5 ms·

Yeah, as others already mentioned, I think they sat on their laurels for a bit too long and let VSCode overtake it. For what it's worth, I went from ST3 -> VSC

Yeah, as others already mentioned, I think they sat on their laurels for a bit too long and let VSCode overtake it. For what it's worth, I went from ST3 -> VSCode -> ST4, and have been happy since. I've found that I prefer my text editor with minimal extensions, and with Sublime Text's LSP Plugin, I'm pretty content. The performance and customizable UI make it more worth it to me than VSCode.

WD-42 1y ago
It's the LSP plugin that finally drove me to leave ST4 for Zed. Language integration is table stakes for an editor now. The fact that ST support is behind a volunteer plugin instead of integrated directly in the editor just means it's never going to be as good as a editor that does have first class support. The ST devs need to actually improve the editor, but I haven't seen any material updates in years.
righthand 1y ago
Agreed, LSP has replaced Linter extensions and the TabNine LLM which is nice (and snappy). Even if some of the lsp servers are clunky to use.
jonas21 1y ago
I think it's less that they sat on their laurels and more that a team of 2 had trouble keeping up with the dozens of well-paid folks working on VSCode. Which suggests that perhaps a shareware model did not work out so well for them.
- spiderice 1y ago
  If they were already having trouble keeping up, then perhaps taking years off and building Sublime Merge wasn't the right strategy.
- shawabawa3 1y ago
  They literally stopped developing for about 5 years, it wasn't just about the team not keeping up
  - Ygg2 1y ago
    Why would you stop developing for 5 years?
    - jon-wood 1y ago
      Maybe they just wanted to do something else. Sometimes people just don't want to grind on endlessly for theoretically more money when what they've got already is enough for them.
    - WD-42 1y ago
      Probably to write sublime merge
  - ben-schaaf 1y ago
    I don't think development actually stopped. ST3 was in a quiet public beta for a long time, but you can see builds of ST3 from 2013 to 2019: https://www.sublimetext.com/3 https://www.sublimetext.com/3.
agos 1y ago
even before VSCode Atom had started to eat their lunch

WD-42 1y ago

It's the LSP plugin that finally drove me to leave ST4 for Zed. Language integration is table stakes for an editor now. The fact that ST support is behind a volunteer plugin instead of integrated directly in the editor just means it's never going to be as good as a editor that does have first class support. The ST devs need to actually improve the editor, but I haven't seen any material updates in years.

righthand 1y ago

Agreed, LSP has replaced Linter extensions and the TabNine LLM which is nice (and snappy). Even if some of the lsp servers are clunky to use.

jonas21 1y ago

I think it's less that they sat on their laurels and more that a team of 2 had trouble keeping up with the dozens of well-paid folks working on VSCode. Which suggests that perhaps a shareware model did not work out so well for them.

spiderice 1y ago
If they were already having trouble keeping up, then perhaps taking years off and building Sublime Merge wasn't the right strategy.
shawabawa3 1y ago
They literally stopped developing for about 5 years, it wasn't just about the team not keeping up
- Ygg2 1y ago
  Why would you stop developing for 5 years?
  - jon-wood 1y ago
    Maybe they just wanted to do something else. Sometimes people just don't want to grind on endlessly for theoretically more money when what they've got already is enough for them.
  - WD-42 1y ago
    Probably to write sublime merge
- ben-schaaf 1y ago
  I don't think development actually stopped. ST3 was in a quiet public beta for a long time, but you can see builds of ST3 from 2013 to 2019: https://www.sublimetext.com/3 https://www.sublimetext.com/3.

agos 1y ago

even before VSCode Atom had started to eat their lunch