Updates for the stable Sublime Text

[davejones]

The final build of ST2 was released on the 26th of June, 2012. The last update to ST2 was released on the 14th of July 2012.

However, ST2 isn’t exactly bug free. It has a few bugs and it would be nice to receive updates for the stable ST. It’s always nice to get updates for the software you’ve paid for.
The beta version broke compatibility with the old plugins and it’s also a beta. It crashes quite often for some people and I’m not looking to beta test ST again.

Why isn’t ST2 supported at all any more? Why aren’t there any maintenance releases for it? What if I want to receive support for the stable version?

It feels like we’re being asked to pay for every update, since updates to the stable versions aren’t released at all. Don’t get me wrong, it’s OK to pay for the upgrade from one stable version to another, but people still want updates for the stable versions.

How difficult would it be to fix some problems the users have run into by releasing some 2.0x builds? Was there really no bug fixed during the development of ST between the time when ST2 stable was released and the time the ST3 beta was released?

The lack of updates for ST2 and the fact that the developer doesn’t answer his email have convinced me to not buy ST3 at all. Investing money in unsupported software isn’t something worthwhile.

I’m looking into other editors now, preferably ones with source code available so having a bug fixed isn’t left at the mercy and good will of a single individual.

UPDATE:
I’ve had some people jump in mindlessly without even trying to think for one second about what I was actually asking for and what I was saying.

I merely wanted a straight answer from jps so that I know why it’s too difficult for him to provide some updates every once in a while.
I’m not saying he should develop new features or anything new for ST2, I’m just saying getting some updates which backport some of the bug fixes would be nice.

People have been really blind to see this and there’s no point in bothering to discuss anything at all any more.

jps: if you think you can actually take 10 minutes to answer, it would be appreciated.

Thank you for the input.

[iamntz]

There are annoying errors on Windows since… forever (like focus stealing). Idem for OSX (like click through). Probably the same for every distro of linux.

When you buy a software, you buy it for what it is at that moment, not for what may became.

[davejones]

[quote=“iamntz”]There are annoying errors on Windows since… forever (like focus stealing). Idem for OSX (like click through). Probably the same for every distro of linux.

When you buy a software, you buy it for what it is at that moment, not for what may became.[/quote]

That’s not an excuse for the developer to not provide support! You buy the software knowing that there are bugs, but you also expect to get support when you email the developer and ask for support.

Otherwise people can just use open source software and they can fix problems themselves - then they can choose to donate to a project, but they’re not left at the mercy of some developer.

I really expect an answer from jps.

[mwb1100]

When you buy a software, you buy it for what it is at that moment, not for what may became.

But you can also complain when it appears that the support you thought you might get doesn’t materialize.

[davejones]

[quote=“mwb1100”]

When you buy a software, you buy it for what it is at that moment, not for what may became.

But you can also complain when it appears that the support you thought you might get doesn’t materialize.[/quote]

It looks like getting a reply on the forum is also too much to ask for.

[valrus]

I agree with this. The lack of any continued support for ST2 is making my seriously reconsider my decision to pay for it. Is this how it’s going to be in perpetuity? Will those of us who pay for ST3 and find bugs there also be left in the lurch until we’re made to pay for ST4? This seems to be setting a precedent that I’m not comfortable buying into.

[handycam]

You know what? Don’t buy it.

I paid for ST2. I use it every day, all day. Whatever I paid for it, I more than got my money’s worth. Even if it never gets updated again. It’s an career expense, a tool I needed.

I am using the ST3 beta. When it comes out, I will pay for that too. PAst experience has shown it’s a tool that has worked well for me, day in and day out, enabling me to do my job better.

Now, if it doesn’t work right for you, or you’re not comfortable with spending ~$75 a year on the tool you use every day, or don’t like the way Sublime is developed/updated, please just go buy another editor.

[davejones]

[quote=“handycam”]You know what? Don’t buy it.

I paid for ST2. I use it every day, all day. Whatever I paid for it, I more than got my money’s worth. Even if it never gets updated again. It’s an career expense, a tool I needed.

I am using the ST3 beta. When it comes out, I will pay for that too. PAst experience has shown it’s a tool that has worked well for me, day in and day out, enabling me to do my job better.

Now, if it doesn’t work right for you, or you’re not comfortable with spending ~$75 a year on the tool you use every day, or don’t like the way Sublime is developed/updated, please just go buy another editor. [/quote]

I DID buy it already. I expect to get support for what I’ve paid for. No, buying ST3 isn’t what I’m going to do.

