Hi there.
I’ve been using UltraEdit for a long time now. SublimeText looks better, beats UE in performance, and I love a lot of functions here that UE will never implement. For some years now, I keep checking back to Sublime to see if I can use it, but there are a few roadblocks that keep sending me back. And I hate it.
I’m telling these things because I believe they’re good ideas and practices to use an editor, and there may be a lot of people not using their otherwise-loved ST3 because these things stop them every 5 minutes. All of the things below are “AFAIK”, maybe I’m missing something, sorry then; but I tried to look around and I couldn’t find working solutions.
So here’s my “back to that slow and laggy UltraEdit again” list.
. 1. Code folding - for real
There is something like it, we can fold lines, okay. But I can’t reduce a folded block to 1 line - which would be the whole point of it. Like this:
function myFunc1() {
function myFunc2() {
function myFunc3() {
Instead of this:
function myFunc1() {
}
function myFunc2() {
}
function myFunc3() {
}
. 2. Custom folding strings
Yes there are packages for this, but not one that can exclusively tell the editor which fold strings to use. It’s good for a developer; we like to fold custom structural parts, we know what and why, and it’s not necessarily every opening and closing HTML tag, not even functions. I have special words for folding and UE can handle that. I don’t want to lose this. It’s life or death when the source files get complex.
. 3. Function lists / navigation lists
Classes, functions, certain named blocks: they’re very helpful when listed on the right side of the screen. In UE there’s a regex way to specify what to list and then I can just navigate there with a click; it’s VERY convenient, helps a lot, there’s virtually no kind of file where it woulnd’t come in handy. Speeds up work a lot. But ST has no such feature and I’ve seen no package implementing it. (Again, sorry if I overlooked something; tell me if so!)
. 4. Custom file list with groups
In UE, I can just drag files out to s list on the side so I can click-and-open them anytime. This list can be hierarchically arranged: groups, sub-groups, any depth. I name the groups, I organize what goes where, I can even duplicate files, like “site.css” into each group, because it’s convenient when only one of them is open. This is something really missing from ST, and what I have instead - open file list, full folders list - is not nearly as useful.
. 5. Virtual space - cursor beyond EOL
Please, please, PLEASE. Even if I can’t type there; it’s just necessary to be able to move my caret thru any lines when going upwards; it’s super annoying when short lines make my caret jump back to the left. There’s no way to get used to it once you had an editor that can handle the entire editing space.
Now again, I’m checking SublimeText a LOT. I just can’t wait to switch to it. Also it’s on Linux too (UE has a very weak Linux presence), and I do want to use it on both platforms… But there’s no way to get used to losing ALL the features above. No matter how I decide to finally ditch UE, I keep going back just because it has these few additions, most of which are probably not too difficult to implement in ST.
Is it just me?