I’ve tried a lot of different editors for writing my ColdFusion code, but never found one that really worked well for me until now. Now I think I’ve found the one that works best for me, Sublime Text 2.
In the past I’ve tried:
- Coda by Panic = does a really good job with handling the auto-completion of quotes and parenthesis. Has tabs for multiple file editing and does CSS, has a web preview and a Terminal tab. It’s a Panic app, which has a tradition of working really well. However I started to run into these I’d really like, like code folding, easier code colouring and speed seemed to decrease with each release. Coda 2 is “in the works”, but no one really knows when it’ll show up.
- CFEclipse = I like how extensible the Eclipse platform is, it’s much more of a Integrated Developer Environment (IDE) then Coda. With extensions like Subclipse (Subversion), eGit (GIT) and Mylyn, it can be a pretty sweet tool. However like any Eclipse based environment that I’ve used it suffers two serious problems that over-time frustrate me. It seems to get slower and slower, and the way that it auto-completes of quotes and parenthesis easliy gets confused.
- ColdFusion Builder 2 = same as CFEclipse, except it costs money to run slow, and if I’m correct in what I’ve found, only runs in 32-bit mode and not 64-bit mode in Mac OS X.
- TextMate = from what I’ve read this application is pretty “long in the tooth”, but it seems to have a good sized and very faithful following. There is a ColdFusion bundle available. It’s very fast, you can define projects to see all of the code in your directories and has tabs. It works very well with the auto-completes of quotes and parenthesis. TextMate charges for a license, which I paid, but I just had a hard time getting into how to use it and didn’t find much in the way of documentation or screencasts that explained it well to me.
Sublime Text 2
I’ve been using a beta copy of the Sublime Text 2 editor for the Mac and really like it so far. Some of the key things I like about it after a week are:
- It’s fast
- Auto-completes the use of quotes and parenthesis correctly.
- Good code syntax colouring, that can be modified, although I’m using the “Merbivore Soft” theme by Indynagpal.
- Can open a folder so I can see multiple files at once
- For file contents that are taller then the screen, a “code overview” of sorts displays on the right to quickly jump to another locatio in the file.
- Code-folding
- Tabbed interface for files, and interestingly when you click on a file it will show the contents but not open it as a tab unless you start to edit the file or double-click on it, great for a “quick peek” of the contents!
As I work with Sublime Text 2 more, and as it evolves from it’s beta form, I’ll post more on how I’m using it and what I find benefical.
5 comments:
Hi, Troy...
I've been writing ColdFusion for many years now and I, too, am not satisfied with CFEclipse or ColdFusion Builder.
I've been trying every editor I could find, and just recently stumbled on Sublime Text (Using the 2nd Version).
I wonder if you know if there is any support for ColdFusion since your wrote this blog?
Thanks!
Rick
Sure have Rick. Checkout this extension to add Coldfusion support
http://github.com/indynagpal
Indy's ColdFusion support is provided by a mirror of the old TextMate bundle. Check out this package with script-based cfc support, goto symbol support and more. https://github.com/SublimeText/ColdFusion
With the release of Coda2 have you have a chance to take a look, initially I was impressed but it actually seems very buggy now for ColdFusion (crashing for me when it tries to do certain syntax highlighting)
Gary, I used Coda 1 in the past as my CFML editor of choice and really liked it. However since switching to Sublime Text and all of it's additional capabilities I haven't had a need, or desire, to look elsewhere. I really like Panic products, but I'm so happy with ST2 that I staying with it.
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