Craig Mod puts Sublime Text in the “fast software” category: https://craigmod.com/essays/fast_software/

> (…) Sublime Text has — in my experience — only gotten faster. I love software that does this: Software that unbloats over time. This should be the goal of all software. The longer it’s around, the more elegant it should become. Smooth over like a river stone. I have full trust in the engineering of Sublime Text because I’ve used it for over a decade, but also because it always feels like a fast, focused tool (even though it’s actually very complicated) and has only become faster the longer I’ve used it.

The whole essay is a nice read.

EDIT: Something else I wanted to add: I’ve tried other programs (file managers, for instance) that attempt to emulate Sublime Text both in interface (keyboard-driven, command palette, etc.) and speed, but they mostly manage to hit the former while blowing the latter. Fast software is hard!

This is a great essay! Completely agree with all of his points and really wish well-crafted software got more respect.

I don’t use sublime in my day to day, but always keep it on hand because it’s the only IDE that quickly opens for viewing very large csv or similar files without a hitch. PyCharm, VSCode, Aton all barf under these conditions.

Just for the speed of large file, on macOS, I find the BBEdit is great too. The basic functions of BBEdit can be used for free even.

Happy to see another satisfied BBEdit user. Been my go-to Mac editor since Mac Plus.

I loved BBEdit and/or TextMate for the Mac. Both were great.

I switched to Sublime after I had to work on Linux machines for a while.

For these instances I just use vim or sed/awk/etc.

Sublime easily handles files that make my Vim slow to a crawl. Agreed on using sed/awk/(rip)grep/other pipeline tools where it makes sense.

Sublime will barf if the file gets big enough too. In that case use something like HxD

How big of a file are we talking? I've had to open multi-gig Maya ASCII flies before to find broken nodes and Sublime was always my go to solution. Scrolling performance takes a hit, and the file can take some time to open, but overall works reasonably well.

That's interesting, because I've noticed the exact opposite between VSCode and Sublime. What version of sublime are you using?

I don't use sublime on my day to day, but I'm always happy to purchase their new licese when a new version ships for this reason.

I buy mostly nothing, use ms alternatives like libre office, blender, gimp, resolve, darktable, etc, but sublime text has been a fantastic lightweight ide, like a notepad++ or gedit. Even when other big companies are coming out with nice free smaller than before apps, I'm happy to have bought sublime. I find I can use many editors at the same time for different uses to separate my minutia.

Version 4 accepted my version 3 license purchased in january 2019. Yay me!

Yes accepts a max 3 year old v3 license. Mine is 8 and been worth it, just not another 70$ now that I’m force learning myself vi :-) 3 will remain fine for the quick things I want it to do

I tried Sublime text and I really like it.

But I have been a user of UltraEdit for many many years (maybe 20?) and I still find it much more natural to use.

I found it while looking for an editor to replace Semware's Qedit (DOS).

I wonder why UltraEdit has not much love here.

I do find Sublime's price much better than UltraEdit.

Another long-time UltraEdit user here.

I love it in general, but in particular there's one feature that I can't do without: column mode. I don't understand why other editors haven't copied it (at least to my knowledge. If you know any other that has it, I'd like to know). For those of us that often work with CSV-like formats, it's a real time saver.

It's also better behaved for huge files than any other editor I've tried.

Column-mode in editors comes from ancient history.

The BRIEF editor for MS-DOS, intended to be a "Programmer's Editor", some time before 1990, already included column mode and many other features that few editors have today.

I've been using ST3 for the past few years, and I have a go-to keyboard sequence for a column mode equivalent: Select the entire block, press Ctrl+Shift+L to split the selection into individual lines, press Home to create a cursor at the start of each line, and use the right arrow to navigate the cursor to the desired column. (You can also edit the end of each line by pressing End, move by entire words with Ctrl+Left or Right, and so on.)

FWIW Sublime Text do have "multi cursor editing" mode that can do some basic column mode editing.

Add to that vi keybindings to ST, and you can get better and faster "column mode-like" editing.

VS Code has column mode

What is column mode?

UltraEdit is probably the best text editor there is. Not the best IDE or anything, just the best text editor. It seems thoroughly underappreciated, though, for some reason.

It's the only editor I'm aware of that can do do disk-based editing, that is you can open a file of multiple gigabytes quickly and edit it because it doesn't load the whole file into RAM.

That's quite a claim. I'd put it up against EmEditor (https://www.emeditor.com/). Not only does EmEditor have amazing support for large files, it has Excel-esque GUI support for delimited files.

