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Sublime Text developer here, thank you for all the praise! I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish this year. If you have any questions I'd be happy to an

Sublime Text developer here, thank you for all the praise! I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish this year. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer.

bussiere 2y ago
Promise, when my situation get better i will pay the 80$ license. It is on my buylist since a lot of time :) Thanks for the software
shakna 2y ago
One tiny thing, that I haven't investigated at all... And doesn't seem to be a common thing to worry about... If I have a file with an asterisk in it, then Sublime [0] seems to have issues displaying the file name. *.x will appear as [].x for some reason. [0] (Build 4180, out of date...)
- ben-schaaf 2y ago
  That could be any number of things, I suggest posting an issue on our public issue tracker: https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_text/issues https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_text/issues
stevoski 2y ago
Sublime Text is great the way it is. If you have to change things, please make them just tiny, incremental changes.
llama_person 2y ago
I bought Sublime with my first developer paycheck, eons ago. Thanks for your great work <3.
Cthulhu_ 2y ago
I think a big hit for ST's popularity - next to the rise of Atom and VS Code - was its upgrade from version 3 to 4; are you considering to do that again or, if funds are required, do a different way to raise money?
- ben-schaaf 2y ago
  With the new licensing model we no longer need to hold back changes and do major releases. Avoiding the big pause in updates was partly why it was changed.
  - james_in_the_uk 2y ago
    It makes sense. As a mostly casual user I couldn’t justify the new model so have kept the previous version, which still works for my needs.
jamesmunns 2y ago
Thanks for Sublime Text! It's been my daily driver for over 15 years :). 10 of those developing Rust, and making heavy use of the Rust Analyzer/LSP plugin infra. I also want to thank you for having such a reasonable licensing model, I'm launching my own desktop app in the next week or so, and I plan to have a very similar model to Sublime (free to use with nags, license is good for any personal usage, inclusive of updates for X period of time).
tuyiown 2y ago
Thank a lot for sublime, this software is incredible, especially the consistent keyboard handling across all UI, all others editors messes up on this one ! I've things I'd like to see with sublime: - I'd like to have all menu entries accessible from command palette. - I dont use files tabs (always hidden). I'd like to have a special mode that only tracks saved/unsaved status on files, no opened status, or something like auto close on file switch. I've just no use for the opened status, I'm not even sure why it exists besides being a relic of the past (good old) times where "goto file" did not exist. - I like sublime to be aware of git branches changes, eg having heuristic for auto closing or revert saved files are not present in FS after branch switch. The feature is partially here with the reload suggestion. (this partially overlaps the no-open status) - Goto default file listing should be last opened file present on fs, and then alnum sorted listing I suspect there are roadblocks for these suggestions, sorry if I overlooked obvious issues.
jll29 2y ago
For starters, I love the licensing, as it is very fair: I bought a personal license and I can take it to as many machines as I have (I do use many different computers). And you can buy it one time, no silly monthly subscription fees. As a result, Sublime ist the only commercial (locally installed) software I still use, and it is always open. There are situations, where I use macros, regex substitutions, or browsing the file system (using the keyboard only for speed) when I prefer to use my other editor, Emacs. I recently played with Zed, which looks cute, but I immediately lost an important file, so back I was in the Sublime buffer. (Both Sublime and Emacs always auto-save documents without explicit "save" action, so you can never lose anything.) I tend to have many Windows open (several dozens), some of them for several years, others for five minutes. The only two features I would like are: - search across all open files and - a list of edit buffers that is itself an editable buffer that you can walk around using cursor key and select a file by hitting RETURN like Emacs has it. Generally, I prefer that I doesn't become a feature overloaded big monster of a program that can do everything (that's Emacs already, but I like both, I just want them to stay different). Although for longer-term programming of bigger projects I prefer IDEs like IntelliJ IDEA or PyCharm CE, in recent time, I had to write mostly small programs, and both Emacs or Sublime fit that bill (no need for language servers for me for two screens full of a Python script as I also teach that stuff).
- the_duke 2y ago
  > but I immediately lost an important file Zed has an "autosave" setting, it's just off by default.
  - robin_reala 2y ago
    Sublime’s behaviour isn’t an autosave, it just never loses text in a window. You can upgrade the entire OS, start Sublime and your windows and text will be waiting for you, regardless of saved or unsaved state. I’ve got five-year-old scratchpad windows open that I’ve never saved.
    - andrepd 2y ago
      Fwiw zed also has this explicit "sublime style" save all buffers since 3-4 months ago.
redmandarin 2y ago
Sublime Text team, thank you so much for creating the best tool out there! I truly appreciate the stability and simplicity of your product. My main request is to add a tool similar to Cursor Composer and Chat. Thank you again!
- shafyy 2y ago
  Long time Sublime customer here: Please, please do not add any LLM integrations. One of the main reasons I love Sublime is that I can just focus on writing code, without 100 distracting things popping in and popping out. Also, that I support a business with my money that does not spend resources on the LLM hype.
  - dingdingdang 2y ago
    I am in the exact opposite boat - AI is significantly improving my programming flow and having to use VSCode (well, VSCodium in my case) rather than something lightweight like Sublime is suboptimal - I would love a good plugin for LLM integration ala Cody and frankly that's the only way I could see myself as a paying customer.
    - computerthings 2y ago
      I'm in the best boat, I don't want to use LLM but I think ST having hooks to allow people to make such plugins (if those don't already exist) would be a fine thing. Luckily, that boat has loads of space and you're all invited :P
      - shafyy 2y ago
        Sure, I'm fine with this boat :D
        dingdingdang 2y ago
        I'm aboard for sure!
catwell 2y ago
Hey! I'm a Sublime Text user since ST2 in 2011. I love ST (my last blog post is https://blog.separateconcerns.com/2025-01-04-teal-lsp-sublime.html https://blog.separateconcerns.com/2025-01-04-teal-lsp-sublim...) and I think the main thing lacking compared to the competition is the remote development experience. I work in AI so we typically work over SSH on machines with big GPUs. Most of my colleagues use VSCode because it has a very good Remote Development extension.
- kakuri 2y ago
  Remote development is VSCode's killer feature.
- eitland 2y ago
  Can't this be solved using a remote file system these days? I haven't done it in years since with every customer from the last few years the only official way to get to prod is a CI-pipeline, but I think I remember using sfpt or ssh-based file systems even a decade back?
  - catwell 2y ago
    You can use a remote FS but it is nowhere close to the experience VSCode gives you. For instance, running code will run it locally, not on the remote machine.
- InfinityByTen 2y ago
  Likewise! The only reason I moved away from subl is that I got access to a big ass machine and I needed to work remotely. The performance of VS code here is so good that often times I forget that the code and terminal is not my local machine.
- achairapart 2y ago
  This! Upvote for ST SSH remote development, currently using ST for local dev and VSCode for remote.
  - 2y ago
snowl 2y ago
Please fix the bug if possible with Sublime Merge where the UI just becomes completely unresponsive... it always happens due to using it on a workspace and its so annoying to force close and reopen it every day! I love sublime merge otherwise!
- ben-schaaf 2y ago
  My colleague does Sublime Merge, but I can look into this for you. Have you reported this on our issue tracker: https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_merge/issues https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_merge/issues?
- dpjohnst 2y ago
  G'day, I head up the Sublime Merge team. Firstly, thanks for using it and supporting us! If you haven't already, it would help immensely to get a bug report here: https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_merge/issues/new/choose https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_merge/issues/new/choose I'll definitely look into this further and get it sorted
arghwhat 2y ago
Was a sublime user through version 2 and 3, which were always champions of performance, but while I installed and used 4 for a bit it never quite became part of my workflow. I think part of it was because it sat between using neovim vs. using vscode, and if I had to reach out for vscode I probably wanted to use remote code editing, code intelligence or AI integration which a default sublime setup wasn't quite offering, and the plugin game seemed stale. Maybe there were also some Wayland issues, don't remember. Maybe I'll try again and see what you have been up to. Using a proprietary text editor in ${current_year} feels a bit weird though.
culebron21 2y ago
