8 ms·

How SublimeText Bodybags vim+Terminator

53 points by ngokevin 14y ago

steevdave 14y ago
I don't want to be "that guy" but the only thing really stopping me from switching is the lack of an ARM Linux client. Heck, I'd even be willing to do the work on it, but until I can use the same editor across all my machines, I'll stick with vim. It ain't perfect but I can put it on all my machines (and the Chromebook even comes with it, just have to switch to developer mode to get access to it.) But ST does look quite nice, I've played with it a few times, but never really seriously looked at it.
- quarterto 14y ago
  This. I'd love Sublime on a Raspberry Pi (or on my phone, once it's running Ubuntu).
speg 14y ago
And just wait until Sublime 3 is ready. http://www.sublimetext.com/3 http://www.sublimetext.com/3
- ChikkaChiChi 14y ago
  Which negates all plugins until they are updated. I've been a pico/pine user for almost 20 years and on OSX ST2 has been my editor of choice for the past couple. I decided just this past week to force myself into getting to know vim better because I hear how powerful it is. Once you get a decent .vimrc going, it can be configured to be as good/better than ST2. Its free. Its cross platform. Its easily usable over SSH. So at least for me, vim > st2/st3.
  - ChikkaChiChi 14y ago
    Sorry, pico/nano.
  - kfinley 14y ago
    If you are just staring with VIM, I recommend taking a look at spf13-vim (https://github.com/spf13/spf13-vim https://github.com/spf13/spf13-vim)
    - crazydiamond 14y ago
      I have been using vi/vim since 1989, and I found spf13 to be a totally frustrating experience. Twice I tried it out and quit. It messes with settings of neocomplcache (issues reported and verified with authors), it installs plugins like autocomplete (??) which can also be frustrating. I had hunt through the source of some 20 or more plugins to figure out the offending ones and remove them. However, that's just my experience. I'd suggest he try a clean vim and add plugins as he needs them. There are plenty of links suggesting great plugins for developers. "sjl" (steve losh) has an article which was linked here (Coming Home to Vim) that mentions some good plugins.
      - kfinley 14y ago
        The reason that I suggest spf13, is because it shows what's possible. I spent nearly a year building up a set of plugins and settings only to discover that 95% of what I had "discovered" was included. I'm sure it has it's problems, but you can easily remove all of the included bundles. I think at the very least it provides a well structured foundation to built upon.
        ChikkaChiChi 14y ago
        Thanks for the tips! I've been studying other's .vimrc files in an effort to understand what all vim vanilla is capable of. Once I get that dialed in, I'll look into plugins for my local box; I just want to make sure that I can use it effectively just by firing up any new VM. Also, I'm being sacrilegious and setting myself up for primarily --INSERT-- mode, since its the most like a GUI text editor. Its making the barrier of entry slightly more endurable!
        crazydiamond 14y ago
  - swah 14y ago
    [rewrite] Sadly, I stil can't be near as fast in making changes across several files as I'm in ST/Emacs... And when I finish installing all the plugins, I can't claim that my vim works everywhere.
griffindy 14y ago
Other than the central repository (which vim does lack, there are quite a few plugins I'll admit), I don't see anything too different from vim, or am I just missing something. not trying to be mean spirited, just curious.
- lukeholder 14y ago
  You have almost everything VIM is awesome at + nicer non terminal based UI niceties. Plus its really really fast. You get the code wall, really good window manager, better project management and its also cross platform.
  - mayanksinghal 14y ago
    Non Terminal Based UI Niceties: Use Gvim Cross Platform: So is vim/gvim. I use vim on Mac/Linux/Windows. I love both vim and Sublime, so I would call 'Bodybagging' is flame-bait at best.
    - sirclueless 14y ago
      Gvim has a lot of awkward hangups, in my opinion. Selecting text is still weird, there's no context menu, etc. It's vim outside of a terminal, which is great, but most full-fledged graphical editors take better advantage of their environment than Gvim does.
      - _delirium 14y ago
        I agree with gvim being a bit basic. If you're on OSX, I think MacVim (http://code.google.com/p/macvim/ http://code.google.com/p/macvim/) is a much better choice. On Linux, I use terminal vim and rely on the terminal for environmental integration: you can choose from a dozen X terminals that will do almost anything you want.
- coley 14y ago
  Is the the central repository you're looking for?http://www.vim.org/scripts/index.php http://www.vim.org/scripts/index.php
coley 14y ago
