A recent crash of my main text and code editor, Textmate, led me to look into submitting a ticket to Macromates support. The crash was so bad that I had to switch off my Mac with the power button - something that rarely ever happens.
I dug a little deeper into the problem and I could reproduce it by copying several dozen rows from Excel into Textmate and then doing a “Join line with next” to join the rows. Somewhere along all that joining Textmate locked up and, even though I managed to force-quit it, my whole system was unresponsive after that and the only thing I could do was reboot.
Anyway, while searching the existing support tickets at Macromates.com I found many people reporting lockups while handling long lines. The scenarios were different from mine, but the results - total system lockup - were very similar. The developer had responded to a couple of the tickets by saying that the problem is likely rooted in the current way Textmate handles the rendering of text and that that would be redone in version 2 of Textmate.
So I’m thinking, great, when will version 2 arrive? Turns out the first mention of Textmate 2 dates all the way back to November 2006. That’s pretty incredible. First Duke Nukem Forever, then Spore (which finally arrived this year) and now Textmate. Is version 2 turning out to be vaporware? The most recent minor update of Textmate 1.5.x is, IIRC, several months old. I just hope that means the developer is working very hard on version 2.
The thing is, I really like Textmate and I’ve gotten used to it. I have the keyboard shortcuts that I use regulary memorized and I can find my way around the editor pretty well. But I may just have to take a look at BBEdit 9. Not to completely replace Textmate; after all it still works well for me, apart from the odd crash now and then. But I have a slightly uneasy feeling using a software for my daily work that might or might not be discontinued.
I’ve had this happen once already. I used to use Mori for organizing notes, but after the original developer sold it the new owner let development slip substantially and the updates he did manage to get out the door were very buggy. After realizing that things were not likely to get better anytime soon, I eventually went back to using DEVONthink Pro.
I sincerely hope that Textmate 2 will soon see the light of day. It’s a great editor, has great expandability and it’s always good to have a little choice when it comes to software. But TM is falling behind and people will not wait forever for version 2. Let’s just hope Macromate’s tagline for Textmate - “The Missing Editor” - doesn’t turn into a really bad pun.
If you’re tired of the screensaver always activating when you’re watching a video or a DVD, get 
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Patience is a virtue (so I’m told) however after YEARS of waiting for version 2 of TM and being told that it will be available shortly after Leopard ships (which shipped two years ago) and after email multiple email exchanges with the developers over years to no avail, I have to assume these guys have no clue how to:
(a) manage a relationship with customers
(b) set expectations properly about releases
(c) manage a software development schedule
(d) finish something
This incredibly long development schedule wouldn’t be tolerated from Apple or any other Macintosh software developer however we’re expected to just be ‘assured’ Alan and team are working on v2 and ’someday’ we’ll find out what it’s all about. Microsoft pulls this stuff over and over again and gets their butt chewed out by the entire world, yet somehow it’s ‘different’ for the TM team.
The ‘explanation’ I got a while back was that TM is still ’state of the art’ through the widespread support for plugins and I should be more patient. While TextMate is a nice program for sure, it’s ridiculous to depend on 3rd parties to continue to enhance your base product (built in 2004 no less!) themselves through plugins all the while claiming the program is ’state of the art’.
Let’s have a poll out there, how many pieces of software to you use that is FIVE years old and counting? What other software company would you have any faith or respect for that didn’t update it’s software for FIVE years? What is Apple or Mozilla didn’t update their browsers for FIVE years? How would you feel? (Oh yeah, Microsoft didn’t update their browser for years and look at the sh*t they had to put up with).
Sorry for the rant, but I have used TM every day since 2005 and it piss*s me off to depend on software that has been abandoned by the developers. As a software developer myself, I’d be embarrassed to hell to be in the position Alan and the TM team are in. I’ll begin the process to switch over to an editor that is better supported by the developer. Sorry TextMate, you’ve jerked this developer around too many years to continue to enjoy my loyalty and respect.