7 ms·

Setting up Sublime Text 2

153 points by superchink 13y ago

xSwag 13y ago
There are a lot more keyboard shortcuts for this editor, makes you much faster if you don't have to touch a mouse. Here's a "cheat sheet": http://i.imgur.com/yGrUAL8.png http://i.imgur.com/yGrUAL8.png
- anonfunction 13y ago
  Printing as I type, thanks so much for sharing this. Saw a few that I didn't know about and others that I google far too regularly.
- Shorel 13y ago
  Can you do one of these for Windows keyboards?
- glitchdout 13y ago
  It would be great if this cheat sheet existed as a page instead of an image. Unfortunately, I can't Ctrl+F an image.
kaolinite 13y ago
Nice guide. I'm surprised Aqua didn't make it to the themes section - a theme to make Sublime look more native on OS X: http://github.com/cafarm/aqua-theme http://github.com/cafarm/aqua-theme CommandOnSave is a nice plugin that I've been using recently, very useful for automatically running Makefiles on save, etc. Also, if you want to browse Hacker News via Sublime Text, here's a small plug for my plugin: "Hacker News" (https://github.com/kaolinite/HackerNews-SublimeTextPlugin https://github.com/kaolinite/HackerNews-SublimeTextPlugin)
- drewbarontini 13y ago
  I've updated the article to add the Aqua theme link. I'm surprised I missed that one.
anonfunction 13y ago
Been using Sublime Text for awhile now and I'm always finding something new. One thing I'd like to point out is that it actually supports multiple selections by default and you don't need to enable VIntage mode to take advantage of the huge timesaver: http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/multiple_selection_with_the_keyboard.html http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/multiple_selection_with_th...
rickhanlonii 13y ago
Great guide, it covers most of the must have plugins. While everyone is talking about themes, if there are any Intellij 12 users out there that fancy the Darcula theme, I've created a theme for both Intellij 12 and Sublime Text 2 which is a blend of Solarized and Darcula: https://github.com/rickhanlonii/Solarized-Darcula https://github.com/rickhanlonii/Solarized-Darcula
baghali 13y ago
GoSublime [1] is also an awesome plugin if you write Go code. [1] https://github.com/DisposaBoy/GoSublime https://github.com/DisposaBoy/GoSublime
DigitalSea 13y ago
Amazinginly helpful article (especially for first timers). Another addition I'd like to add to the list if you use LESS is the LESS Build plugin: https://github.com/berfarah/LESS-build-sublime https://github.com/berfarah/LESS-build-sublime — allows you to compile LESS stylesheets by hitting control + B on Windows to compile.
alexpopescu 13y ago
It was only yesterday that I thought about using animated GIFs for demoing code typing. That's what I liked most about this post!
- landr0id 13y ago
  I disliked how I had to watch the gifs a couple of times though in order to read exactly what he typed for the first snippet to see how it related to what it filled. Text underneath would help, but it does indeed look nice.
  - drewbarontini 13y ago
    Good point. I just updated the post to fix that.
twerquie 13y ago
One of the things I like most about Sublime is that it just works right out of the box. Sure almost everyone uses a plugin or two, but to me it's the editor that doesn't need blog posts about how to configure it, it doesn't require you to keep a git repository of your thousand-line configuration, it doesn't require an understanding of esoteric key commands to get started. To me, Sublime is an editor for people who don't want to spend man-weeks fucking with their editor and just want to get to work.
- derefr 13y ago
  It's half-way there. It could go a lot further. I'm really surprised there isn't a single (featureful) editor that follows the OSX/GNOME aesthetic of "convention over configuration; no preferences/options/modes if possible". Key-bindings are the same everywhere you go. Every command is available on every instance of the editor on everyone's machine, everywhere in the world. You never have to re-learn anything; you can just sit down and use all the features. I would personally imagine something a bit like Sublime, but where all the "plugins" were actually just code contributed to the central codebase, and delivered by updates. (Specifically, I'm imagining it would work like Cloudflare's https://github.com/cdnjs/cdnjs https://github.com/cdnjs/cdnjs for plugins.) Given that the editor would then have "everything" in-the-box, it'd then probably have to have emacs-like modes, as well, to allow all the plugins' various key-bindings to live together.
  - beefsack 13y ago
    I'd suggest you should download every plugin for ST and see how bloated it becomes, you'd end up with something as slow and ungainly as Eclipse. To me, one of the largest benefits of ST is having a very powerful editor which is fast, simple, and very usable, and wouldn't want to see the core become much heavier than it already is (although I'm loving the code navigation functionality coming in ST3).
    - derefr 13y ago
      Oh, I'm certain that having all the plugins running code in the background at once would be a horrible experience (in much the same way that "installing every browser extension" would be a horrible experience.) I'm thinking mostly of plugins (packages, really) that just add code you can call through the command system--they don't do anything or consume any resources unless you prompt them to, so why shouldn't they be shipped with the runtime? But on the other case--what sort of Sublime plugins do you use that constantly run in the background doing something? I don't use any myself that do anything like that; what are some good examples?
shriphani 13y ago