I don't think these current features + plugins 'body bag' vim. For instance, is all of this vim 'body bagging' goodness available to you over SSH?
- deltasquared 14y ago
  I agree, work over ssh or go home. I am pretty sure I will be using Vim when Sublime goes the way of Textmate and SlickEdit.
randomdrake 14y ago
Great article. As a text editor, I can agree that SublimeText is an absolutely gorgeous product. As a Vim user, it didn't take me long to realize it wasn't for me. For me, SublimeText still feels like I'm using a program external to the system I'm developing on. It doesn't feel like it's quite close enough to the bones of the system to me. I know that a "feeling" isn't really the best argument, so here are a couple things that are more concrete to attempt to explain it: 1) I haven't found an implementation of the ease of which it's possible to split your editor quickly and easily. :split or :vsplit and :tabf are all commands I use frequently to not only open files when I need them, but browse the filesystem quickly and easily. 2) Running external commands. While I understand it's possible to run external commands with a key binding in SublimeText, I can simply drop into a shell (:sh) or execute a command :! with just a few keystrokes in Vim, whenever I want. 3) Since Vim runs in the terminal, it means that I can, very easily, perform many things without having to use the mouse or alt-tab once. Uninterrupted workflow is extremely important to me as a developer who tinkers with the entire stack: SSH into a remote box, manipulate some files and tail a log file for an error, locate a file, edit it in Vim, hop into PostgreSQL to perform some queries, fire up a local development server, test an HTTP response, see that it works, create a quickfix file for all the changes, open them all in Vim, recheck everything, push my changes up, restart the services, monitor the server with the changes in place, ensure things are good, and exit. I can do that all within the comfort of the terminal, where Vim runs for me. To reiterate: I agree that SublimeText is a beautiful editor, but I don't see how it could possibly replace the availability of Vim in my workflow.
- eknkc 14y ago
  1) I find it easy to use split windows in ST (Cmd+Alt+2). I mostly use a fixed 2 column view though, Vim provides much more dynamic window management options. But I really can't work comfortably on large projects where I have multiple buffers open on multiple windows and stuff. I could not get used to Vim's "each tab is a workspace" approach. I like my tabs to be buffers. 2, 3) Nowhere near Vim's terminal integration, but you can use https://github.com/misfo/Shell-Turtlestein https://github.com/misfo/Shell-Turtlestein plugin to run arbitrary shell commands. It can even pipe in the current buffer and pipe the output into the buffer. There are plugins for common stuff like ssh or git but you are right while working on vim, context switches are cheaper. Not with ST. As an example, I used subl as my default editor in shell, for a while. Git would fire up an ST window for commit message input or interactive rebases. Each time, my mind had to comprehend what just happened. With vim, I just handle the input and continue my work, without even noticing it.
wting 14y ago
I think trying to convert vim users is pretty futile. /r/vim/ brought up a lot of issues with Sublime's vintage mode: http://www.reddit.com/r/vim/comments/17i5ps/from_a_vim_perspective_what_do_you_think_about/c85p4wd http://www.reddit.com/r/vim/comments/17i5ps/from_a_vim_persp...
lloeki 14y ago
Sublime Text is awesome, but the article falls completely flat by mentioning stuff that's actually in vim and missing the parts that are not. 5. vim compatability! > With a few tweaks, I was able to make it just like vim as far as I could tell It took me five seconds to hit walls and off-by-one issues revealing Vintage mode as a remote simulacrum of Vim. A look at the source confirmed that it's just a mode emulation and a small bunch of keybindings, a far cry from the notion of text objects which makes Vim what it is. I am a vim user, but I use ST without Vintage because the impedance mismatch is too big. > minus some :commands Author doesn't mention VintageEx. Still thouroughly lacking, even for basic stuff. 4. Powerful Keybindings in JSON and Plugins in Python :help index lists default keybindings :verbose map lists all set keybindings, what they do and where they've been set. With Vim (vim --version will tell you), depending on compilation options, you can write plugins in various languages (python, perl, ruby, lua, tcl...), not just vimscript. hot-load: :source ~/.vimrc or whatever other file. 3. Package Manager and the More Centralized Community vim.org/scripts[0] is the central place to look for. Pathogen and Vundle fix that. Package Control give you a central, automated and in-editor index, which I'm not sure is a real plus since I care about installing plugins once in a blue moon, so that's merely a convenience. Besides I've had Package Control bork ST more than once on upgrades (either of ST or of itself), so I'd rather have it outside. 