Last year, ST didn’t support ligatures, and I wanted to try them out. So I went off and used first Atom and then VS Code for a month or two. Best thing I can say about either is that they have quite a vibrant plugin ecosystem. When I decided that code ligatures were actually kind of a dumb idea (and definitely not worth the Electron bloat, MS spyware, and assorted rough edges), I came back to ST3 with new appreciation for its relative simplicity, stability and performance. Now, I see ligature support added in 3.1: ain’t that always the way?
Along the way I met my new favorite console editor, vis. Perhaps someday it will replace my GUI editor entirely.
Have you looked at Kakoune? I switched from vis to Kakoune a few months ago; I found Kakoune’s editing commands easier to learn than vis’ structural-regular-expression syntax, and I prefer the way Kakoune supports multiple editor windows that I can manage with my normal window manager, over vis’ (and Vim’s) window-splitting system.
In my spare time I’m working on a GTK+ based front-end for Kakoune, at least partially because I wanted code ligature support in my editor. :)
It’s still quite a work-in-progress, but feel free take a look.
Kakoune does have an “autowrap” plugin that will automatically press Enter for you as you type, but it’s a bit quirky. Currently, I have the following in my kakrc:
# Map the equals key to hard-wrap the selection
map global normal = '|par -w$kak_opt_autowrap_column<ret>'
Then, re-wrapping the current paragraph is <a-a>p=. With a bit of effort, you could probably wrap that into an insert-mode mapping for <a-q>. par is a fairly smart third-party rewrapping tool, smarter than coreutils’ fmt, but not quite as smart as Vim’s built-in formatting feature.
Also, they still don’t have an easy way of viewing the console and errors–very important when figuring out why certain plugins are broken. You have to get a plugin.
Could you elaborate? I wouldn’t say most ST users are tolerating anything. They are in fact enjoying the experience with the editor, perhaps more than an open source editor. Unless you are one of the small minority who are forced to use an extremely esoteric development setup you have some degree of choice in how you work, which might even include using a proprietary editor if that’s what you prefer. FWIW I think ST has actually jump-started some of the wider interest and innovation in text editors in recent years.
My personal favourite closed-source editor is EmEditor (https://www.emeditor.com/). If I need to work in a Windows environment, it’s the first software I install, but it’s not the editor that I spend most of my time coding in. I often have to deal with huge CSV and other text files which the developer specializes in handling. They added features for opening CSV files in an Excel-like way which is a huge boon if you need that. It can open Visual Studio solutions and is extremely fast. It lacks all of the useful plug-ins that editors I prefer to code with have, but it really knows it’s niche. Perhaps there are equivalent capabilities with other open source products, but it doesn’t seem a problem that these proprietary products exist and innovate.
Last year, ST didn’t support ligatures, and I wanted to try them out. So I went off and used first Atom and then VS Code for a month or two. Best thing I can say about either is that they have quite a vibrant plugin ecosystem. When I decided that code ligatures were actually kind of a dumb idea (and definitely not worth the Electron bloat, MS spyware, and assorted rough edges), I came back to ST3 with new appreciation for its relative simplicity, stability and performance. Now, I see ligature support added in 3.1: ain’t that always the way?
Along the way I met my new favorite console editor, vis. Perhaps someday it will replace my GUI editor entirely.
Have you looked at Kakoune? I switched from vis to Kakoune a few months ago; I found Kakoune’s editing commands easier to learn than vis’ structural-regular-expression syntax, and I prefer the way Kakoune supports multiple editor windows that I can manage with my normal window manager, over vis’ (and Vim’s) window-splitting system.
In my spare time I’m working on a GTK+ based front-end for Kakoune, at least partially because I wanted code ligature support in my editor. :)
That sounds like something I’d be interested in. Is there a repository online?
I really like Kakoune. My only problem with it is that it’s missing a good solution for hard word wrapping (like Vin’s gwip or Emacs’ M-q).
It’s still quite a work-in-progress, but feel free take a look.
Kakoune does have an “autowrap” plugin that will automatically press Enter for you as you type, but it’s a bit quirky. Currently, I have the following in my
kakrc:Then, re-wrapping the current paragraph is
<a-a>p=. With a bit of effort, you could probably wrap that into an insert-mode mapping for<a-q>. par is a fairly smart third-party rewrapping tool, smarter than coreutils’fmt, but not quite as smart as Vim’s built-in formatting feature.releasetag would be good here.Also, they still don’t have an easy way of viewing the console and errors–very important when figuring out why certain plugins are broken. You have to get a plugin.
Thanks, added!
Why we even tolerate a closed-source, proprietary text editor in XXI century?
Nobody’s holding a sword to your throat and forcing you to use it.
You might want that intolerance looked at, it sounds like it’s reducing your quality of life.
Could you elaborate? I wouldn’t say most ST users are tolerating anything. They are in fact enjoying the experience with the editor, perhaps more than an open source editor. Unless you are one of the small minority who are forced to use an extremely esoteric development setup you have some degree of choice in how you work, which might even include using a proprietary editor if that’s what you prefer. FWIW I think ST has actually jump-started some of the wider interest and innovation in text editors in recent years.
My personal favourite closed-source editor is EmEditor (https://www.emeditor.com/). If I need to work in a Windows environment, it’s the first software I install, but it’s not the editor that I spend most of my time coding in. I often have to deal with huge CSV and other text files which the developer specializes in handling. They added features for opening CSV files in an Excel-like way which is a huge boon if you need that. It can open Visual Studio solutions and is extremely fast. It lacks all of the useful plug-ins that editors I prefer to code with have, but it really knows it’s niche. Perhaps there are equivalent capabilities with other open source products, but it doesn’t seem a problem that these proprietary products exist and innovate.
The dude might need money.
Being paid to program? gasps Only I’m allowed to do that.