I'm happy with the most of the features, bought v2, 3 & 4 over the last 13 years, but it lacks debugger, so for Rusti, I have to use VS Code -- which is awful, but there's no better alternative. I'd pay for a special plugin that will work faster than VS Code.
pims 2y ago
Piling up to the grateful comments, I've been using Sublime Text for years and still love it. It has never quite done it as an IDE for me as I'm used to more fully fledged ones like IntelliJ, however it is an amazing scratch pad and text manipulation tool. I pretty much have it permanently open. This post made me realise I had never bought a license, it is now done. Thank you for it being fair, by the way.
ForHackernews 2y ago
I have a lot of respect for Sublime Text not being yet-another-electron-monster. Thanks for your work.
vsgherzi 2y ago
Love sublime text! Would be amazing to see a blog post from you guys go over the gui framework. Really cool tech! It’s my editor of choice!
hmottestad 2y ago
I don't use it much for programming, since I mostly use IntelliJ for that. Where Sublime shines for me is opening large files, and opening pretty much any file. So many times MacOS wants me to open a json file in Xcode, or a txt file in TextEdit, when all i want to do is open it in Sublime! And I know that i can open files that are multiple GB without issues, just takes a few seconds :P And the Ctrl-D shortcut and multi-cursor in general is so neat. I know other editors have it too now, but when I showed my wife how useful it was for simple tasks like formatting a list of emails...she ended up making her company buy her a license and teaching others how to use it.
- jrochkind1 2y ago
  Just in case you or another reader doens't know (you probably do), it is very easy to configure MacOS to by default open .txt or .json (or whatever) files in the app of your choice, such as ST. I have ST opening .txt and .json, yeah. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/choose-an-app-to-open-a-file-on-mac-mh35597/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/choose-an-app-to-op... (There's also prob some way to do it from terminal, but I do it the above way)
andrepd 2y ago
Semantic highlighting! The LSP thing I mean [1]. It's the one thing which I thought was just an aesthetic nicety but actually makes a huge difference. In C++ for example: - Color virtual calls differently from direct calls to tell them at a glance - Class members in a different color than regular variables - Arguments in a different color than locals, in a different color than statics - Consts in red, mutable variables in orange makes a huge difference in effortlessly reading the code. It's not supported in Sublime (though you can hack a kludge to make a basic version of it work). [1] https://gist.github.com/swarn/fb37d9eefe1bc616c2a7e476c0bc0316 https://gist.github.com/swarn/fb37d9eefe1bc616c2a7e476c0bc03...
timeon 2y ago
Thank you for well crafted and performant software! I'm oscillating often between Helix/Zed/Sublime but I'm probably never going to drop Sublime Text even if I would have to obtain new licenses for next versions.
Stoo 2y ago
I've been using Sublime Text since version 2, so probably close to 15 years, and I love it! It's my go to editor for code (mostly front end web dev but I've used it for C# as well, when VS won't get out of the way) as well as all of my writing (using Markdown). I've published 5 tabletop RPGs and related supplements (with another on the way) all written using Sublime plus so many lines of notes and blog posts. It's a dream to work with! I've paid for my licence but is there a tip jar anywhere?
laserbeam 2y ago
Is there any chance we'd see a Sublime Debug? Loved Sublime Text and Sublime Merge. The main thing I'm missing in my life is a really good and fast cross platform UI for a LOT of debugger backends. (I tend to works with a lot of programming languages, and CLI debuggers are really clunky to use).
- alibarber 2y ago
  I'd also be delighted with, and happy to part with cash for, such a thing.
- blibble 2y ago
  I have found this plugin works surprisingly well https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Debugger https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Debugger
  - jrochkind1 2y ago
    Wow, I did not know about this. ST user who is on it still mostly just by inertia (learning tools is my least favorite part of the job) but really not getting the features I want/need from it. This'll help!
  - laserbeam 2y ago
    Cool, but git integration in the editor was also cool until SublimeHQ decided to spin out a dedicated client for it. The only debugger I'm happy with right now (in terms of performance/features) is RemedyBG, but it's windows only and compiled languages only. In general, I mostly live with painfully slow debugging in VSCode. I would really love to see RemedyBG's dedicated debugging UI/UX approach refined by some group like SublimeHQ. A group who knows how to turn the UX up to 11.
    - steve_adams_86 2y ago
      > Cool, but git integration in the editor was also cool until SublimeHQ decided to spin out a dedicated client for it. Is it completely removed from Sublime Text? I love merge, but the simplest controls like stage/unstage/commit/indicate file status seem kind of essential. Having said that, Merge is far and away the best git UI I've used. It has saved my bacon a few times. I'm not terrible with git in the terminal (I use it there 98% of the time), but sometimes... I really don't want to be doing things without a decent visual representation of the mess and chaos, and intuitive access to the tools available. I get why they wanted to create Merge.
ThouYS 2y ago
absolutely loving SublimeMerge!
- dpjohnst 2y ago
  Thank you! Let me know if anything is missing for you and I can work on getting it added in.
mathijs 2y ago
I've used it for 15 years and ST is still the first thing I install on a new PC. All thoughts, meeting notes, journals, blog post drafts... everything is jotted down in ST first. I even went as far as writing my own to-do list syntax highlighter[1] which is the main reason ST is always open, at home and at work, even though I mostly use VSCode and IntelliJ for coding nowadays. [1]: https://github.com/mlagerberg/todo https://github.com/mlagerberg/todo
- seedie 2y ago
  Love the simplicity of your to to-do list syntax highlighter in comparison to todo.txt. That's more how my brain works, as simple as possible. Especially your take on the due date vs. date when you plan to do it. Will definitely try it out.
- techiferous 2y ago
  Same! I use ST for my to-do list and personal wiki, with custom highlighting and commands, and VSCode for coding.
- DarkCrusader2 2y ago
  I also use sublime for managing todo and IDE for coding as my work repo uses custom tooling for build and autocomplete which only supports Visual Studio. I use PlainTasks [0] which is very similar to your plugin but also has a few keyboard shortcuts to toggle the item state. Using this with a watered down GTD setup has really brought a lot of peace in both my personal and professional life. [0] https://github.com/aziz/PlainTasks https://github.com/aziz/PlainTasks
  - james2doyle 2y ago
    Wow, you really pulled out all the tricks for this one! Commands, key bindings, completions, snippets, and a syntax! Nicely done!
- james2doyle 2y ago
  That's really cool. Great work!
vijaybritto 2y ago
Have y'all considered something like vscode's extension experience in sublime. The current one is not really intuitive or easier to setup
privacyking 2y ago
I bought sublime text 3 over a decade ago. What are the top new features of sublime text 4 that make it worth upgrading too?
- ben-schaaf 2y ago
  We list the big ones on our front page: * GPU rendering * Apple & Linux arm64 support * Tab multi-select * context-aware auto-complete * TypeScript, TSX and JSX syntax support * Much more powerful syntax engine * Adding python 3.8 for plugins Some personal standouts not listed are: * Syntax-aware code folding * Mixed-indentation highlighting ("draw_white_space" setting) * Kinetic scrolling on Linux * Preserved undo history * Change-aware white-space trimming * Asynchronous file saving * Find result highlighting in the scroll bar * Find-in-files filtering by gitignore
  - KerrAvon 2y ago
    Has the UI become more Mac-like on the Mac? This is the only reason I still go back to TextMate even though I purchased SublimeText.
mixmix 2y ago
Not really a question, but please do not deprecate mini_auto_complete! It is one of the most useful (despite being hidden/undocumented) features of ST to me.
- jsx2 2y ago
  Hi! Could you explain how to use it?
WesolyKubeczek 2y ago
I’d happily pay again if you come up with remote editing like VSCode has. It’s the killer feature. You can forbid me from using any of its extensions and turn off syntax highlighting, but as long as I can connect somewhere over SSH and still have the latency of local editing, I’d be using it. That said, it seems like in 2025 AD the LSP client should come baked in and integrated, with configurations for how to start individual LSP servers possibly shipping on the side. I liked how the whole Go shebang was accessible in Zed in one click, same in VSCode. That all said, I still use Sublime Text whenever I can.
revorad 2y ago
Sublime user for many many years now. I've tried VSCode many times, never liked it. I use Cursor a bit now but still prefer Sublime. Thank you for building it!
bloomingkales 2y ago
You really should write a book on programming a text editor. It seems like we’ve all been on this journey with you.
bruce343434 2y ago