2. Project Sessions :mksession is what you want. Bind it to a key[1], or be creative in your vimrc. Also, automatic restore[2] when there's one around and you boot with just vim in the project directory. 1. Ctrl+P - GotoAnything: For the function mentioned (fuzzy search for files), there's a plugin of the same name. The author again fails to mention what makes Sublime Text supposedly stand apart: Go To Anything goes to anything, not just files, so symbols (with @symbol) and lines (with :linenum) are reachable from a single shortcut. I don't want to sound mean, ST rocks and has a number of good things I miss in Vim, but they're not among this list. In fact it's good enough that I contemplated doing a real Vim mode with extensible text objects (hence why I looked at the Vintage source). [0]: http://www.vim.org/scripts/index.php http://www.vim.org/scripts/index.php [1]: https://github.com/lloeki/vimfiles/blob/master/rc#L158 https://github.com/lloeki/vimfiles/blob/master/rc#L158 [2]: https://github.com/lloeki/vimfiles/blob/master/rc#L257 https://github.com/lloeki/vimfiles/blob/master/rc#L257
- dotandimet 14y ago
spacelizard 14y ago
I still have only used sublime text once, but I might try it out again soon just to get a better idea of what these features are that make it so much better. And them I'm going to add them into vim. I think that it is a serious problem that sublime text is proprietary. While it does support plugins, the one time I did use it I remember seeing several messages from plugin authors complaining that the sublime API does not support certain features that they wanted it to support, and that the sublime text authors refused to implement them. So to that effect I really think there is no benefit to using a proprietary text editor, no matter how many flashy features it has. I would rather just improve vim (and encourage others to do so) so that it is better than sublime text. It also seems somewhat strange that sublime is proprietary considering how lax their licensing policy is. It doesn't seem to me like there is any financial or practical reason for it to be proprietary. To channel Stallman, the only thing I can reasonably conclude is that the author intends to attack his own users. It really disappoints me to see that this kind of project is being promoted as a replacement for free software editors.
terhechte 14y ago
I've tried Sublime Text several times, but each time I went back to Vim. The Vintage plugin just does not cut it for me; there're too many things that Vim does, that Sublime cannot do. I couldn't live with EasyMotion, RelativeNumber, the fantastic split window support, Gundo (Undo Tree), and much more. Regarding the plugins he mentions, I see nothing special, all of that is also available as Vim plugins: 5. Vim Compatibility (Obviously in there) 4. Keybindings in JSON are indeed nice, though imap / and friends in Vimrc are ok, too. Using Vim+Python, one can also write Vim plugins in Python (import vim). 3. Vundle (https://github.com/gmarik/vundle https://github.com/gmarik/vundle) is a fantastic package manager and reads GitHub repositories likehttps://github.com/vim-scripts https://github.com/vim-scripts. Adding a new package is as simple as doing :Bundle 'vim-scripts/YankRing.vim' :BundleInstall or :BundleSearch foo to find what's available. The listed plugins: Git -> try Fugitive.vim it is awesome Emmett -> Also available for Vim SublimeLinter -> Syntastic SublimeCodeIntel -> Clang Complete 2. Vim has built-in support for sessions via the :mksession command. Or, just use the session.vim (https://github.com/xolox/vim-session https://github.com/xolox/vim-session) plugin, because it makes it even easier. 1. There's CommandT (https://github.com/wincent/Command-T https://github.com/wincent/Command-T), CtrlP (https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim), Waldo (https://github.com/jtaby/Waldo https://github.com/jtaby/Waldo), FuzzyFinder (https://github.com/vim-scripts/FuzzyFinder https://github.com/vim-scripts/FuzzyFinder). And most offer much more functionality than just file, directory, or buffer search. I recently made the switch from Xcode to Vim (I mostly do Objective-C these days) by getting Clang Complete running (http://appventure.me/2013/01/use-vim-as-xcode-alternative-ios-mac-cocoa.html http://appventure.me/2013/01/use-vim-as-xcode-alternative-io...) so that I can use Vim full time and not only for web and python stuff. I couldn't be happier.
- TallboyOne 14y ago
  Don't forget peepopen for the file finder -- thats about the closest thing to sublime texts command+t (it's a separate app that opens up. I love it way more than fuzzyfinder or any of the text based finders)
