I am curious, I see quite a few references to using TextMate for
rails development. I downloaded TextMate and used it for 30 days.
I do not see what everyone is raving about. Snipplets are nice,
but other editors do the same thing, some with much more power.
Much more power? Do tell…
Well, Vim has just as much power in snipplets and Emacs does
everything TextMate does in snipplets plus gives you the ability to
run lisp code in certain portions of your snipplets opening up a
whole host of things that can be done.
I’m not particularly arguing, but I’d love to hear how you
judge the “power” of a text editor.
One thing I really like in editors is the ability to record temporary
keyboard macros, ease of extendibility (Vim is programmable in ruby),
quickly move around your source w/keyboard.
Things like:
def say_hello(^name, to_who)
^ = cursor, to change those params, I say ct) … change to ) …
zaps everything, and I start typing. Or, I want to copy say 3 lines
of code in an if statement that I am going to move to it’s own
function, 3dd. ([{}]) “’’” can all be auto-inserted/ended. I can
bounce between View.rhtml and View function in controller very
easily, etc… There are all sorts of things that helps me to decide
what makes a powerful editor. When editing html/rhtml files, Vim
makes it very easy.
upon inserting the >, vim ends the tag for me. If I want
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Start Typing here.
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I simply
| > … on the second > it deletes it, then adds/indents a
blank line and puts your cursor there.
When I am in a line, say, ^if a = 1 and b = 2 or c = 5 … and 5
should be 3, not 5, I simply do f5r3 … find 5, replace 3. Now, that
f command can be used for a whole host of things.
I could go on for the next five years saying things that make life
easy as a programmer in Vim and or emacs. Another one I love is the O
and o … I could be midline and want to start a brand new line on
top or bottom, I hit o, and vim goes to the end of the line, then
creates a new line. or O goes on top of the current line (no matter
where the cursor is) and starts a new line. Anyway, I should stop w/
these type of command discussions, but just showing what I think
makes a powerful editor.
I like to always see my code in context, when you scroll to the
bottom of the screen in most editors, your at the bottom of the
screen and you only see what’s above your code, you have no idea
what’s coming next. Well, powerful editors let you set them up how
you want to work. In vim, I added set so=4 which shows always 4 lines
of code around where I am. In that case, I will never get to the
bottomo of the screen, I get w/in 4 lines, and text starts scrolling
so I always see my code in line context.
Ok, really have to stop, you guys are probably bored already.
Can anyone tell me what makes people draw to TextMate? Maybe I am
missing the whole reason, I’d really like to find an editor better
than the one I am using, one that makes me more efficient and get
things done quicker, for that reason, I’d like to know what I missed?
Small, fast, cheap, live file browser (with creation and renaming)
and well supported, particularly so for Rails:
Vim = Small, fast, free. It does have a live file browser that I
don’t care for, so I always have a finder window w/no toolbar, etc…
in tree view so I can have the same thing as TextMate (one thing I
did like about TextMate), but the tree view gives me the same power.
Jeremy
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