On Feb 17, 2005, at 15:25, Simon Gregory wrote:

I've got a fledgling Apache bundle built (can I get repository access please Allan?)

Done!

The bracket { } based syntax.plist file I'm editing gets converted to an apple plist file when textmate is launched, firstly why?

TextMate can only write the XML version. It updates your syntax file because it has no UUID. You can convert it back with the 'pl' command line tool (which reads/writes from/to stdin/stdout). Or you can add an UUID yourself to your file, then TM won't update your file.

The following (with a unique string) crops up in a few of the other bundle syntax files, what is it?

The reason that all bundle items have UUID (which is short for: Universal Unique Identifier) is so that these can be recognized, even when renamed.

This is important because e.g. if you rename/delete a default item, or change it (which causes a local copy to be created), you want your changes to persist even when you update TM and get a new set of default items.

So it uses the UUID to see which of your local copies are “identical” to factory defaults (or which of the default items should be deleted, based on a blacklist consisting of UUIDs).