The support provided for ST2 has literally been ZERO - no reply from the developer, no updates, no statement, NOTHING.

So, please excuse me if I don’t care about the opinions of people who throw their hands up and say “yeah, sure, pay $$$ every year to get the latest version and access to the latest BETAs”. That doesn’t solve the problem of bugs.

It looks like far too few people can understand exactly how software development is supposed to work. You get a stable release and that stable release gets maintenance updates. A thousand new features are worthless if bugs get carried over and new ones are introduced.

Also, this doesn’t excuse the lack of support from the developer. If you take my money, I expect SUPPORT.

[gregor.hoch]

ST2 was available as a beta for a long time with amazingly frequent updates, bug fixes and everything. Problems were posted here and sometimes fixed within a day. Based on this history, ST2 had a long and prosperous life span. The ONLY problem is that Jon should have called the version ‘stable’ much earlier so that people wouldn’t complain about the lag of updates. If you forget about this labeling issue, I don’t know about many other software products that had such an active developer who provided so frequent updates. For many people that is something they love about ST.

[davejones]

ST2 was available as a beta for a long time with amazingly frequent updates, bug fixes and everything. Problems were posted here and sometimes fixed within a day. Based on this history, ST2 had a long and prosperous life span. The ONLY problem is that Jon should have called the version ‘stable’ much earlier so that people wouldn’t complain about the lag of updates. If you forget about this labeling issue, I don’t know about many other software products that had such an active developer who provided so frequent updates. For many people that is something they love about ST.

Perhaps that’s the case, but it still doesn’t change the fact that ST2 hasn’t received an update for a very long time. It’ll be 12 months since the last update in a few months. The fact that he was releasing new builds quickly is indeed admirable, but that’s needed when building a new version of a piece of software.

It wouldn’t be such a big deal to release an update every 2-3 months to fix a few bugs. Some people have already said they wouldn’t buy ST3 and any future version because he’s not supporting the stable version - AT ALL.
I don’t know what other people expect from what they pay for, but I expect to have bugs fixed in the current stable version of a piece of software, not in the version to be released 3 years from now after paying for 3 more upgrades. Then I have to pay for 3 more years to get rid of the bugs introduced in those versions and so on. The problem wouldn’t be the money, but the time. Otherwise we’d all write our own ST like editors.

At the time when I’ve bought ST2, it was in BETA and I really thought some of the bugs would be fixed. Instead, they never got fixed. I’ve got it to crash on me a couple of times without any kind of explanation. I get messages that a plugin took too long to execute from time to time, even though this problem wasn’t occurring in a previous beta for me.

I’ve gone through the plugins and the set of enabled plugins didn’t seem to make a difference.

[itaiferber]

While I think you’re right to be upset that the stable branch of ST2 hasn’t been updated in quite a while, and that Jon might not be the most responsive developer in the world, if you’ve purchased a copy of ST2, why not try out the latest dev or nightly build? In my experience, both branches have been rock solid (I run exclusively nightly builds of ST2 and I’ve never had an issue), and while Jon was working on ST2, the nightly branch received bug fixes every few days. If you’re willing to give it a try, ST3 also gets updates very few days, and for now, your ST2 license will work. Just a suggestion.

[davejones]

While I think you’re right to be upset that the stable branch of ST2 hasn’t been updated in quite a while, and that Jon might not be the most responsive developer in the world, if you’ve purchased a copy of ST2, why not try out the latest dev or nightly build? In my experience, both branches have been rock solid (I run exclusively nightly builds of ST2 and I’ve never had an issue), and while Jon was working on ST2, the nightly branch received bug fixes every few days. If you’re willing to give it a try, ST3 also gets updates very few days, and for now, your ST2 license will work. Just a suggestion.

No, thank you, I don’t wish to run into the same bugs everyone is running into. I don’t want to repeat the experience I’ve had and I’m still having with ST2.
I wish to receive updates after the BETA is done and I’m not looking to trade the problems I’m having with ST2 for problems I’d have with ST3.

Furthermore, I have a very small number of plugins, but I really need those plugins, so I won’t be giving up on ST2 to switch to the extremely unstable and buggy ST3.

[quarnster]

While ST3 beta has been stable for me, I agree that the lack of updates for ST2 is hugely disappointing, especially as ST2 was crashing on me several times a day (not due to plugins) and there was a period of ~6 months where pretty much nothing at all was communicated to users reporting problems. This is making me doubt whether I should pay for the ST3 upgrade when it’s finally released.

