I recently received an [tag]email[/tag] asking me how I was doing with my move from [tag]Dreamweaver[/tag] to [tag]Textmate[/tag]/[tag]Transmit[/tag] combo.
Well, the answer is… ok but not great.
[tag]Transmit[/tag]
[tag]Transmit[/tag] is a wonderful, wonderful [tag]FTP[/tag] [tag]program[/tag] which I adore. It does everything you could possibly want, [tag]fast[/tag].
But it is a separate [tag]application[/tag], and can be a bit [tag]annoying[/tag] to [tag]switch[/tag] to when you want to [tag]upload[/tag] a new version of a [tag]document[/tag] to test out a new line of [tag]code[/tag] (often a new style). It would probably be a lot [tag]better[/tag] if I could find a button to just [tag]update[/tag] the [tag]files[/tag] on the [tag]server[/tag] with changes files which are selected, but I’ve had to do with dragging-and-dropping for a while now.
It’s really nice, though. [tag]Edit-on-server[/tag] [tag]functionality[/tag] is [tag]delicious[/tag].
[tag]TextMate[/tag]
[tag]TextMate[/tag] just won the [tag]WWDC[/tag] [tag]Apple[/tag] [tag]Design[/tag] [tag]Award[/tag] for [tag]best[/tag] [tag]developer[/tag] [tag]program[/tag], but I’ve not been getting on with it marvelously well.
The [tag]problem[/tag] is that I’m sort of set in my [tag]Dreamweaver[/tag] ways, and there are certain [tag]conventions[/tag], particularly [tag]autocomplete[/tag] [tag]conventions[/tag], which bug me about [tag]switching[/tag] to [tag]TextMate[/tag].
Also, I don’t use even 10% of the [tag]features[/tag], I just tend to dive in a alter a bit of [tag]code[/tag]. [tag]TextMate[/tag]’s [tag]editing[/tag] [tag]functions[/tag] are so [tag]deep[/tag] that I just can’t seem to find a use for most of them, and sometimes they get in the way a little.
I really, really [tag]miss[/tag] [tag]Dreamweaver[/tag]’s [tag]lovely[/tag] [tag]autocompleting[/tag] [tag]feature[/tag] for [tag]PHP[/tag] and [tag]HTML[/tag], and wish I had that at least in [tag]TextMate[/tag].
The other day I went back into [tag]Dreamweaver[/tag] for the first time in a while to [tag]knock up[/tag] (wait for it!) a [tag]newsletter[/tag] [tag]email[/tag] containing [tag]tables[/tag] (gasp!), and realised that I was in fact more [tag]efficient[/tag] in [tag]Dreamweaver[/tag] than in [tag]TextMate[/tag] when it comes to working on this sort of thing.
What to do?
Well the two [tag]projects[/tag] I had been working on for external [tag]clients[/tag] with the [tag]TextMate[/tag]/[tag]Transmit[/tag] [tag]combo[/tag] are just about finished.
Now I have to decide if I want to [tag]develop[/tag] [tag]Surveyar[/tag] with [tag]Dreamweaver[/tag] or not. I’ve already started doing a little [tag]code[/tag], and I must say… it’s going slowly, probably because of the lack of [tag]autocomplete[/tag]. I’m not [tag]zooming[/tag] through this one like I did with [tag]My Buster Tests[/tag].
Whatever I choose, I know I need to get a move on with [tag]Surveyar[/tag] because I keep on putting it off for client work.
I’ll let you know what I start doing soon enough 
I know what you meant about switching.
For whatever reason, I originally started using SubEthaEdit and just can’t switch now. I tried Textmate because of all the praise it recieved but all the little things I’m used to just arn’t there!
I’m not sure exactly how it works. But when using Transmit can’t you effecively edit file on the server? You select ‘Edit in Textmate’ then when you press Save it re-uploads the file with changes.
What I do is develop everything on my local machine (I’ve got Apache, PHP and mySQL all set up on my Mac) and then there’s no need to upload until later.
If you can use SFTP, give WinSCP a try.
Along with many other handy features, it has a ‘watch for updates’ setting, which uploads a file every time it changes.
Hey presto, no more app switching.
(The *only* thing I missed from dreameaver was the integrated ftp, I can’t believe more clients don’t include a similar system.)
Of course … WinSCP would be all well and good if you were on windows …. sorry mate
Any I was just about to recommend Visual Studio too!
I’m a TextMate/Transmit man myself. Sounds like you’re kind of set in your ways about “how things are supposed to work” in Dreamweaver, which is of course expected. I tried all sorts of editors, and really fell in love with TextMate almost instantly. I’ve been using for about 2 years now, and one thing I’d say is that hopefully you can stick with it. 2 years ago I was probably using 10% of the features. Today I’m probably using, oh, 50%. Still a lot of iceberg left, but I’m now at that point where I couldn’t possibly give up TextMate (just like you are/were with Dreamweaver).
As for auto-completion, maybe you’ve figured this out by now, but the ESC key cycles through auto-complete options. It doesn’t do the nice drop down list, like Dreamweaver, Eclipse, Xcode, and so many others do, but you just keep hitting it until you get what you want. Shift-ESC goes back through the sequence. It works on elements from your chosen language for the document, as well as anything you’ve already typed. So, create a var called misterSplat, and later you can start typing mis, hit ESC, and probably get misterSplat completed for you on the first try, if not by the third.
Anyway, my advice is, if you haven’t already given it up, you need to commit to it. Explore the menus, the preferences, the snippets and templates, etc.
Or, if you’re pining for an all-in-one again, perhaps you can try Coda, from the makers of Transmit.