Textmate vs. MacVim

Hi Rails Community,

I am about to commit to a text editor for both Ruby and RoR
development. What are your opinions about investing time into
Textmate vs. MacVim? I’ve already purchased Textmate and download
MacVim. Looking for pros, cons, etc. Does anyone use both or once
you stick with an editor, you stay with that editor.

Thanks,
Tony

Tony B. wrote:

Hi Rails Community,

I am about to commit to a text editor for both Ruby and RoR
development. What are your opinions about investing time into
Textmate vs. MacVim? I’ve already purchased Textmate and download
MacVim. Looking for pros, cons, etc. Does anyone use both or once
you stick with an editor, you stay with that editor.

I use neither. I hate vi and its descendants, and I’m not about to pay
lots of money for TextMate. I recommend KomodoEdit.

There’s a lot of discussion about editors in the list archives. Try a
quick search.

Thanks,
Tony

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

On 9/8/10, Tony B. [email protected] wrote:

Hi Rails Community,

I am about to commit to a text editor for both Ruby and RoR
development. What are your opinions about investing time into
Textmate vs. MacVim? I’ve already purchased Textmate and download
MacVim. Looking for pros, cons, etc. Does anyone use both or once
you stick with an editor, you stay with that editor.

Hi Tony,

I work with Vim on Linux and I must say that I love it. I don’t really
need to try any other editor.

My advice is for you to try both and see which one fits your taste
best. You will find some people suggesting Emacs, others Vim and a few
others Textmate. But, in the end, it is a matter of taste.

Vim (or MacVim) has quite a steap learning curve, but once you get
used to it, it is very rewarding. At least for me.

Try both and then make a choice. You should use the one that makes you
more productive.

All the best,

Fidel.

I work with Vim on Linux and I must say that I love it. I don’t really
need to try any other editor.

Agreed. And the nice thing about vim is all you really need is an ssh
connection to use it. Nothing else really matters.

Try both and then make a choice. You should use the one that makes you
more productive.

Be sure to try the rails.vim plugin or at least read about it as it has
some niceties for doing rails/ruby work in vim.

-philip

i must be missing something because everyone seems to love vim but to me
is
just archaic.

On 8 sep, 22:38, radhames brito [email protected] wrote:

i must be missing something

Yep.

radhames brito wrote:

i must be missing something because everyone seems to love vim but to me
is
just archaic.

I agree with you. The modal interface should have died in the 1970s.
If I want a console editor, I use Emacs.

Best,

Marnen Laibow-koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

emacs +1, sweet editor, use the starter-kit and you are done. It’s
nice to know VI, since it is more readily available (quick edits,
server admin) but as an IDE, emacs is way ahead.

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 11:25 PM, Marnen Laibow-Koser

On 9/9/10, Marnen Laibow-Koser [email protected] wrote:

radhames brito wrote:

i must be missing something because everyone seems to love vim but to me
is
just archaic.

I agree with you. The modal interface should have died in the 1970s.
If I want a console editor, I use Emacs.

The thing about Vim or Emacs, is that they are not ordinary editors.
They are modal editors. You can’t really compare them with ordinary
text editors. Vim isn’t only available for the console. You can also
find the GUI version, which is called gVim in the Linux world. Perhaps
this is what MacVim is.

You can always use the mouse and the menus, but you miss all the power
of Vim. It is pretty hard to get use to it in the beginning, but once
you get used to it, you will find that you can do things with it that
you cannot replicate in other editors. The whole productivity
enhancement is in the fact that you do not leave the keyboard, which
is something that sort of delays your productivity a bit. At least
that is for me. In the beginning I kept switching from Vim and gEdit,
because it was pretty hard to navigate through the files. But they I
discovered plugins like Rails.vim, NERDTree, and I stopped using all
the other editors for good. The other nice thing about Vim is that it
comes with any Unix based operating system. So, if you know how to use
it you can start editing configuration files with it in any Unix based
OS. But, it is just like I said: It is a matter of personal taste.

I have heard that Emacs is more powerful than Vim, but for me Vim is
enough. I am happy with it as I am already used to its modes, and
commands.

I think that people should try the different editors and decide for
themselves about which one they feel more comfortable with. In the end
it is all about productivity. If Komodo Edit makes you more productive
that Vim or Emacs, then that’s all you need.

All the best,

Fidel.

