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I love Sublime Text. It's one of my favorite pieces of software. I have it running 100% of the time on every machine I work on. It's where I write all of my pe

I love Sublime Text. It's one of my favorite pieces of software. I have it running 100% of the time on every machine I work on. It's where I write all of my personal notes, blog posts, and it's where I wrote both "Game Programming Patterns" and "Crafting Interpreters". At the same time, it's not the tool I use as an IDE. For programming, I use whatever IDE is dominant for the language I'm working in. Over time, that's been Visual C++, Visual Studio, XCode, Eclipse, IntelliJ, and most recently VS Code. That doesn't mean to me that I want Sublime to turn into an IDE. I like that it's lighterweight than that. It's the perfect sweet spot for me of rich enough to handle piles of notes and documents and small scale code editing, but not so huge and cumbersome that it gets in my way.

ToucanLoucan 2y ago
I've been a big fan of VS Code but the latest updates have shown Microsoft simply can't shake their addiction to bloating software with unnecessary features, so likely back to Sublime Text I go.
- zxvkhkxvdvbdxz 2y ago
  I've been running vscodium for a couple of years now, and they rip out the MS specific stuff so no ChatGPT and so forth. I haven't noticed any slowdowns. Maybe give it a try? https://vscodium.com/ https://vscodium.com/
  - ToucanLoucan 2y ago
    Well that'd be just about perfect! Thank you stranger!
electrondood 2y ago
100% ditto for me. It's the interface for my external brain. The file search and global search are exactly what I need, and the multi-cursor editing, etc. are fantastic. I always have my IDE up on one monitor and Sublime on the other.
- iman453 2y ago
  Do you mostly use your file explorer to see the list of files? Or do you use any plugins to sort and view your files?
muppetman 2y ago
Well said. I work in networking, and I use Sublime for editing router configurations before updating them/applying them etc. I love that it's fast and performant and isn't chock-full of IDE features. I've been a vim user for almost all my life, but a workmate showed me him editing configs using Sublime and he was so fast and quick (especially multiple pointers) - plus we use git a lot (sublime merge) so I tried it and was very impressed. I still use vim a lot, but I simply love Sublime Text (and Merge) as well.
brailsafe 2y ago
> At the same time, it's not the tool I use as an IDE. For programming, I use whatever IDE is dominant for the language I'm working in. Over time, that's been Visual C++, Visual Studio, XCode, Eclipse, IntelliJ, and most recently VS Code. This is what I do too, some IDEs are just well-suited for one language or stack over others. That said, I wish languages and IDEs and editors would share ideas more often. I actually don't hate XCode except for the performance, but I prefer the git interface of VSCode, and I prefer the ability to dangle commas and easily format JS/TS consistently (although the tools somehow used to be easier to set up) in VSCode. (absolutely hate prettier)
bbor 2y ago
Out of curiosity, what is it about an IDE that you find useful...? I'm probably just a heathen, but I've always done the build/run steps on the command line, and Sublime has LSP for all the syntax & semantics goodies other than that -- like for Python, I've got Ruff (syntax), Jedi (semantics), and CoPilot (autocomplete) running happily, with what I feel is an impressive amount of configurability. Are people just working on more complex software than I am so you need the build steps hidden behind a UX, or am I missing some killer IDE feature that I don't even know about? EDIT: It probably helps that I'm a vim die-hard and couldn't imagine clicking on something to rebuild the program! And Sublime's Vim support is better than any real vim program I've ever used, much less the half-hearted versions available in the IDEs I've tried. Maybe that's the main disconnect, and y'all just prefer having dropdown menus?
- snozolli 2y ago
  couldn't imagine clicking on something to rebuild the program! Do you really think that's how people use IDEs? I've never used an IDE that didn't have comprehensive keyboard shortcuts, and I don't remember one that didn't allow customization of shortcuts.
  - bccdee 2y ago
    I assume they mean they build their projects by typing in the terminal commands directly, not that they have vim rigged up to build stuff via keyboard shortcut. I don't think most people use their IDEs like a text editor with a built-in terminal.
- 369548684892826 2y ago
  You didn't mention debugging (breakpoints, step through, inspecting variable values at runtime). If you are writing code and aren't doing these things, you probably should be!
- pbalau 2y ago
  Not sure if you are facetious or not, but here's why I use an IDE. Many years ago I saw an advertisement about some cooking tool. This old East Asian grandma, ninja grandma looking, was doing some prep work for some dish. She stops, looks in disgust at the tool she was using and says "this is meant to bring joy, but this is not bringing any joy". She then switched to the "better" tool and all was good with the universe and much joy for everyone. This is why I use the tools I use, because they bring me joy. There is an argument to be made that I use some of my tools because they bring me less sadness, but oh well. I use vscode because it brings me joy, nevermind that I use less than 10% of its capabilities (eyeballing). I compile, run tests, use source control in Windows Terminal, because Windows Terminal brings me more joy than the vscode terminal. I use a cage on my photo camera because it brings me joy. I use a Peak Design sling because it brings me joy. I use my Lowepro sling bag, that I got as a bonus after buying a cheapish tripod, because it brings me joy. The next version of my bag, size wise, it's a proper backpack, now I'm planning to get one and see how the joy levels are. You use whatever you use because that brings you joy. You can try and rationalize this in any way you want, at the end of the day, the amount of joy is the only real reason you use what you use. Whatever we use doesn't make us better or worse, it makes us human.
nine_k 2y ago
Funnily, my approach is somehow opposite. I run Emacs with all bells and whistles to write whatever language. With LSPs, you are now not married to a language-specific IDE. As a developer, I just start Emacs in server mode and never shut it down. Then I use emacsclient to edit all kinds of files. It loads instantly, handles any reasonable files, can access remote files when needed, and has all the tools I want handy. OTOH the IDE features do not clutter anything: I have no tabs, no toolbars, no file trees — not until I ask for them.
- pinoy420 2y ago
  That sounds like an academic exercise rather than anything practical
  - nine_k 2y ago
    It looks like the comment is posted to a wrong thread. (FTR, the setup above is used for practical, mostly commercial programming; I've left academia without even finishing my post-grad study, decades ago.)
    - nativeit 2y ago
      I don’t believe they were referencing anything about literal higher education. In this context, saying something is an “academic exercise” is just a way of saying it’s being done more for one’s own edification, rather than any purely practical purposes.
  - soraminazuki 2y ago
    In what world does the topic of setting up an editor have any academic value?
    - pinoy420 2y ago
      https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/academic https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/academic 3.b.
- 2y ago
curvaturearth 2y ago
Thanks for your books!
devmor 2y ago
I feel exactly the same about it. SublimeText is where I go to take some notes I want to write unformatted, or with some markdown. It's where I go to paste some blob of JSON or logs from a random command that I want to parse out into something more readable than my terminal gave me. It's where I write a random snippet of code to help someone who's asking me a question, or a bash script for a one-off job. It's not my IDE and I don't want it to replace my IDE, just like I don't want my leatherman tool or swiss army knife to replace my power drill or pliers.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
zxvkhkxvdvbdxz 2y ago
Same! I love that it is so snappy and fast, and don't choke on larger files. I use it for all of my non-programming note taking. I also hope it don't turn into a IDE.
bonestamp2 2y ago
I use sublime in exactly the same way. I've written hundreds of blog post on it. I use it for light data manipulation and other file editing. For writing, I like how I can move text up/down like code when I want to move around items in my outline. I showed a writer friend of mine this and it blew his mind (he doesn't know anything about text editors). For data manipulation, I like multi-line cursors. Sure, I have expensive IDEs that can do this too, but sublime is great for non-technical people and it's very affordable and lightweight as you mentioned. My other friend spends a lot of time in spreadsheets, and he was trying to import a bunch of tabular data one time and it didn't quite work due to the source formatting. I showed him how to pull it into sublime, quickly add some commas and remove some junk data on every line to get it in shape for importing into Excel. He loved it!