That’s pretty cool. I use vim for this particular need and it’s quick to search through big files too

Really? I've found Vim slows to a crawl on multi-GB files. Maybe that's changed recently or it was down to the plug-ins I was using?

It's probably from creating a backup copy. Compare performance when invoking 'view' instead of 'vim'.

It could be from your plugins if they're doing something goofy.

I use vim out of the box with no plugins and on windows. Not sure if that makes a difference. I’m also typically not editing the file but searching logs.

You need to turn off syntax highlighting before opening a really large file in vim. Otherwise the syntax parsing takes an age.

:syntax off

Another underappreciated editor is visual slickedit[1]

It will happily allow you to edit TB large files

[1] https://www.slickedit.com/

I've used slickedit for at least 20 years on windows. It's definitely a good editor as well

Neat. I use HxD for such a purpose.

I used UltraEdit a million years ago and I think it’s just a matter of familiarity. I remember being unable to go back to BBEdit when I switched back to Mac from Windows, I was so tuned in to UE’s power features.

When I tried Sublime 2 I wanted to like it but it just felt weird, so I went back to… TextMate, which probably feels weird to other (especially younger) people. But I’d been using TextMate forever and had a lot of things integrated with my shell so that was my “normal.”

I’ll give Sublime another try though: I want their business model to work, I love that they’re cross platform, and the plug-in API looks pretty nice now that I’ve done a bunch of Python work.

Same here! Made the journey from QEdit to Vim to UltraEdit to Notepad++. These days I'm dabbling in Emacs and Notepad++.

Emacs for Org-mode - arguably the most revelatory single piece of software I've seen in 40 years of working with Software. Notepad++ is a safety crutch that I haven't let go.

Visual Code is OK. Not exciting though lots of respect for it.

UtlraEdit's smoothness, speed and polish are highly commendable. Just don't have the need to spend on the annual licensing for it.

QEdit on DOS... now that brings back some memories! I went in for their flagship TSE (The Semware Editor) when it came out and was duly impressed.

I have used Notepad++ as my regular non-IDE editor for probably 15 years; there are a handful of (semi-)unique features that I really appreciate. I'm guessing UltraEdit keeps its user base for similar reasons.

A long time ago... used it a lot in 80x50 line text mode, lightening fast, good macro and configuration options (ISTR a separate tool to "reconfigure" the main binary). Had many of the same default bindings as the Borland IDEs, handy since the TurboC IDE used to run out of steam around 1000 loc or so, that's when I learned Makefiles.

Never took to TSE, sequence of bad experiences with stability.

Then there is SlickEdit which has been around for decades as well. I wonder how they are able to continue to be in business with all of the editors such as Visual Studio Code being available for free.

https://www.slickedit.com/

I still have my original SlickEdit installation CD from long long ago. As far as how they can continue to be in business, easy - corporate maintenance licenses...

Good question. I tried it for an embedded project and it didn't strike me as anything special. It could also be there are some great features hiding there that polyglots will never have the time to explore.

Back then I loved UltraEdit. It was the fastest editor at the time and could open even the most humongous files.

Since then, I've used notepad2 for quick editing. And even for coding. Really loved notepad2. It could only edit one file at a time but that was part of its charm. I would have multiple notepad2 files open while coding.

Back in the DOS days I used Brief, Multi-Edit (syntax highlighting!!) and the Borland SideKick TSR notepad, remember that?

Nowadays on Linux, I code and write everything on Vim. Can't live without it. Cured my carpal tunnel too because I don't have to move my fingers to use the arrow keys or mouse.

I think a lot of developers on macosx were using Textmate before they switched to Sublime Text

Yup, this was my exact experience. In Windows land, I used whatever IDE was built for whatever language I was using (Turbo Pascal, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual FoxPro, Borland Delphi) When I started doing web, it was all Notepad++ and BBEdit, Dreamweaver. Then I found Textmate. It was so perfect. Having no Windows version was so upsetting. When Sublime showed up, I was so happy. I had always used Vim in my IT career though, so once I started learning how to make that work for more than editing config files, that became my daily driver.

> I wonder why UltraEdit has not much love here.

Just from looking at the screenshots on their site I wouldn't install it (because of it's ugly UI).

First thing I do when installing it is to turn off the ribbon and set it to the good old menu-based UI. Which of course, might be "ugly" for you as well.

The UI is pretty configurable. You can use Menus, Menus with toolbars, or Menus with Ribbon. I use it only with menus.

I have UltraEdit. It's okay. The wordfiles are woefully anemic to define languages. The snippet system as well. It really needs a revamp. Also, the MacOS version IS different from the Windows version. ST is the same on both platforms and that is important to me.

my work makes us use UltraEdit (custom langauge) and frankly I hated it so much I wrote a custom language plugin for sublime my self so I could switch back.

