Sublime Forum

Open Source Sublime Text

#54

I’m going to assume based on your comments that you’ve never ported an application from 32 bit to 64 bit, but it is not as easy as just flipping a compile time switch or changing the value of a type. Or if you will, code that compiles and code that runs and does what you expect it to do are not the same thing.

Running 32 bit software on a 64 bit OS requires that all of the libraries that the application requires be installed as 32 bit as well, making getting it working on some operating systems more involved than others. However that would require such a version to exist, which would require SublimeHQ to maintain and support multiple versions.

Being 64 bit allows, amongst other things, access to a larger memory space which is for example required for the git support in ST to work. This is why even when there was a 32 bit version available, the git integration was still not available.

If you require a 32 bit version, they exist, you just can’t use the latest versions (though in fact I believe there are unofficial 32 bit versions of ST4 if you know where to look, which are entirely unsupported so if you have issues that’s unfortunate).

At the end of the day, using recent things requires recent things, and sometimes that’s just not possible. I would love for example to use a fast charger to charge my car to save on gas costs, but since my car isn’t electric that’s not in the cards.

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#55

Nothing is stopping you to give a second life to old 32-bit hardware, not even the unavailability of a 32-bit version of ST. If you really need to edit code on older hardware just use one of the many available editors for 32-bit Windows or Linux.
Or, as professional software developers do, write code for 32-bit hardware (to continue their useful life) using a modern and comfortable 64-bit machine.

Watch out the power consumption of old PCs, if you care about CO2. There’s a chance a more powerful Raspberry Pi may be better for the environment, even if you count its manufacture.

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#56

I am confused: how would one use ST without Package Control? No offense meant, but I don’t think ST by itself would be worth the trouble and expense. It is the packages that make the whole thing functional, IMHO. So how do I install the packages w/o Package Control?

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#57

Package Control makes it easier to install packages, remove them, update them automatically as maintainers push out new releases and help in managing dependencies for said packages. You can use ST with packages without PC as well. It’s just that all of the functionality of PC has to now be manually done by you.

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#58

Well, precisely. So I have to know a lot about packages to use ST. That doesn’t make sense for new users. So my point, to rephrase: there should be a built-in (shipped) way of managing packages.

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#59

There is. It’s called Package Control.

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#60

This answer is fundamentally wrong!

Package Control is not owned nor developed by sublimehq. It’s a community package as any other one. It’s only ST which provides a menu item to automatically install it, because as @PetrKrysl pointed out correctly, extending ST or installing packages is literly impossible for ordinary users, without it.

There’s no concept or infrastructure built into ST to manage packages. That’s what we see with Sublime Merge these days. Some users created some themes, but only some experts are able to find and install them. Thus they are useless for the majority of users.

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#61

This is all very odd. Long before packagecontrol, there were packages. It wasn’t literally impossible to install them then, and it isn’t now. And what is an “ordinary user” of ST anyway?

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#62

You could say that users today are spoiled for choice. VS Code is a very strong entry in the general market segment. And it makes it super easy (or at least it attempts to make it easy) for newcomers.

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#63

Yes there is. Its called Package control. Doesn’t have to be officially made by SublimeHQ. It works and everyone on Sublime Text uses it. Literally the first thing, that an user can active on Sublime Text to get, remove and manage packages or repos.

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#64

Its also easy on Sublime Text.

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#65

Package Control is not a package the Sublime HQ maintains and ships. So it’s not a built in way of managing packages. When someone says built-in, I’d expect to just grab a fresh copy of said software and without my intervention, the said feature needs to work. In case of PC, I need to install it first (ST doesn’t even come shipped with any of PC’s code).

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#66

So much useless semantics here. Package Control is a first class citizen in Sublime Text. Being pedantic over this is useless, when the user can simply go to the menu Tools and select Install Package Control. It’s that easy.

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#67

I am just stating facts and correcting your previous statement.

My reply wasn’t towards how easy it is to install PC. It was whether PC is built into ST, which you think it is, when in reality it’s not. ST just makes it very simple to install PC, that’s all.

Anyways, I can see these conversations steering into unproductive waters, so I am going to stop.

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#68

still you replied. :man_shrugging:t5:

Okay. Then let me rephrase this. There is no need for a built-in package manager. Package Control fills that already. Its a first class citizen on Sublime Text. Really easy to install and use.

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#69

An “ordinary user” is someone who installs an application to get its job done. He’s not interested/willing (or capable) to study all the internals of an application or spend days to find out to setup a simple working environment.

Of course repos can be cloned into Packages folder manually without Package Control, but it already requires investigation to find the source repo, destination folder and several manual tasks, which are easy for an expert or power use, but a burden for new users. If you don’t believe that, just skim the forum for all the “why is this so complicated” complaints. Hence it’s not too wrong to call it “literly impossible” from a user’s perspective.

I don’t complain for my self. I guess I’ve learned the least required lessons to work with ST, but the status quo is why I am the only one left in our company. All other’s have moved to VS Code due to its simplicity in setting up new environments or exploring and installing required extensions. It’s even harder to convince new engineers.

Sure, Package Control can be installed with one click, which is easy, but that was not the point of @PetrKrysl’s first comment about this topic. All reactions prove you guys either haven’t read or understood his comment.

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#70

I always thought when Will (who created Package Control) started to work for SublimeHQ, that they would end up having either Package Control or some similar tool built-in that the company maintained. That never happened, unfortunately, though I do appreciate that it is now easy to install it.

I don’t deny that Package Control is a great community-driven tool, but I’ve always feared that if you lose the pillars that hold up that tool, the infrastructure behind Sublime Text crumbles. I’ve never fully understood why SublimeHQ has not invested resources to take hold of this very important infrastructure themselves.

I’m fine if Package Control persists as a community-driven tool assuming there is always someone to maintain it, but I’ve always thought that is a bit risky for Sublime. With all of that said, I guess the tool is open source though, so if the community behind it ever disappeared, they could probably just fork it and get it up and running again themselves :man_shrugging: .

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#71

“Hence it’s not too wrong to call it “literly impossible” from a user’s perspective.”

Horsefeathers.

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#72

FWIW, SublimeHQ does sponsor Will for his open source work via GitHub sponsors. So in a way, they have done investment in making sure the continued existence of Package Control and Will’s other open source work (which mainly includes crytpo based Python packages, which PC makes use of as dependencies IIRC) :slightly_smiling_face:

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#73

Oh?! That’s actually nice to hear :slightly_smiling_face:.

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