23 Mar 2010
tm, TextMate project management
I realized, the other day, that I always create a new TextMate project by running mate . whenever I want to edit code on a project. Unfortunately, that approach has frustrating downsides like forgetting per-project ignores, open files, window positions, and sidebar arrangement. To save all that stuff, you have to save a .tmproj file somewhere. But I could never figure out where to put them, and I never managed to remember to open them later since I was already in the habit of mate ..
One day, I tried to run mate bundler and realized that I should just create a command that would open the .tmproj files for me. That way, I don’t have to remember where they are and I still get all the benefits of saving .tmproj files. So I created tm, a little tiny ruby script that opens .tmproj files by name if you save them into ~/.tmproj. (I symlink my dotfiles out of my Dropbox, so this works across my machines, too.) If you are so inclined, tm is even smart enough to wrap mate transparently, with the only additions being the ability to open (and tab complete) projects by name. Pretty handy.