I really enjoy working with ST2 and I would be super happy if there was a faster workflow for file / folder creation. I would really like to see something that helps me Cmd-Shift-P and type "New Folder" or "New File", type the name and be able to do tab-completion in it (and thus also map it to some keystrokes).
- peterstensmyr 13y ago
  Have you tried the AdvancedNewFile plugin? It uses ctrl+alt+n by default, lets you create folders when you specify your new file and also has tab completion.
Zren 13y ago
Here are a few plugins I rely upon that make Sublime much easier to use (that weren't on that list). * GitGutter: Adds symbols beside the line # on modified lines. A feature widespread in other editors with Git integration. I haven't found a plugin to mark modified files in the sidebar (which is also another common feature). - https://github.com/jisaacks/GitGutter https://github.com/jisaacks/GitGutter * Missing Palette Commands: Adds a few commands like setting the indentation for the specific file only. You can see a full list in the link. - https://github.com/fjl/Sublime-Missing-Palette-Commands/blob/master/Missing.sublime-commands https://github.com/fjl/Sublime-Missing-Palette-Commands/blob... * Open Folder: Open up the selected folder in explorer/etc. * Terminal: Open the selected folder in the terminal. - http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/terminal http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/terminal
- jameswyse 13y ago
  GitGutter is awesome, thanks for sharing :)
fredoliveira 13y ago
This video taught me a ton of stuff I had no idea about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ-bgcJ6fQo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ-bgcJ6fQo Quite long, but definitely worth it. Not affiliated with whoever did it.
- evo_9 13y ago
  Great video, thanks for sharing. The automator osX hack to get right-click open project in Sublime is worth it alone!
Aeiper 13y ago
How do you put downloaded themes into Sublime Text 2?
- purephase 13y ago
  Is there a particular theme you're interested in? Two options: 1. Download package control [1] (first config listed in OP) and then search for themes. 2. Visit the individual theme repos (mostly on GH) and follow instructions. [1] http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/package_control http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/package_control
_smaugh 13y ago
this is a tutorial worth watching for beginners and advanced users, https://tutsplus.com/course/improve-workflow-in-sublime-text-2/ https://tutsplus.com/course/improve-workflow-in-sublime-text... an hour or two of investment, could save countless hours of work.
josteink 13y ago
I know Sublime Text has a lot of momentum, especially on this site, but the one main ting which keeps me from adopting Sublime text is that I can't run it from a terminal. Simple as that. If I'm going to invest time, effort and know-how into something as fundamental as a text-editor, I want to know that I can run it everywhere I need it. I'm going to guesstimate that I spend at least 20% of my text-editing via terminals, via SSH, via remote sessions somehow. And there I can't use Sublime Text at all. In those remote sessions I'm probably editing the same things I do locally, so why should I need to change my entire environment to suit that 20% of the same workload? It just doesn't make sense. Other objections to Sublime text would be that it's not open source. With more and more (new) arm-based platforms popping up left and right, that becomes increasingly important. I want to know that I can take my tools with me to the places I go. Not being open-source severely limits those possibilities.
- ary 13y ago
  You can use the built in 'subl' command to launch Sublime Text 2 from the terminal. http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/osx_command_line.html http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/osx_command_line.html Editing remote files is as simple as an SFTP mount.
  - josteink 13y ago
    That is for OSX, which I refuse to use on an principle of ethical software conduct. Apple is hostile to open software and computers as open platforms. They want to take away the open nature of computers which allowed them to exist in the first place and they use BS patent-lawsuits to hinder competitors willing to provide just that. They are evil and I refuse to support them with a penny or any significant effort or attention. Apart from that, talking about SFTP mounts is completely missing the point. Sometime I'm in a terminal, on a router, NAS, cloud-server or whatever, and need to edit some files in the current folder. What I do then is "$ emacs file", not change context, go to another local terminal and fuse-mount some completely remote FS with whatever keys and credentials I need to provide, in /mnt/remote/, and then fire up a local editor for /mnt/remote/the/actual/directory/i/was/working/in/file. That's extremely inefficient. When I say I need something to work in a terminal to be a proper solution, I mean any terminal.
thibaultCha 13y ago
And I suggest you to install Sublime hacker News Reader too :) (from Package Control) https://github.com/Dimillian/Sublime-Hacker-News-Reader https://github.com/Dimillian/Sublime-Hacker-News-Reader
floor 13y ago
Wow, it's as complicated as setting up a bare bones linux install.
neopba 13y ago
DetectSyntax is called now ApplySyntax
SippinLean 13y ago
Anyone have a plugin that prevents ST2 from showing the contents of binary files? For example, clicking on a JPG in the sidebar shows the contents, requiring you to somehow close the window before you can continue.
- joshschreuder 13y ago
  Not sure on a plugin, but perhaps adding image formats to your file_exclude_patterns could be a workaround?
  - SippinLean 13y ago
    Thanks for the suggestion, but I still need to be able to see them in the sidebar :(

