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Blog under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Sep
18
(2006)
TextMate is my new default text editor
Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: macosx, software, text, textmate.
I've been using BBEdit for what feels like a decade – it was the late '90s, anyway.
I just switched to TextMate. It's an amazing little editor, that feels like it's taken the best parts of XCode, BBEdit, JEdit, and many others, and mashed them all into one slick and powerful little app.
Here's probably the coolest feature (well, the coolest feature that I've discovered today, anyway). The HTML bundle has a "Validate Syntax (W3C)" action, which sends the contents of the document (or selection) to the W3C HTML syntax validator. The resulting page is then modified by TextMate, such that clicking the error/warning links in the report take you to the correct line in your source document. When I tried that the first time, I was stunned. But, of COURSE that's how it SHOULD work. Very cool.
TextMate W3C HTML Validator Integration
The other really handy thing it has over BBEdit is autocompletion. It'll complete html tags, code function names, and lots of other goodies. That's such a timesaver. Why doesn't BBEdit have that?
It's got the document/project drawer from JEdit, and tabs for open documents. It's got code folding. It's got a bundle that lets you send a project to XCode to be compiled, run and debugged. It's got syntax and code colouring for just about any language out there. It's got a Webkit-powered Preview window that actually lets you edit the previewed document, and creates acceptable code.
I've put in a request for a TextMate license, but if that doesn't get approved in time, I'll be pulling out my Visa card and buying one myself. I keep catching myself saying "heh. that's exactly how it SHOULD work." It's not perfect, but it's close.
and yet BBEdit has a billion built in features. I don’t think anyone who’s actually used it would call it bare bones anymore…
Like you, I abandoned BBEdit, but I did it before having found a good replacement and so i went on Text Editor Safari. I ended up at TextMate. The key to TextMate’s goodness, for me, is the bundle system. It lets it gather great powerful features for sub-communities of users without bloating the base interface. Pretty brilliant. Snippets are crucial too, but they wouldn’t be so nice without the bundle/scope system.
D’Arcy-
We’ve been using sub-etha edit for a while-
I’d like to hear what you think in comparison.
http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/
An Apple Design Award and a recommendation from D’Arcy! I know I dismissed it last week, but I’m going to give it another try. Modding the W3C Validator to link back to the source document is very cool! Practically the only reason I turn on line numbers in BBEdit while writing XHTML is to trace back references from the validator. I wonder what other little goodies like this TextMate has?
It’s got 67 bajillion hidden little gems. I’ve only been using it for a week or so, and every time I launch it I discover something new and cool. But in the good way, not in the “now, where in the hell is that feature hidden” kind of way. I just kinda look where I’d expect something to be, and BAM. There it is. And about 20 other related and handy things, just hanging out and waiting for me to need them.
I’d initially requested a BBEdit 8.5 update license, but killed that request in favour of TextMate.
But… I get the feeling that TextMate may be a love/hate kind of thing. I mean, I’ve been using BBEdit for so long, I never thought I’d actually switch to something else. I’m sure others are even more attached to their editors, and would be less enamored with its lack of BBEditishness. A while back, I managed to switch to JEdit for a few months, but eventually came back to BBEdit. I don’t see that reversion happening with TextMate.
BBEdit doesn’t have a bajillion gems because BB stands for Bare Bones!
Another vote for TextMate, it’s an awesome editor. The keyboard shortcuts make life that much nicer (and the various tab completion things).
I purchased a copy before I started my current job, but had I not and they didn’t pay I’d have purchased it myself still.
Your Textmate link is incorrect, it has too many c’s in it. It should be: http://www.macromates.com/
DOH! Damn my copy-and-paste skills! Thanks for catching that. It’s fixed now. For some reason, I also want to type micromates.com instead. Too bad textmate.com was grabbed by a squatter…
Hi, you won’t need copy-and-paste anymore for getting the hyperlink. While writing HTML-Code just type the word TextMate, then select „Lookup Selection on Google and Link” from the HTML-Bundle (from the menu or by shortcut) and – there’s your link…
I was a hardcore SubEthaEdit user – even back when it was called Hydra – but it’s not quite to the level of TextMate as a pure editor. If I ever need to share a document for live editing, I fire up SEE, but that’s extremely rarely now (although it used to be an every-day, all-day thing).
I even ran SubEthaEdit on Windows one time…
