From: Josh Cheek Date: 2010-03-13T16:41:16+09:00 Subject: Re: Why no TextMate for Linux? --000e0cd10956a08b1c0481a9c5a7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 I don't understand the debate, it's just a text editor. It doesn't encode my data in some format I can't get it back out of, it is just an environment I work in, and I assume most of us customize our environments. TM is simply the editor that has made me the happiest, I know how to customize it in lots of different ways, even editing the language definitions, macros, automating commands, impressive power editing, etc (big thanks to James Edward Gray 2 for his TextMate book). I would almost certainly be less happy working in a different editor, so I don't see any reason to do so. And yes, it has dramatically increased my productivity, and the ease with which I can do lots of different things. Even simple things, like try out some quick Ruby script. It is so quick and trivially easy that I find myself doing it constantly, as Linus Torvalds said in his git talk, "That's the kind of performance that actually changes how you work. It's no longer doing the same thing faster, it's allowing you to work in a completely different manner." ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8) That is the kind of change that TextMate has made for me. For example, the "execute and update" option has utterly replaced irb for me. I would be exceedingly unhappy if I had to go back. And it's not just with Ruby, take C, for example, a few keystrokes to jump from any application into a new TextMate window that knows it contains C code. A macro to generate the basic code C requires and kick my cursor to where it should be, write the bit of code I was thinking about, a keystroke to compile, run, and display the results. I can get to the point of writing the code as fast as I can think about wanting to do it. Anyway, while having all the source of a language or an application like FireFox or something might mean that I can go in and change it, but as Seebs said, that is not really a tangible ability for me. I quite simply don't have the experience or knowledge to make such changes. While I can't go to that level in TextMate, I can change almost everything that I would ever want to, and the ability to do so is extremely accessible, so I've done a lot more custom coding to TextMate than any other application. (though I do hack different on smaller less mature libraries when necessary). So aside from feeling a little weird about a new environment, if I have to jump to Linux or Windows, I really see no downsides of TextMate. Of course, I'd experience that, regardless. As far as the link thing goes, if there is a standard, then I'd chastize TextMate for not following it. If there isn't a standard, then I don't see how this is a mark against them. If an open source project added this functionality, we would be using it as an example of open source pushing progress. Also, Alan isn't the only dev on TextMate anymore, there is at least one other guy. Whether he'd be able to take over if something happened to Alan, I don't know, but it's a viable enough product that it is unlikely it would just go away. And also, TextMate takes a lot of influence from open source styled projects, with a sort of community based repository of themes and bundles and plugins (you can make dramatic changes to TM itself with plugins). So, yeah, I generally think that open source is preferable to proprietary, but that's a general trend, not a law of the universe, and I really can't see any of the arguments being viable against something as orthogonal to the code as a text editor. And there may be (and probably are) other very viable options out there, but TextMate fits my needs and preferences extremely well, and I am quite satisfied with it. --000e0cd10956a08b1c0481a9c5a7--