[bizoo]

While ST3 beta has been stable for me, I agree that the lack of updates for ST2 is hugely disappointing, especially as ST2 was crashing on me several times a day (not due to plugins) and there was a period of ~6 months where pretty much nothing at all was communicated to users reporting problems. This is making me doubt whether I should pay for the ST3 upgrade when it’s finally released.

Agree.

It was the same with the transition from ST1 to ST2, but ST2 was so much better and as I didn’t invest too much time in configuring ST1, I didn’t think twice before using ST2 Beta and forgot ST1.

Today it’s different.

Even if ST3 has some nice features, I don’t feel in urge to start using it.
I spend a lot of time configuring ST2, and I don’t want to do it again before a stable release of ST3 with all my needed plugins available.

There’s few bugs in ST2 (some are resolved in ST3) that I like to see fixed.
And maybe a few things could be done to facilitate the compatibility of plugins between ST2 and ST3 (like automatically calling plugin_loaded() in ST2).
But it looks like ST2 development is dead.

I really expect an answer from jps too.

[davejones]

While ST3 beta has been stable for me, I agree that the lack of updates for ST2 is hugely disappointing, especially as ST2 was crashing on me several times a day (not due to plugins) and there was a period of ~6 months where pretty much nothing at all was communicated to users reporting problems. This is making me doubt whether I should pay for the ST3 upgrade when it’s finally released.

[quote=“bizoo”]

While ST3 beta has been stable for me, I agree that the lack of updates for ST2 is hugely disappointing, especially as ST2 was crashing on me several times a day (not due to plugins) and there was a period of ~6 months where pretty much nothing at all was communicated to users reporting problems. This is making me doubt whether I should pay for the ST3 upgrade when it’s finally released.

Agree.

It was the same with the transition from ST1 to ST2, but ST2 was so much better and as I didn’t invest too much time in configuring ST1, I didn’t think twice before using ST2 Beta and forgot ST1.

Today it’s different.

Even if ST3 has some nice features, I don’t feel in urge to start using it.
I spend a lot of time configuring ST2, and I don’t want to do it again before a stable release of ST3 with all my needed plugins available.

There’s few bugs in ST2 (some are resolved in ST3) that I like to see fixed.
And maybe a few things could be done to facilitate the compatibility of plugins between ST2 and ST3 (like automatically calling plugin_loaded() in ST2).
But it looks like ST2 development is dead.

I really expect an answer from jps too.[/quote]

I have started to add images of errors to my original post. Perhaps this will help get some attention.

[iamntz]

And how it’s ST fault that you are using invalid config files? (on a package that it’s not even built in into ST!)

[davejones]

And how it’s ST fault that you are using invalid config files? (on a package that it’s not even built in into ST!)

I didn’t add anything to the configuration of that package… the eror doesn’t even show up all the time…even though I used the package all the time…

I see that you’re a hardcore fan of ST2. Perhaps you could ignore this thread so you don’t get offended.

Oh, yeah, without those few basic packages, using this editor isn’t really worth the effort, nor the money.

[iamntz]

I didn’t add anything to the configuration of that package…

It seems that you mix packages support with the editor support. While first are community packages (which, btw, you can contribute to!), the second has fairly good support (most real bug reports has replies and fixes)

There are some stuff that i consider annoying (like lack of tooltips, sidebar customization, code folding based on indentation only and so on), but bugs on the editor itself? Not that much.

Out of curiosity: name few bugs of the editor.

[davejones]

[quote=“iamntz”]

I didn’t add anything to the configuration of that package…

It seems that you mix packages support with the editor support. While first are community packages (which, btw, you can contribute to!), the second has fairly good support (most real bug reports has replies and fixes)

There are some stuff that i consider annoying (like lack of tooltips, sidebar customization, code folding based on indentation only and so on), but bugs on the editor itself? Not that much.

Out of curiosity: name few bugs of the editor.[/quote]

I’m not confusing anything with anything else. I get this error from time to time and it’s completely random. I’ve edited sass files for hours and never got this error. However, it simply pops up after running ST2 for some hours.

It’s not possible for bugs to have been fixed in ST2 since there haven’t been any updates to the stable version since last year.

Furthermore, I will take screenshots for each and every error from now on, so you’ll probably get to see those bugs you’ve asked for.

I encourage everyone else who’s running into bugs in ST2 to post in this thread. Maybe people will understand this thing REALLY needs some support from the developer.

[iamntz]

I get this error from time to time and it’s completely random. I’ve edited sass files for hours and never got this error. However, it simply pops up after running ST2 for some hours.

Why don’t you just delete that file?