[TxMt] How can TextMate be so popular???

[tlm]

For those who didn't believe what I wrote, below I include detailed
instructions so that you can reproduce what I reported with your very
own little copy of TextMate!

On 3/6/07, Michael Gregoire <mgee at gwi.net> wrote:
> Not at all true. TextMate comes with a cl executable which allows for
> opening of files and directories via the command-line.

Are you telling me that every time I want to open a new file I have
the choice of either using the GUI or switching to a Terminal window
so that I can use the CLI?  I certainly prefer the latter over the
former, but it is awkward at best.  Sheesh...

As for the Help business, for those who dare to see how much your
beloved TM's Help sucks, try this.  Switch to the Finder, invoke Help,
in the search box enter anything you like, for example "preferences",
click on the first result, and now use Cmd-F to search for occurrences
of a particular word in that page.  Pick a word you know is there.
Success!  (So don't blame the OSX Help system for TM's developers'
incompetence.)

Now try exactly the same thing with the TextMate Help.  For added fun,
put "project" in the search box, and pick the top hit "Working with
multiple files".  Now do Cmd-F and search for the word "project".
BONK!  BONK!  BONK!  Awesome, innit?  And one can't blame it on OSX;
the Help pages for Finder, Safari, Mail, etc., don't have this
problem.

But now, let's behold this project business.  In the help page I learn
that, if I'm happy with a lot of dragging and dropping, it is very
easy (and **FUN**) to create a project.  I don't see the point in
going through these hoops just to avoid having a zillion windows
around.  This is *at best* an annoyance.  My editor keeps state
between sessions without any of this nonsense.  But, granted, given
the choice of wading through a dozen windows and spending some quality
time with my mouse and together assemble a project of all the files
I'd care to edit, I guess I'd pick...  Hmm....  I guess I'd just keep
my $50.

In my original post I wrote that to design software to beep without
giving the user an error message is an inexcusable bit of software
engineering malpractice.  Sure enough, out of all the copious rebuttal
attempts I got, not a single one even tried to excuse it, so I guess
my assessment was correct after all.  I guess we only differ in that I
have higher standards for software than you all, especially if I'm
expected to pay for it.

For the responder who couldn't believe that this happened, try this.
Create a file with the .js extension, and put this into it:

function foo () {
  return {
//     bar: function ( x ) {
    bar: function ( x, y ) {
      return x + y;
    },
  };
}

Now, put the cursor on the first line and hit F1.  BONK!  But that's
not the bad part.  Yeah, the parser got confused and that's not great,
but what really sucks is that TextMate gives no explanation to the
user of what it is complaining about.  In a small file like the one
above it is easy to guess what the problem is; but in a more realistic
situation it's much harder to pinpoint the problem.

To the responder who protested that I had not taken the time to learn
about TextMate, I just want to point out that I ran into all these
problems in literally less than 2 minutes of use.  Well-designed
software doesn't perform so poorly even when the user is starting out.

But I'm glad you all love your TextMate.  Standards for software are
very low I suppose.  And paid software to boot!  Too bad.

Now, please proceed with your wallowing.

kj