Why does sublime do code navigation in such a clunky way? Such as "go to definition". Control click does not work, instead you need to press the far away F12 key. It then opens up a new tab instead of an inline dropdown. Apparently that tab isn't normal text, it's clickable text. it contains usages as well as definitions so you need to manually scan and decipher the results. When you click on a result, it opens the file, but doesn't quite scroll to the definition, although it's in view (but not highlighted! So you have to scan for it again!) The little pseudo terminal that pops up at the bottom when you press ctrl+b (build) is also highly annoying. Why does it not accept keyboard input? I keep having to open a separate terminal where I can compile and test my TUI apps. If I just use ctrlB, then my app hangs waiting for stdin that I can never provide. And that waiting process never gets removed by ST either when I press ctrlB again. Furthermore, ST isn't capable of recognizing my various Makefile build commands. ST only shows make clean and make when I press ctrl shift B. Farthestmost, why does ST not recognize when I'm in a different directory, that it should use a different build system? Why do I have to manually tell it to use python instead of C when I am editing a python file? Ok last one. Setting up a "replace occurances within selection" is highly unintuitive. When you enter the search term, that RESETS your selection. And you have to start over. Ugh. I want to select my search area, then tell it what to look for, then tell it what to replace with, then replace all within that area.
- ben-schaaf 2y ago
  > It then opens up a new tab instead of an inline dropdown. Apparently that tab isn't normal text, it's clickable text. If you're talking about the built-in goto-definition then it's definitely not a tab, it's a popup similar to goto-anything and the command palette. You can type to filter, use the arrow keys, press enter, ctrl+enter for side-by-side, etc. If you want to use the mouse you can hover over the symbol and get a list of definitions and references. > it contains usages as well as definitions That sounds like you've got a syntax that isn't classifying its symbols correctly. I vaguely remember Microsoft's Typescript package doing this. All the built-in syntaxes properly classify definitions so you won't have references show up in that list. It's possibly simply removing a package will fix this for you. > When you click on a result, it opens the file, but doesn't quite scroll to the definition, although it's in view (but not highlighted! So you have to scan for it again!) Not scrolling to the definition is odd, it's working fine for me. I agree we could highlight the definition better; by default the line is highlighted though. You can enable line highlighting if that's too subtle. > The little pseudo terminal that pops up at the bottom when you press ctrl+b (build) is also highly annoying. Why does it not accept keyboard input? I keep having to open a separate terminal where I can compile and test my TUI apps. If I just use ctrlB, then my app hangs waiting for stdin that I can never provide. And that waiting process never gets removed by ST either when I press ctrlB again. We don't currently have a terminal, but the Terminus plugin is fairly popular if that's what you're looking for. > Furthermore, ST isn't capable of recognizing my various Makefile build commands. ST only shows make clean and make when I press ctrl shift B. We generally don't integrate that tightly with build systems; doing so effectively requires a plugin per external build system. Though I don't know if you'd actually want to have all targets listed for Make, since virtually everything is a target (and apparently this wasn't possible until --print-targets was added last year). > Farthestmost, why does ST not recognize when I'm in a different directory, that it should use a different build system? Why do I have to manually tell it to use python instead of C when I am editing a python file? If you have the build system set to "Automatic", then ST will automatically pick which ones to make available. For Make it'll check for a Makefile for instance. You can then use Build With… to select the one you want to use. If you've manually picked a different build system then that's what ST will use. > Ok last one. Setting up a "replace occurances within selection" is highly unintuitive. When you enter the search term, that RESETS your selection. And you have to start over. Ugh. I want to select my search area, then tell it what to look for, then tell it what to replace with, then replace all within that area. The behavior you want it to have sounds like how I remember it being, but that's clearly not the case; I'll have to look into that, thanks.
Klaster_1 2y ago
I've been a Sublime Text user for ten years, bought it and Sublime Merge multiple times. A year ago, I permanently moved to VSCode because of three things: 1. Solid coding AI integration with frequent improvements. Sublime Text at best gives you an option to plug an LSP with modest capabilities. It's behind the times. 2. Small community, infrequent extension updates. 3. Limited UI capabilities. Extensions have to contort hard to fit into available extension points. What's your vision of ST future?
- mrThe 2y ago
  That's basically my experience. I've switched from ruby to golang a while ago and developing in sublime text was become a pure pain, while vscode provided a lot of plugins to solve basic needs. Then i switched back to ruby and discovered that vscode also have superior ruby support. I still love sublime text, but there is no way i'm going back to it.
- fauria 2y ago
  Those are actually some of the reasons why I use Sublime.
  - ok_computer 2y ago
    Yeah I have accessibility/distraction issues with all the flair and animations and small text in vs code. I know all text editors need some degree of config to be comfortable but sublime is nearly immediately usable. Vs code is the only thing I need to configure to remove flair and features vs extend them.
  - bigstrat2003 2y ago
    I agree. The last thing I want from Sublime is to have AI nonsense.
- kapitanluffy 2y ago
  Here's my two (or three?) cents 1. There are several plugins that allow AI integration 2. There is an active community on https://discord.sublimetext.io https://discord.sublimetext.io 3. From what I can perceive based on Sublime HQ's responses, it's main focus for Sublime Text is simplicity and to be a text editor. You can notice this if you look at the banner text in the website; it says "Text Editing, Done Right". And while it is mainly used for code and most of its users are developers, it tries not to be. However, it does provide people the ability to extend it however they please. Overall, Sublime Text is indeed not as fully featured as VSCode because it is not supposed to.
heelix 2y ago
Big fan of the tool. Sublime was one of the few editors that could even open the massive logs one project was generating. The recovery is so good, I've realized I had dozens of tabs unsaved for years until IT updated machines. One question: is there going to be another 3.x release? The popup takes you to a 4.x release, which is great if you are on 4.x. If it hit EOL, it makes it easy for us to force the update. Right now, it is in a bit of a weird in between.
- FichteFoll 2y ago
  The last release of ST3 was in 2019 [1], 2 years before the first stable release of ST4. It is dead. [1]: https://www.sublimetext.com/3 https://www.sublimetext.com/3
- ben-schaaf 2y ago
  ST3 won't be receiving any bugfixes or new features, so it's effectively EOL. Anyone's of course free to use ST3 or 2 or 1 if they don't wish to upgrade, we still make those available on our website.
carterschonwald 2y ago
I’ve been a happy user customer for subl and smerge since launch even when a student. I really really appreciate how few regressions, amazing low latency and always refining everything. And I’ve def had positive interactions with everyone who is working on the sublime sublime software since it’s been out. So like 10-15 years ish I’m going to guess without looking stuff up
microflash 2y ago
Are there are plans to improve Search UI and make sidebar more capable. I really like the way VSCode’s search interface where results are listed on sidebar and clicking an item opens the file in the editor. Regardless of the above experience, Sublime Text is still my daily driver since 2012. Nothing has come close to it.
- kapitanluffy 2y ago
  there is a "Find in Files" feature. It will show you a new tab with results where you can use key binds to navigate (next, previous, open line of result) You can see the feature under "Find > Find in Files" You can see the "navigation" under "Find > Find Results" For more help, head over to https://discord.sublimetext.io https://discord.sublimetext.io (and tag me, I'll reply when I can)
  - microflash 2y ago
    This is what I use. Unfortunately, when I’m doing a search and replace, the search results don’t update automatically once I’ve edited a file. But thank you for replying. I’ll hop into Discord eventually.
mtotheb 2y ago
FYI the latest update on the site and when updating via UI says "20 Jan 2024", not 2025. Great product, thank you for being awesome :-).
calini 2y ago
Hi! I was a Sublime Text fan throughout University, and I would have loved to continue using it. Unfortunately for me Sublime lacks too many necessities, and that forced me off Sublime and onto the much slower VSCode. I really wish Sublime would develop a more solid plugin system and have some sane built-ins such as a terminal.
- dartos 2y ago
  > sane built-ins such as a terminal. It’s all preference. I think it’s insane that people use the terminal in their editors.
  - steve_adams_86 2y ago
    I'd use those terminals, maybe, if the implementations weren't so bad. The one in VS Code is a sad version of what's possible.
  - HatchedLake721 2y ago
    Why is it insane? Along with a terminal, I also use a database editor inside my code editor. That’s the point behind an IDE - integrated developer environment.
    - kgermino 2y ago
      But Sublime isn't an IDE, it's just a text editor. The line is blurry (especially with how VS Code is used these days) but I have ST running next to IntelliJ all day, they serve different roles.
      - dartos 2y ago
        At this point I’d call vscode an IDE. Or at least an IDE platform where plugins provide the language integration.
    - dartos 2y ago