153 points by superchink 13y ago

xSwag 13y ago

There are a lot more keyboard shortcuts for this editor, makes you much faster if you don't have to touch a mouse. Here's a "cheat sheet": http://i.imgur.com/yGrUAL8.png http://i.imgur.com/yGrUAL8.png

anonfunction 13y ago
Printing as I type, thanks so much for sharing this. Saw a few that I didn't know about and others that I google far too regularly.
Shorel 13y ago
Can you do one of these for Windows keyboards?
glitchdout 13y ago
It would be great if this cheat sheet existed as a page instead of an image. Unfortunately, I can't Ctrl+F an image.

kaolinite 13y ago

Nice guide. I'm surprised Aqua didn't make it to the themes section - a theme to make Sublime look more native on OS X: http://github.com/cafarm/aqua-theme http://github.com/cafarm/aqua-theme CommandOnSave is a nice plugin that I've been using recently, very useful for automatically running Makefiles on save, etc. Also, if you want to browse Hacker News via Sublime Text, here's a small plug for my plugin: "Hacker News" (https://github.com/kaolinite/HackerNews-SublimeTextPlugin https://github.com/kaolinite/HackerNews-SublimeTextPlugin)

drewbarontini 13y ago
I've updated the article to add the Aqua theme link. I'm surprised I missed that one.

anonfunction 13y ago

Been using Sublime Text for awhile now and I'm always finding something new. One thing I'd like to point out is that it actually supports multiple selections by default and you don't need to enable VIntage mode to take advantage of the huge timesaver: http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/multiple_selection_with_the_keyboard.html http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/multiple_selection_with_th...

rickhanlonii 13y ago

Great guide, it covers most of the must have plugins. While everyone is talking about themes, if there are any Intellij 12 users out there that fancy the Darcula theme, I've created a theme for both Intellij 12 and Sublime Text 2 which is a blend of Solarized and Darcula: https://github.com/rickhanlonii/Solarized-Darcula https://github.com/rickhanlonii/Solarized-Darcula

baghali 13y ago

GoSublime [1] is also an awesome plugin if you write Go code. [1] https://github.com/DisposaBoy/GoSublime https://github.com/DisposaBoy/GoSublime

