SubEthaEdit 3.0
Several years ago I got an iBook after not having owned a Mac for many years. When I was at Auburn I was a big Mac Fan because I'd tried to write papers using PCs, and there just wasn't a reasonable set of tools on DOS/Windows that even remotely compared to the tools on the Mac. But when I went into business for myself, I targeted the largest audience possible and that meant PCs. Later, when the only thing that mattered was what I wanted, I got the iBook. I looked around, and while TextEdit was OK for somethings, and ProjectBuilder used it, I wanted a little more powerful editor. I went with BBEdit.
I haven't regretted the decision, BBEdit has been a wonderful tool. But a while back, Hydra was written by some interesting guys in Germany. Collaborative text editing. I could see that being a big deal. They had to change the name, so they picked SubEthaEdit. It was shareware for a while and then they went full commercial with a 30-day trial period. There were some things about BBEdit that I didn't like, and as importantly, I wanted to like SubEthaEdit. So I gave it a spin.
I liked the syntax highlighting a lot better than BBEdit's. I liked the collaboration, though I have to admit that I've never really needed to use it. Probably most importantly, it looked more like a Mac OS X app as opposed to a converted Classic Mac OS app - which is where BBEdit originally started. There were a lot of things that I thought could be better, and my philosophy has been - if you want to ask for more, pay for it. So I did. And then I sent in the requests.
Things got a little better, and now with version 3.0 several things have gotten a lot better. The speed of syntax highlighting is vastly improved. They have added the ability to save an editing session with all the meta-data so that it's easy to pick up where you left off. They also added SSL encryption on the communication so that you can edit in secret. Nice features, to be sure. And while I appreciate that they are not interested in making a bloated package, there are a few things that I'd still like to see:
- Fix the method signatures in the method list - this is a complaint I have with BBEdit as well. Both apps have a touch time getting the method signatures right. This is a big deal when you're trying to quickly find the method you need to work on. If I have a C++ file with 10 different add() methods, it doesn't help a lot to see 10 add() entries in the list - I need to see add(int) and add(double), etc.
- Allow for marks to jump back to - this is one place where Vim beats BBEdit and SubEthaEdit - the ability to set little marks, go somewhere else in the code, do what you need, and then jump back to the place you left. BBEdit is close with it's Marks, and I've added the key-combinations to make it easy to set them, but jumping is still a mouse-driven process. I'd love to be able to use the keyboard alone. SubEthaEdit doesn't have the feature at all.
- Allow Page-Dn with the cursor - most editors allow the user to 'page-down' the file with the cursor by hitting some key combination. BBEdit does this with Option-<Arrow> and SubEthaEdit allows you to page-down, but you don't move the cursor. It's a mouse action to do it in SubEthaEdit.
- Fix the highlighting of -1.0e-12 in FORTRAN code - I submitted this bug a while back and they didn't get around to fixing it. The problem is that for the number 1.0e-12, their C++ highlighter works wonderfully, but their FORTRAN highlighter colors the '1.0' as a number, the 'e-' as text, and the '12' as a number. It needs to be consistent. Also, both their C++ and FORTRAN highlighters miss the leading minus sign ('-') on negative numbers and color it as text as opposed to the numerical constant. It needs to be tagged and colored with the number - not as text.
The thing is, I still want to like it. I want it to get better. So I get the upgrades, pay the money and send in the requests. After a time, maybe they'll see that I'm serious about supporting them and get the few little features that I keep asking for. I can't think of another way to make it happen, and I'm pushing on BBEdit the same way. I have no desire to write my own, and if BBEdit and SubEthaEdit don't turn out, I can go to Vim and be happy enough, but I want a Mac experience in my editor, and one of these guys is going to get there. I hope.
UPDATE: I figured out that the FORTRAN syntax coloring problem was in the Fortran77.mode file that I got from them - but was not a built-in syntax mode in SubEthaEdit. This meant that I could edit it and fix all the syntax colorization issues without having to wait for them to fix them. So I did. I fixed several problems, in fact. In the end, I went to the bug tracking system and updated the bug entries saying I had solved it. Unfortunately, I was unable to upload the changed Fortran77.mode, but I left a note there for them to contact me if they wanted me to email it to them.