for C# it sorta does this if the string of text is a token * The ability to sort and shuffle lines in sublime text can be useful at times, though this is usually when preparing data and not when writing code.
davidwparker 14y ago
Question: I'm an Emacs user, and haven't checked out ST or ST2. Is it comparable in terms of flexibility++?
- kabdib 14y ago
  I tried it out, and didn't see anything really compelling. ST seemed to be going in the right direction, but it was nowhere near as complete as even an uncustomized workaday Emacs clone. [speaking with 30+ years of Emacs, and as a user of many, many other editors in environments that didn't support Emacs: ST seemed to be like using VMS's EDT -- a fairly capable editor, but not one I'd bring home to Mom]
- Derbasti 14y ago
  It is great! It really is! Give it a shot just to see what we Emacsens are missing. But if you're like me... Well, Emacs is a way of life and it does a whole lot more than just editing text. I would love to have smooth scrolling and multiple cursors and slick animations and a cursor that can be off-screen. But at the end of the day, I prefer magit and org-mode and keyboard-only navigation and macros and so on. It still is awesome though. Do give it a try! Maybe in a few decades it will have accumulated enough awesomeness to compare to our beloved Emacs.
  - kindahero 14y ago
    I dont know about multiple cursors., but I use scrolling all the time (global-set-key "\M-n" "\C-u1\C-v") (global-set-key "\M-p" "\C-u1\M-v")
    - banjomonster 14y ago
      Ha - been looking for an easy way to do this for a bit. Thanks!
- dnlbyl 14y ago
  No, you can't play Tetris in it.
binarydreams 14y ago
been using it for the past few months, simply amazing and joyful. props for the great work!
kaffeinecoma 14y ago
As an Intellij user (and Emacs way before that) I'm trying to give this a chance, but I see no way to click-navigate through source code. Am I missing something? I tried installing SublimeCodeIntel, and that lets me (occasionally) navigate to symbols in the current file. But I don't seem to be able to click through to symbols defined in other files/classes. Am I missing something fundamental, or is this strictly the domain of the IDEs?
- kodablah 14y ago
  It's not necessarily click-through as it is type-and-find. Ctrl+P to find a file, Ctrl+R (usually) to find methods/functions, etc. It's still very fast and productive.
  - kaffeinecoma 14y ago
    I found that, but it cmd+r (I'm on a Mac) seems to only show you hits in the current file. The thing I'm interested in doing is clicking on a call to foo.bar() and have it bring up Foo.rb, right on the "def bar" method. Also a lot of the time the thing I'm trying to navigate to is library code that's referenced via require, vs something that's actually in my codebase proper.
    - losvedir 14y ago
      What I do in such a situation is cmd+shift+f and do a project wide search (I leave that as the default in the "Where" field. You can tweak case sensitivity, whole word, or even just use a regex. It opens a new tab with your search results, and you can double click on a result to be taken to that place in that file. It's admittedly not as slick as what you're asking, but it serves me well enough in exploring a codebase.
- taterbase 14y ago
  CMD + K, CMD + B (Ctrl on windows/linux) opens up the gutter with all your files.
- mariusmg 14y ago
brittohalloran 14y ago
Can I just say I love the pricing model. It's paid software, with an unenforced 'trial period'. Relying on coders who use a text editor all day and appreciate good software and want to compensate someone for their good software. +1 humans.
- juanpdelat 14y ago
  I agree. It would be great to see some revenue numbers, if it's really successful (which I think it is), it would be a nice model for other developers or software companies.
  - phn 14y ago
    I'm not sure about that. Developers tend to be more sensible about paying for software. Regular people will just download it without reading the "yada yada" stuff about paying. Case in point: WinRAR, anyone? EDIT: Just to clarify, I like the pricing model too. I just don't think it works for software in general.
    - xiaomai 14y ago
      An article on the demise of winamp suggested that the winamp people were receiving over $100,000 a month in checks sent by mail. I would suppose if you had an easier way to pay then checks by mail, even more "regular" people would be willing to pay. I point out winamp because it is similar in that no new features are unlocked after paying.
      - eli 14y ago
        Fair enough, though few of us will ever write software as popular as WinAMP once was.
  - lloeki 14y ago
    Well, it's infinite trialware, but it pops a few nag screens here and there, especially when saving files. And this, when you are working and have a habit of mashing Cmd+S regularly, gets in the way often enough. I think the nag dial is just about right between casual use/unlimited evaluation and I'm using this editor for real shit.
vitomd 14y ago
This is my favourite editor. It's a mix between a simple notepad and a powerful IDE.
mvgoogler 14y ago
The Multi-select feature is a game-changer
- felixr 14y ago
  Yes. The multi-select feature is really nice, but it is nothing that cannot be added to vim: http://shelr.tv/records/4fef105a966080237e00005e http://shelr.tv/records/4fef105a966080237e00005e
dbecker 14y ago
Based on the great reviews of ST2, I switched from vim to ST2 (with vintage mode) a few months ago. It seems good... but it hasn't lived up to the reviews for me. I'm guessing I'm missing some of the functionality. Is there a tutorial anywhere to show me what I'm missing? How have you learned about ST2 features (rather than just repeating your old editing habits in a new program)?
- loeschg 14y ago
  Yeah, I enjoy ST2 as well, but I know I'm missing out on a great deal of functionality. I'd love if somebody could point me to a good tutorial. Edit: This was posted above... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4162210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4162210. Somebody is apparently writing an ebook and the 1st chapter is available.
- nicholassmith 14y ago
  The 9 reasons to use Sublime is a good start point: http://1p1e1.tumblr.com/post/14262857223/9-reasons-you-must-install-sublime-text-2-code-like-a http://1p1e1.tumblr.com/post/14262857223/9-reasons-you-must-...
  - xyzzyb 14y ago
    Thanks to that blog post I am convinced that ST2 is a better editor than Eclipse. I'd really like to see a similar list for someone switching from vim though.
  - notJim 14y ago
    That list is missing multiple cursors, which as far as I'm concerned, is the only reason to use ST2 and not vim.
- base698 14y ago
  I did too but couldn't live with the way search worked in Sublime. Substitutions are also too ingrained for editing. In my opinion Sublime is vastly superior to an IDE but way underpowered to compete with vim or emacs.
elomarns 14y ago
Finally! Sublime Text 2 is really a wonderful piece of software. I can't live without multiple cursors anymore. Of course it can improve (anything can), but in my opinion is the best text editor available.
loeschg 14y ago
For those interested, here's a way to get a block cursor when in Vi(ntage) mode. It can now be installed via package control (instructions have recommended that way to install for awhile, but I could never find it). https://github.com/netpro2k/SublimeBlockCursor https://github.com/netpro2k/SublimeBlockCursor
- kellishaver 14y ago
  I modified this a while back to work in normal mode, for anyone who's interested. https://gist.github.com/2996448 https://gist.github.com/2996448 It was the one feature in Sublime that was missing for me, and the one I needed most at the time (cataracts suck).
ckluis 14y ago
Anyone see this Editor released that's on GitHub: http://ec2-174-129-28-157.compute-1.amazonaws.com/2012/06/25/brackets-open-source-code-editor/ http://ec2-174-129-28-157.compute-1.amazonaws.com/2012/06/25... the inline parsing of CSS & javascript seems like a huge productivity gain.
skizm 14y ago
Am I missing something or is this essentially a donation based model? Are there missing features in the "evaluation version"? I don't mean to sound like a troll or anything but why would I pay for this if I have the option to use the full product for free? (besides possibly feeling guilty)
- dclowd9901 14y ago
