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Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

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Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#63

Post by mechanical_fish »

jacobolus wrote: post #55
mechanical_fish wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used TextMate for three months or so -- wanted to see what the fuss was about -- before gratefully switching back to emacs. TextMate is the only editor I've used since learning emacs that I would even consider using full-time. (Except for vim, of course. :) It's a great product, and if you're happy with it you should keep using it. I'm not at all sad that I bought it -- there are tasks, mostly involving close integ…

> TextMate the backward search is bound to Control-Shift-S, a key combo that's torture to type compared to Control-R, that I can't remember to save my life, and that AFAIK cannot be changed… It can be changed absolutely trivially. See http://macromates.com/textmate/manual/key_bindings and also http://blog.macromates.com/2005/key-bindings-for-switchers/ > I've got my emacs rigged so that, when I type source code, I do…

It can be changed absolutely trivially. See http://macromates.com/textmate/manual/key_bindings ...

Hooray! Many thanks. I knew that if I complained about this often enough...

Someone should fix that documentation. The key I want to change is mentioned directly beneath this sentence:

In addition TextMate has the following key bindings, which are not visible in the menus and cannot be found in the standard key binding files:

That sentence managed to discourage me before I actually reached the bottom of the file mentioned at the bottom of section 3... where, thanks to your assertion that there really is hope, I finally found what I was looking for.

This is very easy to accomplish in TextMate.

How should I approach this? Where's the TextMate equivalent of the Emacs Lisp handbook? I do know Ruby, if that will help.

Perhaps I should point out, in case it's not as obvious as it should be, that the big reason I went back to emacs is just that I've been using it for a decade and have managed to learn where a lot of things are kept in emacs.

And, yeah, like I said: TextMate is a great editor. And its feature set and approach is so similar to emacs that an emacs-Textmate flamewar is even more pointless than an emacs-vi flamewar. :)

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#65

Post by lbrandy »

whacked_new wrote: post #64
j2d2 wrote: post #3

Install Emacs... It's free and every editor is trying to reinvent what this one already does.

Speaking of Emacs, I've recently started fearing whether it leads to excessive pinky usage. Has anybody had problems with this?

It does greatly increase your pinky use. Don't worry. It can handle it.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#66

Post by mnemonicsloth »

whacked_new wrote: post #64
j2d2 wrote: post #3

Install Emacs... It's free and every editor is trying to reinvent what this one already does.

Speaking of Emacs, I've recently started fearing whether it leads to excessive pinky usage. Has anybody had problems with this?

If you haven't already, bind the Control modifier to your Caps Lock key. Emacs was developed on workstations with this key configuration, and a lot of key combinations make more sense for your fingers that way.

If you've already done that, I wouldn't worry too much -- there are plenty of programmers working now who've been using Emacs for more than 20 years.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#67

Post by toffer »

mnemonicsloth wrote: post #66
whacked_new wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of Emacs, I've recently started fearing whether it leads to excessive pinky usage. Has anybody had problems with this?

If you haven't already, bind the Control modifier to your Caps Lock key. Emacs was developed on workstations with this key configuration, and a lot of key combinations make more sense for your fingers that way. If you've already done that, I wouldn't worry too much -- there are plenty of programmers working now who've been using Emacs for more than 20 years.

I've always wondered about this.

If you use the Caps Lock key as CTRL, then it feels pretty awkward for me to type some key combinations (like ctrl-x or ctrl-c) and still keep my fingers on the "home row".

Do you just get used to this? Do you type ctrl-x with your pinky and ring finger? Or, do you shift your hand away from the home row and type ctrl-x with your pinky and middle finger?

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#68

Post by avinashv »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #36
Oompa wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does Emacs or Vim have over TextMate? My friend was a hardcore Vim user but ended up switching to TextMate because it has enough keyboard shortcuts to make him happpy, but also has a nice bundle system that adds a lot of snippets.

I used TextMate for three months or so -- wanted to see what the fuss was about -- before gratefully switching back to emacs. TextMate is the only editor I've used since learning emacs that I would even consider using full-time. (Except for vim, of course. :) It's a great product, and if you're happy with it you should keep using it. I'm not at all sad that I bought it -- there are tasks, mostly involving close integ…

> I've got my emacs rigged so that, when I type source code, I don't need to press Shift to get symbols out of the top row of keys instead of digits.

I'd love to see a method to do this in Vim from anyone.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#69

Post by jacobolus »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #63
jacobolus wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TextMate the backward search is bound to Control-Shift-S, a key combo that's torture to type compared to Control-R, that I can't remember to save my life, and that AFAIK cannot be changed… It can be changed absolutely trivially. See http://macromates.com/textmate/manual/key_bindings and also http://blog.macromates.com/2005/key-bindings-for-switchers/ > I've got my emacs rigged so that, when I type source code, I do…

It can be changed absolutely trivially. See http://macromates.com/textmate/manual/key_bindings ... Hooray! Many thanks. I knew that if I complained about this often enough... Someone should fix that documentation. The key I want to change is mentioned directly beneath this sentence: In addition TextMate has the following key bindings, which are not visible in the menus and cannot be found in the standard key binding…

> Hooray! Many thanks. I knew that if I complained about this often enough...

The place to complain is the TextMate IRC channel, where someone will be happy to straighten you out in real time. :-)

> How should I approach this?

Well the easiest way would be to just make a series of 20 macros which insert the symbols when you press the numbers, and vice versa. But you could also do it through cocoa key bindings or a keyboard layout, with more trouble.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#70

Post by sunkencity »

Major reason to use TextMate is that it's got a good file tree overview, like eclipse. I find that working with rails and constantly looking around and inspecting the file tree is very pleasant in textmate. I like emacs, but not for jumping around between files, and the speedbar is horrible. On textmate if something happens in the file system it's instantly reflected when you switch back into textmate. I wish the speedbar would recieve a good rewrite in emacs.

Otoh, development on textmate seems to be pretty slow or nonexistent, it would be nice if split view would have been implemented by now.

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