Sublime Forum

Things that would make me buy Sublime Text 2

#1

Hi,

I’ve been playing with the ST2 alpha on OS X, and I’m quite impressed. I wanted to just list the things that I think would make me buy it to replace TextMate:

  • When viewing a file in a project, I’d like to be able to view it in context in the file browser, i.e. have the folders listing open up to reveal my file.
  • I’m really missing keyboard navigation in the file/folder browser panel
  • I’d like to be able to right-click on a folder in the folder browser to add a new file here - creating an untitled file and saving it requires navigating to the folder tree again in the “save” dialogue
  • I’d like to be able to launch “find in files” with a given folder as the root from the folder browser, rather than having to pick the folder again
  • I’d like to be able to filter the folder browser to hide by file pattern
  • TextMate has a pretty decent paste history, so you can paste previously cut/copied items easily. I use this a lot.
  • It’d be good to have code block folding support (at least it doesn’t seem to exist for Python)
  • I really miss TextMate’s block edit: Select with the mouse from top left to bottom right, hit alt, and you get a selection that is a rectangle from those two points. Any edits are applied to all lines, so, for example, it’s easy to add something to the beginning of each of a set of lines. TextMate does this better than any editor I’ve used before.
  • I’d like to have code bookmarks (file + line) with easy jumping shortcuts
  • In TextMate, I use a bundle that lets me run Pyflakes on save when I write Python code, displaying any Pyflakes violations in a tooltip. I’m hoping something similarly well-integrated is possible in Sublime Text 2, either in the product itself, or in some kind of plugin
  • In TextMate, I’ve got PDB integration that highlights lines and opens files whilst stepping through the Python debugger. I’d need similar integration with Sublime Text, perhaps as a plugin again.
  • Overall stability improvements (it’s crashed on me a few times, but then it’s an alpha)

Cheers,
Martin

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#2

Not sure if this is what you are looking for but this plugin just got released yesterday: SublimeLint (Realtime lint highlighting)

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#3

If there’s one thing that Sublime Text is amazing at, it’s multiple concurrent edits. Try holding ctrl while dragging a selection, and then hold alt and drag again through the middle of it. You can also put your cursor in the middle of a common word and press command+d a bunch to select multiple instances of that word, and press ctrl+shift+up and +down to add insertion points above and below your current ones. Or, if you want to add stuff to the beginning of every line, select all the lines, press cmd+shift+l, and then press cmd+left.
Also this website has some pretty good tips (it was made for ST1, but most of the info still applies): sublime.akalias.net/gettingstart … tions.html

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#4

Please add the above :smile: I’ve been looking for a TextMate replacement for a long time, and the above additions would make me buy Sublime Text 2.

To clarify and expand on a couple of points:

  • I don’t find the “Files” section of the side bar useful at all. In fact, it’s a hinderance. When you have a few (not even that many) init.py or other similarly named files open, it is too easy to get lost and too difficult to find and switch to the exact file you’re looking for. You basically have to just open files at random and examine the content of the file to try and determine where it is located. Instead, I’d like to have only the “Folders” section, and to have the current file always revealed in the side bar.

  • I’d like Cmd-N and the New File context menu to work like the New Folder context menu. It should ask me for the new filename and immediately create the file in the specified folder, instead of opening an untitled file in memory and changing the current working dir so that the save dialogue defaults to the specified folder.

  • I’d like a keyboard shortcut as well as the context menu to create a new folder in the current folder (Opt-Cmd-N?).

  • I know that Sublime Text 2 has great support for multiple selections, but I do find them a bit confusing and overly complex to use most of the time. I would like a toggle (e.g. tapping Opt) to switch between column and row select.

  • On OS X at least, I’d like the side panel to look more like Finder sidebar. I’d like to see files and folders ordered together by name, instead of showing folders first and then files. I’d also like to see file type and folder icons for each item. As it is now, I find that I get lost looking at the side bar with many folders expanded.

Cheers.

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#5

I also miss TextMate’s ability to toggle to “column mode” using the alt key. It was something I used frequently.

It took me a while to figure out the cmd-shift-l command for switching to multiple-selection mode using keyboard in ST2, which works for what I need 50% of the time, mostly when I need something at the beginning or end of multiple lines. The multiple-selection functionality of ST2 is usually much more powerful than TM’s column edit. It was a huge selling point for sure.

For the most part you can get the same effect in ST2 by using the mouse: hold alt and drag straight down where you want to do multiple edits.

Perhaps there’s a way to do this by keyboard in ST2 that I just haven’t figured out.

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#6

Does ctrl+shift+up/down do what you want?

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#7

Yup, thanks! Had not discovered that key combination.

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#8

Just came here looking to see if anyone had mentioned that column select mode cannot be toggled (using Opt on the Mac) once the selection has begun using the mouse… and it seems that they have!

So… just to +1 this.

I really miss this. After years with Textmate, I’m forever forgetting to hold down Opt prior to selecting a column with the mouse. It’s a minor thing, but annoying.

And, although Ctrl-Shift-Up/Down allows keyboard column selection, the functionality is not the same as a mouse selection if the selected text has empty lines in it (the mouse selection ignores these lines, whilst the keyboard selection places cursors in column 1 for the blank lines)

Cheers

SC

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