- adamors 14y ago
  ST also has split window support. http://d2wwfe3odivqm9.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/splitwindow-1.png http://d2wwfe3odivqm9.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012... or http://d2wwfe3odivqm9.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/splitwindow-2.png http://d2wwfe3odivqm9.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012... etc. You can even define custom layouts.
DaNmarner 14y ago
However "X" body bags Vim, I will never switch.
TallboyOne 14y ago
No, these are not things that 'bodybag' vim at all.
- visarga 14y ago
  But isn't it interesting that people talk like this, even if they are wrong? Whoever talked about UltraEdit or BareBones in this fasion?
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
binderbizingdos 14y ago
it's funny how people praise Sublime Text when plain old Emacs can do most of the things that Sublime Text can: > 5. vim compatability! evil-mode - a very advanced vi layer for emacs, probably much better than vintage, I hear only good things about it although I use the standard emacs mode > 4. Powerful Keybindings in JSON and Plugins in Python powerful keybindings (global-set-key (kbd "<f2>") 'split-window-vertically) (global-set-key (kbd "<f3>") 'split-window-horizontally) (global-set-key (kbd "<f4>") 'delete-window) (global-set-key (kbd "<f5>") 'delete-other-windows) and modes (plugins) in Elisp > 3. Package Manager and the More Centralized Community since Emacs 24 a package manager is included and there are awesome repos for all of your needs: (setq package-archives '(( "elpa" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/") ("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/") ( "melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/"))) after that run M-x list-packages and choose from around 1000 packages > 2. Project Sessions there are many modes that support that if you want it. I personally don't like it though. "projectile" is pretty nice though: https://github.com/bbatsov/projectile https://github.com/bbatsov/projectile > 1. Ctrl+P - GotoAnything: helm is what you would use on Emacs: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm it's awesome
- martinced 14y ago
  That's my biggest issue with Emacs: there are more than one million lines of elisp in circulation. There isn't going to be any text editor come anywhere close to that. I need something "programmable" so I'm "stuck" with Emacs. I'm a bit bitter because sometimes (often actually) I wish Emacs was multi-threaded, easier to interface with externals tools (to make it a bit more like an IDE) -- that is, able to quickly invoke external tools without blocking everything etc. But I realize that Emacs is soooo big that it's probably going to take a long time before we see a "modern" Emacs.
  - binderbizingdos 14y ago
    > I'm a bit bitter because sometimes (often actually) I wish Emacs was multi-threaded Tony> - Is multi-threading coming to emacs 25? I don't know about Emacs 25, but I did manage to merge trunk to the concurrency branch today. If you're interested you could try it out. http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2012-12/msg00465.html http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2012-12/msg004... it looks like Emacs should soon (?) support concurrency
klibertp 14y ago
Is this supposed to be funny or what? I don't know Sublime, it probably has some unique features but I don't see even a single feature like that in this list. It's all - including point 5, VIM emulation mode - pretty much expected from any modern editor. The last thing I used before switching to VIM was Komodo IDE, which had everything mentioned in this list (and more because of the "IDE" part, but that's irrelevant). I don't know for sure, but I suspect things like Eclipse or Visual Studio these days have all these features too. Really, we should stop saying that one particular tree is especially great because it has green leaves. I sincerely believe that there ARE innovative, interesting features added to many editors but I just don't have the time to dig through tons of obvious things to read about the single feature that sets given editor apart. I'm glad and happy that your editor does syntax highlighting, code folding, autocompletes words and has a plugin system, it's obvious, now can we move to the interesting part?
coca 14y ago
:%s/SublimeText/Sublime Text/g
johncoltrane 14y ago
So… we have a guy with what looks like a limited experience of tools A and B writing an article full of hyperbole and factually wrong on how tool B kills tool A. Yes, tool B is a good tool. However I can't imagine a single reason why anybody with a sizeable experience of tool A switch to tool B. Newcomers who turned to tool A because it was trendy last year but never got the hang of it, on the other hand…

