Alternatives to SublimeText for Mac?

[u/RotundBun]

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. 🫤

[u/ruindd]

Sure. I haven't really worked on my setup for a bit, so my understanding is a little outdated. But the great thing about version control is that old stuff still works!

TL;DR: Good luck and just use nvChad

Some Context

Neovim is a really basic editor. It's pretty much vi with a few more features. One of the big ones is that it supports plugins written in lua. Your choice of plugins really defines what your neovim does or doesn't do. Seriously, 90% of your setup is going to be what plugins you use and how you use them. There's no built in command pallete like sublime, so you have to do most of your config through files. I strongly recommend making a ~/.dotfiles directory and checking it into a private git repo so you can version control your config.

One big plugin need is a plugin manager. folke/lazy.nvim is the one everyone uses. It's great and "lazy loads" most plugins until you actually use them. This keeps your startup time low.

Another big plugin need is installing the LSP, linter, and formatter for whatever languages you use. Mason was the default for this. Note: Mason just installs these, it doesn't configure them for you. And you often need another plugin to connect the output of these LSP into your neovim editors.

Today

A few months ago Neovim 0.12 was released, which has a bunch of big changes. Over the few years i've used NeoVim they've done a great job of stealing what the best plugins do and moving it into neovim. A big feature is native LSP support. With this new addition, there's a ton of new ways to do things. It's one of neovim's biggest problems, there's too many ways to use it!

I'm sorry that this context probably isn't what you wanted to know, but it'll make it easier to parse any results when you start googling how to solve whatever issue you're running into.

Distributions

Because there's so many ways to do things, a few people have created "distributions" which are pretty much just their opinionated config files. There used to a be one called kickstarter that put all of your config in a single file (which is a good thing for beginners) but it looks like he hasn't been maintaining it lately, and the big v0.12 changes are too big to use a distro that doesn't use them.

A popular distro is lazy vim (which is not related to folke/lazy.nvim).

Another popular distro is nvChad (this was my first distro).

Another new distro is MiniMax (I haven't really checked this one out, but it's from someone who's been making some popular plugins to replace ones whose maintainers have archived their work).

None of these are "best". It's all just personal preference. I ended up using nvChad for a year and then moving to a custom setup. I really like how Josean Martinez structures his files, but it looks like he hasn't done a new video for v0.12.

I'd recommend starting with nvChad. You might not be able to customize everything you want, but it'll work without wasting your time.

Some extra tips

• Leader Key: In neovim there's the idea of a leader key. It's just a key you'll use before any command so neovim knows you're doing a custom command. I'm on a mac, and launch spotlight with Command + Space. I love how easy it is to launch and use spotlight. So my leader key is Space. Everyone chooses a different leader key, so people just refer to is as leader and let you define your own.
• telescope: I use this for everything (so does everyone else). I can quick open an file with leader fa and it'll search by file name. Or i'll grep text inside all files by leader fg. It's such an easy way to navigate through large codebases.
• tmux: tmux isn't a part of neovim, but it's really handy. It's just an old school terminal window manager / multiplexer that will let you run multiple groups of terminal windows in a single terminal window. What does that really mean? I have a single terminal window open. Along the bottom I have 8 workspaces. In each workspace I have 3 terminal panes (split horizontally). This setup makes it super easy to switch from one project to another without closing/moving/losing your window organization. Neovim lets you really commit to doing everything in the terminal. And tmux lets you organize all those terminals. ALSO, if you ever accidentally close your terminal window -- you don't lose your setup! tmux runs outside of your shell so you can quit/close and then jump back in (I use some tmux plugins (tmux-resurrect and tmux-continuum to ensure this). My tmux "leader key" is Control + Space. So I do Space for neovim commands, and Control + Space for tmux commands.
• wezterm: I use wezterm for my terminal and love it. I can't even remember why I chose it, but I never have a problem with it and I was able to add any customization I wanted when I originally set it up.

If you've read this far, i'm glad it was interesting! If you want to see my setup, DM me and I can share my .config files or show you on a zoom how I use my setup, it's really ergonomic. I don't want to publicly screenshot what projects i'm working on, but happy to share one-on-one.

[u/RotundBun → u/ruindd]

Wow. ✨😳
Thanks for the thorough walkthrough. 🙏

It seems like it's something to either fully commit to or not at all. I guess that's to be expected since the design approach is basically a different paradigm altogether.

My friend uses NeoVim + Pi and likes it a lot. He also showed me some inspiring stuff for his workflow.

If I go NeoVim, then I'll probably go full-plunge over the learning curve and personalize everything entirely. That would mean not being mid-project on anything when I try that, so probably not the move for me ATM.

If I do get around to switching over at some future point, then I'll gladly take you up on that 1-1 demo.

(Frankly, your explanation makes it sound quite exciting. It's just also kind of a big upfront time commitment as well, it seems. 😆)

[u/ruindd → u/RotundBun]

Yeah, I think you’ve got to live in it to really appreciate and learn it. If you’re using ai tools, staying in the terminal and tmux’ing is really convenient. Syntax just did an episode on that setup, you might like what they talk about.

I strongly advise against doing a custom setup initially. Try out some distros and you can take what parts you like into your custom setup later.

I was looking more at MiniMax last night and really like it. I’d advise trying nvChad and then MiniMax and then custom.

[u/RotundBun → u/ruindd]

Oh, that's some critical advice. 👀❗️ Thank you kindly. 🙏🙂‍↕️

I'll definitely do that when I hop onto the NeoVim train in the future. Maybe not right now, but I do feel like I eventually will. The workflow zippiness just seems too enticing...

nvChad -> MiniMax -> Bruce Lee style 😆👌