i'm switching to sublime text from vs code as main code editor, and man – it's much more config to do before it's usable to me. vs code follows more of a "batteries included" and "sensible defaults" approach.
this is my behavioural config (typography stuff removed):
{
"create_window_at_startup": false,
"draw_indent_guides": true,
"enable_tab_scrolling": false,
"ensure_newline_at_eof_on_save": true,
"highlight_modified_tabs": true,
"highlight_line": true,
"remember_open_files": false,
"translate_tabs_to_spaces": true,
"shift_tab_unindent": true,
"hide_new_tab_button": true,
"caret_style": "blink",
"caret_extra_top": 1,
"caret_extra_bottom": 1,
"trim_trailing_white_space_on_save": "all",
"scroll_past_end": true,
"mini_diff": "auto",
"folder_exclude_patterns": [
".svn",
".git",
".hg",
"CVS",
".Trash",
".Trash-*",
"node_modules",
"build"
]
}
the last one is especially interesting. as of january 2022, there's still no way to tell sublime to ignore files in .gitignore
. sublime should hide/gray out the files/folders in the sidebar, and not make them appear in the quick open dialog. so i have to add folders such as node_modules
and build
to the global config. people tell me to use some plugin (sublime-gitignorer
), but meh... this issue from 2019 is still open.
then i couldn't get the editorconfig
plugin to work. i tried changing indent_size
in my .editorconfig
file, but the change wasn't reflected in the editor. joy.
then i realised that the typescript in sublime 4 isn't really "support": it's more "the syntax highlighting" is working. one has to install a typescript package for the Language Server Plugin for intellisense (completions, etc) to work. people don't like this.
then i installed prettier along with the sublime plugin, but formatting on every save isn't viable since it's very slow. somebody online said that vs code's prettier extension is keeping long running node processes instead of spawning a single one for each save. sublime's plugin is evidently not doing that. may have to check out dprint, but that plugin isn't even out in package control yet. hehe.
then there are these small annoyances like i can't do backspace
to delete a file when it's focused in the sidebar. or hit enter
to rename it. but no can do. like, what?! this is standard file explorer shortcuts? i timeboxed 5 min to find a keybinding but couldn't. i guess my mental model from atom and vs code differs from sublime's.
i'd really like more visual cues in the sidebar file tree about modified or added files, like vs codes does. makes it a lot easier to navigate.
so is switching worth it? sublime is so much faster than the electron based editors it's ridiculous. when i'm comparing opening this repo's folder with code .
and subl .
from the command line, i understand how gaslighted i've been with the electron editors. sublime just flashes and it's open while vs code is busy booting another chromium app or whatever it's doing.
but i dislike having to carry around a set of plugins and settings when i switch computers. vs code has this nice settings sync feature built in, but i'm 100% sure i need to sort that out myself for sublime with some esoretic github gist based thing…
maybe Jetbrains Fleet will be The One editor: native, without bloat, and configurable?
if anybody uses any life saving plugins for sublime, please give me a shout.