Re: Why no TextMate for Linux?

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.