  I believe licensing restrictions require its purchase for commercial purposes. Edit: Strike that. Nothing in their EULA expresses this. It simply seems like an open-ended "trial period." So, yes, it appears they're sticking to the guilt model, but unlike WinRAR, won't bug you about it.
  - jaredsohn 14y ago
    >unlike WinRAR, won't bug you about it. They do bug you (albeit less frequently). As mentioned in another post here, they ask you to pay occasionally when you try to save.
  - danieldk 14y ago
    Actually, it will, every n number of saves. When I create a throwaway VM, it's a reminder to paste in my license key ;).
- dkulchenko 14y ago
  If the product is good, as in this case, a very sizable percentage of users will pay. The idea that people will only pay for software/music/movies if there are adequate technical restrictions placed on its distribution is what got us into the DRM mess in the first place.
- Derbasti 14y ago
  It just wants you to be a nice person. I appreciate that.
adamfeldman 14y ago
Every TextMate user at my office switched to Sublime Text 2 six months ago and hasn't looked back. Great product
wangweij 14y ago
I tried it, on my Ubuntu 64 bit. Everything is fine, except that sometimes it's really slow expanding a directory on the left sidebar. This drives me crazy.
doublerebel 14y ago
ST2 is a fantastic program! I was a die-hard Komodo user for years, but ST2 is much easier (and faster!) to use and extend. For anyone looking to try out ST2 with SFTP, I've written a plugin to import server settings from FileZilla[1], makes it much quicker to get up and running. Should be in ST2's Package Control any day now. [1] https://github.com/doublerebel/filezilla_import https://github.com/doublerebel/filezilla_import
dudurocha 14y ago
I know most of the people using ST2 are apple or linux users. It's good for a windows user?
- megaman821 14y ago
  I am happy with it as a Windows user. From what I can tell it runs nearly the same across all platforms it supports.
- rjv 14y ago
  It's a pleasure to work with on Windows.. not to mention probably the most aesthetically pleasing text editor you can find.
  - Derbasti 14y ago
    Oh yes, sir. So much yes! Incidentally, why is it that so much software on Windows is "under-designed"?
  - dudurocha 14y ago
    Thank you, I'll try it.
- jussij 14y ago
  FWIW the Zeus editor is Windows only and while it may not be as pretty, it does have a lot of the features of Sublime. http://www.zeusedit.com http://www.zeusedit.com Jussi Jumppanen Author: Zeus Editor
qiller 14y ago
Amazing editor. Switching been OSX and Windows frequently, ST2 became my choice of a universal tool. Especially useful when augmented by plugins for better autocomplete: I use SublimeClang for C++/ObjC coding, and https://github.com/alienhard/SublimeAllAutocomplete https://github.com/alienhard/SublimeAllAutocomplete for js/html/css to enable ST's autocomplete across all opened files, not just current one. Only wish it would support virtual space, multiple cursors/vertical blocks seem awkward without it.
jeromegn 14y ago
Make sure to check out this packages search/list: http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/community http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/community You can also Command+Shift+P and "Discover packages"
lordlarm 14y ago
Hm, Am I the only one who spends hours in vim each day with ~15 lines in my .vimrc and almost zero plugins? At some point I think I realized that no matter how feature-rich my editor was, the main thing stopping me from writing good and fast code was _thinking_, not configuring my text editor.
- tylermenezes 14y ago
  It's certainly possible to write code without a good editor, but a good editor simplifies a lot of tasks which get in the way of writing good code.
  - falcolas 14y ago
    That makes the erroneous assumption that vim, without heavy customization, is not a good editor. Vim is capable, out of the box, of everything a more heavyweight editor can do. The only thing really missing is library aware code completion.
- mdonahoe 14y ago
  Now I'm curious. What 15 lines do you use?
  - lordlarm 14y ago
    Something like this: https://gist.github.com/2996793 https://gist.github.com/2996793 (16 lines, but you get the point).
    - drbawb 14y ago
      Can I ask why you disable the swap file? As someone with a computer that is horribly unstable (in the process of replacing it over the course of next month), the swap file has saved my ass on a few occasions.
      - bsg75 14y ago
msluyter 14y ago
Serendipitous, as I'm planning on doing a lightning talk on ST2 tonight. Editors seem to raise a lot of religious issues, and not to totally discount the distinctions that can be made between them, but I think it's more important to know your editor well than to worry about "the best editor." (If such a thing exists.) As Hunt & Thomas say in The Pragmatic Programmer: "use a single editor well."[1] You'll be most productive if you learn your editor from head to toe, than if you half-assedly know several. That takes some effort and conscious practice, sitting down and memorizing key combinations and the like. And a cursory glance at any editor might leave you unimpressed until you've gotten somewhat fluent with its features. Just a couple of suggestions if you do use ST2: + get package control: http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/package_control/installation http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/package_control/installati... + For rails, a couple of nice packages are RubyTest and SimpleRailsNav + Learn the multi-edit commands + Familiarize yourself with cmd-P/ctrl-P (osx/win) + Keyboard shortcuts: WIN: https://gist.github.com/1925069 https://gist.github.com/1925069 OSX: https://gist.github.com/1207002 https://gist.github.com/1207002, or look at Default (OS).sublime-keymap [1] I would amend that to add "and also know vim at least a little" for stuff like sshing in to servers and whatnot.
- bemmu 14y ago
  What prevents me from using cmd-P is that I usually just open my entire project folder in Sublime. When I do cmd-P to open for example "foo.py", it doesn't understand that I mean the foo.py which is in the same directory with the file I have currently open. Instead it lists all the foo.pys I have in any project I have ever created.
  - msluyter 14y ago
    I think you can avoid this problem by setting up projects and then switching projects you're working on to contain the search space.
  - redler 14y ago
    This can be mitigated a bit by the fact that you can type any portion of the path to shrink the result set. So if you have abc/def/ghi/foo.py jkl/mno/pqr/foo.py stu/vwx/yzz/foo.py ...you can type command-P, then "kfo", and you'd get the second foo.py, as it's the only one of the set with "k" in its path.
drivingmenuts 14y ago
Interesting, but no preference panels for OS X? How is one supposed to change settings if they're in a language the user doesn't know well? Apparently, there's some sort of binding thing going on, which I overlooked and now can't find a way to examine/redo? Additionally, some prefs are plists, some are python, and some look like they might be Textmate preferences.
- Derbasti 14y ago
  Everything is in text files. This is awesome if you want to move your config to a different machine (or gasp OS). Give it a try. It is not as bad as it looks on first sight. You'll get used to it and probably appreciate it a bit in no time.
  - drivingmenuts 14y ago
    I think I'd change editors before I changed to a different OS. These days, pretty much everything can be done from one machine. From where I sit, I can work with 6 different OS'es (yeah, it's a jungle) all from the comfort of OS X. I get that this is a programmer's editor and so maybe a certain amount of "roughness" in design is appropriate. But I'd rather spend my time customizing my own apps than trying to figure out how to change one setting in my editor. I can also understand if ST just isn't there yet as far as preferences go. Each OS or flavor thereof has it's own convoluted methods of writing that piece of the UI, but it's an important piece as far as OS X goes. Without it, ST will always feel like an incomplete product (in the half-baked sense, not the future development sense). Sorry, but first impressions matter. Up against BBEdit and even old Textmate, ST seems to only have one thing going for it (the visual navigator) and that's not nearly enough to make me even more than momentarily interested. This looks and feels very much like an alpha product or charitably, even a beta. But it definitely doesn't feel like something that should be a version 2 and charging $60 for the privilege of using it.