DigitalSea 13y ago

Amazinginly helpful article (especially for first timers). Another addition I'd like to add to the list if you use LESS is the LESS Build plugin: https://github.com/berfarah/LESS-build-sublime https://github.com/berfarah/LESS-build-sublime — allows you to compile LESS stylesheets by hitting control + B on Windows to compile.

alexpopescu 13y ago

It was only yesterday that I thought about using animated GIFs for demoing code typing. That's what I liked most about this post!

landr0id 13y ago
I disliked how I had to watch the gifs a couple of times though in order to read exactly what he typed for the first snippet to see how it related to what it filled. Text underneath would help, but it does indeed look nice.
- drewbarontini 13y ago
  Good point. I just updated the post to fix that.

twerquie 13y ago

One of the things I like most about Sublime is that it just works right out of the box. Sure almost everyone uses a plugin or two, but to me it's the editor that doesn't need blog posts about how to configure it, it doesn't require you to keep a git repository of your thousand-line configuration, it doesn't require an understanding of esoteric key commands to get started. To me, Sublime is an editor for people who don't want to spend man-weeks fucking with their editor and just want to get to work.

derefr 13y ago
It's half-way there. It could go a lot further. I'm really surprised there isn't a single (featureful) editor that follows the OSX/GNOME aesthetic of "convention over configuration; no preferences/options/modes if possible". Key-bindings are the same everywhere you go. Every command is available on every instance of the editor on everyone's machine, everywhere in the world. You never have to re-learn anything; you can just sit down and use all the features. I would personally imagine something a bit like Sublime, but where all the "plugins" were actually just code contributed to the central codebase, and delivered by updates. (Specifically, I'm imagining it would work like Cloudflare's https://github.com/cdnjs/cdnjs https://github.com/cdnjs/cdnjs for plugins.) Given that the editor would then have "everything" in-the-box, it'd then probably have to have emacs-like modes, as well, to allow all the plugins' various key-bindings to live together.
- beefsack 13y ago
  I'd suggest you should download every plugin for ST and see how bloated it becomes, you'd end up with something as slow and ungainly as Eclipse. To me, one of the largest benefits of ST is having a very powerful editor which is fast, simple, and very usable, and wouldn't want to see the core become much heavier than it already is (although I'm loving the code navigation functionality coming in ST3).
  - derefr 13y ago
    Oh, I'm certain that having all the plugins running code in the background at once would be a horrible experience (in much the same way that "installing every browser extension" would be a horrible experience.) I'm thinking mostly of plugins (packages, really) that just add code you can call through the command system--they don't do anything or consume any resources unless you prompt them to, so why shouldn't they be shipped with the runtime? But on the other case--what sort of Sublime plugins do you use that constantly run in the background doing something? I don't use any myself that do anything like that; what are some good examples?

shriphani 13y ago

I really enjoy working with ST2 and I would be super happy if there was a faster workflow for file / folder creation. I would really like to see something that helps me Cmd-Shift-P and type "New Folder" or "New File", type the name and be able to do tab-completion in it (and thus also map it to some keystrokes).

peterstensmyr 13y ago
Have you tried the AdvancedNewFile plugin? It uses ctrl+alt+n by default, lets you create folders when you specify your new file and also has tab completion.

