Table Of ContentWhat readers are saying about
TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac
This is not just a book, but a doorway to higher dimensional text edit-
ing! By the thirdchapter I was completely switched over to TextMate
fromVim. The book provided everything I needed to take full advan-
tage of all that TextMate offers. This book rocks, and James is my new
hero.
Ernest Obusek
SoftwareEngineer, Network Appliance, Inc.
This book is outstanding. Without saying it, James has made the case
for TextMate quickly becoming the interface for 90% of what any OS
X user will ever need to do. I’ve read a substantial amount of material
concerning both OS X and TextMate, but by Chapter 3, James had
blown me away. By the end of Chapter 5 ...wow. This is some power-
ful stuff.
Stephen Hargrove
System Administrator
As an Emacs junkie, it takes considerable persuasion for me to even
consider using another editor. This book did the job, and now I use
TextMate regularly. The chapters on the various built-in automations,
scripting and snippets are invaluable. Ruby on Rails and other coding
enthusiasts will also find that this book provides ample coverage of
programming oriented tasks.
Jon Mountjoy
Director, MemeStorm Ltd.
I’ve been using TextMate for months and I thought I knew everything
it could do. I was surprised to discover many editing tricks and key-
commands that I had completely missed. James did a terrific job mak-
ing this book an essential asset for even a seasoned TextMate user.
Michael Gregoire
Owner/Creator, nvzion.com and blocSonic.com
TextMate is like an onion. It seems like such a simple thing when you
first see it, then you start peeling back layers and suddenly discover
the richness that lies underneath. This book peels the onion that is
TextMate, revealing the awesome power underneath. It has become
my Swiss-army chainsaw, flexible enough for everything and powerful
enough for anything.
Neal Ford
Application Architect, ThoughtWorks
A thorough, practical referencefor anyone who ever wondered if there
was more to life than Dreamweaver.
Benjamin Jackson
Technical Director, INCOMUM Design and Concept
This beautifully written text brings the power of TextMate to some-
one who does not know any programming language. Each page reveals
hidden, indispensable tricks that improve work flow, which is what
the TextMate philosophy is all about.
Jenny Harrison
Professor of Mathematics, UC Berkeley
TextMate
Power Editing for the Mac
James Edward Gray II
The Pragmatic Bookshelf
Raleigh,NorthCarolina Dallas,Texas
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their prod-
uctsareclaimedastrademarks.Wherethosedesignationsappearinthisbook,andThe
Pragmatic Programmers, LLC was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have
been printed in initial capital letters or in all capitals. The Pragmatic Starter Kit, The
PragmaticProgrammer,PragmaticProgramming,PragmaticBookshelfandthelinkingg
devicearetrademarksofThePragmaticProgrammers,LLC.
Every precaution was taken in the preparation of this book. However, the publisher
assumesnoresponsibility for errorsor omissions,or for damagesthatmay result from
theuseofinformation(includingprogramlistings)containedherein.
Our Pragmatic courses, workshops, and other products can help you and your team
create better software and have more fun. For more information, as well as the latest
Pragmatictitles,pleasevisitusat
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com
Copyright©2007ThePragmaticProgrammersLLC.
Allrightsreserved.
Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmit-
ted, in any form, or by any means, electronic,mechanical,photocopying, recording, or
otherwise,withoutthepriorconsentofthepublisher.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica.
ISBN-10:0-9787392-3-X
ISBN-13:978-0-9787392-3-2
Printedonacid-freepaperwith85%recycled,30%post-consumercontent.
Firstprinting,January,2007
Version:2007-2-23
“Jamesenjoysplayingchess
andloveshismotherverymuch.”
ForNicoleandPayden,asisterandbrothersocool
theymakemelookgood,andthePaynewomen
whoremainmybiggestfans.
Contents
1 Introduction 12
1.1 A Brief History of TextMate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.2 In These Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3 The Mac Keyboard and Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.4 Installing TextMate and Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
1.5 The Editing Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
I Editing 21
2 Projects 22
2.1 Creating a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2 Moving between Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3 Shortcuts for Creating Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.4 Folder References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3 Power Editing 29
3.1 Moving Around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2 Making Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3 Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4 Find and Replace 45
4.1 Without Using a Regular Expression . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2 Mixing in Regular Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
II Automations 58
5 Built-in Automations 59
5.1 The TODO Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.2 The HTML and CSS Bundles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.3 The Ruby Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.4 The Rails Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
CONTENTS 10
5.5 The Subversion Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
5.6 The Math Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.7 The Markdown Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.8 The Blogging Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.9 The Mail Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.10 The Text Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.11 The Source Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.12 The TextMate Bundle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6 Snippets 83
6.1 Basic Snippets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.2 Tab Stops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
7 Macros 97
7.1 The Macro Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
8 Commands 103
8.1 Shell Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
8.2 TextMate Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
8.3 Drag Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
9 Automation Tips and Tricks 117
9.1 Building Bundle Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
9.2 TextMate’s Environment Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
9.3 Useful Shell Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
9.4 Using TextMate’s Document Parsing . . . . . . . . . . . 129
9.5 bash Support Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
9.6 Ruby Support Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
9.7 Hooking Into Save Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
9.8 Streaming Command Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
9.9 Building Interactive Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
9.10 Compound Automations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
III Languages 145
10 Language Grammars 146
10.1 The JSON Data Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
10.2 Language Grammar Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