    - notJim 14y ago
      You clearly have a different focus than the author of the software, and its fans. ST2's proponents are more concerned with awesome editing power than having a preferences pane. That being said, this is not the first time I've heard this line of criticism.
celerity 14y ago
For me, for "serious" programming, I use a full-fledged IDE which has stuff like code linking, quick project search (with ST2 I have to switch to the terminal), built-in documentation, refactoring support... So paying $60 for a text editor, when there are many good free options out there (even outside of Linux) is too much.
- anonymoushn 14y ago
  I don't know how to use ST2, but the people I know who use it do project search from within the editor. It looks pretty snappy, about on par with the analogous feature in IntelliJ.
amatsukawa 14y ago
Pretty season's Vim user here. This editor looks awesome, and I would love to give it a whirl, but I feel like I can't switch without these plugins. I'm sure they exist, if someone could point me to one that would be excellent. + Syntastic [https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic/ https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic/] eclipse-like real-time linter. Gives me compile errors and warnings. + Tag bar [http://majutsushi.github.com/tagbar/ http://majutsushi.github.com/tagbar/] navigate tags in the code + Not as essential, but EasyMotion is pretty awesome [https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-easymotion https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-easymotion]
- bsg75 14y ago
  Take a look at https://github.com/Kronuz/SublimeCodeIntel https://github.com/Kronuz/SublimeCodeIntel as a potential Syntastic alternative in ST2.
- sheldno 14y ago
  Linting (there are other plugins but this is what I use) https://github.com/SublimeLinter/SublimeLinter https://github.com/SublimeLinter/SublimeLinter CTags https://github.com/SublimeText/CTags https://github.com/SublimeText/CTags Similar to EasyMotion https://bitbucket.org/sublimator/volcanoes https://bitbucket.org/sublimator/volcanoes More plugins http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/community http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/community
Fando 14y ago
Amazing work!
JonnieCache 14y ago
Congrats to jps. A serious piece of software, and a development style that we can all aspire to. Allow me to recommend the SublimeLinter plugin. Its name should be self explanatory. https://github.com/SublimeLinter/SublimeLinter https://github.com/SublimeLinter/SublimeLinter Also, for those asking about discovering functionality, have a browse of the default key binding definition files, it is enlightening.
kilowatt 14y ago
I've been really tempted to fork and contribute to MacVim and steal some of the nicer visual things ST2 is doing. Namely, 1) rounded corners on selection boxes 2) nice glowing, fading cursor 3) smooth scrolling with a feeling of velocity/inertia 4) the minimap I tried the Vim plugin, but so many of the motions that I use daily were missing I had to jump ship. But I'd love it for MacVim to have the same level of visual and UI polish that ST2 does--it really sets a high bar.
- st0p 14y ago
  I think that we are entirely different types of developers (and that is fine, this is in no way meant as as being negative on the way you work), but I couldn't care less about the first 3 points you mention. They don't add anything to my productivity. I do wonder though, if visual attraction is such an issue to you, why in the first place do you use Vim?
  - kilowatt 14y ago
    I use Vim because I'm faster in it than anything else, hands down. But I do think there's probably some vague psychological argument to be made about the elegance and simplicity of your tools mirroring a state of mind conducive to elegance and simplicity in your programming. It's why people are into tools like WriteRoom. Plus, I feel like the smooth scrolling feature actually does help you preserve an awareness of where you are when you're browsing a file.
- patrickod 14y ago
  one of the things I've found lacking in MacVim recently is smooth scrolling. The rendering engine on OSX doesn't handle large files well at all. It's a shame because otherwise everything work quite well
LukeHoersten 14y ago
I think I'll finally switch from Emacs to ST2. I have this massive .emacs config just to make it behave like ST2 does by default. Not to mention turing complete settings can get crazy. Well done ST!
drewda 14y ago
The animated screen shots in this blog post and on the front page are quite nicely done. Looks like a series of images being moved and swapped through a canvas area. Anyone know of libraries that can automate the creation of these kind of animations?
arrowgunz 14y ago
Wow, each time I refresh the HN homepage, the upvote count on this post keeps increasing.
- tzury 14y ago
  dude, consider setting procrastination. It will send you back to work after the forth refresh.
kennethologist 14y ago
I've purchased a copy. Been looking for something to replace N++. This seems like a great alternative. Happy to support other professionals.
arrowgunz 14y ago
After installing the stable 2.0 release, I just tried to update and I got this: http://d.pr/i/Rc0w http://d.pr/i/Rc0w
brianhc 14y ago
Sumblime team, why did you reset my preferences on update? Annoying.
- corford 14y ago
  Did you have them saved under "Default" or "User"? If the former, SL2 overwrites these when you upgrade.
  - brianhc 14y ago
    oops
desireco42 14y ago
Congratulations for making editor that is genuine pleasure to use. I bought it of course a while ago.
desireco42 14y ago
Special kudos to author because it is really cross platform and actually works well on all of them. There are not many products that are like that.
luriel 14y ago
For Go hackers, here is Using Sublime Text 2 with GoSublime: http://mue.tideland.biz/2012/06/using-sublime-text-2-with-gosublime.html http://mue.tideland.biz/2012/06/using-sublime-text-2-with-go...
frou_dh 14y ago
I've been super impressed by the steady pace shown by the developer in improving and tweaking the many beta releases. Top quality product and I was glad to buy it.
sgt 14y ago
I'd like to use Sublime Text if it had vi bindings.
- sgt 14y ago
  I checked and it does support vi bindings, including ex commands. Enable Vintage and then install VintageEx from https://github.com/SublimeText/VintageEx https://github.com/SublimeText/VintageEx Very simple - and brilliant!
MrGando 14y ago
I use vim. As a software craftsman I want my hammer to be Open Source. ( just see what happened when TextMate got stagnated, there must be other examples ) It's my hammer, it must be open source if possible.
nshankar 14y ago
I would use Vim for one reason than anything else. It is for the commands vit, vat, cat, cit and the like that can select matching tags. In HTML editing this has been my best friend and no other editor comes even close to this feature.
FixThisPOSSite 14y ago
Is Sublime better than TextMate? I do program in various languages and maintain collections of local and remote files. I bought Coda 2 after using Coda 1 for years, and Coda 2 is a bug-riddled piece of shit. I guess I'll switch to Espresso, but I'll consider anything at this point. Except DreamWeaver, which is another buggy piece of shit.
michiel3 14y ago
For users with a Retina MBP: this version of Sublime Text supports Retina graphics on OS X Lion.
ericcholis 14y ago
Personally, the only thing that prevents me from using Sublime Text is the lack of proper Xdebug support. There is a plugin, but it felt clunky. Being on Windows, it's a relief to use something as nice as this editor.
nbj 14y ago
(on OS X) ST2 cannot render RTL (Right-To-Left) text properly and the developer said in the forums that it won't be until ST3 although less mature editors like TextEdit or http://vicoapp.com http://vicoapp.com or http://chocolatapp.com http://chocolatapp.com (beta) and http://activestate.com/komodo http://activestate.com/komodo (IDE) don't have any problems with bidi and rtl texts other OS X editors that could't show bidi and rtl texts: TextMate 1 (http://macromates.com http://macromates.com) MacVim 7.4-64 (http://code.google.com/p/macvim http://code.google.com/p/macvim)

