This is tedious and not fun but luckily you only have to do it once. To install a package, you can download it from a browser and then copy it into Sublime’s package folder. It’s best to know exactly what you want when you go to install. Some packages can be buggier than others, and there’s often more than one option available. I recommend doing a Google search for a package before blindly installing one. If there’s something you want Sublime to do, odds are good that someone’s built a package to do it. Sublime packages are installable modules that other people have built to enhance Sublime’s functionality.

Below I’ll go over the basic packages you’ll need and then some more advanced ones that I would have a hard time living without. To really get started with Sublime, we need to look at its package system. You can download and read more about Sublime Text here.īy default there’s a left-hand sidebar that gives an overview of your Project’s folder structure, the text edit pane, a right-hand mini-map of the current document, and the Find/Replace panel at the bottom. There is a suite of built-in functionality including a language compiler, a project/workspace builder, and methods for highlighting/editing multiple areas of a document at once, but this overview won’t be going that deep.

Out of the box, Sublime Text offers everything you’ll need to be a developer. With the proliferation of TypeScript, I wouldn’t be surprised if two-months-from-now me is using Visual Studio. My current preference is Sublime Text, but two years ago I would have said Komodo Edit, and two years before that I would have said TextEdit. Huge differences in personal tools are just unnecessary white noise during paired or shared programming.įor this topic I’ll be giving an overview of Sublime Text because it’s my favorite, but I strongly recommend trying a few editors to find one that’s a good fit for you. For instance Atom, WebStorm, and Sublime are going to offer very similar user experiences, but you wouldn’t want to be the one person on a team rocking Notepad. The two biggest factors at play in choosing a text editor should be personal comfort followed closely by team preference. Ultimately though, no matter your choice, most perform the same basic tasks needed to develop in any language.

Like other developer tools, choosing a text editor can feel tricky and it’s going to take some experimenting to find the one that’s right for you.

Sublime text 3 color schemes