As developers, we spend a large portion of their time writing computer programs.
Computer programs are just text files with instructions written in a special syntax i.e. a programming language.
We create and edit these text files using text editor (e.g. notepad or TextEdit) but there are features and functionality that can be added to text editors that can make our job as developers much easier.
IDE: Integrated Development Environment
An IDE is a program that provide you all the tools you need to create, edit, test and deploy a software project - all in one place. Popular examples of IDEs are:
Text-editors designed for programming like:
Text-editors are much more limited in their scope than IDEs, focussing on the job of helping your write good code. Because of this, you must also be comfortable with the command line.
Some programming languages are rarely used outside of an IDE (e.g. Visual Basic). Some developers prefer IDEs, some prefer text-editors. Sometimes a company might ask you to use their tool of choice, sometimes they might let you use whatever your want to. For Ruby and Ruby on Rails it is very common to just use a text editor, although there are IDEs that support Rails.
It is better to learn how to code using just a text editor & command line as this way you learn all the fundamental concepts that a 'magical' IDE can hide from you.
Sublime Text is:
- Multi-platform (OS X, Windows, Linux)
- Popular (widely used for web development)
- FREE to try (though you will be nagged to purchase it)
- Extensible (we can add functionality via plugins)
##We Do: Sublime Text Basics
Sublime will be the software we spend the most time with. Every time you write code, this will be in Sublime.
Open up Sublime from the terminal
subl
cmd + ,
Allows you to access the sublime's user preferences.
It opens this file as a JSON object (we will learn all about JSON in the next few weeks).
It basically presents the settings as a series of keys and values - you can add keys/values, and/or modify the existing values to fit your personal preferences.
You can see all of the choices of configuration by going to:
Sublime Text > Preferences > Settings - Default
It's best not to edit the defaults; rather, copy keys into your user settings and set their value there.
We can change the colour scheme sublime uses by going to:
Sublime Text > Preferences > Color Scheme
and selecting one ("dawn" is a good recommendation). When you select a scheme it changes all the syntax highlighting colours.
Cmd + f
A text input should appear at the bottom of the window, giving you the option of finding text in the current document.
Cmd + alt + g
brings you to the next occurrence of the word you're searching for
Cmd + shift + g
does the same, but brings you to the previous occurrence
Cmd + alt + f
brings you to the search and replace menu
Cmd + shift + f
the window at the bottom should appear with 3 inputs: one for the word to find, one for the path, one for the replace value. If you type <project> inside the "path" text input, the search will only be executed within the scope of the current project.
Cmd + d
Will select multiple occurances of the next word (very useful).
Alt + drag
Put the cursor before the first character, press "Alt" and drag the cursor at the end the paragraph -> will allow you to enter text before all of the selected lines
Cmd + cursor click
Will set multiple blinking cursors on your file, allowing you to edit multiple elements at once.
There are several other ways to use your cursor with combinations of "Alt", "Cmd" and "Shift", allowing you to become more productive as you go.
See gist.github.com/lucasfais/1207002 for more examples. Try out a few!
If you take a look at:
Sublime Text > Preferences > Key Bindings - User
(Again, you don't want to change the defaults!)
These are custom key shortcuts that we have setup for you. A very useful one is
Cmd + shift + r
Which will auto-indent your code.
In terminal:
$ cd ~/Desktop
$ mkdir test
$ cd test
$ touch file1.txt
$ subl file1.txt
Will open file 1 in Sublime.
subl .
Will open current directory in Sublime.
These were just some shortcuts in Sublime. Here are a few more:
| Keypress | Action |
|---|---|
| cmd + s | save changes in current file - DO IT OFTEN!!! |
| cmd + q | close Sublime |
| cmd + w | close one file at a time |
| cmd + alt + arrow | switch between files |
| cmd + numbers | also switch between specific files |
| cmd + f | search in you current file |
| cmd + shift + f | search the entire project |
| cmd + d | go to next searched word in file |
| ctrl + cmd + g | selects all searched words in your file. |
| cmd + w | close each window at a time |
| cmd + shift + p | take us to a command palette where we will be given menu options without leaving our keyboard. |
| cmd + p | open the file finder |
| cmd + 1..0 | highlight the corresponding tab |
| cmd + p :NUMBER | put the cursor at line number NUMBER |
| cmd + , | open the preferences |
| cmd + backspace | remove the line before your cursor |
| cmd + right/left | moves your cursor to the end/beginning of the line |
Any questions?