813 points by dave1010uk 14y ago

This is great news. Truly staggering amount of effort for a small gap in build numbers (if you were using the last beta). Love the release and the editor. Worth every penny. The only additional package I use is the Dark Soda Theme, is there any others that people would recommend for Rails development? The default editor seems to provide a lot. I tried SublimeCodeIntel but it kept crashing.

amirf 14y ago
I would recommend the ruby test plugin which is really great: https://github.com/maltize/sublime-text-2-ruby-tests https://github.com/maltize/sublime-text-2-ruby-tests and Rails Nav: https://github.com/noklesta/SublimeRailsNav https://github.com/noklesta/SublimeRailsNav which gives you a pretty neat way navigating your app. Much like the common vi plugins.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

wslh 14y ago

Can it be used without purchasing it like in the RC versions?

endijs 14y ago
Nothings changed regarding to evaluation "Sublime Text 2 may be downloaded and evaluated for free, however a license must be purchased for continued use. There is currently no enforced time limit for the evaluation.".
- rjsamson 14y ago
  I'd be really interested to hear about how well this model works for them. I know that I, for one, am a paying customer because being able to use it for a month or so for free really got me hooked.
  - whichdan 14y ago
    I'll most likely end up being the same way. I'm slow to switch editors, but every time I hear news about SublimeText I'll launch it and get closer to just making the switch - and by extension, paying. Compare that to the 7 day trial of Coda 2. Nowhere near enough time to evaluate an editor, let alone wait for the next bugfix if you run into any issues.
  - kellishaver 14y ago
    I used it for free for a long time (longer than I care to admit) but by the time I did pay, I was so in love I would have happily spent 2x on it.
    - Derbasti 14y ago
      Funny, I bought it more or less right away and ended up using Emacs instead. I still don't feel bad about it though. It is a worthy tool in my belt and I love to support it.
PopaL 14y ago
Yes, but if you appreciate the work of the author you should buy a license after you try the editor.

ConstantineXVI 14y ago

I've reverted back to Vim (not really ST2's fault, just that it doesn't run in a terminal and I've gotten addicted to split-panes in iTerm), but ST2's a solid editor. Definitely worth your $60. PS: If it got even a basic terminal... EDIT2: ST2 does have split panes, I just can't run a terminal in them.

mfer 14y ago
For anyone wondering, ST2 has split panes. Look in menu View -> Layout.
PopaL 14y ago
I suppose you know that you split the layout of ST just like you can split the pane in iTerm2 ... You can even have the same file open twice in a side by side view.
- ConstantineXVI 14y ago
  Right, but that's only for files. My extra panes tend to have REPLs, curls, docs, etc. more often than other files.
  - yuchi 14y ago
    That's the reason behind LightTable. I have to say, a Terminal could be a great addition to ST features.
Joe8Bit 14y ago
You can init Sublime (and open/edit files) from the command line relatively easily[1] and there's a plugin that will allow you run shell commands from within Sublime Text[2]. 1: http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/osx_command_line.html http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/osx_command_line.html 2: https://github.com/misfo/Shell-Turtlestein https://github.com/misfo/Shell-Turtlestein (or from Package Control) EDIT: Ahh I see you edited, nevermind! But you can split the windows easily too!
dsirijus 14y ago

latch 14y ago

Updating from within sublime text, I get a 500 Internal Server Error in the release note window (being served up by a pretty old version of nginx). Still able to update though.

seclorum 14y ago

An absolutely joyful piece of software. I love it so much, I bought it right away. Plus, where else can you experience such a pleasant multiplatform situation? Great Job!

balac 14y ago
Joyful is the right word. I love that I can work across windows / linux / mac with the same awesome editor and it looks / behaves almost identically.
justauser 14y ago
Vim? Komodo?
geoffw8 14y ago
I started writing the same thing, and thought I'd just add onto this instead. Tried using Vim because I like the look of how flexible it is to tile windows, but I just cannot move away from Sublime's file search. I don't even click tabs that I have open any more, I just hit Apple + p and start typing say g-l-o for global.css and I know its there, hit enter and voila. Like you say, multi-platform too, so I get to use it on my little Ubuntu netbook and on my iMac. Love it. Really should buy a licence.
- vaneck 14y ago
  Command-T gives you similar functionality in Vim. It's great. https://github.com/wincent/Command-T https://github.com/wincent/Command-T
  - agscala 14y ago
    CtrlP is newer and is arguably much better than Command-T https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim
    - xyzzyb 14y ago
      Yes, CtrlP is faster and easier to install because it's just a vimscript. It also supports all of Command-T's functionality, so it's pretty much just great.

webjunkie01 14y ago

Great news!, this is turning out to be one of the best text editors for Windows, Mac and Linux. Congratulations!.

fideloper 14y ago

We crashed their site I think.

swah 14y ago
His site I think :)

v33ra 14y ago

I was an active user of Notepad++, but ever since I started using Sublime text, I never turned back to NP++ (or any other editors). Totally love the Sublime experience.

andere 14y ago
I've been using Notepad++ as my log-viewing problem for a while and I periodically use it to edit a bit, but when I tried out Sublime I didn't see anything to make me drop Notepad++. It did the same things equally well, but not much more from what I noticed.

PopaL 14y ago

This is one of the best programming editors I've ever used. I like the idea of using same editor (and interface) on Mac, Windows and Linux.

