[TxMt] TMTOOLS & Ctrl-Esc (gear menu)

[Hans-Jörg Bibiko]

On 13.11.2007, at 18:11, Roberto Saccon wrote:
> if I write a bundle which uses TMTOOLS, what is the recommended way,
> to satisfy the TMTOOLS dependency ?
First, there are no dependencies.

Second, I don't know whether it is a good idea to use TMTOOLS in a  
bundle which is intended to be shared - in your case the Erlang Support.
Of course, there would be a way to use the plug-in. I added the  
option '-v' to the release 0906. You can download it and have a look  
at the example in section Usage > version. (I didn't change the  
release number).

But actually this plug-in should be used for "private scripting" ONLY.

Allan wrote at http://blog.macromates.com/2007/hacking-textmate/:

"Hans-Jörg Bibiko decided he couldn’t wait for a real scripting API  
(i.e. allowing you to remote control TextMate) and wrote TMTOOLS, a  
shell command that works as a mini interpreter where the commands are  
all TextMate actions.
[...]
Disclaimer: [...] the above is all based on undocumented  
functionality or using things in ways they were not supposed to be  
used, i.e. end user innovation."

The TMTOOLS plug-in calls undocumented (hacked) TextMate functions  
without an appropriate API! Ok, I did my very best to make it safe  
and by myself I use it very often - and up to now I didn't recognise  
any bug - but I cannot predict possible side-effects because I don't  
have the chance to have a look at the source code.
On the other hand I didn't install Leopard yet (I'll wait for 10.5.1  
at least ;) and TM 2.0 will come. I don't know whether TMTOOLS will  
work in TM 2.0 because it depends FULLY on Allan's source code  
(because there is no API yet).

But if I understood Allan correctly in his posting '... he couldn’t  
wait for a real scripting API ...' Allan has plans to provide the  
user with a real API.

Thitherto I recommend to use TMTOOLS only for your OWN PRIVATE purposes.


Regarding to your Erlang enhancements: What do you want to improve by  
using TMTOOLS? Maybe, there are other ways.

Cheers,

--Hans