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Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#41

Post by cpr »

Yes, definitely just use the built-in Emacs from the command line. Less flash & less Mac integration, but it works the same whether running on your system or running ssh'd into a Unix-based server. (But be sure to (10.5) use "Preferences > Settings > Keyboard > Use option as meta key".)

Also, note that you can customize the Cocoa text environment to be pretty much straight Emacs keystrokes (it's already there, but you have to configure it). See http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/Site/Cocoa%20Text%20System.... for a wonderful set of tips and hints.

It's heaven having Emacs editing commands in any web-based text widget (like this one), and everywhere else that's Cocoa-based text.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#42

Post by nomad »

Seems like there's good community support behind VIM/Emacs and TextMate. Though mainly I get a sense that many try a few and settle into one. I think my strategy will be to try VIM or Emacs or both, and if I find the learning curve too high, switch over to TextMate. Thanks!

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#43

Post by elq »

Oompa wrote: post #26
maurycy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a bad sign that such comment got so many upvotes. Of course, it takes less time NOW to dig into TextMate, but VIm or Emacs changes your way of thinking. That's exactly why it makes sense to learn Lisp or C. Even if they're hardly usable in the current market, they make you a better programmer.

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.

keyboard macros, tramp, gdba mode, ESS (emacs speaks statistics), and far more.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#44

Post by elq »

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…

abbrev's aren't quite as "powerful" as textmate's snippets. luckily, there are many elisp packages that provide this functionality, yasnippet is what I'm using.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#45

Post by xlnt »

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…

FYI i believe it's not too hard to change keyboard shortcuts (or add them) for anything in a menu on a native mac app using the xcode interface builder (maybe it got renamed recently, can't remember).

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#46

Post by TY »

bprater wrote: post #39

Coda is smexy if you need to do alot of FTP related hacking.

Agree, Coda (http://www.panic.com/coda) is one very slick application for web related work where lots of FTPing is required. It also supports syntax highliting for most popular scripting languages (Ruby, Python, Perl, PHP, JavaScript and others) and has a great CSS editor AND integrated Terminal.

Plus you can choose to preview how your web app looks like in various browsers from Coda.

There are many more features, it's one very useful and slick app for web development work - HTML/CSS and lightweight scripting.

For heavier jobs (Lisp and non-web based Python programming) I use Aquamacs - definitely check it out.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#47

Post by lux »

mtts wrote: post #33
lux wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is BBEdit a dead editor exactly? I've used BBEdit for about 8 years now, since it was pretty much one of the only kids on the Mac block for a long time. But I never felt limited by that choice, I felt quite good about it compared to what was out there in the Windows world (I'm also a regular vim user too). BBEdit is a powerful and stable editor that handles all my needs well, including integration with external s…

Of course it can handle your needs. It's no match, however, for the community around Textmate that provides all sorts of bundles and snippets that may come in handy (and most of which you will never ever use). For example, if a new web application framework comes out tomorrow, you can be fairly sure someone will create a Textmate bundle for it the day after. Somehow I don't see that happen for BBEdit.

That's true, but most of those I found I didn't need anyway and spent more time trying to remember where which snippet was and what binding I put to it than just getting real work done. My memory doesn't work well with lots of key bindings...

Then again, you also don't see many crazy snippet packages for vim, but that's still not a "dead" project either.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#48

Post by Oompa »

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 can see where you're coming from, and I can completely agree that TextMate could only be made better if it was open source, but it's quite good as is. To each their own, I guess.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#49

Post by Oompa »

nostrademons wrote: post #40
rw wrote: post #31

Vim. It's Vi-iMproved. Once you know a vi clone, you will be able to hack fast, and on any unix machine. Very valuable. Recently, this was posted to HN (and I quote from it): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=151637 "Paul Graham still uses it for his lisp and arc hacking, Tim O'Reilly is a confessed vi-er, SlickEdit and Crisp have vi emulation..."

How well does vim work on a Mac? I'm a regular (g)vim user on Linux, but am thinking of getting a Mac for my next computer. I'm a little wary of using standard *nix tools on platforms they're not native to, though, because I tried emacs + GHC on Windows in college and found that Windows did things differently enough that all the normal help resources online didn't really apply (emacs users tend to laugh at you when y…

I know that regular vim is available for OS X, and I also know that a special "MacVim" also exists. MacVim is more integrated with OS X as a whole, and has a gui like gvim.

Re: Ask YC: Mac Text Editors

#50

Post by geuis »

I am really surprised only 2 other people have mentioned Smultron. At least to me, it is by far a superior application to textmate, text wrangler, and bbedit. I have not used emacs and coda, but will be trying them when I get home.

I work in both windows and mac worlds. By far, textpad on windows is the #1 text editor I've ever used. Last year I started doing web development on macs and quickly got frustrated nothing was available that would do everything textpad does. I even tried running it in emulation but some wierdness didnt leave it as a functional option at the time.

I tried various text editors until I found smultron. Easily the best little text editor ive found for mac so far, and I can't recommend it enough.

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