PS: “Vim is like wine, the older it gets the more tasty it becomes” ;D

the problem with vim is that people always say is so powerful but when i
try
to use it is like im looking at the sky waiting to see a UFO to pass by
but
nothing happens

Fidel V. wrote:

On 9/9/10, Marnen Laibow-Koser [email protected] wrote:

radhames brito wrote:

i must be missing something because everyone seems to love vim but to me
is
just archaic.

I agree with you. The modal interface should have died in the 1970s.
If I want a console editor, I use Emacs.

The thing about Vim or Emacs, is that they are not ordinary editors.
They are modal editors.

Emacs isn’t a modal editor in the sense that Vi is (with separate insert
and edit modes). That’s one reason I like it better than Vi.

You can’t really compare them with ordinary
text editors.

Sure you can. They’re heavily programmable, but they’re still just text
editors. (Yes, I know you can check your e-mail and play Tetris in
Emacs. That doesn’t really change my point.)

[…]

It is pretty hard to get use to it in the beginning, but once
you get used to it, you will find that you can do things with it that
you cannot replicate in other editors.

Example? I agree in principle – I am an Emacs fan – but I find that
this doesn’t make much difference for me in practice.

The whole productivity
enhancement is in the fact that you do not leave the keyboard, which
is something that sort of delays your productivity a bit. At least
that is for me.

I hear this argument a lot. To some extent (a great extent) I agree
with it. But in fact there are tasks for which the mouse makes you
more productive. There are times when I’d rather click around than
use cursor keys.

[…]

The other nice thing about Vim is that it
comes with any Unix based operating system. So, if you know how to use
it you can start editing configuration files with it in any Unix based
OS.

I know how to use Vi. I still hate it.

[…]

I have heard that Emacs is more powerful than Vim, but for me Vim is
enough. I am happy with it as I am already used to its modes, and
commands.

For me, it’s not that Emacs is more powerful; rather, it’s easier to
use. Emacs modes are like language modules in other editors, not like
Vi’s insert and edit mode. The latter have no place in 21st-century
software IMHO. :slight_smile:

[…]

PS: “Vim is like wine, the older it gets the more tasty it becomes” ;D

Why? Because nostalgia is the only thing it has going for it? :smiley:

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

On Sep 9, 2010, at 4:21 AM, radhames brito wrote:

the problem with vim is that people always say is so powerful but when i try to use it is like im looking at the sky waiting to see a UFO to pass by but nothing happens

There is a steep learning curve… as this comparison chart clearly
shows :slight_smile:

-philip

On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 1:56 AM, Fidel V. [email protected]
wrote:

The thing about Vim or Emacs, is that they are not ordinary editors.
They are modal editors.

Emacs isn’t modal.


Greg D.
destiney.com | gregdonald.com

OMG LOL

I have been a vi/vim user for 15 years, and am a huge fan. However, even
after adding snippet support, using rails.vim, and using the directory
pane, editing Rails applications is tedious compared to using Textmate.
Essentially, the directory pop-out makes file manipulation too easy to
not
use.

So I generally use Textmate for the bulk of my work, but will use Vim if
doing something via the command line or for a quick change.


Jeremy C.
http://twitter.com/jeremychase

using any type of folder navigation is way too slow for me. i personally
love PeepOpen for navigating, but there are other plugins to do the same
thing. if i want to edit user controller i just do “COMMAND+T” “uco”
and i’m editing it a second later.

macvim can be prettier and much more powerful than textmate, and you get
the
advantage of learning vim and being able to leverage its power on any
server
you’re on.

Len S.

http://twitter.com/ignu

On 9 September 2010 20:08, radhames brito [email protected] wrote:

i use netbeans but i think there is a huge overhead and i olso have to add
the nbproject folder to my .gitignore file

That’s not exactly a big problem is it? But you can set the Netbeans
folder to be at any location you like - it doesn’t have to be in the
folder of the project.

i use netbeans but i think there is a huge overhead and i olso have to
add
the nbproject folder to my .gitignore file

radhames brito wrote:

i use netbeans but i think there is a huge overhead

Agreed. That’s why I use KomodoEdit for Rails work. NetBeans is great
where an IDE is wanted – which it isn’t for Rails development.

and i olso have to
add
the nbproject folder to my .gitignore file

True. So what?

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 2:50 PM, Marnen Laibow-Koser
[email protected] wrote:

NetBeans is great
where an IDE is wanted – which it isn’t for Rails development.

Learn the API, then you won’t need an IDE.


Greg D.
destiney.com | gregdonald.com