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The area where sublime really wins for me is discoverability. Say I'm writing some markdown and I decide I want to preview it in the browser. A short key combo

by ollysb 14y ago

The area where sublime really wins for me is discoverability. Say I'm writing some markdown and I decide I want to preview it in the browser. A short key combo opens the command palette, I type install package, hit return, type markdown, see that there's a plugin called markdown preview, down arrow and return and it's installed in a couple of seconds. I open the command palette again, type markdown preview, hit return and it's open in my browser. Follow these steps and it will take you maybe 10 seconds or so. Everything's happened without leaving the keyboard and you haven't had to learn any key combos. If you find yourself using a command a lot then you can assign a key combo. That was just an example, pretty much everything happens this way in sublime. It can all be done by searching commands from the keyboard. The command matching is fuzzy so you can actually figure out the 2 or 3 letters that bring up the command you want and you've got yourself a key combo. It's this discoverability that makes sublime a joy to use. With vim I find I'm constantly googling how to do things. With sublime learning how to do something usually happens in the editor, thanks to the command bar.

jasonm23 14y ago
As far as discoverability goes, I think it's hard to beat Emacs, once you figure out what's going on. The big step is to start using it like a terminal, and Alt-x (M-x) is the way to begin this... Everything is Tab completable, and fuzzy matched, granted the lexicon is a little different, but it's not very difficult if you're prepared to read a bit. The fact that you can type: M-x describe-function And the get docs for any function in Emacs is really amazing, and something that completely reveals its true nature, Emacs is a huge library of lisp functions... And after 30 years or so huge really does mean huge. So frankly, forget all about Sublime and learn Emacs, it doesn't demand a Vim modal operating mode (but it'll provide one if you want it) it doesn't berate you if you want to use the mouse. It has undergone a huge amount of recent development too, and new packages are being released every day, thanks to elpa / package.el
- fusiongyro 14y ago
  > As far as discoverability goes, I think it's hard to beat Emacs, once you figure out what's going on. This contradiction perfectly explains everything that's wrong with Emacs.
mr_luc 14y ago
With emacs, I type "M-x pai", which for me autocompletes to "package-install", and hit enter. Then I type "mark", and from the completions see that there is a markdown mode I can install. Then I hit enter, and enjoy a new markdown mode! I use emacs - I don't pretend it's the best thing ever. Vim does seem more conceptually pure, and Emacs is essentially an operating system. But, goddamn, sometimes you just want to sand-blast that soup cracker. I learned Emacs and I have never had to learn anything else, because of the "M-x butterfly effect."

by ollysb 14y ago

jasonm23 14y ago

As far as discoverability goes, I think it's hard to beat Emacs, once you figure out what's going on. The big step is to start using it like a terminal, and Alt-x (M-x) is the way to begin this... Everything is Tab completable, and fuzzy matched, granted the lexicon is a little different, but it's not very difficult if you're prepared to read a bit. The fact that you can type: M-x describe-function And the get docs for any function in Emacs is really amazing, and something that completely reveals its true nature, Emacs is a huge library of lisp functions... And after 30 years or so huge really does mean huge. So frankly, forget all about Sublime and learn Emacs, it doesn't demand a Vim modal operating mode (but it'll provide one if you want it) it doesn't berate you if you want to use the mouse. It has undergone a huge amount of recent development too, and new packages are being released every day, thanks to elpa / package.el

fusiongyro 14y ago
> As far as discoverability goes, I think it's hard to beat Emacs, once you figure out what's going on. This contradiction perfectly explains everything that's wrong with Emacs.

mr_luc 14y ago

With emacs, I type "M-x pai", which for me autocompletes to "package-install", and hit enter. Then I type "mark", and from the completions see that there is a markdown mode I can install. Then I hit enter, and enjoy a new markdown mode! I use emacs - I don't pretend it's the best thing ever. Vim does seem more conceptually pure, and Emacs is essentially an operating system. But, goddamn, sometimes you just want to sand-blast that soup cracker. I learned Emacs and I have never had to learn anything else, because of the "M-x butterfly effect."