Apricot AN wrote:
The reality is that TM2 isn't ready and may never be, and people who are really dissatisfied with TM need to be looking at alternatives. If TM2 comes out, that will be the nicest present. So what alternatives are there?
You mentioned BBEdit. While TM positioned itself as the anti-BBEdit very early on, it's worth noting that BBEdit hasn't been standing still, and it's actually pretty extensible -- it's just that to do most of the neat stuff with it you need AppleScript. BBEdit can handle huge files with ease, though, and does a better job when it comes to handling 20+ files open at once than anything else I've seen.
The problem with most of the other alternatives out there is that they're just Not There Yet, if you get the meaning. The previously-mentioned Kod has some really interesting design ideas but it's a long way from being usable. It's unique for being very modern and open source, though. Others I'd really keep my eyes on --
Sublime Text 2: currently in alpha, but based on an existing Windows program that already has a bit of a community around it. Openly inspired by TextMate, and compatible with TM color schemes and some bundle components (snippets, .tmPreferences and .tmLanguages files).
Coda: Panic's "one-window" web development system also has a plugin system and some TextMate compatibility, which I'm not sure people know about. Panic has said that they're working full steam on version 2.0, so even if version 1.x isn't your cup of tea (it's not mine), big changes are ahead.
Espresso: MacRabbit's competitor to Coda is kind of wonky right now, but it's very extensible in a fashion that's similar (albeit more convoluted) than TM's bundles. I suspect it has a lot of power under the hood that isn't being exploited yet. Also like Coda, it's a program I haven't warmed to but am expecting possibly big things in its version 2 release.
...and, of course, I'm expecting possibly big things in TextMate's version 2 release. Lest anyone get *too* much on my case for recommending competitors: despite a few serious attempts to move to BBEdit or MacVim, I keep coming back to TM. It just seems prudent to hedge my bets at this point. :)