2 September 2010
TextMate has become an essential part of my development arsenal over the last few years.
When you first open up the application, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about- at first glance it looks like any other text editor.
The true beauty of TextMate is the plethora of bundles, add-ons, keyboard shortcuts and tab triggers available.
I’m going to go through some of my top tips on how to get the most from TextMate and increase your development productivity.
Tip 1: Find Your Perfect Theme
Getting yourself hooked up with the right theme is essential to a good days development. There is a huge amount out there catering for virtually every taste, so make sure to hunt around for one that’s right for you. Personally I have two themes that really hit the right spot for me:
- Clouds & Clouds Midnight – Two delightful themes especially good for the PHP developer inside you. It comes in two flavors – dark and light, both with strong bold colors that help you work on without getting dreary eyed.
- IR Black & IR White – This is my go too when I’m cracking on with some Ruby work. Again in dark and light versions with fantastic syntax colors. You’ll also find a nice terminal modification for the theme around too.
Theme choice is very much down to preference and what you’ve been used to before, so when you find the right one for you you’ll know. Make sure to search around and give a few a go, but these two are in my mind a great place to start!
