[TxMt] Re: Bare Bones [was: Public to-do list for TM (was: Textile Bundle?)

[Russell E. Owen]

In article <d445fadae2748cfc4022220a44fccfe6 at davelee.com.au>,
 David Lee <david at davelee.com.au> wrote:

> Excuse me for getting the way of ... whatever's  bewing here
> 
> I'm curious about BBedit (having never really used it), becuase it was 
> the One True Mac Editor. and becuase it costs so much.
> 
> What are its best features, all you ex- or bipolar BBedit users? 
> Anything unique that you really miss in Textmate?
> 
> Also feel free to mention things about it which TextMate has done 
> better or done away with the need for with a clever design approach 
> etc?

You really should give it a look. TextWrangler (the simpler version of 
BBEdit) is free and is very good.

Some things BBEdit does right (many other editors have most of this, but 
few have all of it:
- Can find and replace in multiple files (e.g. all open documents, 
search a directory).
- Can "find all" and find with regular expressions.
- Multiple undo (though they were very late to implement it).
- Robust.
- Well supported
- Very polished.

The main thing that keeps me from using it is there is no easy and safe 
way to do a one-off find or replace "in selection". Because:
1) To check the "In Selection" box, you first must uncheck "Start at 
Top" or "Wrap", if checked. Then reverse the process when you are 
finished.
2) If you forget to re-check "Start at Top" or "Wrap" checked, then 
"Replace All" only replaces from the cursor to the end of the file!!! I 
corrupted a few files due to that and stopped using BBEdit to write code.

My other main gripes are:
- Modal find/replace dialog box. But this is a matter of taste; I know 
some BBEdit users consider it a feature.
- You cannot edit the text displayed in the found results window. This 
is one of several instances where BBEdit lacks sophistication and seems 
to get between the user and the data. Still..I'd rather have a developer 
err on the side of simplicity.

Basically if the find/replace dialog box were cleaned up a bit I'd be 
using BBEdit. But I'm still hoping TextMate turns into a nice polished 
editor. Once the python text coloring is reasonable I look forward to 
giving it another look.

-- Russell