I wrote a simple fuzzy file finder extension for Emacs that tries to address some of the things I don't like about IDO (namely the "big paragraph" presentation that this article tells about), but does much less of course. I use it myself all the time, and if it could be of interest to the readers of this thread, here it is: http://code.google.com/p/find-file-suggest
Am I the Only One Who Uses a Text Editor to Edit Files?
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Re: Am I the Only One Who Uses a Text Editor to Edit Files?
#12Where's the geany integration? sniff
Re: Am I the Only One Who Uses a Text Editor to Edit Files?
#13My favourite text editor still has to be Notepad++ on Windows. I've never found another (both for Windows or Linux) that was as snappy and simple.
shrug
(never quite "got" emacs - it reminds me of the crappy, buggy, horrid PIC IDE we used at uni)
Re: Am I the Only One Who Uses a Text Editor to Edit Files?
#14I wrote a snappy Ruby-based Vim plugin called LustyExplorer which does fuzzy/flex matching for opening files and switching buffers: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1890
Re: Am I the Only One Who Uses a Text Editor to Edit Files?
#15Kate comes close to providing what he is looking for:
It doesn't do an x/y fuzzy search, or an x y fuzzy search though it does to single word search.
It colors files by how recent they were opened and by if they were most recently edited or just viewed (changing/reference code). The file searches include folder names. All navigation tasks work through the keyboard. It has GUI beauty.
Re: Am I the Only One Who Uses a Text Editor to Edit Files?
#16I wrote a snappy Ruby-based Vim plugin called LustyExplorer which does fuzzy/flex matching for opening files and switching buffers: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1890
Oh, and also a version for Emacs: http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/LustyExplorer
Re: Am I the Only One Who Uses a Text Editor to Edit Files?
#17Typical designer. "Oh no, my text editor displays its status to me using text." Yeah. Some people get their eye-candy feed from lolcat videos, and then use their tools for work. (My desktop doesn't even have wobbly windows! Just a 1-px red border! How can I get any work done that way!) Also, I'm fairly certain that eproject gets rid of the "wall of text" that disqualifies Emacs. In a perl project, for example, I can…
> Just a 1-px red border!
You don't use xmonad, perchance? It's the only one I know of that uses the one red pixel in the default scheme. I guess Awesome or the like might too, but I haven't used them in a long time. Tiling window managers are a great example of something that is less "advanced" but more useful.
And as far as I can tell, both Emacs and Vim can easily satisfy all but the "beautiful" requirement for him. I think he should just replace all of his requirements with, "a powerful and extensible plug-in system."
Re: Am I the Only One Who Uses a Text Editor to Edit Files?
#18This is really well done, and especially interesting because I am doing research on making a text editor right now.
Re: Am I the Only One Who Uses a Text Editor to Edit Files?
#19Typical designer. "Oh no, my text editor displays its status to me using text." Yeah. Some people get their eye-candy feed from lolcat videos, and then use their tools for work. (My desktop doesn't even have wobbly windows! Just a 1-px red border! How can I get any work done that way!) Also, I'm fairly certain that eproject gets rid of the "wall of text" that disqualifies Emacs. In a perl project, for example, I can…
I think your attitude is overly dismissive. At least, I'd have a hard time writing someone off as a "typical designer" (a bit of a tired stereotype) if they're experienced in both vim and emacs, let alone work for Peepcode. The author offered a sustained, reasoned argument for better navigation within projects.
I agree that as a programmer, I care about functionality and tools that get out of my way so that I can get my work done quickly and efficiently. But I don't think that means that everything has to look ugly (or better - that it couldn't be more elegantly presented).
I'm a Vim user, and rarely leave full-screen mode. It's a great app, but on large projects even with the Fuzzy File Finder plugin, I agree that navigating can be cumbersome. I'd like to try out Jamis Buck's "Fuzzy Finder Textmate" plugin that builds on this, but have had trouble getting it installed on both my desktop and laptop.
tl/dr: The author knows what s/he's talking about, and things can be pretty and functional, too.
Re: Am I the Only One Who Uses a Text Editor to Edit Files?
#20Typical designer. "Oh no, my text editor displays its status to me using text." Yeah. Some people get their eye-candy feed from lolcat videos, and then use their tools for work. (My desktop doesn't even have wobbly windows! Just a 1-px red border! How can I get any work done that way!) Also, I'm fairly certain that eproject gets rid of the "wall of text" that disqualifies Emacs. In a perl project, for example, I can…
The thesis of the article isn't "pretty > learning and thinking", and I don't think your distinction between the two is valid. User interfaces shouldn't be left to rot in the name of "learning and thinking". It's important to consider the way something looks and functions as it affects your ability to use it considerably. Form matters just as much as content. You can learn and think and have things be pretty all at once.
Furthermore, I don't think you're really addressing the core of the article. He mentioned the word "ugly" once, and it wasn't even the bulk of his criticism: Emacs doesn't provide all the features he wants. The "Metadata" icon was left of off Emacs, and he goes on to mention things such as searching on class and method names.