[TxMt] Re: Projects are gone in TM2?

[Max Lein]

On 15 Dec 2011, at 11:00, Allan Odgaard wrote:

>> […] not gluing yourself to the file system layout also give you the opportunity to do things that go beyond what you can think of when relying on the filesystem alone. 
> Given TextMate’s philosophy it’s the opposite.
I don't understand that comment: I reckon you mean to say that TextMate's philosophy is to rely solely on the filesystem? 

> When you use the file system for your project then SCM works fine because it is told that “this folder is a project”, TextMate commands work fine with the project, because they have a single root project folder, backing up the project works fine because tar can be told about a single project folder, etc.
Still, me and many others prefer to use a different method to organizing work. And not every workflow can be like yours. After all, I do use the »filesystem view« for some things because that is easier when you add a lot of files on a regular basis. 

Furthermore, as said before, many apps are moving away from merely »viewing files« (and this is encouraged by Apple!), including professional apps (such as Aperture) and apps aimed at developers. Gitbox, for instance, is a nice example: there you browse repositories and commits. Integrating some of that into TextMate would make a lot of sense to me. (Or at least keep the TextMate flexible enough so that someone else can program something like that as a bundle.) 

Lastly, the focus on the file system would also make it harder for you to implement access to some of Apple's future technologies (e. g. Versions; while I use git professionally, I wouldn't mind having versions when writing letters and such, stuff where git is overkill). 

So I think you exclude TextMate from a lot of innovation if you don't allow a project view that is independent from the file system. 

> Anyway, I think enough have been said about projects. My initial letter may have come off too strong: I was listing what can be used now in the “project context”, I was not saying everything is frozen and nothing will change:
I'm not so sure whether you got it across the wrong way, everything you have written reinforces my impression that Projects (the way we have them in TextMate 1.5) will be axed as a feature and that you dislike working with them. (I remember posts of yours to this effect on this mailing in the past.) 

It's quite natural that people who like Projects would object. 

> But definitely I am of the opinion that one should work with the file system because that is the “portable” way to represent a project.
I think this view of this aspect is a bit outdated and narrow-minded: Portability can mean a lot of things, but in my experience the problems rarely lie with transferring files. Quite the contrary, that's typically the easiest part (I use Dropbox to collaborate with others). In my case it's mostly making sure LaTeX code compiles on my coworker's machines. Which usually means they have to install additional packages or alter the code a little. 

Max