Textmate-style Snippets on Windows and Linux with Scite
Originally published on: 12/17/2006 7:05:33 PM
Human nature being what it is, looking for the more chlorophyl-enriched grass over there soon becomes the order of the day. So, when I saw the ever-lauded Textmate being used in a symfony screencast, I recruited Google to see if there's anything that can function equivalently on Windows or Linux.
Textmate only runs on a Mac and will pretty much always stay that way. The author doesn't have any desire to port it and I respect that choice. And, eventually, when Mac OS X is able to mix and match with my other VMWare compatible OS's, I'll be happy to have it as part of my arsenal. Until then, using Textmate carries a $500 startup penalty in the form of a new machine.
That doesn't mean that someone else hasn't taken the features, especially the whole "snippet" feature that lets you easily whip through complex code templates. If you watch that symfony admin screencast, you'll see how quickly he whips out the code, thus making that feature very desirable.
So, my searching for alternatives led me right to Textmate's author's site, where *he* was asking for what to tell people as alternatives on Win/Linux.
Most of that discussion was exactly what you'd expect. A couple of recommendations for vi, a few for things like EditPlus and even my current PSPad. However, almost none of the comments addressed what the author was looking for, which was something that does the stuff that Textmate does well.
One entry did address it and pointed to a set of scripts and properties files for Scite, including snippets. I was already ready to check it out, but he went one step further and provided *his* own screencast of his Scite changes, which had me grabbing the contents of his codebase.
I've used Scite a few times, but never took the time to look at the extension and scripting end of things, where it's now clear the real power lies. In addition to his snippet support, he also went with a nice Web 2.0 color scheme and a bunch of other features and configuration changes.
I'm still digging through the features and it's not a complete sell (I still really like live FTP editing and don't see a solution in Scite for that), but I'm definitely going to be using it to get some work done this week. That's the only kind of test that really helps you choose: using it for real.
Comments
commented on 12/18/2006 People have high hopes for InType (http://intype.info/home/index.php). Is has the obligatory vaporware email sign-up box.
In the mean-time, you can at least install Monaco. http://www.system7designs.com/blog/textmate-envy-aka-monaco-font-for-windows/
commented on 12/18/2006 I should say I prefer the Consolas font to Monaco on Windows. (That last para was a bit of snark.)
commented on 12/19/2006 Yeah, InType was mentioned in the discussion. Scribes for GNOME on Linux was also mentioned, which I'm probably going to give a test run. However, Scite being cross-platform gives it a significant boost for my uses. Then there's Cream, which is a more user-friendly distribution of vim, which is also cross platform. But, the vim keystrokes have just never matched the way my brain is wired.
I, too, like Consolas, though Monaco isn't bad either. I'd probably have to stare at Monaco for a day or 2 before really making up my mind. I've had that with a couple of other monospaced fonts where I loved them at first, but couldn't stand looking at them for days on end.
commented on 1/3/2007 You shoud check out the SuperAbbrevs plugin for jedit, here is a demo http://we-knowhow.dk/jedit/demo.html
commented on 1/3/2007 I've been evaluating the e editor which uses cygwin to run TextMate snippits.
http://www.e-texteditor.com
commented on 1/4/2007 I've looked at e-texteditor, but, given my issues over the long haul keeping track of licenses as I move between machines, I'm really reluctant to pay for a text editor again.
After several more mentions of jedit, including the SuperAbbrevs, I figured I'd give it another chance. Unfortunately, even with changing the widget set, icons, subpixel rendering, same "textmate" theme, etc., I can't get it to look anything other than 10 shades of ugly worse than ScITE. I'm not sure if it's because it's Java and it can't hook into ClearType, but it just looks too ugly for me to stare at all day long.
commented on 1/4/2007 I'm no jEdit fanboy, eventhough I'm the author of the SuperAbbrevs plugin. But after Java 6 has introduced subpixel redering the fonts looks ok IMHO. Here is a shot (6MB) http://www.we-knowhow.dk/jedit/jEdit.bmp
commented on 1/4/2007 Hmm. The text in that screenshot is WAY smoother than the ass-like text I saw this morning. I'm going to have to check to see what's going on. I thought that machine had the most recent JDK, but since I *know* I turned on the subpixel setting in jedit and it didn't look like that, there's a disconnect somewhere.
I'm 100% pragmatist in picking an editor, so if this can do the job better, I'm all for it.
commented on 1/4/2007 I'm just using jEdit4.3pre8 with subpixel redering turned on under Java 6.0. I'm using windows by the way, Java 6 under linux gives me some problems with text redering.
commented on 1/5/2007 I wasn't using Java 6. When I upgraded the JVM and installed the latest version, the font smoothing works much better. I did have to tweak the "TextMate" scheme because that was part of the problem. See the before and after for the color change here:
Both of those were after the JDK upgrade. I forgot to grab a shot of the ugly from before.
commented on 8/21/2007 Also try vim -- it has plugins that add snippet functionality. You can edit over FTP or SSH, cross platform, etc. Vim is an amazing editor...
commented on 9/5/2007 Would you mind sharing the lines you used in your SciTE configuration file to have it colorized like TextMate (on your screenshot)?
commented on 8/22/2007 No vim. No emacs. Neither one works the way I think. I have given vim a shot at least 10 different times over the last 15 years and ditched it every time.