[TxMt] >>> documentation for novices? <<<

[Allan Odgaard]

On 23/11/2005, at 9:31, Matt Henderson wrote:

> [...] For example, I would love to have access to some video-based  
> tutorials that, by way of example, give me a better overview of how  
> "macros", "snippets", "commands", "bundles", etc. all fit together  
> into the concept that is TextMate. (And these kinds of things are  
> pretty easy to produce these days.)

The Introduction to Rails movie shows TextMate in use with heavy use  
of snippets and some macros: http://www.rubyonrails.org/media/video/ 
rails_take2_with_sound.mov

While it doesn't show how this stuff is setup, the snippets/macros  
used can be found in the Ruby and Rails bundles (in the Bundle Editor).


I have considered starting a screen-cast, and a friend of mine is  
likely to take over wrt documentation. But the presence of screen- 
capturing software does not make it an easy task. Good tutorial-style  
documentation takes very long to produce, and so does coming up with  
good examples for use in the movies.

As for the things you mention: macros is a way to record and replay  
your actions. Nothing more.

Snippets is a way to insert templates into your code with  
placeholders, variables, and real-time substitutions on the  
placeholders. Here's the syntax for snippets with many examples of  
use: http://macromates.com/blog/archives/2005/08/25/the-power-of- 
snippets/ and here's a movie showing off some advanced snippets  
http://macromates.com/movies/intelligent_snippets.mov which is  
explained here http://macromates.com/blog/archives/2005/09/02/beta-17- 
notes/

Commands are shell scripts. The possibilities of shell scripts are  
limited only by your imagination (since they are really just  
programs, and can call out to other language interpreters). In the  
context of TextMate, here are several examples where the HTML output  
option is used: http://macromates.com/blog/archives/2005/09/28/html- 
output-for-commands/ -- I'd suggest going through the various  
commands in the bundle editor to see what else can be done. Many of  
the commands are scripts to work on the selection.

As for customizing TextMate, that's the 3 building blocks. The extra  
twist is the ability to limit activation of these to particular  
subsets of your source via scopes, which is explained here: http:// 
macromates.com/blog/archives/2005/07/06/introduction-to-scopes/