Nogwater 14y ago

Now that it's official, I hope that the documentation gets the attention it needs. Congrats!

elomarns 14y ago
I'm trying to improve this by writing an ebook about Sublime Text 2. If you're interested, here is the first chapter: http://cl.ly/0N0X1j401o22353m2V2V http://cl.ly/0N0X1j401o22353m2V2V
- dnsauve 14y ago
  Yes, please. I am very interested in this. I feel as though I've only scratched the surface of what ST2 can do even though I've been using it for the last year and experimented with writing my own plugins. I'd also love to see a "cheat-sheet" for shortcut keys.
  - elomarns 14y ago
    To be honest, my ebook is on initial stage, but I'm actively working on it. If you want to track its progress, here's its repository on GitHub: https://github.com/elomarns/sublime-coding https://github.com/elomarns/sublime-coding Anyway you can find a great cheat sheet on the links below: PC: https://gist.github.com/1736542 https://gist.github.com/1736542 Mac: https://gist.github.com/1839777 https://gist.github.com/1839777
- Nogwater 14y ago
  Thanks, I'll take a look.

esschul 14y ago

My go-to editor all grown up. Feel a tear coming.

moe 14y ago

As a die-hard Vim'er I like this more every time I look at it. What I'm still missing in vintage-mode is search/replace (mostly ':s' and ':%s') and block visual mode (^V in vim). The latter habit I could probably break, but the search/replace stuff gets me all the time. Is there perhaps a plugin/workaround already to get Vim-style search/replace or do I have to hold out for another version?

jscoder 14y ago
Maybe take a look at VintageEx: https://github.com/SublimeText/VintageEx https://github.com/SublimeText/VintageEx I'm not sure if search/replace is included but if not you could open an issue and maybe someone adds it. :)
- moe 14y ago
  Thanks man, that does indeed add working search/replace! Giving Sublime a whirl now. If nothing else it's going to be an interesting discovery of which Vim features I really use in my daily workflow. Edit: Sadly bumped right into the next issue. It seems in addition to the lack of Vim's visual-block-mode the native multi-select (Ctrl-Shift-L) doesn't work in vintage either. No multi-line editing at all is a bit of a showstopper. Anyway, there's always a next version, I'm not giving up hope. :)
  - jscoder 14y ago
    I'm not that much into Vi(m) but a visual mode is available in Vintage mode? Press ESC, v.
    - dguaraglia 14y ago
      I think he's referring to the "column" visual mode, that allows you to make a rectangular selection and delete/insert/replace it.
      - moe 14y ago

jscoder 14y ago

Sublime Text is really awesome! It's remarkable work, especially since there is just one developer working on it: ST2 works very well on all 3 platforms, it's very fast and has a lot of cool features. :) I just hope that it keeps getting new features, the thing I'm really really missing is a terminal that runs in a ST2 tab.

iansinke 14y ago
Install the SublimeREPL plugin from Package Control. Works like a charm!
- jscoder 14y ago
  Yeah, I've been using that one for some days already. It's really nice but not what I really want. :) For example I can't hit tab to auto complete. I'm also missing all the zsh awesomeness, so a real terminal running in some tab would be the best solution!

singingwolfboy 14y ago

I'm an avid user of Sublime Text 2, and I was really hoping that they would clean up their API before they made a stable release: http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/112486-api-better-use-of-context-managers/ http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/112486-api-better-use-... http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/112485-api-better-use-of-python-properties/ http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/112485-api-better-use-... With the need to maintain backwards compatibility with a stable version 2.0, that's not going to happen now. :(

obituary_latte 14y ago

As a Textmate'r, I have to say using ST for the last few months has been a pleasure. There is one thing that ST doesn't do as well though: pasting blocks of code while retaining the formatting/indentation. i.e. if I copy a loop and try and paste it into another function/whatever and the cursor isn't on the same column, the indentation gets messed up. It's a minor quibble and far from a deal-breaker, but it is a bit of a shock when it happens.

jskinner 14y ago
It sounds like Paste and Indent is what you're after: Command+Shift+V, or some users prefer to just bind this to Command+V, a la TextMate.
- obituary_latte 14y ago
  I love you edit: if anyone is curious, Preferences > Key Bindings > Default [edit: should use User as noted below] ctrl+f paste, and change { "keys": ["super+v"], "command": "paste" }, { "keys": ["super+shift+v"], "command": "paste_and_indent" }, to { "keys": ["super+shift+v"], "command": "paste" }, { "keys": ["super+v"], "command": "paste_and_indent" },
  - demetris 14y ago
    Even better, put that in Preferences, Key Bindings, User. Using the user file has two advantages: First, you avoid mishaps when some future version makes changes to the default bindings file. Second, you can quickly check what are your non-default settings.
    - obituary_latte 14y ago
      Duly noted. Thanks!
  - Sottilde 14y ago
    Keep in mind that updating Sublime will revert this file. Add the bottom two lines to your Preferences > Key Bindings > User file if you want to keep them. This goes for all preferences files in Sublime. Any declarations in the User file overrides Default settings, and Default settings are overwritten on any upgrade. This caveat has bitten me quite a few times with my packages in Package Control.

aggarwalachal 14y ago

Awesome work guys. I have been using the beta since the early days and I think this is the only cross platform editor which works really well.

leeoniya 14y ago

i really hoped that he would get a fix in for customizable/better matching brackets indicators before release :( those underlines are just impossible to see, and the alternative plugins that do this are not as good as SynWeb component-based editors or NP++ (scintilla) http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/19331-better-or-customizable-match_brackets-style/ http://sublimetext.userecho.com/topic/19331-better-or-custom...

UnoriginalGuy 14y ago

I just tried Sublime 2 and I must admit I don't "get it." It seems like a basic editor with several features which Notepad++ already had. Specifically for programming I cannot see why you would use this as opposed to something like Visual Studio with its context aware auto-complete (massive productivity increase). But then again I also don't get why someone would use Vim or Emacs when you have GUI based tools available (even freely). Even for non-Windows programming Eclipse exists and has a decent (if slow) context aware auto-complete for many languages. The only justification I've ever heard for people's continued use of tools like this boil down to either "I know the shortcut keys" or "I don't have to use the mouse." Which to me is odd within its self as very little of my programming efficiency is lost mousing around, and a lot more lost having to jump around code blocks because auto-complete didn't magically know what an object's members were...

de90 14y ago
For me the biggest reason is speed. I use visual studio at work and love it, but when I am at home writing javascript. All those extra features just make it such a slow experience.
simonsarris 14y ago
I used sublime text and my interns all use visual studio. I love both, but I can give a few points: * No CTRL+D duplicate line in VS * Can't use middle-mouse in VS to select multiple columns * Can't place your cursor in many multiple locations at once in VS * You can use ALT+DRAG to select columns in VS but there's no way to put a carat at the end of each of a bunch of lines of varying sizes * CTRL+J to append the next line to the current one, removing all whitespace. I feel as if this has saved me a year of life. Those five alone are extremely useful when writing JavaScript and HTML. * The autocomplete in VS does not "learn" like the sublime text one does. * No good incremental search in VS (might have changed on the very newest version?) * CTRL+B opens the current HTML page being edited in my browser on sublime text. There's probably an equivalent in VS though * highlighting a string of text highlights all similar ones in sublime text. In VS for C# it sorta does this if the string of text is a token * The ability to sort and shuffle lines in sublime text can be useful at times, though this is usually when preparing data and not when writing code.

davidwparker 14y ago

Question: I'm an Emacs user, and haven't checked out ST or ST2. Is it comparable in terms of flexibility++?

