[SOLVED] We need a better Pluma!

[vistad]

Gedit was a feature-rich excellent editor that was getting even better and better with contribution of multiple enthusiasts from all over the world. After we forked to Mate and now have Pluma, we are locked out of all those riches we had in Gedit. Without those Pluma is no way a substitute of Gedit. This is a very bad situation that we should not stand and endure. We should acknowledge that at the moment Linux Mint 16, otherwise an excellent distribution, has a very poor bare metal generic main text editor.

We should:
port Gedit plugins to Pluma, or better
post explanations how users can port Gedit plugins to Pluma themselves, or even better
rebuild Pluma to accept Gedit plugins intact.

There is a good collection of Pluma plugins here: https://github.com/cygwinports/mate-text-editor-plugins, but it does not include plugins that I used with Gedit and found very useful for me. I need them very much! They are Geditshortcuts, GeditSplitView and ChangeEncoding plugins - I will enclose them in attachment.

People tried to come with an initiative like this before - see http://community.linuxmint.com/idea/view/3414 and http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... ns#p744669, but so far in vain. It's time to solve this puzzle!

Let's create a list of plugins we want ported to Pluma to make it the Ultimate Text Editor! Please post plugins you recommend.

[xenopeek]

As somewhat of a workaround, you could install gedit and with these steps also install the plugins for that: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 58#p788466. Linux Mint ships with the last gedit from GNOME 2; pluma is a fork of that but I don't know how much changes MATE developers have introduced in pluma.

Alternative is to install the Ubuntu version of gedit, which ships with a gedit from GNOME 3. Commands specific for Linux Mint 16:

Code: Select all

apt purge gedit gedit-common
apt install gedit/saucy gedit-common/saucy

You can now use the gedit-plugins also. This is a newer gedit version, which has some differences as compared to gedit from GNOME 2 or pluma from MATE.

BTW I'm using gedit from GNOME 3.12, and it's just awesomely uncluttered The above steps will give you a gedit from an earlier GNOME 3 release though.

[killer de bug]

Gedit 3.12 looks really strange. It's disturbing. I prefer the version shipped by Clem and the team...

[vistad]

Xenopeek, thank you for the workaround idea! I am using Gedit 2.30.4 from the repository now, and I will be glad to try the Gnome 3 version. But I still hope our community admits that Pluma needs plugins and the process will start.

[xenopeek]

Good idea to post the idea also on the MATE desktop forums, they have a brainstorm section: http://forums.mate-desktop.org/viewforum.php?f=17

[mike acker]

you can get UltraEdit for Linux, 80 bucks.

I'm happy with gedit and Bluefish. I have UltraEdit on my Windmill but I'm not sure what it does for me that Bluefish can't do

[vistad]

I used Ultraedit in Windows. Here is what Ultraedit can do better: it can change the case of the word at the cursor. You can use shortcut to make it uppercase, lowercase or capitalize - you don't have to select the whole word. In Pluma you have to point and mouse-click, which is difficult and slow. In Gedit you can use the above posted plugin to assign shortcuts to changing case, but you have to select the whole word first. I want to have shortcuts for eveything!

[killer de bug]

you can get UltraEdit for Linux, 80 bucks.

I really don't see the point in paying such a high price for a text editor. So much good soft out there...

[mike acker]

you can get UltraEdit for Linux, 80 bucks.

I really don't see the point in paying such a high price for a text editor. So much good soft out there...

I'll vote for that. as far as I can tell Bluefish is every bit as good as UltraEdit. It's one whale of an editor.

[xenopeek]

Let's stay on topic: this is about getting people involved with porting Gedit plugins to Pluma. I've linked in how to install Gedit + plugins (GNOME 2 or GNOME 3) as a workaround for Pluma users that need Gedit plugins now. I'm sorry if that made it look as if this topic was about Pluma alternatives. It's not.

[vistad]

Let's stay on topic: this is about getting people involved with porting Gedit plugins to Pluma. I've linked in how to install Gedit + plugins (GNOME 2 or GNOME 3) as a workaround for Pluma users that need Gedit plugins now. I'm sorry if that made it look as if this topic was about Pluma alternatives. It's not.

I'd dare say this is not about porting Gedit plugins to Pluma - this is about us needing a better editor, be it Pluma or whichever. I'll be happy to use Gedit if it's available - and it happens to be, so fine! BTW I contacted one of Gedit developers about change case cursor position and shortcuts, and he told me he had implemented change case shortcuts and changing case of the character at the cursor position in the latest version, which is 3.12. I want to install it and try.

Xenopeek, could you suggest how I can install Gedit 3.12?

Thank you in advance!

[xenopeek]

I'd dare say this is not about porting Gedit plugins to Pluma - this is about us needing a better editor, be it Pluma or whichever.

Oh. Well, you wrote in your first post "Let's create a list of plugins we want ported to Pluma to make it the Ultimate Text Editor!" so I went with that

could you suggest how I can install Gedit 3.12?

That will take a while I think for Linux Mint. It was just released a few days ago, so if you want to run it now you'll have to compile it from source or run a bleeding edge distro that has packaged it already (Fedora Rawhide and Mageia Cauldron both have it already). It's probably not going to be in Linux Mint 17, but perhaps in a while there will be a PPA from which you can install it (along with needed GNOME 3.12 dependencies).

[vistad]

Thank you, xenopeek. I can wait. Do you think anything threatens our use of Gedit in Linux Mint 17 and so forth?

[xenopeek]

Do you think anything threatens our use of Gedit in Linux Mint 17 and so forth?

No. Linux Mint 17 will probably ship with Gedit from GNOME 2, but you can also install the GNOME 3 one (replace "saucy" in the earlier commands with "trusty" for Linux Mint 17). That will likely install Gedit 3.10 and not yet 3.12 with this new interface (though it might be this new interface is only available on Gnome Shell).

[vistad]

Thank you, xenopeek!

[vistad]

I've installed Gedit 3.8.3 - I have a feeling it's still very raw... Gedit 2 plugins are incompatible with Gedit 3. Development and installation of Gedit 2/3 plugins is described here: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gedit. I suppose for the time being it's best to stay with Gedit 2 that works!