gedit — really?

I wish ubuntu had a great text editor like BBEdit, TextMate, Coda, or UltraEdit. I use (and like) Quanta Plus but its development has been very slow as the package maintainer readily admits. I don’t doubt I can modify vim to better emulate these applications, but it is time-expensive. There are numerous online articles on configuring gedit to make it “just like TextMate.” That sounds great, but, like souping up a car with aftermarket goodies, be prepared to spend a lot of time on the modifications for uncertain results. Also, be certain to read the comments after such posts — they do a good job of giving you a head’s up when things go awry. To be clear, when I tried following these recipes I was using 64-bit ubuntu, and the result was unimpressive.