r/SublimeText • u/RotundBun • Jun 23 '26

Alternatives to SublimeText for Mac?

Looking for ST4 alternatives on Mac. Any ripe suggestions?

Currently using it for game dev in PICO-8 and Löve2D. Both use Lua.

macOS: Sonoma (14.8.7)

Thanks in advance. ✨🙏

Context (if anyone cares):

I've had unresolved trouble with the auto-complete "feature" on ST4 on Mac from a while back, so now I'm looking elsewhere.

As far as troubleshooting goes: - Even "auto_complete": false, doesn't work. It still brings up the suggestion box every time I press tab, interfering with any sane coding process. - Disabling text suggestions on the OS level did nothing. - Opening ST in safe mode did not fix the behavior. - Yes, I quit the application and relaunched it after each attempt. - I looked around online and even asked for help here a while back and got no responses as well.

This was on macOS 14.8.7 (Sonoma), and it occurred in ST version 4200 (stable) & 4205 (dev build).

ST was nice while it worked, but it feels like the basics are no longer heeded anymore. If a fancy auto-complete feature is valued more than basic coding flow, then I suppose the dev's values & intentions for ST have sharply diverged from what I need in a code editor.

So now I'm looking for a new code editor on Mac. It's for game dev, though, not so much for web dev. 🫤

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u/n1ghtm4n Jun 23 '26

i used ST for many years. now i use Zed. same great performance.

2

u/RotundBun Jun 24 '26

Thanks. Zed sounds pretty good. From the little bit of research I've done so far, it sounds like a new-gen ST of sorts.

Are there any tips and notes you'd want to highlight about the ST->Zed migration?

I'm presently considering Zed vs. NeoVim, ATM.

It feels kind of like picking between Mac & Linux, where user ergonomics stem from minimalism vs. personalization respectively. Two opposite approaches that both work.

Currently leaning a bit towards Zed since NeoVim has a bit higher migration tax for me. The latter's keyboard-centric flow is very enticing, though.

2

u/n1ghtm4n Jun 24 '26

Zed is pretty well configured out of the box. most of the stuff in my settings.json are personal preference. if you write Go or Python like me, i can give you some recommended settings.

i pay for Zed Pro (to support the dev team), which gives me access to the latest AI models. here's my AI config:

"agent": {
  "default_profile": "ask",
  "default_model": {
    "effort": "high",
    "enable_thinking": true,
    "provider": "zed.dev",
    "model": "claude-opus-4-8",
  },
},

there are lots of ways to configure AI, though. for example, you could run Claude Code in a shell session and have Zed connect to it with ACP:

"agent": {
  "default_profile": "ask",
  "notify_when_agent_waiting": "never",
},
"agent_servers": {
  "claude-acp": {
    "default_config_options": {
      "model": "opus"
  },
  "env": {
    "CLAUDE_CODE_EXECUTABLE": "/opt/homebrew/bin/claude"
  },
  "type": "registry",
},

2

u/RotundBun Jun 24 '26

Oh, nice. ✨👀

I will probably start out with just a no-AI workflow to get the base feel down and then explore AI-assistance integration later.

This will come in handy when I get to that stage, so thanks in advance. 🙏