18 Mar
I’m An Editor Waffler
Taken from a discussion with my friend Kevin via IM earlier today (warning, may contain bad language):
webslinginfool or try pida which _is_ what you wanted no? Chris Hartjes pida? webslinginfool *sigh* Chris Hartjes not really webslinginfool http://pida.co.uk/files/screenshots/pida_0-5-2_17.png Chris Hartjes if I want that, I can go with Textmate webslinginfool true very true actually , why dont you use textmate? Chris Hartjes I do use it but you get me looking at that vim stuff webslinginfool ahh a man of weak faith tsk tsk tsk Chris Hartjes very weak when it comes to editors webslinginfool wait, let me halt construction of your monument i've never met anyone like you actually Chris Hartjes in what way webslinginfool editor waffling Chris Hartjes yeah, that's pretty rare I dunno why I'm like that webslinginfool i've never even heard of it you should totally add an "editors" section to your blog and simply detall your experiences oh, and make friends with a bishop Chris Hartjes fuck YOU webslinginfool because you'll start a holy war!
Kevin is a vim guy, and is always giving me tips (solicited or not) on how to make my vim experience more enjoyable. A lot of what he gives me *is* useful. I probably have a vim setup now that will work okay for me, and I did give vim a two-week audition as my main editor a while back. However, it didn’t have the GUI file drawer / file explorer crutch that I’ve gotten used to. Besides, I think my arguments about why I use each editor are just lame.
- Komodo - got a free license after talking at the Vancover PHP conference last year (please, go to Open Web Vancouver this year so they can get enough money for me to fly business class ;)), cool editor, nice debugger…but I find it slow and unresponsive at times.
- TextMate - one of the first OS-X apps I ever paid for, nice and snappy, great syntax highlighting…but doesn’t have the tooltip stuff that Komodo does. I did find a cool plugin that shows me what files I’ve modifed in version control right there in the file drawer, but it’s not an IDE like Komodo is
- vim - very powerful, pretty much does everything I need in an editor…but all those damn commands to remember, and where’s my pretty GUI file explorer?!?!
Those are three of the lamest statements I’ve come across in my talking to people about the editor I use. Editors are usually a religious issue amongst developers: you can pry the one they use every day from their cold, dead hands.
So, maybe it’s time to grow up as a developer and stop switching between editors. But can I do it? Yes, I know you’re not used to reading my angst-filled posts about what editor to use. Damnit, why am I so weak on this issue?!?
This post is not intended to become a holy war on what editor to use, I’m just expressing my frustration at my inability to decide what to do here. If I look at it objectively, it’s about what tool I would be the most productive in. The problem is, I can’t figure that out…probably because I keep switching all the damn time.
Is it fear of commitment? Fear that I pick the wrong editor for what I need? I have started branching out into other languages, so my editor needs to support those as well. All three can do it. *sigh*
Komdo vs. TextMate vs. vim. Maybe there is no winner, just a loser. Me.
One of the thing the Pragmatic Programmers said (when not trying to get us to buy their books all the time) is to settle on one editor, whatever one that is, and learn ALL it has to offer because you might be surprised what it can do for you. Flipping back and forth is no way to do that. More like a delaying tactic from someone who doesn’t want to HAVE to pick, maybe?
Well folks, that day has come. I must pick and stick with it for once. I’ll let you guys know at the end of the week what I picked. Go back to making fun of me in the other posts, okay?
Article Tags >> Editor || Python || TextMate || vim
Posted by Travis Swicegood on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
MacVim’s all I got to say. The only thing its missing is Git support, but that’s more ’cause I haven’t got around to programming it
Plus, if you compile with Python built in, you can script the whole thing using Python (or Ruby if ya want to). Pretty spiffy…
It is nice to have the same editor regardless of whether I’m editing locally, or remote. That said, I do look at envy on the drawer in TextMate and I do crank up Komodo’s IDE every now and then when I need a good debugger (though I got my copy free too). But for my day-to-day coding, MacVim is hard to beat as a lightweight, stay-out-of-the-way editor.
Posted by Lamby on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
So, this was intended to be a pre-emptive comment predicting at least one person will fail to actually read your post and start evangelising their favourite editor. Oh, well.
Posted by Chris Meller on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
Well, I did read the post, and I’m still going to make a recommendation…
Check out an Eclipse-based IDE. Eclipse is the FireFox of the IDE world, so there are plugins to do just about anything. easyeclipse.org has a lot of pre-packaged plugin “sets” for a variety of different types of code.
In my experience, it’s been the best all-around solution. It’s snappier than Komodo, but seems to offer all the features of it (for free). Plus, it’s cross-platform, so I can learn all the features and use it on any OS.
Just thought I’d point it out, since I don’t think you should limit yourself to 3 ho-hum options when making a decision this important. If there is no clear winner, I say keep hacking away at different options until there is. As important as an IDE is, you don’t want to just “settle” for one.
Feel free to ignore my suggestion…
Posted by Chris Hartjes on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
@Chris Meller
I used Eclipse in the past (really liked how it handled Subversion / CVS) but it taxed the machine I was using at work, and I found it just a pain in the ass to get configured the way I liked. Mind you, this is about 4 years ago now and I’m sure a lot has changed.
Posted by kabturek on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
We (I and my vim) are hoping you’ll make the _right_ decision
Posted by JeffG on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
Well, I personally hope Chris sticks with Komodo because we’ve gotten any number of good improvements for it out of his occasional gripes. =)
Posted by Brent Faulkner on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
Hey dude… I wasn’t looking (honest) but today I stumbled on an interesting post…
While I realize that you haven’t touched rails in ages, many the parts of the setup that deal with the “explorer-style file drawer”…
http://biodegradablegeek.com/2007/12/13/using-vim-as-a-complete-ruby-on-rails-ide
As an old vim user who now uses TextMate, I’m intrigued myself…
Cheers.
–Brent
Posted by Travis Swicegood on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
For the record, I did read the whole post. I just couldn’t help myself
Posted by kabturek on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
@Travis
like we all, like we all
Posted by austin_web_developer on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
It will be interesting to see what you come up with.
I use NetBeans for Ruby and WebBuilder for PHP … I’ve been happy so far
Posted by @TheKeyboard » Blog Archive » Komodo and CakePHP on 18.03.08 at 4:35 pm
[...] those who remember how I was an editor waffleryou will remember that I play around with Komodo from time to time, and decided to get back into [...]