UltraEdit just feels like it's stuck 10 years in the past.

In what way? I have used Sublime2 and 3, which might feel faster, VS Editor (I think is the name), much heavier, and Atom I think is the other. Never felt "wow, this is the future".

UltraEdit is clunky, the UI is very dated and the fonts are not well rendered.

It's not fast and has a large lack of theme support (there's no solarized theme for it, which is industry standard at this point).

I just didn't like it and would rather use a more modern editor, e.g. sublime. Only took a day or two to write the required plugins to get our language support for it.

I cannot disagree more with all that omyou said.

The UI can be whatever you want.

It has themes, and I understand you can create your own.

I don't see how sublime is more modern. For me are very similar.

Windows based editors are a dying breed. The Unix and web-based editors have sucked the oxygen out of the room.

Never heard of UltraEdit in 10yrs of my career, or came across it when searching for editors and IDEs.

That is what I wonder, UltraEdit is really nice.

I have no relation to them by the way, latest version that I own is 26 something. While the latest release is 28 something.

Maybe it is because 28 years ago, when it first released, internet was just starting.

Sublime is "only" 13 years old, so internet was already very much mainstream.

But it is really good. Very fast. I love the column mode.

If I search for UltraEdit in HN, the latest post if from 10 years ago, when they announced the Mac version:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2019148

Crazy.

That's incredible.

From the website it looks like a Windows-oriented tool. If it weren't for your product I wouldn't have even guessed they had a Mac version. I bet they'd do much better with adoption if they customized their homepage screenshots to the platform viewing the page…

For others curious about Column Mode, here's their link with a nice video: https://www.ultraedit.com/support/tutorials-power-tips/ultra...

Apparently in VS Code you can do similar things: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/codebasics#_column...

    1. Hold ⇧⌥ and drag for box select.
    2. Press ⇧⌥⌘↓ for "column select down"
    3. Run "Toggle column selection mode" and ⇧↓.

(Still looks like UltraEdit has some very powerful features for manipulating text in columns, like aligning whitespace).

TIL. Looks great!

In Notepad++ you would just alt+drag, no need to enable a special mode. It looks pretty much exactly like what's in that video.

Or alt+shift+arrows if you don't want to use mouse.

It could be because they started as a Windows only product, then they produced a Linux version, and finally the Mac version.

I have only used the Windows/Linux versions. By the way, with one license you can use all 3 platforms.

I actually use the Portable Windows version, for when the company I work for won't allow me to install software :)

Indeed, I purchased a perpetual Ultraedit license for Windows, Mac and Linux many years ago. I like the hex editing, huge file support, column editing.

In VSCode you can also middle-click (the scroll wheel on a mouse) and drag to do column select.

But what I lick of UE is that you can do everything with your keyboard, no need to use the mouse.

The same is true of the "column edit" functionality in VS Code. I don't think there's anything that requires the mouse, especially since from the keyboard you can invoke the command window to run any function.

But VS Code is what, 3 or 5 years old? When I was searching for a text editor, this was 20~25 years ago!

For sure. I was more pointing out a feature I find helpful (and one I didn't know about for a while) than trying to "convert" you. Use what works for you!

I can answer from my experience.

I've learned about mac text editors from online ruby on rails tutorials. Both TextMate and SublimeText put me in awe, coming from windows based development they seemed much more polished. It was specifically marketed as distraction free and a lot of my university peers preferred them over whatever tutors were trying to push down our throats (mostly eclipse at that time).

I'd hazard a guess it's just marketing that makes the difference in popularity. I've seen both Sublime and TextMate being used a lot in talks. They tend to present very well in, ehrm, presentations. Try doing that with UltraEdit. Toolbars and other "cruft" get in the way

I used ultraedit like 15 years ago, but switched to notepad++. I think due to performance problems. I don't like sublime3, too much tinkering via a command line.

Yeah, notepad++. I also tried it. The price was better (free), but it lacked column mode, "reformat paragraph" (it basically takes separate lines and makes it into a paragraph), and trim trailing spaces, at least when I tested it, which I used a lot.

Column mode and trim spaces have existed in notepad++ for years, but may be a bit hard to find.

I just checked, and that may have improved: both are on the Edit menu, bottom half.

Yes, I couldn't find at the time how to use them. I am talking again probable 15 or 20 years ago, so it might have been version 0.1 of N++.