kabdib 14y ago
I tried it out, and didn't see anything really compelling. ST seemed to be going in the right direction, but it was nowhere near as complete as even an uncustomized workaday Emacs clone. [speaking with 30+ years of Emacs, and as a user of many, many other editors in environments that didn't support Emacs: ST seemed to be like using VMS's EDT -- a fairly capable editor, but not one I'd bring home to Mom]
Derbasti 14y ago
It is great! It really is! Give it a shot just to see what we Emacsens are missing. But if you're like me... Well, Emacs is a way of life and it does a whole lot more than just editing text. I would love to have smooth scrolling and multiple cursors and slick animations and a cursor that can be off-screen. But at the end of the day, I prefer magit and org-mode and keyboard-only navigation and macros and so on. It still is awesome though. Do give it a try! Maybe in a few decades it will have accumulated enough awesomeness to compare to our beloved Emacs.
- kindahero 14y ago
  I dont know about multiple cursors., but I use scrolling all the time (global-set-key "\M-n" "\C-u1\C-v") (global-set-key "\M-p" "\C-u1\M-v")
  - banjomonster 14y ago
    Ha - been looking for an easy way to do this for a bit. Thanks!
dnlbyl 14y ago
No, you can't play Tetris in it.

binarydreams 14y ago

been using it for the past few months, simply amazing and joyful. props for the great work!

kaffeinecoma 14y ago

As an Intellij user (and Emacs way before that) I'm trying to give this a chance, but I see no way to click-navigate through source code. Am I missing something? I tried installing SublimeCodeIntel, and that lets me (occasionally) navigate to symbols in the current file. But I don't seem to be able to click through to symbols defined in other files/classes. Am I missing something fundamental, or is this strictly the domain of the IDEs?

kodablah 14y ago
It's not necessarily click-through as it is type-and-find. Ctrl+P to find a file, Ctrl+R (usually) to find methods/functions, etc. It's still very fast and productive.
- kaffeinecoma 14y ago
  I found that, but it cmd+r (I'm on a Mac) seems to only show you hits in the current file. The thing I'm interested in doing is clicking on a call to foo.bar() and have it bring up Foo.rb, right on the "def bar" method. Also a lot of the time the thing I'm trying to navigate to is library code that's referenced via require, vs something that's actually in my codebase proper.
  - losvedir 14y ago
    What I do in such a situation is cmd+shift+f and do a project wide search (I leave that as the default in the "Where" field. You can tweak case sensitivity, whole word, or even just use a regex. It opens a new tab with your search results, and you can double click on a result to be taken to that place in that file. It's admittedly not as slick as what you're asking, but it serves me well enough in exploring a codebase.
taterbase 14y ago
CMD + K, CMD + B (Ctrl on windows/linux) opens up the gutter with all your files.
mariusmg 14y ago

brittohalloran 14y ago

Can I just say I love the pricing model. It's paid software, with an unenforced 'trial period'. Relying on coders who use a text editor all day and appreciate good software and want to compensate someone for their good software. +1 humans.

juanpdelat 14y ago
I agree. It would be great to see some revenue numbers, if it's really successful (which I think it is), it would be a nice model for other developers or software companies.
- phn 14y ago
  I'm not sure about that. Developers tend to be more sensible about paying for software. Regular people will just download it without reading the "yada yada" stuff about paying. Case in point: WinRAR, anyone? EDIT: Just to clarify, I like the pricing model too. I just don't think it works for software in general.
  - xiaomai 14y ago
    An article on the demise of winamp suggested that the winamp people were receiving over $100,000 a month in checks sent by mail. I would suppose if you had an easier way to pay then checks by mail, even more "regular" people would be willing to pay. I point out winamp because it is similar in that no new features are unlocked after paying.
    - eli 14y ago
      Fair enough, though few of us will ever write software as popular as WinAMP once was.
- lloeki 14y ago
  Well, it's infinite trialware, but it pops a few nag screens here and there, especially when saving files. And this, when you are working and have a habit of mashing Cmd+S regularly, gets in the way often enough. I think the nag dial is just about right between casual use/unlimited evaluation and I'm using this editor for real shit.

vitomd 14y ago

This is my favourite editor. It's a mix between a simple notepad and a powerful IDE.

mvgoogler 14y ago

The Multi-select feature is a game-changer

felixr 14y ago
Yes. The multi-select feature is really nice, but it is nothing that cannot be added to vim: http://shelr.tv/records/4fef105a966080237e00005e http://shelr.tv/records/4fef105a966080237e00005e

dbecker 14y ago

Based on the great reviews of ST2, I switched from vim to ST2 (with vintage mode) a few months ago. It seems good... but it hasn't lived up to the reviews for me. I'm guessing I'm missing some of the functionality. Is there a tutorial anywhere to show me what I'm missing? How have you learned about ST2 features (rather than just repeating your old editing habits in a new program)?

loeschg 14y ago
Yeah, I enjoy ST2 as well, but I know I'm missing out on a great deal of functionality. I'd love if somebody could point me to a good tutorial. Edit: This was posted above... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4162210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4162210. Somebody is apparently writing an ebook and the 1st chapter is available.
nicholassmith 14y ago
The 9 reasons to use Sublime is a good start point: http://1p1e1.tumblr.com/post/14262857223/9-reasons-you-must-install-sublime-text-2-code-like-a http://1p1e1.tumblr.com/post/14262857223/9-reasons-you-must-...
- xyzzyb 14y ago
  Thanks to that blog post I am convinced that ST2 is a better editor than Eclipse. I'd really like to see a similar list for someone switching from vim though.
- notJim 14y ago
  That list is missing multiple cursors, which as far as I'm concerned, is the only reason to use ST2 and not vim.
base698 14y ago
I did too but couldn't live with the way search worked in Sublime. Substitutions are also too ingrained for editing. In my opinion Sublime is vastly superior to an IDE but way underpowered to compete with vim or emacs.

elomarns 14y ago

Finally! Sublime Text 2 is really a wonderful piece of software. I can't live without multiple cursors anymore. Of course it can improve (anything can), but in my opinion is the best text editor available.

loeschg 14y ago

For those interested, here's a way to get a block cursor when in Vi(ntage) mode. It can now be installed via package control (instructions have recommended that way to install for awhile, but I could never find it). https://github.com/netpro2k/SublimeBlockCursor https://github.com/netpro2k/SublimeBlockCursor

kellishaver 14y ago
I modified this a while back to work in normal mode, for anyone who's interested. https://gist.github.com/2996448 https://gist.github.com/2996448 It was the one feature in Sublime that was missing for me, and the one I needed most at the time (cataracts suck).

ckluis 14y ago

Anyone see this Editor released that's on GitHub: http://ec2-174-129-28-157.compute-1.amazonaws.com/2012/06/25/brackets-open-source-code-editor/ http://ec2-174-129-28-157.compute-1.amazonaws.com/2012/06/25... the inline parsing of CSS & javascript seems like a huge productivity gain.

skizm 14y ago

Am I missing something or is this essentially a donation based model? Are there missing features in the "evaluation version"? I don't mean to sound like a troll or anything but why would I pay for this if I have the option to use the full product for free? (besides possibly feeling guilty)

dclowd9901 14y ago
I believe licensing restrictions require its purchase for commercial purposes. Edit: Strike that. Nothing in their EULA expresses this. It simply seems like an open-ended "trial period." So, yes, it appears they're sticking to the guilt model, but unlike WinRAR, won't bug you about it.
- jaredsohn 14y ago
  >unlike WinRAR, won't bug you about it. They do bug you (albeit less frequently). As mentioned in another post here, they ask you to pay occasionally when you try to save.
- danieldk 14y ago
  Actually, it will, every n number of saves. When I create a throwaway VM, it's a reminder to paste in my license key ;).
dkulchenko 14y ago
If the product is good, as in this case, a very sizable percentage of users will pay. The idea that people will only pay for software/music/movies if there are adequate technical restrictions placed on its distribution is what got us into the DRM mess in the first place.
Derbasti 14y ago
It just wants you to be a nice person. I appreciate that.

