I'm sure that a few of the developers of TextMate were not even born when I first started using Emacs... Now, I know very well that ol' Emacs ain't perfect, but by now my fingers and brain are so wedded to Emacs that, despite a few attempts, I have never been able to switch to a different text editor.
But several people whose opinions I value have urged me to give TextMate a try, so here we go.
I imagine/hope, given that so many people in TextMate's target audience use either Emacs or vi, that there will be extensive resources to ease the transition *from these specific editors* to TextMate. Am I right? If so, where are these resources?
More specifically, I'm hoping to find something like a "TextMate for Emacs veterans FAQ", with answers to questions like:
1. will I be able to use TM entirely from the keyboard? 2. will I be able to set up the same key bindings as in Emacs? how easily? 3. can I work on a single window, switching between buffers from the keyboard, or will I have a zillion windows floating around my desktop? 4. will I be able to preserve my workspace (including open buffers, modes, and other settings) from one session to the next, à la Emacs Desktop? 5. can I run a shell withiin TextMate? 6. does TextMate integrate with debuggers like gdb?
...etc., etc.
Thanks!
kj
Kynn Jones wrote:
More specifically, I'm hoping to find something like a "TextMate for Emacs veterans FAQ", with answers to questions like:
- will I be able to use TM entirely from the keyboard?
Yes. This is one of its design goals. I particularly recommend the ⌃⌘T shortcut.
- will I be able to set up the same key bindings as in Emacs? how easily?
Some of them (i.e. the simple ones), but for many others, it would be a) a total pain to create and maintain, and b) would prevent you from getting some of TM's advantages.
For the simple shortcuts, you might be interested in [this][1], which should work in any Cocoa text widget (and for explanation, see [here][2]). TextMate, being more powerful than the basic Cocoa text widgets, should let you add a few more emacs features than that list, though it also won't support the mark point selectors.
[1]: http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/KeyBindings/Emacs%20Esc%20Bindings.dic... [2]: http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html
- can I work on a single window, switching between buffers from the
keyboard, or will I have a zillion windows floating around my desktop?
Yes, you can make a 'project' with several files in it open in tabs
- will I be able to preserve my workspace (including open buffers,
modes, and other settings) from one session to the next, à la Emacs Desktop?
When you quit, and then reopen TextMate, all your open files will come back, including their language settings, etc.
- can I run a shell withiin TextMate?
Not really. Some bundles try to make pretend shells (notably the R bundle), with varying success. It's one thing that would be nice to get some editor support for, but I don't think it's on Allan's 2.0 todo list (one never knows though).
- does TextMate integrate with debuggers like gdb?
Hmm, not so much. There isn't any way to set breakpoints, etc. from inside the editor. Hopefully this kind of thing will be improved in TM2, though it's hard to know just what Allan will come up with.
-Jacob
On Mar 6, 2007, at 5:17 PM, Jacob Rus wrote:
- can I work on a single window, switching between buffers from the
keyboard, or will I have a zillion windows floating around my desktop?
Yes, you can make a 'project' with several files in it open in tabs
Since the OP didn't know about this, according to his question, let me add that there are of course shorcuts to move through tabs, but you don't need to use the tabs, and given you're profile you're likely not to.
The shortcut ⌘T launches a mini Window with a list of file names and a textbox. As you type in the textbox the list of file names is filtered on the fly using some smart algorithm (typing "ic" selects "invoice_controller.rb" in my current project for instance, I don't know whether the algorithm is the same one used by Quicksilver but they behave similarly). Selecting a file name in the filtered list opens that file or tab (if it was already opened).
There are some libraries for buffer selection with completion for emacs, but since TextMate is designed around projects ⌘T actually does not care whether the file was open or not, its natural scope is the project, and that's far mor useful the way I work (perhaps ECB offers something like this for the minibuffer?).
So you can forget about the tabs and the mouse, the entire project is there at the tip of your fingers.
-- fxn
On 3/6/07, Xavier Noria fxn@hashref.com wrote:
On Mar 6, 2007, at 5:17 PM, Jacob Rus wrote: The shortcut ⌘T launches a mini Window with a list of file names and a textbox. As you type in the textbox the list of file names is filtered on the fly using some smart algorithm (typing "ic" selects "invoice_controller.rb" in my current project for instance, I don't know whether the algorithm is the same one used by Quicksilver but they behave similarly). Selecting a file name in the filtered list opens that file or tab (if it was already opened).
If you have Textmate and Quicksilver both installed then Quicksilver uses the Textmate algorithm AFAIK.
Ed
* Ed Singleton singletoned@gmail.com [2007-03-06 10:31]:
If you have Textmate and Quicksilver both installed then Quicksilver uses the Textmate algorithm AFAIK.
That's if you have the TextMate Ranker plug-in for Quicksilver installed (and configured in the handlers section of Quicksilver's preferences).
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Ed Singleton -
Grant Hollingworth -
Jacob Rus -
Kynn Jones -
Xavier Noria