53 points by ngokevin 14y ago

I don't want to be "that guy" but the only thing really stopping me from switching is the lack of an ARM Linux client. Heck, I'd even be willing to do the work on it, but until I can use the same editor across all my machines, I'll stick with vim. It ain't perfect but I can put it on all my machines (and the Chromebook even comes with it, just have to switch to developer mode to get access to it.) But ST does look quite nice, I've played with it a few times, but never really seriously looked at it.

quarterto 14y ago
This. I'd love Sublime on a Raspberry Pi (or on my phone, once it's running Ubuntu).

speg 14y ago

And just wait until Sublime 3 is ready. http://www.sublimetext.com/3 http://www.sublimetext.com/3

ChikkaChiChi 14y ago
Which negates all plugins until they are updated. I've been a pico/pine user for almost 20 years and on OSX ST2 has been my editor of choice for the past couple. I decided just this past week to force myself into getting to know vim better because I hear how powerful it is. Once you get a decent .vimrc going, it can be configured to be as good/better than ST2. Its free. Its cross platform. Its easily usable over SSH. So at least for me, vim > st2/st3.
- ChikkaChiChi 14y ago
  Sorry, pico/nano.
- kfinley 14y ago
  If you are just staring with VIM, I recommend taking a look at spf13-vim (https://github.com/spf13/spf13-vim https://github.com/spf13/spf13-vim)
  - crazydiamond 14y ago
    I have been using vi/vim since 1989, and I found spf13 to be a totally frustrating experience. Twice I tried it out and quit. It messes with settings of neocomplcache (issues reported and verified with authors), it installs plugins like autocomplete (??) which can also be frustrating. I had hunt through the source of some 20 or more plugins to figure out the offending ones and remove them. However, that's just my experience. I'd suggest he try a clean vim and add plugins as he needs them. There are plenty of links suggesting great plugins for developers. "sjl" (steve losh) has an article which was linked here (Coming Home to Vim) that mentions some good plugins.
    - kfinley 14y ago
      The reason that I suggest spf13, is because it shows what's possible. I spent nearly a year building up a set of plugins and settings only to discover that 95% of what I had "discovered" was included. I'm sure it has it's problems, but you can easily remove all of the included bundles. I think at the very least it provides a well structured foundation to built upon.
      - ChikkaChiChi 14y ago
        Thanks for the tips! I've been studying other's .vimrc files in an effort to understand what all vim vanilla is capable of. Once I get that dialed in, I'll look into plugins for my local box; I just want to make sure that I can use it effectively just by firing up any new VM. Also, I'm being sacrilegious and setting myself up for primarily --INSERT-- mode, since its the most like a GUI text editor. Its making the barrier of entry slightly more endurable!
        crazydiamond 14y ago
- swah 14y ago
  [rewrite] Sadly, I stil can't be near as fast in making changes across several files as I'm in ST/Emacs... And when I finish installing all the plugins, I can't claim that my vim works everywhere.

griffindy 14y ago

Other than the central repository (which vim does lack, there are quite a few plugins I'll admit), I don't see anything too different from vim, or am I just missing something. not trying to be mean spirited, just curious.

lukeholder 14y ago
You have almost everything VIM is awesome at + nicer non terminal based UI niceties. Plus its really really fast. You get the code wall, really good window manager, better project management and its also cross platform.
- mayanksinghal 14y ago
  Non Terminal Based UI Niceties: Use Gvim Cross Platform: So is vim/gvim. I use vim on Mac/Linux/Windows. I love both vim and Sublime, so I would call 'Bodybagging' is flame-bait at best.
  - sirclueless 14y ago
    Gvim has a lot of awkward hangups, in my opinion. Selecting text is still weird, there's no context menu, etc. It's vim outside of a terminal, which is great, but most full-fledged graphical editors take better advantage of their environment than Gvim does.
    - _delirium 14y ago
      I agree with gvim being a bit basic. If you're on OSX, I think MacVim (http://code.google.com/p/macvim/ http://code.google.com/p/macvim/) is a much better choice. On Linux, I use terminal vim and rely on the terminal for environmental integration: you can choose from a dozen X terminals that will do almost anything you want.
coley 14y ago
Is the the central repository you're looking for?http://www.vim.org/scripts/index.php http://www.vim.org/scripts/index.php

coley 14y ago

I don't think these current features + plugins 'body bag' vim. For instance, is all of this vim 'body bagging' goodness available to you over SSH?

