Every now and then you run into a new solution or tool that revolutionizes the same work you have been doing for ages. As a UNIX and Linux Systems Administrator I edit a lot of text files, and vim has been my text editor of choice for decades. Well, I still use vim habitually, but there are situations where I am discovering some huge advantages to Sublime Text 2 (available for Mac, Linux and Windows). Sublime keyboarding is new enough to me that I am faster in vim, but Sublime lets me open multiple files in a SID or Norton Commander style file browser and really get organized, and cutting and pasting blocks of text between open files and tabs is delightfully easy.
It has been a real game changer, and I have stopped using MacVim (vim with Mac GUI stuff) entirely, though I still fall back to text only vim for complex regular expression activity. Another bonus is that I finally have a free and easy to use yet powerful text editor for the rare time I get on Windows or Windows Server, and the interface is the same regardless of platform – so Sublime tricks can be shared with Windows or Linux based co-workers.
Highly recommended: Sublime Text
I have created a symbolic link (aka: alias) on my Mac:
/usr/local/bin/sublime -> /Applications/Sublime Text 2.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl
That allows me to run “sublime .” on the command line and use the amazing file browser to edit several files in the current directory.
Update: I should be clear, Sublime is free to download and try, but it licenses per user at $70, which is an awesome deal to me for something I can use across machines and architectures.
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