[TxMt] Questions from a BBEdit user considering switching

[Brian Tully]

I just discovered TextMate last week and based on user reviews I  
decided it was worth a look-see.

I have been using the demo exclusively for the past week in an  
attempt to wean off of BBEdit. However I've noticed a couple of  
showstoppers for me and I'm hoping I either haven't discovered that  
they can be done in TextMate or that someone clever has figured out  
acceptable workarounds.

First up, BBEdit has a function under the Search menu "Compare Two  
Front Documents" which recognizes which windows are open in BBEdit  
and performs a diff between them. I use this all the time, and  
usually one of the documents is a remote document being edited via  
FTP through YummyFTP and TextMate. The only comparable function I  
found in TextMate is within the Diff bundle, however it specfically  
requires that both files be in the same project (i.e., local) and  
that they be selected in the Project drawer. Since I need to compare  
files remotely to files locally this does not do the trick.  I tried  
reading up on TextMate's dynamic variables, but didn't see anything  
resembling "TM_OPEN_FILES".

Can TextMate accommodate BBEdit's "compare two front documents"  
function, either through some built-in function I don't know about or  
through some external bundle/workaround? If not, is this planned in a  
future release?


Next showstopper for me is the inability for TextMate to find/replace  
recursively through a directory. BBEdit allows me to select the  
directory of my choice, whereas TextMate seems to require that I  
define a Project and that only the Project files can be searched. Is  
there any way to override that? Any plans of expanding this in a  
future release?


Like I said earlier, I'm very tempted to switch from BBEdit to  
TextMate, so if either/both of the above "showstoppers" could be  
addressed/accommodated it would be a no brainer.

Thanks a bunch.

brian