      It’s insane bc I don’t like it :) Like I said, it’s all personal preference. I mainly code in neovim, I do a lot of work ssh-ing into other machines (sometimes with multiple hops.) I live in the terminal and sometimes cat very very large log files and would like an experience that is terminal centric. It very much surprised me to learn how many devs there are nowadays who aren’t terminal centric (outside of windows land) Also I use my text editor to edit database records (via a plugin) as well. Editing DB rows in vim is the kind of crazy I like.
TeeMassive 2y ago
Suggestion: implement a vimtutor: subltutor
- 8ig8 2y ago
  There's this... https://sublimetutor.com https://sublimetutor.com But for v3. See also on Package Control... https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Sublime%20Tutor https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Sublime%20Tutor
giancarlostoro 2y ago
I'm genuinely interested in seeing what you kind of envision for Sublime Text, its evolved nicely, and arguably I would say that it inspired some of today's top editors like VS Code and even Atom, I definitely felt like those took strong inspiration from ST.
alberth 2y ago
Just FYI - I think there is an incorrect date in the change log. The latest build (4192), says it was released in "2024" when I think you mean to say "2025". https://www.sublimetext.com/download https://www.sublimetext.com/download
have_faith 2y ago
I don't use ST as my daily driver any more but I still use it for fast editing of large files occasionally. I am daily driving Merge though. Any other Sublime apps in the works? Have you also considered offering ST and SM as a bundle price with a discount? I'd be interested just because of my lopsided use of the two apps.
- ben-schaaf 2y ago
  We already offer ST and SM in a discounted bundle :)
  - have_faith 2y ago
    Duh, I completely missed it somehow! Skim reading is a bad habit kids.
markus_zhang 2y ago
Thank you! Can you share some technical details of the product, if not against the contract you signed? I'm mostly interested in UI so would love to know how is the custom UI code structured? Would also be very nice if you could talk a bit about interesting text editor programming/challenges you encountered. Thanks for the product.
tsukikage 2y ago
Bought Sublime a decade ago, bought the new version last year, still love it. If we're doing feature requests: a "recently closed windows" alongside the "recently closed files" would be amazing, for when I misclick and close a window containing a bunch of open files and a folder or two :)
quickslowdown 2y ago
Thank you so much for the tool you've built, and for being so generous in how you license it. Sublime is always installed on my machine, Sublime Merge is great too :)
philipov 2y ago
I paid for a license for Sublime, but then I was forced to upgrade a while ago, and my license no longer works with the new version. Is there a solution to this?
- rizky05 2y ago
  [dead]
- pwgentleman 2y ago
  I'd start here: http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/previous_versions.html http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/previous_versions.html (^:
  - philipov 2y ago
    Thank you!
andrewmcwatters 2y ago
Not a question, but by God I hope Sublime makes enough money to justify continuing to do business, because if you can't both make something you love and get paid a good chunk of change for one of the best quality editors in the industry, then it would make me very sad.
rustybolt 2y ago
On the odd chance that you read this and feel like replying, I have always been in awe of Sublime Text's UI. Can you elaborate a bit on how it works? There was a short comment by Jon Skinner that it is custom and written on top of a cross-platform portability layer, but I mean, I'd love to hear some more details.
ok_computer 2y ago
Hi, I just renewed my sublime text and merge licenses after starting in 2021. Thank you for sticking to simple product excellence and not following trends. Thanks for focusing on the editor for human users and not pushing some service based enterprise licensing system or ai tooling where the company aspires to 1000x. It’s a great product and my most used PC software.
silverwind 2y ago
Maybe you can priorize https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_text/issues/1649 https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_text/issues/1649. As a heavy LSP user, I find it very inconvenient not being able to copy text out of popups. Also, I think you should open-source `minihtml`.
- james2doyle 2y ago
  That would be handy. I tend to use the "diagnostic panel" like one of the comments suggests for that reason. It isn't perfect but it works.
james2doyle 2y ago
You're welcome. Keep up the good work. I will keep buying it as long as I keep using it!
godzillabrennus 2y ago
Please make an Evernote competitor out of Sublime…
- LNSY 2y ago
  Oooh, or an Obsidian competitor that doesn't take 10 minutes to boot. Some notetaking app would be amazing
sunnybeetroot 2y ago
Thank you for sublime! Have used it for the past 10 years. Do you mind if I ask is it your full time job?
- ben-schaaf 2y ago
  It's myself and my colleagues full time jobs, yes. Jon Skinner (ST's creator and owner) also works full time with us.
WhereIsTheTruth 2y ago
- build system that understand colors.. out of the box.. - revamped project system so i don't have to store extra files in my root directory, there is a plugin for it, but this should be working out of the box imo - drag&drop panels to create layout with the mouse - tabs in output/temporary panels - UI API for status panel, side panel and in the views - a proper built-in terminal, i know there is Terminus, but color support is lacking, tabs support is lacking, doesn't work well with tmux, overall it's very janky (wrt to scrolling) - sticky scrolling (the thing that pins the scope name) or - the thingy that says where in the code we are, i forgot how it's called: [MyStruct > my_function] I'd be willing to pay extra for a proper terminal for ST
LNSY 2y ago
First: I love your software, it is such an inspiration. I have been a fan for more than a decade at a point. There are two pieces of software I would love you to implement, and I would buy both: 1. Spreadsheet App 2. An AI aware editor like Cursor that uses DeepSeek or equivalent. You could sell a subscription to it like Cursor also. I think you could make both of these sing.
ricardbejarano 2y ago
ST user here, just wanted to say thank you.
ellis0n 2y ago
Sublime is the best! I've been creating a new programming language ACPUL with Sublime for 10 years https://old.reddit.com/r/acpu/comments/1fxxjtx/acpu_mobile_development_with_raspberry_pi_and_ipad/ https://old.reddit.com/r/acpu/comments/1fxxjtx/acpu_mobile_d... . I don't have the resources, so please add support for the ACPUL programming language. If Sublime had a good debugger, it would be even more powerful.
- kapitanluffy 2y ago
  Support for syntaxes (and/or debuggers) are mostly provided by the community. Creating a syntax for your language shouldn't be that hard afaik. Just head over to https://discord.sublimetext.io https://discord.sublimetext.io to talk to the active community
  - ellis0n 2y ago
    Yeah, I know. I think maybe there are interested. Thanks for the comment and link
jiehong 2y ago
Perhaps Sublime Text could run some annual anonymous survey? It could both be an indicator of what the community is doing, and who your users are, and also a way to promote some new features people might have missed (like the survey "state of CSS"). I enjoy both Sublime Text and Sublime Merge almost everyday, thank you very much for making them! Some annoyances, though: - the way plugins are displayed inside ST while browsing for them is limited. Other editors usually provide a much better UI. The web version of package control is required in the end. - Ctrl-P does not the same thing in ST and SM, and it always tricks me. I wished they would be more aligned by default, but that ship has sailed I guess. I should rebind them. - SM UI can be slow / be unresponsive for a while like when a tool has run and 20k files were created but not part of git ignore yet. It makes deleting them quite difficult from the UI. - I wish SM would allow me to pick up patch files from the diff UI and import them from there more easily. - I wish Mac OS dictation would be more native in SM, and allow me to change language like in other Mac OS apps.
ixmerof 2y ago
The most important thing for me as I am using ST since ca. 2009. I am retro programming fan and ST is the only editor that still allows me to conveniently work on windowses across 98 to 7. I am not using the most recent version, heck I haven't upgraded it for few years now, but I hope the compatibility still remains.
pruppert 2y ago
12-ish year user here. I love Sublime and by extension love you. Keep up the awesome work! I’m a hobbyist programmer but make my living as a doctor and use Sublime to write medical reports. It’s just so damn good for manipulating/shaping/crafting text.
urbandw311er 2y ago
Just to echo others I love your software and have been using it for years. It’s my go-to text editor for jotting down notes, pasting clipboard contents, authoring and formatting quick todo lists, comments and all sorts. I love that it starts quickly, runs reliably and is kept up-to-date. Three cheers for you. Keep up the good work.
nix-zarathustra 2y ago
1. You've said that the UI system is tightly coupled with the text editor. What are the benefits to this? How difficult was it to use the UI system with sublime merge? 2. How are you able to maintain stability of the application? Do you have an extensive test suite? What QA do you have in place? 2a. How do you ensure that there is no regression in editor performance? 3. Sublime text is almost 2 decades old. How has the code based evolved since then? Does it have a lot of technical debt, or has the core of the editor aged well and remains relatively unchanged?

