[TxMt] Re: Honest assessment of TM2's state please!

[Merrifield Adam]

You know what's an alternative to TM2? TM1. Seriously, I've sat back and read each and every post in this epic thread, read all the alternative suggestions and how they pale in comparison to TM1 (and they do) and the obvious point keeps being missed… Why are you looking for an alternative to something that does what you want in the first place?

Yes, yes, news of TM2 would all make us feel like we're not using abandonware (though maintenance releases do that too) but the reality is for as long as TM1 works on whatever OS Apple throws at us then I am happy to continue using TM1. 

I've been using TextMate for what… 5 years give or take? I got my money's worth, Allan owes me nothing. And if TM1 stopped working tomorrow I'd feel hard pressed to knock on Allan's door and demand he do something about it. I'd move on. It would suck to do so but Allan is not some corporation that will live on with or without him (yes technically MacroMates is but I suspect his pride would stop him from letting that go); if Allan is gone, so too is TextMate, so be it.

I am excited to see what TM2 has to offer but until then TM1 has no challengers to temp me to leave. My customer satisfaction hinges on this version working, the version I paid for, not whether it's developer keeps me updated on what they're doing on the next version.

And let's face it, if Duke Nukem Forever can finally post a release date (June 24) then there is hope yet for TextMate 2.

Adam Merrifield

On Apr 26, 2011, at 8:29 PM, Watts Martin wrote:

> Apricot AN wrote:
> 
>> The reality is that TM2 isn't ready and may never be, and people who are
>> really dissatisfied with TM need to be looking at alternatives.  If TM2
>> comes out, that will be the nicest present.   So what alternatives are
>> there?
> 
> You mentioned BBEdit. While TM positioned itself as the anti-BBEdit very early on, it's worth noting that BBEdit hasn't been standing still, and it's actually pretty extensible -- it's just that to do most of the neat stuff with it you need AppleScript. BBEdit can handle huge files with ease, though, and does a better job when it comes to handling 20+ files open at once than anything else I've seen.
> 
> The problem with most of the other alternatives out there is that they're just Not There Yet, if you get the meaning. The previously-mentioned Kod has some really interesting design ideas but it's a long way from being usable. It's unique for being very modern and open source, though. Others I'd really keep my eyes on --
> 
> Sublime Text 2: currently in alpha, but based on an existing Windows program that already has a bit of a community around it. Openly inspired by TextMate, and compatible with TM color schemes and some bundle components (snippets, .tmPreferences and .tmLanguages files).
> 
> Coda: Panic's "one-window" web development system also has a plugin system and some TextMate compatibility, which I'm not sure people know about. Panic has said that they're working full steam on version 2.0, so even if version 1.x isn't your cup of tea (it's not mine), big changes are ahead.
> 
> Espresso: MacRabbit's competitor to Coda is kind of wonky right now, but it's very extensible in a fashion that's similar (albeit more convoluted) than TM's bundles. I suspect it has a lot of power under the hood that isn't being exploited yet. Also like Coda, it's a program I haven't warmed to but am expecting possibly big things in its version 2 release.
> 
> ...and, of course, I'm expecting possibly big things in TextMate's version 2 release. Lest anyone get *too* much on my case for recommending competitors: despite a few serious attempts to move to BBEdit or MacVim, I keep coming back to TM. It just seems prudent to hedge my bets at this point. :)
> 
> -- 
> Watts Martin <layotl at gmail.com>
> 
> 
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