Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Text Editors - Frontend Summit '14
Search
Sponsored
·
Your Podcast. Everywhere. Effortlessly.
Share. Educate. Inspire. Entertain. You do you. We'll handle the rest.
→
Adam Simpson
August 21, 2014
Programming
130
2
Share
Text Editors - Frontend Summit '14
Slides for my talk at Frontend Summit 2014 on Text Editors.
Adam Simpson
August 21, 2014
More Decks by Adam Simpson
See All by Adam Simpson
Build your own tools with Electron and React
asimpson
1
190
Intro to Frontend Tooling - Gem City JS
asimpson
0
640
Intro To Frontend Tooling - Codemash '14
asimpson
2
430
.dotfiles
asimpson
2
150
Other Decks in Programming
See All in Programming
「速くなった気がする」をデータで疑う
senleaf24
0
150
ふりがな Deep Dive try! Swift Tokyo 2026
watura
0
130
Redox OS でのネームスペース管理と chroot の実現
isanethen
0
550
今年もTECHSCOREブログを書き続けます!
hiraoku101
0
230
Rethinking API Platform Filters
vinceamstoutz
0
11k
おれのAgentic Coding 2026/03
tsukasagr
1
140
3分でわかるatama plusのQA/about atama plus QA
atamaplus
0
120
Coding at the Speed of Thought: The New Era of Symfony Docker
dunglas
0
4.7k
RSAが破られる前に知っておきたい 耐量子計算機暗号(PQC)入門 / Intro to PQC: Preparing for the Post-RSA Era
mackey0225
3
120
瑠璃の宝石に学ぶ技術の声の聴き方 / 【劇場版】アニメから得た学びを発表会2026 #エンジニアニメ
mazrean
0
180
CDK Deployのための ”反響定位”
watany
0
460
PHP 7.4でもOpenTelemetryゼロコード計装がしたい! / PHPerKaigi 2026
arthur1
1
530
Featured
See All Featured
Typedesign – Prime Four
hannesfritz
42
3k
Sam Torres - BigQuery for SEOs
techseoconnect
PRO
0
240
4 Signs Your Business is Dying
shpigford
187
22k
A Modern Web Designer's Workflow
chriscoyier
698
190k
Self-Hosted WebAssembly Runtime for Runtime-Neutral Checkpoint/Restore in Edge–Cloud Continuum
chikuwait
0
450
Getting science done with accelerated Python computing platforms
jacobtomlinson
2
160
Redefining SEO in the New Era of Traffic Generation
szymonslowik
1
270
Measuring Dark Social's Impact On Conversion and Attribution
stephenakadiri
1
170
Music & Morning Musume
bryan
47
7.1k
Scaling GitHub
holman
464
140k
Into the Great Unknown - MozCon
thekraken
40
2.3k
Reflections from 52 weeks, 52 projects
jeffersonlam
356
21k
Transcript
:new
seesparkbox.com
@a_simpson
None
WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
http://xkcd.com/378/
Do Editors Matter? ‣ 90% of editor arguments are lighthearted
‣ Your editor preference barely effects the rest of your team ‣ Fighting over editors is almost useless. There are better battles to fight.
“The truth is that text editors don’t matter. Code however
you want to code, be it TextMate, Sublime Text 2, Notepad++, Vim, Emacs, or even Butterflies. Just code.” http://zackfern.me/2013/switching-to-vim/
WRONG
WRONG kinda
You spend almost all of your time in your editor.
Your editor preference changes the way you think.
Context shapes perspective http://randsinrepose.com/
TEXT EDITORS A few signs you need a better editor:
1. Your editor is writing code for you
TEXT EDITORS A few signs you need a better editor:
2. You’re doing lots of clicking
TEXT EDITORS A few signs you need a better editor:
3. You’re repeating yourself—a lot!
TEXT EDITORS A few signs you need a better editor:
4. You’ve hit a ceiling, and you can’t go higher.
THE CASE FOR THE PLAIN TEXT EDITOR
Technically, all you need to code is an app that
will accept text:
Writing all your code in TextEdit.app would be pretty painful,
though! ‣ Lots of (unneeded) typing! ‣ No project tree ‣ No syntax highlighting ‣ Sad and depressed
IDE? Integrated Development Environment
This is the part you actually need
Choosing a great text editor removes abstraction between your brain
and your code.
IDE’s ‣Slow development time ‣Messy code ‣Unskillful developers
“Dreamweaver was attempting to be helpful, but the moment it
reformatted my code, I threw a fit. YOU TOUCHED MY CODE. Dreamweaver never recovered from that horrendous first impression.” http://randsinrepose.com/
Enter the simple, powerful text editor
Here’s what to look for: ‣ are you comfortable in
it? ‣ can it do what you need? ‣ is it writing code for you?
THE CURRENT STATE OF EDITORS
Editors on the market: ‣ Sublime Text ‣ Vim ‣
TextMate ‣ BBedit ‣ Coda ‣ Emacs ‣ Espresso ‣ Atom
Editors you should actually consider: ‣ Sublime Text ‣ Vim
Seriously, you guys. Vim Sublime Text sublimetext.com vim.org
You can keep pulling back the layers and finding new
functionality, which is going to make your development experience faster http://randsinrepose.com/
None
“I don’t think of BBedit as a commitment. It simply
continues to be the best choice.” —bit.ly/editor-rage
Why Sublime? ‣low barrier of entry
Why Sublime? ‣highly extensible
Why Sublime? ‣highly extensible sublime.wbond.net/installation
A few essential Sublime packages: Many more: sublime.wbond.net/ ‣ SideBarEnhancements
‣ AdvancedNewFile ‣ Emmet
Why Sublime? ‣killer features Go to Anything: ⌘+P
Why Sublime? ‣killer features Command Palette: ⌘+Shift+P
Why Sublime? ‣ recent rise in popularity ‣ compared to
Coda or Espresso, it’s fast & close to the code ‣ Vintage mode for Vim key bindings ‣ hint: you should use Sublime
http://delvarworld.github.io/blog/2013/03/16/ just-use-sublime-text/
Why Vim?
Why Vim? ‣ fast ‣ mouseless! ‣ dot command, macros,
commands by line ‣ configurable (vimrc, vundle) ‣ super old ‣http://www.rayninfo.co.uk/ vimtips.html
Why Vim? ‣ high skill ceiling ‣ popular (vimbits.com) ‣
Runs in a terminal ‣ everywhere (any platform, ssh, other people’s machines) ‣ fun, in a weird way
=
Vim Resources ‣ http://vimcasts.org ‣ http://www.vimbits.com ‣ http://vimawesome.com ‣ http://github.com/mutewinter/
dot_vim ‣ http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/ Vim_Tips_Wiki ‣:help
Runners-up panic.com/coda/ https://atom.io
THE RABID CASH MACHINE
TEXT EDITORS MATTER. GET FOAMY.
Editor Cults ‣ Get cultic about your editor ‣ As
you're making your case, you'll have to nerd out on your editor. ‣ This is where real learning happens!
Seething, rabid coding machine
There’s only one thing more important than your editor. The
code it helps you write.
While you're nerding out on your editor, your coworkers are
raking in cash for the boss.
$ $
:wq!