Sublime Text developer here, thank you for all the praise! I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish this year. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer.

bussiere 2y ago

Promise, when my situation get better i will pay the 80$ license. It is on my buylist since a lot of time :) Thanks for the software

shakna 2y ago

One tiny thing, that I haven't investigated at all... And doesn't seem to be a common thing to worry about... If I have a file with an asterisk in it, then Sublime [0] seems to have issues displaying the file name. *.x will appear as [].x for some reason. [0] (Build 4180, out of date...)

ben-schaaf 2y ago
That could be any number of things, I suggest posting an issue on our public issue tracker: https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_text/issues https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_text/issues

stevoski 2y ago

Sublime Text is great the way it is. If you have to change things, please make them just tiny, incremental changes.

llama_person 2y ago

I bought Sublime with my first developer paycheck, eons ago. Thanks for your great work <3.

Cthulhu_ 2y ago

I think a big hit for ST's popularity - next to the rise of Atom and VS Code - was its upgrade from version 3 to 4; are you considering to do that again or, if funds are required, do a different way to raise money?

ben-schaaf 2y ago
With the new licensing model we no longer need to hold back changes and do major releases. Avoiding the big pause in updates was partly why it was changed.
- james_in_the_uk 2y ago
  It makes sense. As a mostly casual user I couldn’t justify the new model so have kept the previous version, which still works for my needs.

jamesmunns 2y ago

Thanks for Sublime Text! It's been my daily driver for over 15 years :). 10 of those developing Rust, and making heavy use of the Rust Analyzer/LSP plugin infra. I also want to thank you for having such a reasonable licensing model, I'm launching my own desktop app in the next week or so, and I plan to have a very similar model to Sublime (free to use with nags, license is good for any personal usage, inclusive of updates for X period of time).

tuyiown 2y ago

Thank a lot for sublime, this software is incredible, especially the consistent keyboard handling across all UI, all others editors messes up on this one ! I've things I'd like to see with sublime: - I'd like to have all menu entries accessible from command palette. - I dont use files tabs (always hidden). I'd like to have a special mode that only tracks saved/unsaved status on files, no opened status, or something like auto close on file switch. I've just no use for the opened status, I'm not even sure why it exists besides being a relic of the past (good old) times where "goto file" did not exist. - I like sublime to be aware of git branches changes, eg having heuristic for auto closing or revert saved files are not present in FS after branch switch. The feature is partially here with the reload suggestion. (this partially overlaps the no-open status) - Goto default file listing should be last opened file present on fs, and then alnum sorted listing I suspect there are roadblocks for these suggestions, sorry if I overlooked obvious issues.

jll29 2y ago

For starters, I love the licensing, as it is very fair: I bought a personal license and I can take it to as many machines as I have (I do use many different computers). And you can buy it one time, no silly monthly subscription fees. As a result, Sublime ist the only commercial (locally installed) software I still use, and it is always open. There are situations, where I use macros, regex substitutions, or browsing the file system (using the keyboard only for speed) when I prefer to use my other editor, Emacs. I recently played with Zed, which looks cute, but I immediately lost an important file, so back I was in the Sublime buffer. (Both Sublime and Emacs always auto-save documents without explicit "save" action, so you can never lose anything.) I tend to have many Windows open (several dozens), some of them for several years, others for five minutes. The only two features I would like are: - search across all open files and - a list of edit buffers that is itself an editable buffer that you can walk around using cursor key and select a file by hitting RETURN like Emacs has it. Generally, I prefer that I doesn't become a feature overloaded big monster of a program that can do everything (that's Emacs already, but I like both, I just want them to stay different). Although for longer-term programming of bigger projects I prefer IDEs like IntelliJ IDEA or PyCharm CE, in recent time, I had to write mostly small programs, and both Emacs or Sublime fit that bill (no need for language servers for me for two screens full of a Python script as I also teach that stuff).

the_duke 2y ago
> but I immediately lost an important file Zed has an "autosave" setting, it's just off by default.
- robin_reala 2y ago
  Sublime’s behaviour isn’t an autosave, it just never loses text in a window. You can upgrade the entire OS, start Sublime and your windows and text will be waiting for you, regardless of saved or unsaved state. I’ve got five-year-old scratchpad windows open that I’ve never saved.
  - andrepd 2y ago
    Fwiw zed also has this explicit "sublime style" save all buffers since 3-4 months ago.

redmandarin 2y ago

Sublime Text team, thank you so much for creating the best tool out there! I truly appreciate the stability and simplicity of your product. My main request is to add a tool similar to Cursor Composer and Chat. Thank you again!

shafyy 2y ago
Long time Sublime customer here: Please, please do not add any LLM integrations. One of the main reasons I love Sublime is that I can just focus on writing code, without 100 distracting things popping in and popping out. Also, that I support a business with my money that does not spend resources on the LLM hype.
- dingdingdang 2y ago
  I am in the exact opposite boat - AI is significantly improving my programming flow and having to use VSCode (well, VSCodium in my case) rather than something lightweight like Sublime is suboptimal - I would love a good plugin for LLM integration ala Cody and frankly that's the only way I could see myself as a paying customer.
  - computerthings 2y ago
    I'm in the best boat, I don't want to use LLM but I think ST having hooks to allow people to make such plugins (if those don't already exist) would be a fine thing. Luckily, that boat has loads of space and you're all invited :P
    - shafyy 2y ago
      Sure, I'm fine with this boat :D
      - dingdingdang 2y ago
        I'm aboard for sure!

catwell 2y ago

Hey! I'm a Sublime Text user since ST2 in 2011. I love ST (my last blog post is https://blog.separateconcerns.com/2025-01-04-teal-lsp-sublime.html https://blog.separateconcerns.com/2025-01-04-teal-lsp-sublim...) and I think the main thing lacking compared to the competition is the remote development experience. I work in AI so we typically work over SSH on machines with big GPUs. Most of my colleagues use VSCode because it has a very good Remote Development extension.

kakuri 2y ago
Remote development is VSCode's killer feature.
eitland 2y ago
Can't this be solved using a remote file system these days? I haven't done it in years since with every customer from the last few years the only official way to get to prod is a CI-pipeline, but I think I remember using sfpt or ssh-based file systems even a decade back?
- catwell 2y ago
  You can use a remote FS but it is nowhere close to the experience VSCode gives you. For instance, running code will run it locally, not on the remote machine.
InfinityByTen 2y ago
Likewise! The only reason I moved away from subl is that I got access to a big ass machine and I needed to work remotely. The performance of VS code here is so good that often times I forget that the code and terminal is not my local machine.
achairapart 2y ago
This! Upvote for ST SSH remote development, currently using ST for local dev and VSCode for remote.
- 2y ago

snowl 2y ago

Please fix the bug if possible with Sublime Merge where the UI just becomes completely unresponsive... it always happens due to using it on a workspace and its so annoying to force close and reopen it every day! I love sublime merge otherwise!

ben-schaaf 2y ago
My colleague does Sublime Merge, but I can look into this for you. Have you reported this on our issue tracker: https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_merge/issues https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_merge/issues?
dpjohnst 2y ago
G'day, I head up the Sublime Merge team. Firstly, thanks for using it and supporting us! If you haven't already, it would help immensely to get a bug report here: https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_merge/issues/new/choose https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_merge/issues/new/choose I'll definitely look into this further and get it sorted

arghwhat 2y ago

Was a sublime user through version 2 and 3, which were always champions of performance, but while I installed and used 4 for a bit it never quite became part of my workflow. I think part of it was because it sat between using neovim vs. using vscode, and if I had to reach out for vscode I probably wanted to use remote code editing, code intelligence or AI integration which a default sublime setup wasn't quite offering, and the plugin game seemed stale. Maybe there were also some Wayland issues, don't remember. Maybe I'll try again and see what you have been up to. Using a proprietary text editor in ${current_year} feels a bit weird though.

culebron21 2y ago

I'm happy with the most of the features, bought v2, 3 & 4 over the last 13 years, but it lacks debugger, so for Rusti, I have to use VS Code -- which is awful, but there's no better alternative. I'd pay for a special plugin that will work faster than VS Code.

pims 2y ago

Piling up to the grateful comments, I've been using Sublime Text for years and still love it. It has never quite done it as an IDE for me as I'm used to more fully fledged ones like IntelliJ, however it is an amazing scratch pad and text manipulation tool. I pretty much have it permanently open. This post made me realise I had never bought a license, it is now done. Thank you for it being fair, by the way.

