On Jul 20, 2007, at 10:44 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:

> John Joyce wrote:
>>
>> On Jul 20, 2007, at 6:46 PM, Logan Capaldo wrote:
>>
>>> On 7/20/07, alex_land <doug.ybarbo / gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Greetings:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I am new to Ruby (from C++) so these are quite basic questions i'm
>>>> afraid.
>>>>
>>>> My questions are also more about Editor mechanics rather than  
>>>> Ruby per
>>>> se-if anyone can suggest a better forum, my apologies, just let me
>>>> know and i'll re-post.
>>>>
>>>> I have spent the few weeks with Ruby using irb from the Terminal  
>>>> and
>>>> Text Edit, while i got a better sense from the Ruby Community
>>>> regarding the editors of choice. So yesterday i bought a license to
>>>> TextMate, which by the way, might just be the most beautiful  
>>>> (and t/4
>>>> useful) App i have ever seen, let alone owned and used.
>>>>
>>>> My question relates to "commands" (i believe this term has two
>>>> meanings in TM-i'm using it to refer to one of the three automation
>>>> means).  "Scope"?
>>>>
>>>> 1.  Can I specify different lexical scopes for different
>>>> "languages" (that might not be the TM lingo-i mean "Ruby," "HTML,"
>>>> "Text," etc.)?
>>>>
>>>> 2.  If i leave this field empty, is my default, "unlimited scope?"
>>>>
>>>> 3. When i go to the Bundle Editor, i get a drop down of like 20  
>>>> or so
>>>> languages-3-5 of these i'll use regularly, another 3-4 ocasionally,
>>>> and the rest, unlikely. I see i can "filter" which i've done  
>>>> before in
>>>> other editors, so i know from painful experience that when i've  
>>>> had to
>>>> re-add one or more of these, and i do an update, all default bundle
>>>> items write over my customizations.  T/4, i would like to put my  
>>>> 3-5
>>>> "everyday set" in a different folder to prevent this.  Is there a
>>>> better solution w/ TM?
>>>
>>>
>>> I don't use TextMate myself, however James Edward Gray II who is a
>>> prolific
>>> and helpful contributor to this list has written a book (which I  
>>> haven't
>>> read) all about TextMate. It might be worth checking out.
>>>
>>> http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/textmate/index.html
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>>
>>>> -alex
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>> Mr. Gray not only wrote "the" book on TextMate (available also as  
>> a pdf
>> ebook at the Pragmatic Programmers' site at a discount versus the  
>> print
>> book) but he also wrote a lot of bundles for TextMate, I believe.
>> Get the book. Read a little bit of it at a time. Just learn something
>> new every day or two or ten. As you learn your way around TextMate  
>> you
>> will find your productivity increasing rapidly, particularly with  
>> Ruby,
>> Rails and HTML.
>> For some languages there may be better solutions available.
>> PHP, especially big projects, for example is probably best done with
>> Zend's IDE.
>> TextMate also works well with Transmit, Panic software's nice FTP  
>> app.
>> TextMate's big weakness is with non-western languages. Japanese for
>> example. It can display the characters (if they're in the font you  
>> are
>> using) but things go crazy when you use the Kotoeri input system.  
>> This
>> is why in Japan many Rubyists are using Jedit or something.
>
> TextMate has a much bigger weakness ... it only runs on a Mac. :(
>
That's hardly a weakness. The developer doesn't want to be bothered  
with developing for other systems. If you've used Xcode and Inteface  
Builder  (or NeXTStep before) can you blame him?

But there is a TextMate Bundle compatible Windows app in the works  
from another developer who is getting much support from the TextMate  
maker!
Much like the long wait for the OS X Ruby one-click-installer (tried  
it today, works like a charm),
the Windows crowd will soon have it's own equivalent... (minus the OS)