I think you're either forgetting, or never directly experienced, how much nicer TextMate was (and is) for dealing with files that mix different languages. PHP/HTML, Javascript/HTML, CSS/HTML, etc. TextMate automatically detects the language shifts and modifies syntax highlighting and snippet shortcuts. This was huge. No more jumping from PHP mode to HTML mode to JavaScript mode: it just worked.
Yah, same here. I still have the muscle memory for emacs and I've gone back a few times and tried it, but honestly, the configuration was such a pain in the ass. I have .emacs files from long ago, but I tried a few months back bringing it up to date along the lines of TM1 and after about 15 mins, I just said forget it.
TM1 out of the box had all my web dev needs already there. Plus, tabs worked great. The only things I've replaced on it over the past few years were search in project (via grep in project) and the file drawer on the left (forget what that plugin was called). Speaking of plugins / bundles - those were super easy to install. For what I needed, they pretty much just always worked.
For the OP who said that Textmate didn't deserve its success I say, whatever. Everyone that I worked with over the past 5+ years doing web dev used TM. And NO ONE complained that it got in their way of getting their work done. So, cool, that's your opinion, but I think TM deserved all the success it got - it's helped me make a good amount of money over the past few years and I still use it today.
The fact that TM2 is now on Github, that's great. Will anything come of it? Dunno, but I guess I can't blame Alan for putting it on there and maybe moving on. TM1 is almost 8 years old and that's a long time to be beholden to something. Oh, and I never felt ripped off; it was money well spent and has lasted a long time..