ForHackernews 2y ago

I have a lot of respect for Sublime Text not being yet-another-electron-monster. Thanks for your work.

vsgherzi 2y ago

Love sublime text! Would be amazing to see a blog post from you guys go over the gui framework. Really cool tech! It’s my editor of choice!

hmottestad 2y ago

I don't use it much for programming, since I mostly use IntelliJ for that. Where Sublime shines for me is opening large files, and opening pretty much any file. So many times MacOS wants me to open a json file in Xcode, or a txt file in TextEdit, when all i want to do is open it in Sublime! And I know that i can open files that are multiple GB without issues, just takes a few seconds :P And the Ctrl-D shortcut and multi-cursor in general is so neat. I know other editors have it too now, but when I showed my wife how useful it was for simple tasks like formatting a list of emails...she ended up making her company buy her a license and teaching others how to use it.

jrochkind1 2y ago
Just in case you or another reader doens't know (you probably do), it is very easy to configure MacOS to by default open .txt or .json (or whatever) files in the app of your choice, such as ST. I have ST opening .txt and .json, yeah. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/choose-an-app-to-open-a-file-on-mac-mh35597/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/choose-an-app-to-op... (There's also prob some way to do it from terminal, but I do it the above way)

andrepd 2y ago

Semantic highlighting! The LSP thing I mean [1]. It's the one thing which I thought was just an aesthetic nicety but actually makes a huge difference. In C++ for example: - Color virtual calls differently from direct calls to tell them at a glance - Class members in a different color than regular variables - Arguments in a different color than locals, in a different color than statics - Consts in red, mutable variables in orange makes a huge difference in effortlessly reading the code. It's not supported in Sublime (though you can hack a kludge to make a basic version of it work). [1] https://gist.github.com/swarn/fb37d9eefe1bc616c2a7e476c0bc0316 https://gist.github.com/swarn/fb37d9eefe1bc616c2a7e476c0bc03...

timeon 2y ago

Thank you for well crafted and performant software! I'm oscillating often between Helix/Zed/Sublime but I'm probably never going to drop Sublime Text even if I would have to obtain new licenses for next versions.

Stoo 2y ago

I've been using Sublime Text since version 2, so probably close to 15 years, and I love it! It's my go to editor for code (mostly front end web dev but I've used it for C# as well, when VS won't get out of the way) as well as all of my writing (using Markdown). I've published 5 tabletop RPGs and related supplements (with another on the way) all written using Sublime plus so many lines of notes and blog posts. It's a dream to work with! I've paid for my licence but is there a tip jar anywhere?

laserbeam 2y ago

Is there any chance we'd see a Sublime Debug? Loved Sublime Text and Sublime Merge. The main thing I'm missing in my life is a really good and fast cross platform UI for a LOT of debugger backends. (I tend to works with a lot of programming languages, and CLI debuggers are really clunky to use).

alibarber 2y ago
I'd also be delighted with, and happy to part with cash for, such a thing.
blibble 2y ago
I have found this plugin works surprisingly well https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Debugger https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Debugger
- jrochkind1 2y ago
  Wow, I did not know about this. ST user who is on it still mostly just by inertia (learning tools is my least favorite part of the job) but really not getting the features I want/need from it. This'll help!
- laserbeam 2y ago
  Cool, but git integration in the editor was also cool until SublimeHQ decided to spin out a dedicated client for it. The only debugger I'm happy with right now (in terms of performance/features) is RemedyBG, but it's windows only and compiled languages only. In general, I mostly live with painfully slow debugging in VSCode. I would really love to see RemedyBG's dedicated debugging UI/UX approach refined by some group like SublimeHQ. A group who knows how to turn the UX up to 11.
  - steve_adams_86 2y ago
    > Cool, but git integration in the editor was also cool until SublimeHQ decided to spin out a dedicated client for it. Is it completely removed from Sublime Text? I love merge, but the simplest controls like stage/unstage/commit/indicate file status seem kind of essential. Having said that, Merge is far and away the best git UI I've used. It has saved my bacon a few times. I'm not terrible with git in the terminal (I use it there 98% of the time), but sometimes... I really don't want to be doing things without a decent visual representation of the mess and chaos, and intuitive access to the tools available. I get why they wanted to create Merge.

ThouYS 2y ago

absolutely loving SublimeMerge!

dpjohnst 2y ago
Thank you! Let me know if anything is missing for you and I can work on getting it added in.

mathijs 2y ago

I've used it for 15 years and ST is still the first thing I install on a new PC. All thoughts, meeting notes, journals, blog post drafts... everything is jotted down in ST first. I even went as far as writing my own to-do list syntax highlighter[1] which is the main reason ST is always open, at home and at work, even though I mostly use VSCode and IntelliJ for coding nowadays. [1]: https://github.com/mlagerberg/todo https://github.com/mlagerberg/todo

seedie 2y ago
Love the simplicity of your to to-do list syntax highlighter in comparison to todo.txt. That's more how my brain works, as simple as possible. Especially your take on the due date vs. date when you plan to do it. Will definitely try it out.
techiferous 2y ago
Same! I use ST for my to-do list and personal wiki, with custom highlighting and commands, and VSCode for coding.
DarkCrusader2 2y ago
I also use sublime for managing todo and IDE for coding as my work repo uses custom tooling for build and autocomplete which only supports Visual Studio. I use PlainTasks [0] which is very similar to your plugin but also has a few keyboard shortcuts to toggle the item state. Using this with a watered down GTD setup has really brought a lot of peace in both my personal and professional life. [0] https://github.com/aziz/PlainTasks https://github.com/aziz/PlainTasks
- james2doyle 2y ago
  Wow, you really pulled out all the tricks for this one! Commands, key bindings, completions, snippets, and a syntax! Nicely done!
james2doyle 2y ago
That's really cool. Great work!

vijaybritto 2y ago

Have y'all considered something like vscode's extension experience in sublime. The current one is not really intuitive or easier to setup

privacyking 2y ago

I bought sublime text 3 over a decade ago. What are the top new features of sublime text 4 that make it worth upgrading too?

ben-schaaf 2y ago
We list the big ones on our front page: * GPU rendering * Apple & Linux arm64 support * Tab multi-select * context-aware auto-complete * TypeScript, TSX and JSX syntax support * Much more powerful syntax engine * Adding python 3.8 for plugins Some personal standouts not listed are: * Syntax-aware code folding * Mixed-indentation highlighting ("draw_white_space" setting) * Kinetic scrolling on Linux * Preserved undo history * Change-aware white-space trimming * Asynchronous file saving * Find result highlighting in the scroll bar * Find-in-files filtering by gitignore
- KerrAvon 2y ago
  Has the UI become more Mac-like on the Mac? This is the only reason I still go back to TextMate even though I purchased SublimeText.

mixmix 2y ago

Not really a question, but please do not deprecate mini_auto_complete! It is one of the most useful (despite being hidden/undocumented) features of ST to me.

jsx2 2y ago
Hi! Could you explain how to use it?

