• Version 10.0.1
• Project Flyweb Production

• Section blog
• Tags

  ide, stack

  ---

  ---

  
  Published 30 Nov. 2012 This Post is a few years old and the Information provided might be out of date!

Eclipse is dead, long live Sublime

When it comes to Programming Editors I tested a lot of them, but I kept returning to Eclipse. After years working with the Eclipse IDE I think it is finally time to make the switch to Sublime Text

© Warner Bros.

Sublime looks pretty barebones at the first glance, the Preferences are missing any GUI, the settings are keys/values in a JSON format. The Sidebar has only rudimentary functions and it wasn't clear at the beginning where or how do I create Projects.

But for most features which are missing there is a package/plug-in to download. This is a weakness which is also the strength of Sublime, you can adapt it around your needs such as you like.

One of the biggest changes from Eclipse are the "Goto Anything..." and "Command Palette". Whom ever used a Launching-Tool like Quicksilver or Alfred will quickly get familiar with this features. Lookup files, code or run task’s like HTML Convert Special Chars everything is a few keystrokes away.

Also a great feature is the "Minimap which shows the files programming code from a birds view perspective. The "MultiCursor" Feature is also a great thing which i don't want to miss anymore.

I am lazy...

Codesuggestion Tools like Emmet are essential for fast and lazy programming, together with Sublimes Snippets you get some powerful tools. Now I only need a way to import my Eclipse Snippets?!

Shortcuts are essential

To unleash the full speed Sublime offers remembering the Keybindings/Shortcuts is essential.

• Keyboard Shortcuts - OSX
• Useful Shortcuts for a Faster Workflow in Sublime Text 3

Tutorials

The Sublime "tuts plus" Tutorial (free Account required) was a very good starting point, some other useful resources can also be found at scotch.io

Packages with Package Control

To use Packages, Package Control is recommended - sublime.wbond.net

For my Development setup I use the following Packages to work with HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, Angular and Laravel:

• Alignment - Easy alignment of multiple selections and multi-line selections
• AngularJS - Code completion, snippets, go to definition, quick panel search, and more
• DocBlockr - Simplifies writing DocBlock comments in Javascript, PHP, CoffeeScript, Actionscript, C & C++
• Emmet - (ex-Zen Coding) for Sublime Text
• Local History - A Sublime Text 2/3 plugin for maintaining local history of files. [backup | open | compare | incremental diff]
• PlainTasks - An opinionated todo-list plugin for Sublime Text editor (version 2 and 3)
• SideBarEnhancements - Enhancements to Sublime Text sidebar. Files and folders
• StringEncode - Converts characters from one encoding to another using a transformation (think HTML entities, not character encodings)
• SublimeLinter - Interactive code linting framework for Sublime Text 3
• Focus File on Sidebar - Sublime Text plugin to open sidebar and focus on the current opened file
• Intelli​Docs - Quick function parameter hint for Sublime 3.x.
• Laravel Blade Highlighter - Laravel Blade syntax highlighter support for Sublime Text
• LESS syntax highlighting for Sublime Text.
• Theme - Phoenix - Dark & Light custom UI themes with colors variations for Sublime Text 2

Update

After working with Sublime over the last few weeks, I don’t regret the step away from Eclipse. I’m still discovering new tricks and features in Sublime. Overall I don’t regret the switch from Eclipse to Sublime, the only thing I’m missing is the comfortable code suggestion and code hinting from Eclipse.