ToucanLoucan 2y ago

I've been a big fan of VS Code but the latest updates have shown Microsoft simply can't shake their addiction to bloating software with unnecessary features, so likely back to Sublime Text I go.

zxvkhkxvdvbdxz 2y ago
I've been running vscodium for a couple of years now, and they rip out the MS specific stuff so no ChatGPT and so forth. I haven't noticed any slowdowns. Maybe give it a try? https://vscodium.com/ https://vscodium.com/
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  Well that'd be just about perfect! Thank you stranger!

electrondood 2y ago

100% ditto for me. It's the interface for my external brain. The file search and global search are exactly what I need, and the multi-cursor editing, etc. are fantastic. I always have my IDE up on one monitor and Sublime on the other.

iman453 2y ago
Do you mostly use your file explorer to see the list of files? Or do you use any plugins to sort and view your files?

muppetman 2y ago

Well said. I work in networking, and I use Sublime for editing router configurations before updating them/applying them etc. I love that it's fast and performant and isn't chock-full of IDE features. I've been a vim user for almost all my life, but a workmate showed me him editing configs using Sublime and he was so fast and quick (especially multiple pointers) - plus we use git a lot (sublime merge) so I tried it and was very impressed. I still use vim a lot, but I simply love Sublime Text (and Merge) as well.

brailsafe 2y ago

> At the same time, it's not the tool I use as an IDE. For programming, I use whatever IDE is dominant for the language I'm working in. Over time, that's been Visual C++, Visual Studio, XCode, Eclipse, IntelliJ, and most recently VS Code. This is what I do too, some IDEs are just well-suited for one language or stack over others. That said, I wish languages and IDEs and editors would share ideas more often. I actually don't hate XCode except for the performance, but I prefer the git interface of VSCode, and I prefer the ability to dangle commas and easily format JS/TS consistently (although the tools somehow used to be easier to set up) in VSCode. (absolutely hate prettier)

bbor 2y ago

Out of curiosity, what is it about an IDE that you find useful...? I'm probably just a heathen, but I've always done the build/run steps on the command line, and Sublime has LSP for all the syntax & semantics goodies other than that -- like for Python, I've got Ruff (syntax), Jedi (semantics), and CoPilot (autocomplete) running happily, with what I feel is an impressive amount of configurability. Are people just working on more complex software than I am so you need the build steps hidden behind a UX, or am I missing some killer IDE feature that I don't even know about? EDIT: It probably helps that I'm a vim die-hard and couldn't imagine clicking on something to rebuild the program! And Sublime's Vim support is better than any real vim program I've ever used, much less the half-hearted versions available in the IDEs I've tried. Maybe that's the main disconnect, and y'all just prefer having dropdown menus?