WesolyKubeczek 2y ago

I’d happily pay again if you come up with remote editing like VSCode has. It’s the killer feature. You can forbid me from using any of its extensions and turn off syntax highlighting, but as long as I can connect somewhere over SSH and still have the latency of local editing, I’d be using it. That said, it seems like in 2025 AD the LSP client should come baked in and integrated, with configurations for how to start individual LSP servers possibly shipping on the side. I liked how the whole Go shebang was accessible in Zed in one click, same in VSCode. That all said, I still use Sublime Text whenever I can.

revorad 2y ago

Sublime user for many many years now. I've tried VSCode many times, never liked it. I use Cursor a bit now but still prefer Sublime. Thank you for building it!

bloomingkales 2y ago

You really should write a book on programming a text editor. It seems like we’ve all been on this journey with you.

bruce343434 2y ago

Why does sublime do code navigation in such a clunky way? Such as "go to definition". Control click does not work, instead you need to press the far away F12 key. It then opens up a new tab instead of an inline dropdown. Apparently that tab isn't normal text, it's clickable text. it contains usages as well as definitions so you need to manually scan and decipher the results. When you click on a result, it opens the file, but doesn't quite scroll to the definition, although it's in view (but not highlighted! So you have to scan for it again!) The little pseudo terminal that pops up at the bottom when you press ctrl+b (build) is also highly annoying. Why does it not accept keyboard input? I keep having to open a separate terminal where I can compile and test my TUI apps. If I just use ctrlB, then my app hangs waiting for stdin that I can never provide. And that waiting process never gets removed by ST either when I press ctrlB again. Furthermore, ST isn't capable of recognizing my various Makefile build commands. ST only shows make clean and make when I press ctrl shift B. Farthestmost, why does ST not recognize when I'm in a different directory, that it should use a different build system? Why do I have to manually tell it to use python instead of C when I am editing a python file? Ok last one. Setting up a "replace occurances within selection" is highly unintuitive. When you enter the search term, that RESETS your selection. And you have to start over. Ugh. I want to select my search area, then tell it what to look for, then tell it what to replace with, then replace all within that area.

ben-schaaf 2y ago
> It then opens up a new tab instead of an inline dropdown. Apparently that tab isn't normal text, it's clickable text. If you're talking about the built-in goto-definition then it's definitely not a tab, it's a popup similar to goto-anything and the command palette. You can type to filter, use the arrow keys, press enter, ctrl+enter for side-by-side, etc. If you want to use the mouse you can hover over the symbol and get a list of definitions and references. > it contains usages as well as definitions That sounds like you've got a syntax that isn't classifying its symbols correctly. I vaguely remember Microsoft's Typescript package doing this. All the built-in syntaxes properly classify definitions so you won't have references show up in that list. It's possibly simply removing a package will fix this for you. > When you click on a result, it opens the file, but doesn't quite scroll to the definition, although it's in view (but not highlighted! So you have to scan for it again!) Not scrolling to the definition is odd, it's working fine for me. I agree we could highlight the definition better; by default the line is highlighted though. You can enable line highlighting if that's too subtle. > The little pseudo terminal that pops up at the bottom when you press ctrl+b (build) is also highly annoying. Why does it not accept keyboard input? I keep having to open a separate terminal where I can compile and test my TUI apps. If I just use ctrlB, then my app hangs waiting for stdin that I can never provide. And that waiting process never gets removed by ST either when I press ctrlB again. We don't currently have a terminal, but the Terminus plugin is fairly popular if that's what you're looking for. > Furthermore, ST isn't capable of recognizing my various Makefile build commands. ST only shows make clean and make when I press ctrl shift B. We generally don't integrate that tightly with build systems; doing so effectively requires a plugin per external build system. Though I don't know if you'd actually want to have all targets listed for Make, since virtually everything is a target (and apparently this wasn't possible until --print-targets was added last year). > Farthestmost, why does ST not recognize when I'm in a different directory, that it should use a different build system? Why do I have to manually tell it to use python instead of C when I am editing a python file? If you have the build system set to "Automatic", then ST will automatically pick which ones to make available. For Make it'll check for a Makefile for instance. You can then use Build With… to select the one you want to use. If you've manually picked a different build system then that's what ST will use. > Ok last one. Setting up a "replace occurances within selection" is highly unintuitive. When you enter the search term, that RESETS your selection. And you have to start over. Ugh. I want to select my search area, then tell it what to look for, then tell it what to replace with, then replace all within that area. The behavior you want it to have sounds like how I remember it being, but that's clearly not the case; I'll have to look into that, thanks.

Klaster_1 2y ago

I've been a Sublime Text user for ten years, bought it and Sublime Merge multiple times. A year ago, I permanently moved to VSCode because of three things: 1. Solid coding AI integration with frequent improvements. Sublime Text at best gives you an option to plug an LSP with modest capabilities. It's behind the times. 2. Small community, infrequent extension updates. 3. Limited UI capabilities. Extensions have to contort hard to fit into available extension points. What's your vision of ST future?

mrThe 2y ago
That's basically my experience. I've switched from ruby to golang a while ago and developing in sublime text was become a pure pain, while vscode provided a lot of plugins to solve basic needs. Then i switched back to ruby and discovered that vscode also have superior ruby support. I still love sublime text, but there is no way i'm going back to it.
fauria 2y ago
Those are actually some of the reasons why I use Sublime.
- ok_computer 2y ago
  Yeah I have accessibility/distraction issues with all the flair and animations and small text in vs code. I know all text editors need some degree of config to be comfortable but sublime is nearly immediately usable. Vs code is the only thing I need to configure to remove flair and features vs extend them.
- bigstrat2003 2y ago
  I agree. The last thing I want from Sublime is to have AI nonsense.
kapitanluffy 2y ago
Here's my two (or three?) cents 1. There are several plugins that allow AI integration 2. There is an active community on https://discord.sublimetext.io https://discord.sublimetext.io 3. From what I can perceive based on Sublime HQ's responses, it's main focus for Sublime Text is simplicity and to be a text editor. You can notice this if you look at the banner text in the website; it says "Text Editing, Done Right". And while it is mainly used for code and most of its users are developers, it tries not to be. However, it does provide people the ability to extend it however they please. Overall, Sublime Text is indeed not as fully featured as VSCode because it is not supposed to.

heelix 2y ago

Big fan of the tool. Sublime was one of the few editors that could even open the massive logs one project was generating. The recovery is so good, I've realized I had dozens of tabs unsaved for years until IT updated machines. One question: is there going to be another 3.x release? The popup takes you to a 4.x release, which is great if you are on 4.x. If it hit EOL, it makes it easy for us to force the update. Right now, it is in a bit of a weird in between.

FichteFoll 2y ago
The last release of ST3 was in 2019 [1], 2 years before the first stable release of ST4. It is dead. [1]: https://www.sublimetext.com/3 https://www.sublimetext.com/3
ben-schaaf 2y ago
ST3 won't be receiving any bugfixes or new features, so it's effectively EOL. Anyone's of course free to use ST3 or 2 or 1 if they don't wish to upgrade, we still make those available on our website.

carterschonwald 2y ago

I’ve been a happy user customer for subl and smerge since launch even when a student. I really really appreciate how few regressions, amazing low latency and always refining everything. And I’ve def had positive interactions with everyone who is working on the sublime sublime software since it’s been out. So like 10-15 years ish I’m going to guess without looking stuff up

microflash 2y ago

Are there are plans to improve Search UI and make sidebar more capable. I really like the way VSCode’s search interface where results are listed on sidebar and clicking an item opens the file in the editor. Regardless of the above experience, Sublime Text is still my daily driver since 2012. Nothing has come close to it.

kapitanluffy 2y ago
there is a "Find in Files" feature. It will show you a new tab with results where you can use key binds to navigate (next, previous, open line of result) You can see the feature under "Find > Find in Files" You can see the "navigation" under "Find > Find Results" For more help, head over to https://discord.sublimetext.io https://discord.sublimetext.io (and tag me, I'll reply when I can)
- microflash 2y ago
  This is what I use. Unfortunately, when I’m doing a search and replace, the search results don’t update automatically once I’ve edited a file. But thank you for replying. I’ll hop into Discord eventually.

mtotheb 2y ago

FYI the latest update on the site and when updating via UI says "20 Jan 2024", not 2025. Great product, thank you for being awesome :-).

calini 2y ago

Hi! I was a Sublime Text fan throughout University, and I would have loved to continue using it. Unfortunately for me Sublime lacks too many necessities, and that forced me off Sublime and onto the much slower VSCode. I really wish Sublime would develop a more solid plugin system and have some sane built-ins such as a terminal.

dartos 2y ago
> sane built-ins such as a terminal. It’s all preference. I think it’s insane that people use the terminal in their editors.
- steve_adams_86 2y ago
  I'd use those terminals, maybe, if the implementations weren't so bad. The one in VS Code is a sad version of what's possible.
- HatchedLake721 2y ago
  Why is it insane? Along with a terminal, I also use a database editor inside my code editor. That’s the point behind an IDE - integrated developer environment.
  - kgermino 2y ago
    But Sublime isn't an IDE, it's just a text editor. The line is blurry (especially with how VS Code is used these days) but I have ST running next to IntelliJ all day, they serve different roles.
    - dartos 2y ago
      At this point I’d call vscode an IDE. Or at least an IDE platform where plugins provide the language integration.
  - dartos 2y ago
    It’s insane bc I don’t like it :) Like I said, it’s all personal preference. I mainly code in neovim, I do a lot of work ssh-ing into other machines (sometimes with multiple hops.) I live in the terminal and sometimes cat very very large log files and would like an experience that is terminal centric. It very much surprised me to learn how many devs there are nowadays who aren’t terminal centric (outside of windows land) Also I use my text editor to edit database records (via a plugin) as well. Editing DB rows in vim is the kind of crazy I like.

