Hello friends, I'm developer/writer who has, historically, been a vim (MacVim, specifically) user who is investigating other editors that have a bit better integration with OS X. The majority of my work is editing HTML/ XML, Python and PHP as well as writing a fair bit of regular old English prose.
I've heard a good bit of rumbling from the TextMate community about their favvy editor being abandonware, etc. and a couple of developers and writers I respect have publicly stated the possibility of their switching to BBEdit. I also know of a handful of high(-ish)-profile Mac folks who use—and emphatically endorse and swear by—BBEdit. These are the two reasons I've been investigating BBEdit as a possible replacement for MacVim (better OS X integration and "social proof"). Now, my question. I've spent a couple of hours over the past few days trying to figure out what BBEdit brings to the table. I've skimmed a non-trivial amount of the user manual, searched for blog posts or other user-generated content describing what, specifically, they love about BBEdit and why their fellow Mac users should consider making the switch. To be honest, I haven't been able to find much other than a post by John Gruber (of Daring Fireball) written when BBEdit 8 was released in 2004 (http://daringfireball.net/2004/09/bbedit_8). If somebody asked me why I use vim, I'd tell them it's because you can configure it to do just about anything you want, you never have to touch the mouse and there is a vibrant, active developer community surrounding it that has built all manner of customizations for it. If I asked a TextMate user why they use it, they'd probably tell me about all the stuff that can be done with Bundles and snippets (there may be more, I don't really know). If somebody asked you, my new friend, why you use BBEdit, what would you tell them? I'm really being genuine here — I don't doubt for a second that BBEdit is a quality product (it's longevity and enthusiastic users are proof enough of that). I guess I'm just looking to be sold or, at least, have my curiosity piqued. Thanks for your time and please tell me if there's anything I can add or clarify that would make my question easier to answer. Cheers, Brett -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "BBEdit Talk" discussion group on Google Groups. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at <http://groups.google.com/group/bbedit?hl=en> If you have a feature request or would like to report a problem, please email "[email protected]" rather than posting to the group. Follow @bbedit on Twitter: <http://www.twitter.com/bbedit>