I remember using it in 1999 it was outstanding compared to what else was available on windows and I’m not a vim/emacs kinda person. Might give it another try

You've probably never needed to work with really large files or edit/examine a fie in HEX, it really shines for these use cases.

It's not really an IDE and I've never used it to write code.

UltraEdit was the best editor for Windows in the late 90s early 2000s. I remember asking my boss for it.

The niche it filled was surpassed by Notepad++ and other free tools.

Just wait until 2030+ and then you may be the metaphorical boomer sticking with software no one else has heard of!

I mean, Emacs is a bit like that. Newer text editors and Vim captured all of the younger generation. I haven't met anyone using Emacs as their daily driver, except professors.

Their Git client (Sublime Merge) is the first graphical git tool I've felt happy with.

I took a bet on Sublime Merge with some amount of skepticism and boy it has paid off. After two years of using it, git sort of makes sense now.

Same. I've used a lot of git UI tools in the past (SourceTree, TortoiseGit, GitKraken, Tower, GitHub Desktop, SmartGit to name a few), but when I first tried out Sublime Merge I was blown away and never looked back. It was insanely fast. The UI makes sense and intuitive. Plus the killer feature which is customizable commands in every menu you can think of.

Desktop software is superior to web in virtually every way except:

(1) Collaborative features and syncing are easier to build when all the data lives in the cloud. There are currently no easy ways to build collaborative decentralized apps that scale and perform well and don't lose data. The best compromise solution today is probably cloud syncing, which is the Apple approach and keeps most of the brains local while using the cloud as a cache and a relay... but that tends to lead toward more and more stuff going to the cloud over time.

(2) The cloud is the only DRM that works. Cloud software can't be pirated because the user doesn't even have most of the software. At best the user gets the UI frontend in the form of obfuscated JavaScript or WASM.

(3) Due to #2, it's possible to easily collect recurring payments. "Recurring revenue" is the holy grail of virtually all businesses. Some VCs don't even consider non-recurring revenue in valuing a startup company. If your company collects $1M in one-time licenses and $100/month in subscriptions, some investors will literally chalk you up as having $100/month MRR.

(4) Cloud SaaS is a political loophole around free-as-in-beer ideology. The "information wants to be free" ideology tends to poo-poo commercial software and insist on the freedom to pirate everything, but cloud SaaS gets a free pass. Even better: with cloud SaaS you can use FOSS software without giving anything back! ... unless the license is AGPL, BSL, or Commons Clause, but those are not "true" FOSS licenses according to the FSF. (The AGPL sort of is, but it's also not strong enough to really prevent SaaSification.)

(5) Last but not least: shipping software sucks, especially on Windows. The Windows MSI installation subsystem is a horror from the deepest smoldering pit of hell. Be sure your company offers mental health benefits for PTSD treatment if you have to ask an engineer to deal with it. Mac and Linux are a little better but they are collectively only about 1/4 of the desktop market. The web offers a zero-friction "install" process that makes adoption and updates seamless and easy.

If those problems can be addressed, we can see a renaissance for real software that serves the user and doesn't have 100+ms latency for every action.

I don't think that (1) is true at all - you have the same problems in building a collaborative application using a web app as you would desktop software (e.g. let's say that you want to do multi-user real-time collaboration - you're going to need to use CRDTs no matter if you're writing C++ or JavaScript).

(2), (3), and (4) are true (they're why I've stopped making my tools available to others), although from a business sense, which is separate from a pure quality sense.

(5) can be addressed with some basic tooling and meta-tooling. I don't think that these are that hard - and, more importantly, the web has a complementary problem, which is that you have to do a lot of engineering to get things you get for free on desktop (most notably, persistence - compare the ease of setting up a database service for your cloud app with just writing to a file on desktop).

I love me my Sublime.

I like an editor that's fast enough, isn't bloated and isn't Vim.

Don't always need the IDE.

And although I can use Vim, I'm just not as efficient with it to use it 100% of the time. I learned a little to be able to work on remote servers but that's all I need. I can use a GUI editor like Sublime for the rest.

Sublime is versatile.

Before I switched entirely to Vim I used a remote editor plugin for Sublime that let me edit files over SSH. Didn't work for every case but was handy for editing webpages live on my dev server before the age of Vagrant and Docker.

All nice i use it a lot but why does it take way too many seconds to open large files? And its not the cpu i have top cpu ram and ssds.

A plausible explanation is that it's doing some kind of preprocessing of the file into a data structure that allows for faster or more responsive scrolling and editing of huge files. For example a rope or similar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(data_structure)

At least the technolgy of those "shit, low quality side show SaaS apps and mobile" allowed people to build apps that wouldn't be able to do so before.