Sublime Forum

New user's feedback!

#1

G’day all,

First-time user here - and I’m gobsmacked. I’ve been text editing since 1981, and Sublime’s just… well… sublime! It’s almost worth the licence fee!

I do have a couple of bits of feedback, though, and I hope these are cause for some discussion.

The first four things I tried to do with Sublime were, in order of importance :

  1. Read the documentation so I know what, where, and how to best take advantage of this tool;
  2. Change the colour scheme
  3. Edit a . (hidden) file in my home directory; and
  4. Modify the key bindings.

I should note for the record that I’m also a newb in the OSX world, although I’ve “done” unix since SCO SysV (I’m rusty but I know how to find help there).

OSX for me is different, I’ve been exposed to about 200 apps in the 4 weeks I’ve owned the Mac, and without exception those apps are incredibly easy to configure and adjust to my requirements. So the thing that surprised (or I should say, shocked) me most about ST2 was the lack of a preferences UI.

I’ve read a few topics on this forum about all of these issues now, and I understand that some folks are quite sensitive about whether or not a configuration GUI is needed, or should be made available, and the same for the colour scheme editor (lots of talk but no actual editor), and a keybinding editor.

As a software developer with 30+ years under my (rather expansive) belt, I do understand that building such ‘fripperies’ can be more time-consuming than the core code! I’ve been bitten so many times by this it’s not funny.

But… I feel strongly compelled to say, for the record, that for a relatively expensive application, the lack of documentation, and a good preferences management tool is a serious drawback for me. As is the lack of any ability to natively open legitimate text files, be they hidden or not. (BTW, the workaround for that has changed for OSX Lion, it’s Command-Shift-Period, not Control-Shift-Period any more!)

This point of view isn’t coming from laziness, or stupidity, or a fanatical devotion to the textual nature of the world, but from a need to be able to configure the software quickly and effectively to meet my physical and logical requirements. If the software can’t be easily configured, whether for colour, keystrokes, or file type inclusions, then it’s going to take time I should be spending developing and building and designing software instead.

I’m guessing that’s one of the reasons ST2 isn’t available in the Apple store, it breaks Apple’s golden rule about WYSIWYG configuration. But that’s neither here nor there - there’s probably more benefit (and much more freedom) outside the store paradigm than chained inside it. I can definitely understand that!

I’ll finish up by saying I’m really looking forward to using ST2, it does all the things I’ve ever wanted to be able to do in a text-mode editor (and more), and it’s a darn sight more sophisticated than I am. So I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can as quickly as I can to come to terms with what it will do to fit into my workflow. And as soon as it gets reasonable documentation, a reasonable and useable configuration UI, and the ability to edit all the filetypes that I need, I’ll be buying a full licence in a heartbeat. (I’m pretty sure that this is the very first app that I’ve ever held off buying because of those problems - usually it’s black or white, it’s worth the cash or it’s not… I hate sitting on a fence).

If anyone can point me to any resources for modifying the things I need to modify to make ST2 what I need it to be, I’d be most grateful. I’m a bit rusty Python-wise, but if I can figure out some kind of add-in that might help other folks, I’ll take it on. At the moment though, I’m still on the OSX learning curve, unfortunately.

I hope these ideas and arguments make sense and can be used to improve what’s an astonishingly great editor!

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