Codemirror v3 released
codemirror.net
codemirror.net
Looking forward to using the inline widgets, those will be very useful.
A great difference, in my opinion, is the syntax highlighting systems. Ace's is more rule-based (as in, regex matches and regions), while CodeMirror's is more programmatic, which helps its JS mode show local variables in a different color.
There are also differences in the data structures used internally, afaik. Marijn can probably talk more about that.
On a different note, CodeMirror is being seriously considered independently in WebKit's and Firefox' DevTools, built-in. You may soon use it every day without even knowing!
The syntax highlighting rules for Ace were largely derived from tmlanguage files. This allows us to pretty easily import existing definitions. For example, Google had a tmlanguahe file for Dart that I was able to translate in less than an hour.
Could you describe more about what you like about CM's highlight rules? I admit I've never really looked into them. But I'm guessing by "show local variables in a different color" there's some parsing going on?
> CodeMirror is being seriously considered independently in WebKit's and Firefox' DevTools, built-in.
Ace is more optimized for code -- multiple selections, indent guides, better folding.
Codemirror is smaller, and have better support for non english text (variable size and bidirectional). Also new features added in v3 -- lines with variable height, arbitrary widgets inside code, are quite impressive.
I'd argue that's not the case. The folding in CodeMirror v3 is on par with or even more powerful than ACE's.
> indent guides
If you mean the vertical rulers, they're not built into CM, but you can add one with a few lines of custom code.
> multiple selections
Should be coming to CM soon! https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/CodeMirr...
I agree that CodeMirrors general infrastructure for folding is more powerful than ACE's. But CodeMirror still lacks fold buttons on the gutter.
> If you mean the vertical rulers, they're not built into CM, but you can add one with a few lines of custom code.
True, but still when i use jsbin or cssdeck i wish they were built into CM:)
> multiple selections Should be coming to CM soon!
That's very good!
Also i forgot to mention that one of CodeMirrors advantages is a better name:)
The folding utility in the distribution does lack them. But adding them (as in the 2.x code folder) is, again, just a few lines of code -- there's support for showing gutter widgets in the core, and the only reason the folding utility doesn't use that that I felt they didn't add much.