deltasquared 14y ago
I agree, work over ssh or go home. I am pretty sure I will be using Vim when Sublime goes the way of Textmate and SlickEdit.

randomdrake 14y ago

Great article. As a text editor, I can agree that SublimeText is an absolutely gorgeous product. As a Vim user, it didn't take me long to realize it wasn't for me. For me, SublimeText still feels like I'm using a program external to the system I'm developing on. It doesn't feel like it's quite close enough to the bones of the system to me. I know that a "feeling" isn't really the best argument, so here are a couple things that are more concrete to attempt to explain it: 1) I haven't found an implementation of the ease of which it's possible to split your editor quickly and easily. :split or :vsplit and :tabf are all commands I use frequently to not only open files when I need them, but browse the filesystem quickly and easily. 2) Running external commands. While I understand it's possible to run external commands with a key binding in SublimeText, I can simply drop into a shell (:sh) or execute a command :! with just a few keystrokes in Vim, whenever I want. 3) Since Vim runs in the terminal, it means that I can, very easily, perform many things without having to use the mouse or alt-tab once. Uninterrupted workflow is extremely important to me as a developer who tinkers with the entire stack: SSH into a remote box, manipulate some files and tail a log file for an error, locate a file, edit it in Vim, hop into PostgreSQL to perform some queries, fire up a local development server, test an HTTP response, see that it works, create a quickfix file for all the changes, open them all in Vim, recheck everything, push my changes up, restart the services, monitor the server with the changes in place, ensure things are good, and exit. I can do that all within the comfort of the terminal, where Vim runs for me. To reiterate: I agree that SublimeText is a beautiful editor, but I don't see how it could possibly replace the availability of Vim in my workflow.

eknkc 14y ago
1) I find it easy to use split windows in ST (Cmd+Alt+2). I mostly use a fixed 2 column view though, Vim provides much more dynamic window management options. But I really can't work comfortably on large projects where I have multiple buffers open on multiple windows and stuff. I could not get used to Vim's "each tab is a workspace" approach. I like my tabs to be buffers. 2, 3) Nowhere near Vim's terminal integration, but you can use https://github.com/misfo/Shell-Turtlestein https://github.com/misfo/Shell-Turtlestein plugin to run arbitrary shell commands. It can even pipe in the current buffer and pipe the output into the buffer. There are plugins for common stuff like ssh or git but you are right while working on vim, context switches are cheaper. Not with ST. As an example, I used subl as my default editor in shell, for a while. Git would fire up an ST window for commit message input or interactive rebases. Each time, my mind had to comprehend what just happened. With vim, I just handle the input and continue my work, without even noticing it.

wting 14y ago

I think trying to convert vim users is pretty futile. /r/vim/ brought up a lot of issues with Sublime's vintage mode: http://www.reddit.com/r/vim/comments/17i5ps/from_a_vim_perspective_what_do_you_think_about/c85p4wd http://www.reddit.com/r/vim/comments/17i5ps/from_a_vim_persp...

