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I still like Sublime Text

ohdoylerules.com

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Re: I still like Sublime Text

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What extra value does it bring you compared to free alternatives like Notepad++?

Not trying to be rude but the article does a pretty good job laying out some reasons why I pick it.

I was interested in the value that it brings you. I'm a former Sublime Text user and I switched to VS Code some time ago.

Do you also use Sublime Text as your primary IDE just like author does?

————

Mirroring the structure of the article:

1) Regarding the section about LSPs: do you also have the need to be able to “just add an LSP installed as a binary in on your usr/local/bin” even though by the author's own admission “VS Code is the LSP king”?

Kind of ironic to have the author say in the introduction about VS Code that “it probably has taken inspiration from Sublime. So why not check out one of the OGs” and then a bit later proceeds to say that the LSP “tech originat[es] with that editor [VS Code]”. I'm returning the question to the author and you: why not check out the OG?

2) Regarding the section about snippets author says that “VS Code can do this” and even that “the syntax for it is a bit nicer”.

3) Regarding workspaces VS Code does all of that. Author admits that he “ha[s]n't used it personally, so [he] can't speak to it much”.

4) Regarding build systems VS Code does all of that and it's easier because contrary to “the Package Control [that] is not part of Sublime” (and that you have to uglily inject in the Sublime Text console to get working), the VS Code plugin repository has everything already ready-to-use so that you don't need to reinvent the wheel. You can if you want though; Sublime Text doesn't provide anything extra in that regard.

5) Regarding the “Multiple cursors” VS Code has it as well.

6) Regarding the block-level key bindings, have you ever needed them? For me the last thing I want is for my shortcuts to change dynamically based on which block I am in the file. Note that in Sublime Text “they cannot be saved on a per-project basis”, which is awkward to say the least. I would (much) rather have project-level keybindings rather than only block-level keybindings that apply globally.

7) Regarding using “Python all the way down” rather than JavaScript, I'm surprised that the author finds it to be a good thing considering that they primarily use it for “web-dev” and all their examples are frontend Javascript code.

8) Finally, the author complains about the terrible documentation of Sublime Text, the lack of a plugin system, and the fact that for the 3rd-party hacked-together plugin management system he finds that getting them on the “Package Control site to be quite a chore”. I have a ton more complaints about Sublime Text to add on top of that.

I would rather directly donate money[1] to small developers rather than — as another commenter puts it — “supporting and using the products developed by a small team of dedicated engineers ...”

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[1] And I do! Currently sponsoring 14 developers on a monthly basis[1]: https://github.com/devnoname120?tab=sponsoring

Re: I still like Sublime Text

#202
This brings back good old memories. Sublime was my editor from 2010 until 2016, when I switched to VS Code. Eventually, I got hooked on Neovim, and I still use it to this day since I can't live without Vim motions anymore.

But I built dozens of websites using Sublime, so in a way, it helped me earn $300k.

Re: I still like Sublime Text

#203

I used to love Sublime Text and used it for my daily driver. Even bought a license. But just downloaded it again, and while it definitely felt snappy, after 15 minutes I still couldn't find a way to get TypeScript type checking working, or even any type of JavaScript/TypeScript autocomplete.

If you want IDE-like behavior you'll need to install the TypeScript LSP: https://packagecontrol.io/packages/LSP-typescript . We do have our own limited language-agnostic indexing and auto-complete if you open your projects folder; it relies on existing code to provide suggestions.

I installed that. Spent 15 minutes trying to get it to work. No joy :(

Re: I still like Sublime Text

#204

I've reinstalled ST a while ago, for years I've tried VS Code and I do my main work in IntelliJ but I never got that feeling of productivity and an editor that isn't in the way back after stopping to use Sublime back in the day. Mind you, at the time the world had moved on as well; my main ST days were developing a JS application in the days before Typescript / Flow and the like, so all my work relied on my own memor…

> my main ST days were developing a JS application in the days before Typescript / Flow and the like, so all my work relied on my own memory, consistent naming, global search and cmd+p to open files.

Ohh the days where you could open a JS project, immediately understand what it did and make a quick fix. Now it's 15 lines of imports, then one line of code that you have no idea what it does because you have to find what it actually does by digging 10 layers down in the import inception. Buf if you have a IDE you can tell by the type annotation that it's an EnterpriseJavaScriptBeanConstructorFactorFunctionIterator and by clicking ctrl+space you can see that it has four methods: .create() .read() .update() and .delete()

Re: I still like Sublime Text

#205
Maybe Sublime Text is good, but I refuse to pay for something as profane as a text editor. A decent editor (syntax highlighting, LSP, regex search, keybindings for the 21st century etc) needs to be part of every operarting system.

For me nowadays, Lapce is quickly growing on me.

Re: I still like Sublime Text

#206

Maybe Sublime Text is good, but I refuse to pay for something as profane as a text editor. A decent editor (syntax highlighting, LSP, regex search, keybindings for the 21st century etc) needs to be part of every operarting system. For me nowadays, Lapce is quickly growing on me.

You can essentially use Sublime for free indefinitely. It shows you a prompt to buy a license for every few saves you make but that’s about it. Not invasive in my book. I also think people underestimate the amount of work that goes into building a good text editor and keeping it up to date over the years.

Re: I still like Sublime Text

#207
post #117

Sublime Text developer here, thank you for all the praise! I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish this year. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer.

For starters, I love the licensing, as it is very fair: I bought a personal license and I can take it to as many machines as I have (I do use many different computers). And you can buy it one time, no silly monthly subscription fees. As a result, Sublime ist the only commercial (locally installed) software I still use, and it is always open. There are situations, where I use macros, regex substitutions, or browsing t…

> but I immediately lost an important file

Notepad++ has had that feature (persisting temporary text buffers) before Sublime Text even existed.

Re: I still like Sublime Text

#208

Sublime Text developer here, thank you for all the praise! I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish this year. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer.

I've used it for 15 years and ST is still the first thing I install on a new PC. All thoughts, meeting notes, journals, blog post drafts... everything is jotted down in ST first. I even went as far as writing my own to-do list syntax highlighter[1] which is the main reason ST is always open, at home and at work, even though I mostly use VSCode and IntelliJ for coding nowadays. [1]: https://github.com/mlagerberg/todo

Same! I use ST for my to-do list and personal wiki, with custom highlighting and commands, and VSCode for coding.

Re: I still like Sublime Text

#209
post #168
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For starters, I love the licensing, as it is very fair: I bought a personal license and I can take it to as many machines as I have (I do use many different computers). And you can buy it one time, no silly monthly subscription fees. As a result, Sublime ist the only commercial (locally installed) software I still use, and it is always open. There are situations, where I use macros, regex substitutions, or browsing t…

How did you lose a file?

possibly restarting the System

Re: I still like Sublime Text

#210
post #117

Sublime Text developer here, thank you for all the praise! I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish this year. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer.

For starters, I love the licensing, as it is very fair: I bought a personal license and I can take it to as many machines as I have (I do use many different computers). And you can buy it one time, no silly monthly subscription fees. As a result, Sublime ist the only commercial (locally installed) software I still use, and it is always open. There are situations, where I use macros, regex substitutions, or browsing t…

>Both Sublime and Emacs always auto-save documents without explicit "save" action, so you can never lose anything.

Unless, of course, you accidentally press "delete folder" instead of "remove folder from project" in the sidebar context menu.

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