adamfeldman 14y ago

Every TextMate user at my office switched to Sublime Text 2 six months ago and hasn't looked back. Great product

wangweij 14y ago

I tried it, on my Ubuntu 64 bit. Everything is fine, except that sometimes it's really slow expanding a directory on the left sidebar. This drives me crazy.

doublerebel 14y ago

ST2 is a fantastic program! I was a die-hard Komodo user for years, but ST2 is much easier (and faster!) to use and extend. For anyone looking to try out ST2 with SFTP, I've written a plugin to import server settings from FileZilla[1], makes it much quicker to get up and running. Should be in ST2's Package Control any day now. [1] https://github.com/doublerebel/filezilla_import https://github.com/doublerebel/filezilla_import

dudurocha 14y ago

I know most of the people using ST2 are apple or linux users. It's good for a windows user?

megaman821 14y ago
I am happy with it as a Windows user. From what I can tell it runs nearly the same across all platforms it supports.
rjv 14y ago
It's a pleasure to work with on Windows.. not to mention probably the most aesthetically pleasing text editor you can find.
- Derbasti 14y ago
  Oh yes, sir. So much yes! Incidentally, why is it that so much software on Windows is "under-designed"?
- dudurocha 14y ago
  Thank you, I'll try it.
jussij 14y ago
FWIW the Zeus editor is Windows only and while it may not be as pretty, it does have a lot of the features of Sublime. http://www.zeusedit.com http://www.zeusedit.com Jussi Jumppanen Author: Zeus Editor

qiller 14y ago

Amazing editor. Switching been OSX and Windows frequently, ST2 became my choice of a universal tool. Especially useful when augmented by plugins for better autocomplete: I use SublimeClang for C++/ObjC coding, and https://github.com/alienhard/SublimeAllAutocomplete https://github.com/alienhard/SublimeAllAutocomplete for js/html/css to enable ST's autocomplete across all opened files, not just current one. Only wish it would support virtual space, multiple cursors/vertical blocks seem awkward without it.

jeromegn 14y ago

Make sure to check out this packages search/list: http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/community http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/community You can also Command+Shift+P and "Discover packages"

lordlarm 14y ago

Hm, Am I the only one who spends hours in vim each day with ~15 lines in my .vimrc and almost zero plugins? At some point I think I realized that no matter how feature-rich my editor was, the main thing stopping me from writing good and fast code was _thinking_, not configuring my text editor.

tylermenezes 14y ago
It's certainly possible to write code without a good editor, but a good editor simplifies a lot of tasks which get in the way of writing good code.
- falcolas 14y ago
  That makes the erroneous assumption that vim, without heavy customization, is not a good editor. Vim is capable, out of the box, of everything a more heavyweight editor can do. The only thing really missing is library aware code completion.
mdonahoe 14y ago
Now I'm curious. What 15 lines do you use?
- lordlarm 14y ago
  Something like this: https://gist.github.com/2996793 https://gist.github.com/2996793 (16 lines, but you get the point).
  - drbawb 14y ago
    Can I ask why you disable the swap file? As someone with a computer that is horribly unstable (in the process of replacing it over the course of next month), the swap file has saved my ass on a few occasions.
    - bsg75 14y ago

msluyter 14y ago

Serendipitous, as I'm planning on doing a lightning talk on ST2 tonight. Editors seem to raise a lot of religious issues, and not to totally discount the distinctions that can be made between them, but I think it's more important to know your editor well than to worry about "the best editor." (If such a thing exists.) As Hunt & Thomas say in The Pragmatic Programmer: "use a single editor well."[1] You'll be most productive if you learn your editor from head to toe, than if you half-assedly know several. That takes some effort and conscious practice, sitting down and memorizing key combinations and the like. And a cursory glance at any editor might leave you unimpressed until you've gotten somewhat fluent with its features. Just a couple of suggestions if you do use ST2: + get package control: http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/package_control/installation http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/package_control/installati... + For rails, a couple of nice packages are RubyTest and SimpleRailsNav + Learn the multi-edit commands + Familiarize yourself with cmd-P/ctrl-P (osx/win) + Keyboard shortcuts: WIN: https://gist.github.com/1925069 https://gist.github.com/1925069 OSX: https://gist.github.com/1207002 https://gist.github.com/1207002, or look at Default (OS).sublime-keymap [1] I would amend that to add "and also know vim at least a little" for stuff like sshing in to servers and whatnot.

bemmu 14y ago
What prevents me from using cmd-P is that I usually just open my entire project folder in Sublime. When I do cmd-P to open for example "foo.py", it doesn't understand that I mean the foo.py which is in the same directory with the file I have currently open. Instead it lists all the foo.pys I have in any project I have ever created.
- msluyter 14y ago
  I think you can avoid this problem by setting up projects and then switching projects you're working on to contain the search space.
- redler 14y ago
  This can be mitigated a bit by the fact that you can type any portion of the path to shrink the result set. So if you have abc/def/ghi/foo.py jkl/mno/pqr/foo.py stu/vwx/yzz/foo.py ...you can type command-P, then "kfo", and you'd get the second foo.py, as it's the only one of the set with "k" in its path.

drivingmenuts 14y ago

Interesting, but no preference panels for OS X? How is one supposed to change settings if they're in a language the user doesn't know well? Apparently, there's some sort of binding thing going on, which I overlooked and now can't find a way to examine/redo? Additionally, some prefs are plists, some are python, and some look like they might be Textmate preferences.

Derbasti 14y ago
Everything is in text files. This is awesome if you want to move your config to a different machine (or gasp OS). Give it a try. It is not as bad as it looks on first sight. You'll get used to it and probably appreciate it a bit in no time.
- drivingmenuts 14y ago
  I think I'd change editors before I changed to a different OS. These days, pretty much everything can be done from one machine. From where I sit, I can work with 6 different OS'es (yeah, it's a jungle) all from the comfort of OS X. I get that this is a programmer's editor and so maybe a certain amount of "roughness" in design is appropriate. But I'd rather spend my time customizing my own apps than trying to figure out how to change one setting in my editor. I can also understand if ST just isn't there yet as far as preferences go. Each OS or flavor thereof has it's own convoluted methods of writing that piece of the UI, but it's an important piece as far as OS X goes. Without it, ST will always feel like an incomplete product (in the half-baked sense, not the future development sense). Sorry, but first impressions matter. Up against BBEdit and even old Textmate, ST seems to only have one thing going for it (the visual navigator) and that's not nearly enough to make me even more than momentarily interested. This looks and feels very much like an alpha product or charitably, even a beta. But it definitely doesn't feel like something that should be a version 2 and charging $60 for the privilege of using it.
  - notJim 14y ago
    You clearly have a different focus than the author of the software, and its fans. ST2's proponents are more concerned with awesome editing power than having a preferences pane. That being said, this is not the first time I've heard this line of criticism.

