Ever since switching to PHP development from .NET development 5 years ago I’ve been searching for “the” editor or IDE to replace my beloved Visual Studio. To complicate things I also do development across two platforms, Windows and OSX.
Before I embraced the dark side of OSX I had a secret love of the simple, clean, look of OSX applications. TextMate looked so clean, and every webcast I watched regarding PHP development seemed to use it on OSX. Still using Windows at the time I purchased E-TextEditor, a clone of TextMate for the Windows platform. But constant hanging pushed me away. I ended up using a tool I’d been using for years, NotePad++, which I still use on a regular basis when I’m on my Windows workstation.
When I finally gave in to desire and purchased a Macbook Pro, the hands down best laptop hardware I’ve ever used, the first app I installed was TextMate. Shortly after I caught a glimpse of Panic’s Coda. I had to have it. It was version 1, lightweight, and gave me a number of features out of the box that TextMate didn’t. (To be fair I’m sure there were plenty of bundles to get TextMate to do things. I just didn’t invest enough time in it.) Coda v1 was awesome. It worked how I wanted the editor to work. I dreaded writing code on my Windows workstations. Then v2 came out…
It looked promising with some very cool features. The supporting Diet Coda app for my iPad was mind blowing. But Coda 2…meh. I just can’t get used to the UI because it changed so much. It takes a bit to load up as well. So much for being lightweight like v1. And the open file bar. Who thought that paradigm shift up? I know some people love it, but I can’t stand it. I loathe it. I actually use NotePad++ on my Windows workstation more now.
A few nights ago I had to edit a couple of PHP files on my MacBook. I dreaded firing up Coda 2, but then I remembered I still had TextMate installed. Ahh, clean, simple, and not Coda 2.
As I Googled TextMate bundles to learn more about them I ran across an old article I saw a couple of years ago about Moving From E-TextEditor to Sublime Text 2. I had given Sublime Text 2 a try, both on Windows and OSX, but I can’t remember why it never caught on. So I gave it a try, again, and I think this time it’s sticking. (Poor TextMate. For the second time I’m not giving it a fair try, and I don’t know why.)
Anyone have an opinion on TextMate vs Sublime Text 2?
Oh, I have a comment alright. Y
our “secret love of the simple, clean, look of OSX applications”?
I KNEW IT! All those years of endless teasing about my Mac.
I knew one day I’d be victorious! ; )