lloeki 14y ago

Sublime Text is awesome, but the article falls completely flat by mentioning stuff that's actually in vim and missing the parts that are not. 5. vim compatability! > With a few tweaks, I was able to make it just like vim as far as I could tell It took me five seconds to hit walls and off-by-one issues revealing Vintage mode as a remote simulacrum of Vim. A look at the source confirmed that it's just a mode emulation and a small bunch of keybindings, a far cry from the notion of text objects which makes Vim what it is. I am a vim user, but I use ST without Vintage because the impedance mismatch is too big. > minus some :commands Author doesn't mention VintageEx. Still thouroughly lacking, even for basic stuff. 4. Powerful Keybindings in JSON and Plugins in Python :help index lists default keybindings :verbose map lists all set keybindings, what they do and where they've been set. With Vim (vim --version will tell you), depending on compilation options, you can write plugins in various languages (python, perl, ruby, lua, tcl...), not just vimscript. hot-load: :source ~/.vimrc or whatever other file. 3. Package Manager and the More Centralized Community vim.org/scripts[0] is the central place to look for. Pathogen and Vundle fix that. Package Control give you a central, automated and in-editor index, which I'm not sure is a real plus since I care about installing plugins once in a blue moon, so that's merely a convenience. Besides I've had Package Control bork ST more than once on upgrades (either of ST or of itself), so I'd rather have it outside. 2. Project Sessions :mksession is what you want. Bind it to a key[1], or be creative in your vimrc. Also, automatic restore[2] when there's one around and you boot with just vim in the project directory. 1. Ctrl+P - GotoAnything: For the function mentioned (fuzzy search for files), there's a plugin of the same name. The author again fails to mention what makes Sublime Text supposedly stand apart: Go To Anything goes to anything, not just files, so symbols (with @symbol) and lines (with :linenum) are reachable from a single shortcut. I don't want to sound mean, ST rocks and has a number of good things I miss in Vim, but they're not among this list. In fact it's good enough that I contemplated doing a real Vim mode with extensible text objects (hence why I looked at the Vintage source). [0]: http://www.vim.org/scripts/index.php http://www.vim.org/scripts/index.php [1]: https://github.com/lloeki/vimfiles/blob/master/rc#L158 https://github.com/lloeki/vimfiles/blob/master/rc#L158 [2]: https://github.com/lloeki/vimfiles/blob/master/rc#L257 https://github.com/lloeki/vimfiles/blob/master/rc#L257

dotandimet 14y ago

spacelizard 14y ago

I still have only used sublime text once, but I might try it out again soon just to get a better idea of what these features are that make it so much better. And them I'm going to add them into vim. I think that it is a serious problem that sublime text is proprietary. While it does support plugins, the one time I did use it I remember seeing several messages from plugin authors complaining that the sublime API does not support certain features that they wanted it to support, and that the sublime text authors refused to implement them. So to that effect I really think there is no benefit to using a proprietary text editor, no matter how many flashy features it has. I would rather just improve vim (and encourage others to do so) so that it is better than sublime text. It also seems somewhat strange that sublime is proprietary considering how lax their licensing policy is. It doesn't seem to me like there is any financial or practical reason for it to be proprietary. To channel Stallman, the only thing I can reasonably conclude is that the author intends to attack his own users. It really disappoints me to see that this kind of project is being promoted as a replacement for free software editors.

terhechte 14y ago

I've tried Sublime Text several times, but each time I went back to Vim. The Vintage plugin just does not cut it for me; there're too many things that Vim does, that Sublime cannot do. I couldn't live with EasyMotion, RelativeNumber, the fantastic split window support, Gundo (Undo Tree), and much more. Regarding the plugins he mentions, I see nothing special, all of that is also available as Vim plugins: 5. Vim Compatibility (Obviously in there) 4. Keybindings in JSON are indeed nice, though imap / and friends in Vimrc are ok, too. Using Vim+Python, one can also write Vim plugins in Python (import vim). 3. Vundle (https://github.com/gmarik/vundle https://github.com/gmarik/vundle) is a fantastic package manager and reads GitHub repositories likehttps://github.com/vim-scripts https://github.com/vim-scripts. Adding a new package is as simple as doing :Bundle 'vim-scripts/YankRing.vim' :BundleInstall or :BundleSearch foo to find what's available. The listed plugins: Git -> try Fugitive.vim it is awesome Emmett -> Also available for Vim SublimeLinter -> Syntastic SublimeCodeIntel -> Clang Complete 2. Vim has built-in support for sessions via the :mksession command. Or, just use the session.vim (https://github.com/xolox/vim-session https://github.com/xolox/vim-session) plugin, because it makes it even easier. 1. There's CommandT (https://github.com/wincent/Command-T https://github.com/wincent/Command-T), CtrlP (https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim https://github.com/kien/ctrlp.vim), Waldo (https://github.com/jtaby/Waldo https://github.com/jtaby/Waldo), FuzzyFinder (https://github.com/vim-scripts/FuzzyFinder https://github.com/vim-scripts/FuzzyFinder). And most offer much more functionality than just file, directory, or buffer search. I recently made the switch from Xcode to Vim (I mostly do Objective-C these days) by getting Clang Complete running (http://appventure.me/2013/01/use-vim-as-xcode-alternative-ios-mac-cocoa.html http://appventure.me/2013/01/use-vim-as-xcode-alternative-io...) so that I can use Vim full time and not only for web and python stuff. I couldn't be happier.