snozolli 2y ago
couldn't imagine clicking on something to rebuild the program! Do you really think that's how people use IDEs? I've never used an IDE that didn't have comprehensive keyboard shortcuts, and I don't remember one that didn't allow customization of shortcuts.
- bccdee 2y ago
  I assume they mean they build their projects by typing in the terminal commands directly, not that they have vim rigged up to build stuff via keyboard shortcut. I don't think most people use their IDEs like a text editor with a built-in terminal.
369548684892826 2y ago
You didn't mention debugging (breakpoints, step through, inspecting variable values at runtime). If you are writing code and aren't doing these things, you probably should be!
pbalau 2y ago
Not sure if you are facetious or not, but here's why I use an IDE. Many years ago I saw an advertisement about some cooking tool. This old East Asian grandma, ninja grandma looking, was doing some prep work for some dish. She stops, looks in disgust at the tool she was using and says "this is meant to bring joy, but this is not bringing any joy". She then switched to the "better" tool and all was good with the universe and much joy for everyone. This is why I use the tools I use, because they bring me joy. There is an argument to be made that I use some of my tools because they bring me less sadness, but oh well. I use vscode because it brings me joy, nevermind that I use less than 10% of its capabilities (eyeballing). I compile, run tests, use source control in Windows Terminal, because Windows Terminal brings me more joy than the vscode terminal. I use a cage on my photo camera because it brings me joy. I use a Peak Design sling because it brings me joy. I use my Lowepro sling bag, that I got as a bonus after buying a cheapish tripod, because it brings me joy. The next version of my bag, size wise, it's a proper backpack, now I'm planning to get one and see how the joy levels are. You use whatever you use because that brings you joy. You can try and rationalize this in any way you want, at the end of the day, the amount of joy is the only real reason you use what you use. Whatever we use doesn't make us better or worse, it makes us human.

nine_k 2y ago

Funnily, my approach is somehow opposite. I run Emacs with all bells and whistles to write whatever language. With LSPs, you are now not married to a language-specific IDE. As a developer, I just start Emacs in server mode and never shut it down. Then I use emacsclient to edit all kinds of files. It loads instantly, handles any reasonable files, can access remote files when needed, and has all the tools I want handy. OTOH the IDE features do not clutter anything: I have no tabs, no toolbars, no file trees — not until I ask for them.

pinoy420 2y ago
That sounds like an academic exercise rather than anything practical
- nine_k 2y ago
  It looks like the comment is posted to a wrong thread. (FTR, the setup above is used for practical, mostly commercial programming; I've left academia without even finishing my post-grad study, decades ago.)
  - nativeit 2y ago
    I don’t believe they were referencing anything about literal higher education. In this context, saying something is an “academic exercise” is just a way of saying it’s being done more for one’s own edification, rather than any purely practical purposes.
- soraminazuki 2y ago
  In what world does the topic of setting up an editor have any academic value?
  - pinoy420 2y ago
    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/academic https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/academic 3.b.
2y ago

curvaturearth 2y ago

Thanks for your books!

devmor 2y ago

I feel exactly the same about it. SublimeText is where I go to take some notes I want to write unformatted, or with some markdown. It's where I go to paste some blob of JSON or logs from a random command that I want to parse out into something more readable than my terminal gave me. It's where I write a random snippet of code to help someone who's asking me a question, or a bash script for a one-off job. It's not my IDE and I don't want it to replace my IDE, just like I don't want my leatherman tool or swiss army knife to replace my power drill or pliers.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

zxvkhkxvdvbdxz 2y ago

Same! I love that it is so snappy and fast, and don't choke on larger files. I use it for all of my non-programming note taking. I also hope it don't turn into a IDE.

bonestamp2 2y ago

I use sublime in exactly the same way. I've written hundreds of blog post on it. I use it for light data manipulation and other file editing. For writing, I like how I can move text up/down like code when I want to move around items in my outline. I showed a writer friend of mine this and it blew his mind (he doesn't know anything about text editors). For data manipulation, I like multi-line cursors. Sure, I have expensive IDEs that can do this too, but sublime is great for non-technical people and it's very affordable and lightweight as you mentioned. My other friend spends a lot of time in spreadsheets, and he was trying to import a bunch of tabular data one time and it didn't quite work due to the source formatting. I showed him how to pull it into sublime, quickly add some commas and remove some junk data on every line to get it in shape for importing into Excel. He loved it!