celerity 14y ago

For me, for "serious" programming, I use a full-fledged IDE which has stuff like code linking, quick project search (with ST2 I have to switch to the terminal), built-in documentation, refactoring support... So paying $60 for a text editor, when there are many good free options out there (even outside of Linux) is too much.

anonymoushn 14y ago
I don't know how to use ST2, but the people I know who use it do project search from within the editor. It looks pretty snappy, about on par with the analogous feature in IntelliJ.

amatsukawa 14y ago

Pretty season's Vim user here. This editor looks awesome, and I would love to give it a whirl, but I feel like I can't switch without these plugins. I'm sure they exist, if someone could point me to one that would be excellent. + Syntastic [https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic/ https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic/] eclipse-like real-time linter. Gives me compile errors and warnings. + Tag bar [http://majutsushi.github.com/tagbar/ http://majutsushi.github.com/tagbar/] navigate tags in the code + Not as essential, but EasyMotion is pretty awesome [https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-easymotion https://github.com/Lokaltog/vim-easymotion]

bsg75 14y ago
Take a look at https://github.com/Kronuz/SublimeCodeIntel https://github.com/Kronuz/SublimeCodeIntel as a potential Syntastic alternative in ST2.
sheldno 14y ago
Linting (there are other plugins but this is what I use) https://github.com/SublimeLinter/SublimeLinter https://github.com/SublimeLinter/SublimeLinter CTags https://github.com/SublimeText/CTags https://github.com/SublimeText/CTags Similar to EasyMotion https://bitbucket.org/sublimator/volcanoes https://bitbucket.org/sublimator/volcanoes More plugins http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/community http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/community

Fando 14y ago

Amazing work!

JonnieCache 14y ago

Congrats to jps. A serious piece of software, and a development style that we can all aspire to. Allow me to recommend the SublimeLinter plugin. Its name should be self explanatory. https://github.com/SublimeLinter/SublimeLinter https://github.com/SublimeLinter/SublimeLinter Also, for those asking about discovering functionality, have a browse of the default key binding definition files, it is enlightening.

kilowatt 14y ago

I've been really tempted to fork and contribute to MacVim and steal some of the nicer visual things ST2 is doing. Namely, 1) rounded corners on selection boxes 2) nice glowing, fading cursor 3) smooth scrolling with a feeling of velocity/inertia 4) the minimap I tried the Vim plugin, but so many of the motions that I use daily were missing I had to jump ship. But I'd love it for MacVim to have the same level of visual and UI polish that ST2 does--it really sets a high bar.

st0p 14y ago
I think that we are entirely different types of developers (and that is fine, this is in no way meant as as being negative on the way you work), but I couldn't care less about the first 3 points you mention. They don't add anything to my productivity. I do wonder though, if visual attraction is such an issue to you, why in the first place do you use Vim?
- kilowatt 14y ago
  I use Vim because I'm faster in it than anything else, hands down. But I do think there's probably some vague psychological argument to be made about the elegance and simplicity of your tools mirroring a state of mind conducive to elegance and simplicity in your programming. It's why people are into tools like WriteRoom. Plus, I feel like the smooth scrolling feature actually does help you preserve an awareness of where you are when you're browsing a file.
patrickod 14y ago
one of the things I've found lacking in MacVim recently is smooth scrolling. The rendering engine on OSX doesn't handle large files well at all. It's a shame because otherwise everything work quite well

LukeHoersten 14y ago

I think I'll finally switch from Emacs to ST2. I have this massive .emacs config just to make it behave like ST2 does by default. Not to mention turing complete settings can get crazy. Well done ST!

drewda 14y ago

The animated screen shots in this blog post and on the front page are quite nicely done. Looks like a series of images being moved and swapped through a canvas area. Anyone know of libraries that can automate the creation of these kind of animations?

arrowgunz 14y ago

Wow, each time I refresh the HN homepage, the upvote count on this post keeps increasing.

tzury 14y ago
dude, consider setting procrastination. It will send you back to work after the forth refresh.

kennethologist 14y ago

I've purchased a copy. Been looking for something to replace N++. This seems like a great alternative. Happy to support other professionals.

arrowgunz 14y ago

After installing the stable 2.0 release, I just tried to update and I got this: http://d.pr/i/Rc0w http://d.pr/i/Rc0w

brianhc 14y ago

Sumblime team, why did you reset my preferences on update? Annoying.

corford 14y ago
Did you have them saved under "Default" or "User"? If the former, SL2 overwrites these when you upgrade.
- brianhc 14y ago
  oops

desireco42 14y ago

Congratulations for making editor that is genuine pleasure to use. I bought it of course a while ago.

desireco42 14y ago

Special kudos to author because it is really cross platform and actually works well on all of them. There are not many products that are like that.

luriel 14y ago

For Go hackers, here is Using Sublime Text 2 with GoSublime: http://mue.tideland.biz/2012/06/using-sublime-text-2-with-gosublime.html http://mue.tideland.biz/2012/06/using-sublime-text-2-with-go...

frou_dh 14y ago

I've been super impressed by the steady pace shown by the developer in improving and tweaking the many beta releases. Top quality product and I was glad to buy it.

sgt 14y ago

I'd like to use Sublime Text if it had vi bindings.

sgt 14y ago
I checked and it does support vi bindings, including ex commands. Enable Vintage and then install VintageEx from https://github.com/SublimeText/VintageEx https://github.com/SublimeText/VintageEx Very simple - and brilliant!

MrGando 14y ago

I use vim. As a software craftsman I want my hammer to be Open Source. ( just see what happened when TextMate got stagnated, there must be other examples ) It's my hammer, it must be open source if possible.

nshankar 14y ago

I would use Vim for one reason than anything else. It is for the commands vit, vat, cat, cit and the like that can select matching tags. In HTML editing this has been my best friend and no other editor comes even close to this feature.

FixThisPOSSite 14y ago

Is Sublime better than TextMate? I do program in various languages and maintain collections of local and remote files. I bought Coda 2 after using Coda 1 for years, and Coda 2 is a bug-riddled piece of shit. I guess I'll switch to Espresso, but I'll consider anything at this point. Except DreamWeaver, which is another buggy piece of shit.

michiel3 14y ago

For users with a Retina MBP: this version of Sublime Text supports Retina graphics on OS X Lion.

ericcholis 14y ago

Personally, the only thing that prevents me from using Sublime Text is the lack of proper Xdebug support. There is a plugin, but it felt clunky. Being on Windows, it's a relief to use something as nice as this editor.

nbj 14y ago

(on OS X) ST2 cannot render RTL (Right-To-Left) text properly and the developer said in the forums that it won't be until ST3 although less mature editors like TextEdit or http://vicoapp.com http://vicoapp.com or http://chocolatapp.com http://chocolatapp.com (beta) and http://activestate.com/komodo http://activestate.com/komodo (IDE) don't have any problems with bidi and rtl texts other OS X editors that could't show bidi and rtl texts: TextMate 1 (http://macromates.com http://macromates.com) MacVim 7.4-64 (http://code.google.com/p/macvim http://code.google.com/p/macvim)