From: James Edward Gray II <james@...>
Date: 2005-02-15T05:05:13+09:00
Subject: Re: (OT) Programmer's editors for the Mac

On Feb 14, 2005, at 1:34 PM, Alexander Kellett wrote:

> if it had some good vim like bindings and an
> excellent plugin system i'd use it, as it stands
> other than its cute text widget it gives me nothing
> extra than vim and takes away a lot.

I'm not sure what constitutes an "excellent plugin system".  TextMate 
does let you build your own resource "Bundles" with a built-in "Bundle 
Editor".  These can contain Templates, Snippets, Commands, and Language 
Definitions.  Templates, Snippets and Commands can shell out to Unix 
tools, so they can pretty much talk to anything.  Snippets are 
replacement text with built in tab orders and Unix tool content 
generation; this is really the editor's greatest strength, I think.

The program has its own recordable macro system that can allow you to 
do automation with no coding.  It also understands its own URL prefix, 
which can be used to get external programs to ask TextMate to show 
certain sections of certain files.

It's pretty customizable and open, in my opinion.

> also, i find its a big shame about its default syntax
> highlighting for ruby its very bland...

That's definitely opinion and we don't agree.  :)  When I first saw 
those colors together I thought it was garish, but after using it for 
some time I have to say that it's remarkably readable.

Clearly editor choosing is very personal.  That's why I think it's 
important to download the demos and play around a bit.

James Edward Gray II