TallboyOne 14y ago
Don't forget peepopen for the file finder -- thats about the closest thing to sublime texts command+t (it's a separate app that opens up. I love it way more than fuzzyfinder or any of the text based finders)
adamors 14y ago
ST also has split window support. http://d2wwfe3odivqm9.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/splitwindow-1.png http://d2wwfe3odivqm9.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012... or http://d2wwfe3odivqm9.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/splitwindow-2.png http://d2wwfe3odivqm9.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012... etc. You can even define custom layouts.

DaNmarner 14y ago

However "X" body bags Vim, I will never switch.

TallboyOne 14y ago

No, these are not things that 'bodybag' vim at all.

visarga 14y ago
But isn't it interesting that people talk like this, even if they are wrong? Whoever talked about UltraEdit or BareBones in this fasion?

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

binderbizingdos 14y ago

it's funny how people praise Sublime Text when plain old Emacs can do most of the things that Sublime Text can: > 5. vim compatability! evil-mode - a very advanced vi layer for emacs, probably much better than vintage, I hear only good things about it although I use the standard emacs mode > 4. Powerful Keybindings in JSON and Plugins in Python powerful keybindings (global-set-key (kbd "<f2>") 'split-window-vertically) (global-set-key (kbd "<f3>") 'split-window-horizontally) (global-set-key (kbd "<f4>") 'delete-window) (global-set-key (kbd "<f5>") 'delete-other-windows) and modes (plugins) in Elisp > 3. Package Manager and the More Centralized Community since Emacs 24 a package manager is included and there are awesome repos for all of your needs: (setq package-archives '(( "elpa" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/") ("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/") ( "melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/"))) after that run M-x list-packages and choose from around 1000 packages > 2. Project Sessions there are many modes that support that if you want it. I personally don't like it though. "projectile" is pretty nice though: https://github.com/bbatsov/projectile https://github.com/bbatsov/projectile > 1. Ctrl+P - GotoAnything: helm is what you would use on Emacs: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm it's awesome

martinced 14y ago
That's my biggest issue with Emacs: there are more than one million lines of elisp in circulation. There isn't going to be any text editor come anywhere close to that. I need something "programmable" so I'm "stuck" with Emacs. I'm a bit bitter because sometimes (often actually) I wish Emacs was multi-threaded, easier to interface with externals tools (to make it a bit more like an IDE) -- that is, able to quickly invoke external tools without blocking everything etc. But I realize that Emacs is soooo big that it's probably going to take a long time before we see a "modern" Emacs.
- binderbizingdos 14y ago
  > I'm a bit bitter because sometimes (often actually) I wish Emacs was multi-threaded Tony> - Is multi-threading coming to emacs 25? I don't know about Emacs 25, but I did manage to merge trunk to the concurrency branch today. If you're interested you could try it out. http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2012-12/msg00465.html http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2012-12/msg004... it looks like Emacs should soon (?) support concurrency

klibertp 14y ago

Is this supposed to be funny or what? I don't know Sublime, it probably has some unique features but I don't see even a single feature like that in this list. It's all - including point 5, VIM emulation mode - pretty much expected from any modern editor. The last thing I used before switching to VIM was Komodo IDE, which had everything mentioned in this list (and more because of the "IDE" part, but that's irrelevant). I don't know for sure, but I suspect things like Eclipse or Visual Studio these days have all these features too. Really, we should stop saying that one particular tree is especially great because it has green leaves. I sincerely believe that there ARE innovative, interesting features added to many editors but I just don't have the time to dig through tons of obvious things to read about the single feature that sets given editor apart. I'm glad and happy that your editor does syntax highlighting, code folding, autocompletes words and has a plugin system, it's obvious, now can we move to the interesting part?

coca 14y ago

:%s/SublimeText/Sublime Text/g

johncoltrane 14y ago

So… we have a guy with what looks like a limited experience of tools A and B writing an article full of hyperbole and factually wrong on how tool B kills tool A. Yes, tool B is a good tool. However I can't imagine a single reason why anybody with a sizeable experience of tool A switch to tool B. Newcomers who turned to tool A because it was trendy last year but never got the hang of it, on the other hand…