Zren 13y ago

Here are a few plugins I rely upon that make Sublime much easier to use (that weren't on that list). * GitGutter: Adds symbols beside the line # on modified lines. A feature widespread in other editors with Git integration. I haven't found a plugin to mark modified files in the sidebar (which is also another common feature). - https://github.com/jisaacks/GitGutter https://github.com/jisaacks/GitGutter * Missing Palette Commands: Adds a few commands like setting the indentation for the specific file only. You can see a full list in the link. - https://github.com/fjl/Sublime-Missing-Palette-Commands/blob/master/Missing.sublime-commands https://github.com/fjl/Sublime-Missing-Palette-Commands/blob... * Open Folder: Open up the selected folder in explorer/etc. * Terminal: Open the selected folder in the terminal. - http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/terminal http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/terminal

jameswyse 13y ago
GitGutter is awesome, thanks for sharing :)

fredoliveira 13y ago

This video taught me a ton of stuff I had no idea about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ-bgcJ6fQo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ-bgcJ6fQo Quite long, but definitely worth it. Not affiliated with whoever did it.

evo_9 13y ago
Great video, thanks for sharing. The automator osX hack to get right-click open project in Sublime is worth it alone!

Aeiper 13y ago

How do you put downloaded themes into Sublime Text 2?

purephase 13y ago
Is there a particular theme you're interested in? Two options: 1. Download package control [1] (first config listed in OP) and then search for themes. 2. Visit the individual theme repos (mostly on GH) and follow instructions. [1] http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/package_control http://wbond.net/sublime_packages/package_control

_smaugh 13y ago

this is a tutorial worth watching for beginners and advanced users, https://tutsplus.com/course/improve-workflow-in-sublime-text-2/ https://tutsplus.com/course/improve-workflow-in-sublime-text... an hour or two of investment, could save countless hours of work.

josteink 13y ago

I know Sublime Text has a lot of momentum, especially on this site, but the one main ting which keeps me from adopting Sublime text is that I can't run it from a terminal. Simple as that. If I'm going to invest time, effort and know-how into something as fundamental as a text-editor, I want to know that I can run it everywhere I need it. I'm going to guesstimate that I spend at least 20% of my text-editing via terminals, via SSH, via remote sessions somehow. And there I can't use Sublime Text at all. In those remote sessions I'm probably editing the same things I do locally, so why should I need to change my entire environment to suit that 20% of the same workload? It just doesn't make sense. Other objections to Sublime text would be that it's not open source. With more and more (new) arm-based platforms popping up left and right, that becomes increasingly important. I want to know that I can take my tools with me to the places I go. Not being open-source severely limits those possibilities.

ary 13y ago
You can use the built in 'subl' command to launch Sublime Text 2 from the terminal. http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/osx_command_line.html http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/2/osx_command_line.html Editing remote files is as simple as an SFTP mount.
- josteink 13y ago
  That is for OSX, which I refuse to use on an principle of ethical software conduct. Apple is hostile to open software and computers as open platforms. They want to take away the open nature of computers which allowed them to exist in the first place and they use BS patent-lawsuits to hinder competitors willing to provide just that. They are evil and I refuse to support them with a penny or any significant effort or attention. Apart from that, talking about SFTP mounts is completely missing the point. Sometime I'm in a terminal, on a router, NAS, cloud-server or whatever, and need to edit some files in the current folder. What I do then is "$ emacs file", not change context, go to another local terminal and fuse-mount some completely remote FS with whatever keys and credentials I need to provide, in /mnt/remote/, and then fire up a local editor for /mnt/remote/the/actual/directory/i/was/working/in/file. That's extremely inefficient. When I say I need something to work in a terminal to be a proper solution, I mean any terminal.

thibaultCha 13y ago

And I suggest you to install Sublime hacker News Reader too :) (from Package Control) https://github.com/Dimillian/Sublime-Hacker-News-Reader https://github.com/Dimillian/Sublime-Hacker-News-Reader

floor 13y ago

Wow, it's as complicated as setting up a bare bones linux install.

neopba 13y ago

DetectSyntax is called now ApplySyntax

SippinLean 13y ago

Anyone have a plugin that prevents ST2 from showing the contents of binary files? For example, clicking on a JPG in the sidebar shows the contents, requiring you to somehow close the window before you can continue.

joshschreuder 13y ago
Not sure on a plugin, but perhaps adding image formats to your file_exclude_patterns could be a workaround?
- SippinLean 13y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion, but I still need to be able to see them in the sidebar :(