vwheeler63
As a 33-year veteran end-to-end programmer, I stopped counting the languages I have programmed in after 40 (not counting 7 assembly languages). I have most enjoyed working very close to the CPU in firmware projects. I sort of “grew up” in a Unix environment (1984-1995) and in 1992 started working additionally on the Windows platform. I started programming professionally in 1992 and never looked back: designing, creating and maintaining software is my passion.
Back in 1992, the BEST programmer’s editor for the IBM PC/Compatible platform was Multi-Edit for DOS, which could open up to 128 files simultaneously and files up to 2 GB. It came packaged with its own compiler and source code, so almost everything was customizable, and I did do a lot of customizing which I still use. Multi-Edit came out with a Windows version in 2006 and updated it in 2008, but sadly, seems to have gone out of business. So I have been “scanning the horizon” for an editor that can do everything Multi-Edit could do while staying inside a reasonable budget (Multi-Edit’s license was in the area of $128 per person, perpetual). I am very fond of (and frequently use) my customizations to boost productivity, e.g. very full-featured C file templates that are compile-able out of the box and comply with my company’s coding standards, about 20 different ways to add comment blocks (depending on file location, and other things), customized syntax highlighting, etc. etc…
I discovered Sublime Text on 8-May-2025 as a result of watching a video I found when I was searching for “Python IDEs”, and the narrator said (in my own words), “Hands down, Sublime Text is where you want to be when working with Python”, and quickly compared it with several other Python IDEs. His level of certainty about this statement was so high that I went to look at Sublime Text, downloaded it, and to my delight, am finding so far that it can do almost everything that Multi-Edit can do, designed with a similar ethos (i.e. “everything is customizable”, minus multi-row tabs and programmable snippets), and has a remarkably-flexible concept for “projects and workspaces”, which is clearly better than Multi-Edit’s. Though I am still a beginner and with any luck, I’ll be able to customize to work around the multi-row tabs, and add Line-Draw Mode… We will see… After 4 days, so far so good!
From what I have seen so far, I have felt compelled to spend several full-time days getting to know this editor. Sadly, it’s introductory (orienting) documentation (on each topic) is lacking (I could help them remedy that), but so far I see that the enthusiasm of the Sublime-Text community appears to be filling those gaps in very nice ways, and so I remain hopeful!
And a shout-out to @OdatNurd – so far, kind sir, you appear to be a God-Send to the Sublime-Text community!