Doesn't seem to be too small a market for sublime or textmate.
What I would pay for would be an editor in the style of ST2 but with a few IDE features like being able to jump to method definitions by shift clicking etc.
Basically a very lightweight IDE with good text editing features (like VIM style keyboard shortcuts). Integrate a terminal into it, but do it in a very slick way with the ability to run "recipe" type commands.
For example if I forget the switches for a git command, I should be able to search for roughly what I want and have a result return which will populate a command in the terminal.
This might mean hyper focusing on a few languages however.
Not sure I would like the recurring model for just using the editor. Since this would likely mean you would have to implement some sort of always on cloud integration into the editor which would annoy me and make me worry about losing access to my editor.
What I might pay for on a recurring basis would be access to a repo of high quality plugins that were well integration with every version of the editor. Also maybe some functionality to allow me to share the editor session with someone remotely.
I dont want to gimp the user experience or implement cloud features just to get people to pay. At the same time if I am going to be spending 2-3 years to build something I would rather it be something that has a recurring income stream.
This is a good question - I dont think I have a good answer. I lean towards not implementing a check or stop your use. Maybe a monthly reminder for one / two months saying you have not paid. After that I would just assume that the user has stopped using my editor.
In order to justify a monthly payment I feel you would really have to be pushing out frequent high quality updates that just kept making it better and better.
If development started to get stagnant I would probably "forget" to renew it after my CC expired or something like that. Or at some point I'd just feel "I've given this guy enough money" and cancel even if I kept using the editor.
I totally agree about the Lightweight IDE thing. IMO Sublime is close to being great, but some missing features must be preventing people from writing great plugins like those in Emacs world.
What I would pay for would be an editor in the style of ST2 but with a few IDE features like being able to jump to method definitions by shift clicking etc.
Basically a very lightweight IDE with good text editing features (like VIM style keyboard shortcuts). Integrate a terminal into it, but do it in a very slick way with the ability to run "recipe" type commands.
For example if I forget the switches for a git command, I should be able to search for roughly what I want and have a result return which will populate a command in the terminal.
This might mean hyper focusing on a few languages however.
Not sure I would like the recurring model for just using the editor. Since this would likely mean you would have to implement some sort of always on cloud integration into the editor which would annoy me and make me worry about losing access to my editor.
What I might pay for on a recurring basis would be access to a repo of high quality plugins that were well integration with every version of the editor. Also maybe some functionality to allow me to share the editor session with someone remotely.