Hi Rails Community,
I am about to commit to a text editor for both Ruby and RoR development. What are your opinions about investing time into Textmate vs. MacVim? I've already purchased Textmate and download MacVim. Looking for pros, cons, etc. Does anyone use both or once you stick with an editor, you stay with that editor.
Thanks, Tony
Tony Barone wrote:
Hi Rails Community,
I am about to commit to a text editor for both Ruby and RoR development. What are your opinions about investing time into Textmate vs. MacVim? I've already purchased Textmate and download MacVim. Looking for pros, cons, etc. Does anyone use both or once you stick with an editor, you stay with that editor.
I use neither. I hate vi and its descendants, and I'm not about to pay lots of money for TextMate. I recommend KomodoEdit.
There's a lot of discussion about editors in the list archives. Try a quick search.
Thanks, Tony
Best,
Hi Rails Community,
I am about to commit to a text editor for both Ruby and RoR development. What are your opinions about investing time into Textmate vs. MacVim? I've already purchased Textmate and download MacVim. Looking for pros, cons, etc. Does anyone use both or once you stick with an editor, you stay with that editor.
Hi Tony,
I work with Vim on Linux and I must say that I love it. I don't really need to try any other editor.
My advice is for you to try both and see which one fits your taste best. You will find some people suggesting Emacs, others Vim and a few others Textmate. But, in the end, it is a matter of taste.
Vim (or MacVim) has quite a steap learning curve, but once you get used to it, it is very rewarding. At least for me.
Try both and then make a choice. You should use the one that makes you more productive.
All the best,
Fidel.
Hi Rails Community,
I am about to commit to a text editor for both Ruby and RoR development. What are your opinions about investing time into Textmate vs. MacVim? I've already purchased Textmate and download MacVim. Looking for pros, cons, etc. Does anyone use both or once you stick with an editor, you stay with that editor.
Hi Tony,
I work with Vim on Linux and I must say that I love it. I don't really need to try any other editor.
Agreed. And the nice thing about vim is all you really need is an ssh connection to use it. Nothing else really matters.
Try both and then make a choice. You should use the one that makes you more productive.
Be sure to try the rails.vim plugin or at least read about it as it has some niceties for doing rails/ruby work in vim.
-philip
i must be missing something because everyone seems to love vim but to me is just archaic.
Yep.
radhames brito wrote:
i must be missing something because everyone seems to love vim but to me is just archaic.
I agree with you. The modal interface should have died in the 1970s. If I want a console editor, I use Emacs.
Best,
emacs +1, sweet editor, use the starter-kit and you are done. It's nice to know VI, since it is more readily available (quick edits, server admin) but as an IDE, emacs is way ahead.
The thing about Vim or Emacs, is that they are not ordinary editors. They are modal editors. You can't really compare them with ordinary text editors. Vim isn't only available for the console. You can also find the GUI version, which is called gVim in the Linux world. Perhaps this is what MacVim is.
You can always use the mouse and the menus, but you miss all the power of Vim. It is pretty hard to get use to it in the beginning, but once you get used to it, you will find that you can do things with it that you cannot replicate in other editors. The whole productivity enhancement is in the fact that you do not leave the keyboard, which is something that sort of delays your productivity a bit. At least that is for me. In the beginning I kept switching from Vim and gEdit, because it was pretty hard to navigate through the files. But they I discovered plugins like Rails.vim, NERDTree, and I stopped using all the other editors for good. The other nice thing about Vim is that it comes with any Unix based operating system. So, if you know how to use it you can start editing configuration files with it in any Unix based OS. But, it is just like I said: It is a matter of personal taste.
I have heard that Emacs is more powerful than Vim, but for me Vim is enough. I am happy with it as I am already used to its modes, and commands.
I think that people should try the different editors and decide for themselves about which one they feel more comfortable with. In the end it is all about productivity. If Komodo Edit makes you more productive that Vim or Emacs, then that's all you need.
All the best,
Fidel.
PS: "Vim is like wine, the older it gets the more tasty it becomes" ;D
the problem with vim is that people always say is so powerful but when i try to use it is like im looking at the sky waiting to see a UFO to pass by but nothing happens
Fidel Viegas wrote:
radhames brito wrote:
i must be missing something because everyone seems to love vim but to me is just archaic.
I agree with you. The modal interface should have died in the 1970s. If I want a console editor, I use Emacs.
The thing about Vim or Emacs, is that they are not ordinary editors. They are modal editors.
Emacs isn't a modal editor in the sense that Vi is (with separate insert and edit modes). That's one reason I like it better than Vi.
You can't really compare them with ordinary text editors.
Sure you can. They're heavily programmable, but they're still just text editors. (Yes, I know you can check your e-mail and play Tetris in Emacs. That doesn't really change my point.)
[...]
It is pretty hard to get use to it in the beginning, but once you get used to it, you will find that you can do things with it that you cannot replicate in other editors.
Example? I agree in principle -- I *am* an Emacs fan -- but I find that this doesn't make much difference for me in practice.
The whole productivity enhancement is in the fact that you do not leave the keyboard, which is something that sort of delays your productivity a bit. At least that is for me.
I hear this argument a lot. To some extent (a great extent) I agree with it. But in fact there are tasks for which the mouse makes you *more* productive. There are times when I'd rather click around than use cursor keys.
[...]
The other nice thing about Vim is that it comes with any Unix based operating system. So, if you know how to use it you can start editing configuration files with it in any Unix based OS.
I know how to use Vi. I still hate it.
[...]
I have heard that Emacs is more powerful than Vim, but for me Vim is enough. I am happy with it as I am already used to its modes, and commands.
For me, it's not that Emacs is more powerful; rather, it's easier to
use. Emacs modes are like language modules in other editors, not like
Vi's insert and edit mode. The latter have no place in 21st-century
software IMHO. 
[...]
PS: "Vim is like wine, the older it gets the more tasty it becomes" ;D
Why? Because nostalgia is the only thing it has going for it? 
Best,
There is a steep learning curve... as this comparison chart clearly shows
-philip
OMG LOL
Emacs isn't modal.
I have been a vi/vim user for 15 years, and am a huge fan. However, even after adding snippet support, using rails.vim, and using the directory pane, editing Rails applications is tedious compared to using Textmate. Essentially, the directory pop-out makes file manipulation too easy to not use.
So I generally use Textmate for the bulk of my work, but will use Vim if doing something via the command line or for a quick change.
using any type of folder navigation is way too slow for me. i personally love PeepOpen for navigating, but there are other plugins to do the same thing. if i want to edit user controller i just do “COMMAND+T” “uco” and i’m editing it a second later.
macvim can be prettier and much more powerful than textmate, and you get the advantage of learning vim and being able to leverage its power on any server you’re on.
Len Smith
i use netbeans but i think there is a huge overhead and i olso have to add the nbproject folder to my .gitignore file
That's not exactly a big problem is it? But you can set the Netbeans folder to be at any location you like - it doesn't have to be in the folder of the project.
radhames brito wrote:
i use netbeans but i think there is a huge overhead
Agreed. That's why I use KomodoEdit for Rails work. NetBeans is great where an IDE is wanted -- which it isn't for Rails development.
and i olso have to add the nbproject folder to my .gitignore file
True. So what?
Best,
Learn the API, then you won't need an IDE.