The Editor that Isn’t

My TextMate license dates back to 2007 and I’ve been using it ever since as my main programming editor. An update for TextMate was announced around the time of Mac OS X Leopard’s release (October 2007 for the record), and it was a huge deal that it was going to be Leopard-only.

TextMate 2 has not been released and only very minor bug fix releases since that time. TextMate 2 has been a running joke for a while now, along the lines of Duke Nukem Forever … but now even that has passed as Duke has launched.

So, this post is dedicated to TextMate 2, the editor that isn’t, and the improvements I still hope to see one day if TextMate 2 is ever released to us unwashed masses.

  • update to 64-bit application
  • split editor window (both side-by-side and top-and-bottom)
  • better undo and redo
  • improved and speedier find and find-and-replace
  • a GetBundles-like system built-in
  • inclusion of Lion features (Resume especially, maybe Versions)
  • available on the Mac App Store

That’s really all I can think of at the moment. General speed improvements would be nice, maybe the inclusion of a Project+-like project window would be cool, but overall I like TextMate just fine the way it is and will continue to use it until the day comes when other editors are so far ahead that I can’t ignore it any longer (BBEdit would be my first choice right now).

I hope to see TextMate 2 some day, but I am prepared to make the plunge if the day comes.