TextMate + QuickSilver = Fun

July 27, 2007 | 4 Comments

Like I’ve mentioned previously, I’m not fond of changing my tools, but when work replaced my laptop it was a good time to revisit text editors on the Mac. I’ve been using TextEdit to take random notes, but Mike was pleased enough with TextMate to pay for it so I figured it was worth a look.

One of the first things I noticed and read in their documentation was regarding their philosophy which was a good read and encouraging. What didn’t seem to jive is the fact that the menus are so extensive, it seems almost impossible to use without a mouse. Unless you’re using QuickSilver. I previously read (I believe on LifeHacker) a trick with QuickSilver that lets you type in menu commands.

So for example, when I finish writing this post, I would normally have to do the following with the mouse:
Bundles -> Blogging -> Post To Blog.

Now, it just so happens that there’s a short-cut, but I have near 0 chance of remembering this. Instead with QuickSilver I do the following:
Alt-<Space>, “post b”

By that point “Post to Blog” is highlighted. I hit “Return” and I’m done. Maybe it’s not for you, but for me it’s significantly more efficient.

4 Comments

  1. try control command T…

    Comment by mark — July 28, 2007 #

  2. Thanks, Pablo, this is pretty useful. I’ve been using tm for a while when I have to do mac stuff (there’s an implementation of gvim for the mac that allows you to edit a file over ssh.. that might allow me to switch). But you’re right, the menus are extensive, and it’s always hard to get the hang of a new text editor.

    Otherwise I like it a lot, but the interface prevents me from using it as effectively as I use vim. I figure it’s worth mentioning that back in 98, I asked Rich Siegel at BareBones (who produce BBEdit, which I gather you have looked at) if they could give BBEdit a vi-mode (as it has an emacs-mode). He said that they were not, had no intentions to. The reason being that, as you said, the mac interface is very tightly coupled to the mouse interface, and it’s just not really possible to tell your editor, “when I hit escape, that means I’m talking to you.” Or at least not in a way that was sufficient for BareBones.

    And you may be interested in the fact that Apple has a “site” license for TM, and it is heartily encouraged within the company.

    Comment by Alex J. Avriette — July 28, 2007 #

  3. Mark,

    I understand that there is a shortcut for the example I used, but not all commands have shortcuts, such as Bundles => Blogging -> Fetch Post, or New From Template -> Blogging -> Blog Post (HTML). So in the former case, I would hit: Alt- Fetch , in the latter case Alt- Blog HTML . For me, on my MacBook where the trackpad is cumbersome, it’s significantly more efficient.

    Comment by pablo — July 28, 2007 #

  4. I tend to use keyboard shortcuts more than the menus, but they are hard to remember. I already use QS for application launching, but haven’t tried it for anything else. I’ll have to give it a try.

    By the way, despite my love of TextMate, I have found one flaw (just today in fact): it doesn’t support proportional fonts. I’ve been reading about several long-term coders who’ve switched to proportional fonts for coding and say they’ll never go back. Wanted to try this out and found TextMate won’t do it. So sad.

    Comment by http://openid.aol.com/mikefischer — July 28, 2007 #

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