moshisushisaidthis

#1 reason to switch to Mac

TextMate is one of those applications that takes some time and effort to really understand why it is so powerful. Especially if you are a BBEdit user just "trying it out," you probably won't get it. The main difference is that BBEdit exposes most of its power in the user interface (menu commands, mostly), while TextMate "hides" the power in the add-in bundles. You need to figure out how to discover this power. Once you do, you may never be satisfied by another editor again.

I wrote more details in a weblog posting, which also points to some good tutorials and quick references covering TextMate:

http://aldoblog.com/blog/528

Honestly one of the best apps I've ever come across. This is a must for any mac programmer, no matter what your language preferences (especially for Ruby and Rails)

I really don't see why Mac doesn't come with TextMate by default. This is the number one editor for everybody. Programs like BBedit don't even come close. And I am amazed how cheap it is too.

I've discovered TextMate 4 mounth ago. and since then, i've stopped using Dreamweaver... simply wonderful. If you write code, you MUST have it. To me, it's better then BBEdit...

I have just installed this and having been using for about 30mins - one word - WOW.

I've used Smultron and Text Wrangler in the past but I think this is gonna be my coding tool of choice.

Who would have thought that coding could actually be fun!

Absolutely excellent for PHP programming (need to install the PHPCompletion additional bundle). You can use the 'GetBundle' bundle for an easy installation of additional bundles.

It's fast and has everything one would need when it comes to editing code: folding, autocompletion, hints, macros.

Definitely the best mac text editor out there. The more I use it, the more I love it.

For those asking for the big diff between this and BBedit: bundles.

I can't handle how good this app is. I used SubEthaEdit for a long time, and really liked it, but after 1 hour with TextMate I was completely hooked. It's changed the way I write code.

Great for Actionscript too. Command+Enter launches the Preview of the Flash file open in the background reducing App juggling.

I agree with alderete that this requires a little more investment than just 'trying it out'; as a bbedit user for 10 years, and having used homesite and dreamweaver extensivley when on a PC, this is hands-down the best editor I've ever used. I've been using textmate exclusively for over a year; it's bbedit meets emacs. THIS IS NOT AN IDE, so comparing this to eclipse, IDEA, or whatever is not apples to apples. if you are writing code of any kind, there's probably a bundle you can use, and investigating this is well worth your time. shell integration is also really cool, and this is a good tool for markdown-based project management.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this editor. Incredible! One question that's been bugging me for a while though. I hand-code all my HTML/CSS so it's not a huge deal, but every now and then I forget an attribute name or some piece of syntax. Is there any way to have TextMate auto-suggest attributes like Dreamweaver/BBEdit kinda do? Like if I'm writing CSS and I type "border-style:", have it drop down a list that says "solid, dotted, dashed, double... etc"?

I feel like this is too good an App to not have a feature like that, so I must just be missing it?

TextMate is great! It's in my dock along side SubEthaEdit and skEdit and I use them all every day. I'm way more productive using skEdit for PHP and HTML though.

TextMate is like a TextEdit on Steroids. It is a great little app, that runs fast, opens fast, and is a light-weight lil' app where you can edit many different programming languages, and see the different syntaxes for each! I have it in my dock 24 / 7 since I first tryed it, and I recently bought it. A little expensive, but its worth it.

Just perfect for people who want colored synthax edition and have color vision problems, like me. And even better when you find several little helpful things like "sort and remove duplicate", or all those snipets, "search in project" and project gestion, and so on. And it IS light and easy to use. Really, Thumbs up !

This is the greatest. I love it. I also own SubEthaEdit, but only use that for its collaboration feature.

The only editor for Mac who has the feature to turn off anti-alias, as far as i know. Highly customizable syntax coloring, too.

Has no auto-complete, but with customized snippets, there is no need for this.

Simply the best text editor I have ever used on the mac! Worth every penny!

Useless for Japanese and other East Asian languages.

Actually, textmate is usable for CJK, including Japanese, with the CJK-Input plugin.