

Ask HN: Textmate Alternatives? - barredo

I really like TM, but 2011 seems a nice year to try new alternatives.
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biog
Of course vim. You can view Vim Casts (<http://vimcasts.org/episodes/archive>)
for easy migration from TM.

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Skywing
I chose Eclipse over Textmate earlier this year. As a user of mostly Python,
Javascript, HTML and CSS, Eclipse has provided my ideal programming setup. All
of my code, for all of my projects, resides on a development server of mine
(Ubuntu). With Eclipse, I'm able to install the Eclipse software on my PCs and
Macbook and am able to use the Remote System Explorer to edit my code over
SSH. I then have the Aptana suite to provide the syntax highlighting and
stuff. I close most of the unnecessary Eclipse GUI elements so I'm left with a
very bare-bones feeling editor. So, my same editing environment works across
all of my computers.

When I used Textmate on my Macbook and Notepad++ on my Windows PCs, I always
had issues with indentations, and stuff from one editor to the next. I also
used to have to setup Samba on my Ubuntu server to map the network drives, and
edit them over a mapped drive.

Once I found Eclipse to be as awesome as it is, I don't think I'll ever look
back. lol.

~~~
calebmpeterson
I'll second the Eclipse vote. Sure, it has plenty of Enterprise-y cruft, but
if you peel off (close) most of it, you've got a really great editor with
version control integration for all major flavors(svn,cvs,git,etc...) and you
can probably find an editor plugin for any language under the sun that is half
decent. I don't love Java, but I sure do like Eclipse.

~~~
tworats
How do you peel of the cruft? I've been using it for a while, if I can get rid
of the extraneous stuff I'd be even happier.

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nzadrozny
MacVim + PeepOpen (<http://peepcode.com/products/peepopen>) are a pretty
decent alternative, particularly if you already have some experience in vim.

If you don't have a history of vim mastery, you should still think about it.
Yehuda Katz wrote an interesting blog article[1] on his experience switching
to MacVim as a vim beginner relying on OSX-isms.

1\. [http://yehudakatz.com/2010/07/29/everyone-who-tried-to-
convi...](http://yehudakatz.com/2010/07/29/everyone-who-tried-to-convince-me-
to-use-vim-was-wrong/)

~~~
trampsymphony
FWIW, I just switched from Textmate to MacVim 6 days ago, and am already
nearly as productive in it as I was on Textmate (no prior vim experience)

I personally found it best to just embrace the vimness (with cheat-sheets
beside my monitor). I barely accomplished any work on day 1, but by the end of
day 2 I was moving along pretty comfortably.

~~~
Deadsunrise
I switched some months ago and I'm not going back. Don't forget to install
vimperator on firefox too.

I posted some screenshots of my setup here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2053516>

Using tmux instead of normal terminal tabs is also a huge improvement.

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Adirael
For PHP I use phpStorm (<http://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/>) it's Eclipse-
like but fast.

~~~
gaoshan
>it's Eclipse-like but fast

It also costs $100 (though it is on sale right now) where Eclipse costs $0.
Not an insignificant fact for many of us.

~~~
Adirael
Not everybody can afford those 100 bucks, I know. A lot of people can but
wont.

I don't mind buying good software. Unless you're developing OS without any
benefits any speed increase would lead to benefits increase (well, not any,
but you know).

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nihar
<http://textmate2.com> ?

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wwkeyboard
Try an IDE designed specifically for whatever language you're working in. Most
will have key commands to do just about anything you can do with Textmate.
Spend a little time trying to customize and learn the environment. This will
give you a good experience to weigh a lightweight editor against a heavyweight
IDE. Most people seem to just fire up Eclipse or Rubymine or whatever else,
see it take 30 seconds to start, not bother to learn what sets it apart from a
text editor, then swear them off because of bloat.

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gaoshan
For a solid text editor, Vim (MacVim if you prefer).

For a solid IDE, Netbeans. I find it easier to use than Eclipse.

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xyentific
Kod (www.kodapp.com) looks like it has potential with a few features that TM
doesn't have. It is currently in beta.

~~~
barredo
Downloaded it a few days ago. Seems nice. But still has a lot of things to
accomplish

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zoomzoom
There is an OSX port of gedit that is similar in UI to TM and has lots of nice
features.

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invisible_hand
Emacs.

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darklighter3
UltraEdit

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bonaldi
BBEdit