TeeMassive 2y ago

Suggestion: implement a vimtutor: subltutor

8ig8 2y ago
There's this... https://sublimetutor.com https://sublimetutor.com But for v3. See also on Package Control... https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Sublime%20Tutor https://packagecontrol.io/packages/Sublime%20Tutor

giancarlostoro 2y ago

I'm genuinely interested in seeing what you kind of envision for Sublime Text, its evolved nicely, and arguably I would say that it inspired some of today's top editors like VS Code and even Atom, I definitely felt like those took strong inspiration from ST.

alberth 2y ago

Just FYI - I think there is an incorrect date in the change log. The latest build (4192), says it was released in "2024" when I think you mean to say "2025". https://www.sublimetext.com/download https://www.sublimetext.com/download

have_faith 2y ago

I don't use ST as my daily driver any more but I still use it for fast editing of large files occasionally. I am daily driving Merge though. Any other Sublime apps in the works? Have you also considered offering ST and SM as a bundle price with a discount? I'd be interested just because of my lopsided use of the two apps.

ben-schaaf 2y ago
We already offer ST and SM in a discounted bundle :)
- have_faith 2y ago
  Duh, I completely missed it somehow! Skim reading is a bad habit kids.

markus_zhang 2y ago

Thank you! Can you share some technical details of the product, if not against the contract you signed? I'm mostly interested in UI so would love to know how is the custom UI code structured? Would also be very nice if you could talk a bit about interesting text editor programming/challenges you encountered. Thanks for the product.

tsukikage 2y ago

Bought Sublime a decade ago, bought the new version last year, still love it. If we're doing feature requests: a "recently closed windows" alongside the "recently closed files" would be amazing, for when I misclick and close a window containing a bunch of open files and a folder or two :)

quickslowdown 2y ago

Thank you so much for the tool you've built, and for being so generous in how you license it. Sublime is always installed on my machine, Sublime Merge is great too :)

philipov 2y ago

I paid for a license for Sublime, but then I was forced to upgrade a while ago, and my license no longer works with the new version. Is there a solution to this?

rizky05 2y ago
[dead]
pwgentleman 2y ago
I'd start here: http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/previous_versions.html http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/previous_versions.html (^:
- philipov 2y ago
  Thank you!

andrewmcwatters 2y ago

Not a question, but by God I hope Sublime makes enough money to justify continuing to do business, because if you can't both make something you love and get paid a good chunk of change for one of the best quality editors in the industry, then it would make me very sad.

rustybolt 2y ago

On the odd chance that you read this and feel like replying, I have always been in awe of Sublime Text's UI. Can you elaborate a bit on how it works? There was a short comment by Jon Skinner that it is custom and written on top of a cross-platform portability layer, but I mean, I'd love to hear some more details.

ok_computer 2y ago

Hi, I just renewed my sublime text and merge licenses after starting in 2021. Thank you for sticking to simple product excellence and not following trends. Thanks for focusing on the editor for human users and not pushing some service based enterprise licensing system or ai tooling where the company aspires to 1000x. It’s a great product and my most used PC software.

silverwind 2y ago

Maybe you can priorize https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_text/issues/1649 https://github.com/sublimehq/sublime_text/issues/1649. As a heavy LSP user, I find it very inconvenient not being able to copy text out of popups. Also, I think you should open-source `minihtml`.

james2doyle 2y ago
That would be handy. I tend to use the "diagnostic panel" like one of the comments suggests for that reason. It isn't perfect but it works.

james2doyle 2y ago

You're welcome. Keep up the good work. I will keep buying it as long as I keep using it!

godzillabrennus 2y ago

Please make an Evernote competitor out of Sublime…

LNSY 2y ago
Oooh, or an Obsidian competitor that doesn't take 10 minutes to boot. Some notetaking app would be amazing

sunnybeetroot 2y ago

Thank you for sublime! Have used it for the past 10 years. Do you mind if I ask is it your full time job?

ben-schaaf 2y ago
It's myself and my colleagues full time jobs, yes. Jon Skinner (ST's creator and owner) also works full time with us.

WhereIsTheTruth 2y ago

- build system that understand colors.. out of the box.. - revamped project system so i don't have to store extra files in my root directory, there is a plugin for it, but this should be working out of the box imo - drag&drop panels to create layout with the mouse - tabs in output/temporary panels - UI API for status panel, side panel and in the views - a proper built-in terminal, i know there is Terminus, but color support is lacking, tabs support is lacking, doesn't work well with tmux, overall it's very janky (wrt to scrolling) - sticky scrolling (the thing that pins the scope name) or - the thingy that says where in the code we are, i forgot how it's called: [MyStruct > my_function] I'd be willing to pay extra for a proper terminal for ST

LNSY 2y ago

First: I love your software, it is such an inspiration. I have been a fan for more than a decade at a point. There are two pieces of software I would love you to implement, and I would buy both: 1. Spreadsheet App 2. An AI aware editor like Cursor that uses DeepSeek or equivalent. You could sell a subscription to it like Cursor also. I think you could make both of these sing.

ricardbejarano 2y ago

ST user here, just wanted to say thank you.

ellis0n 2y ago

Sublime is the best! I've been creating a new programming language ACPUL with Sublime for 10 years https://old.reddit.com/r/acpu/comments/1fxxjtx/acpu_mobile_development_with_raspberry_pi_and_ipad/ https://old.reddit.com/r/acpu/comments/1fxxjtx/acpu_mobile_d... . I don't have the resources, so please add support for the ACPUL programming language. If Sublime had a good debugger, it would be even more powerful.

kapitanluffy 2y ago
Support for syntaxes (and/or debuggers) are mostly provided by the community. Creating a syntax for your language shouldn't be that hard afaik. Just head over to https://discord.sublimetext.io https://discord.sublimetext.io to talk to the active community
- ellis0n 2y ago
  Yeah, I know. I think maybe there are interested. Thanks for the comment and link

jiehong 2y ago

Perhaps Sublime Text could run some annual anonymous survey? It could both be an indicator of what the community is doing, and who your users are, and also a way to promote some new features people might have missed (like the survey "state of CSS"). I enjoy both Sublime Text and Sublime Merge almost everyday, thank you very much for making them! Some annoyances, though: - the way plugins are displayed inside ST while browsing for them is limited. Other editors usually provide a much better UI. The web version of package control is required in the end. - Ctrl-P does not the same thing in ST and SM, and it always tricks me. I wished they would be more aligned by default, but that ship has sailed I guess. I should rebind them. - SM UI can be slow / be unresponsive for a while like when a tool has run and 20k files were created but not part of git ignore yet. It makes deleting them quite difficult from the UI. - I wish SM would allow me to pick up patch files from the diff UI and import them from there more easily. - I wish Mac OS dictation would be more native in SM, and allow me to change language like in other Mac OS apps.

ixmerof 2y ago

The most important thing for me as I am using ST since ca. 2009. I am retro programming fan and ST is the only editor that still allows me to conveniently work on windowses across 98 to 7. I am not using the most recent version, heck I haven't upgraded it for few years now, but I hope the compatibility still remains.

pruppert 2y ago

12-ish year user here. I love Sublime and by extension love you. Keep up the awesome work! I’m a hobbyist programmer but make my living as a doctor and use Sublime to write medical reports. It’s just so damn good for manipulating/shaping/crafting text.

urbandw311er 2y ago

Just to echo others I love your software and have been using it for years. It’s my go-to text editor for jotting down notes, pasting clipboard contents, authoring and formatting quick todo lists, comments and all sorts. I love that it starts quickly, runs reliably and is kept up-to-date. Three cheers for you. Keep up the good work.

nix-zarathustra 2y ago

1. You've said that the UI system is tightly coupled with the text editor. What are the benefits to this? How difficult was it to use the UI system with sublime merge? 2. How are you able to maintain stability of the application? Do you have an extensive test suite? What QA do you have in place? 2a. How do you ensure that there is no regression in editor performance? 3. Sublime text is almost 2 decades old. How has the code based evolved since then? Does it have a lot of technical debt, or has the core of the editor aged well and remains relatively unchanged?