wbond
Alternative Installation Interface
Package control should be show in a lateral panel (or popup, like adobe barckets), that will be easier to manages package.
For example, you could have a "show package website" button to see information before install, or a "open folder" button for installed packages.
the current panel is not easy to use because it disappear wen ST lose focus or when you install a package (sometime you want to install several)
Unfortunately Sublime Text offers neither option for interfaces. I have spent some time considering adding a websocket option to allow the website to send commands to Package Control, but I don't currently have the time to work on something so involved.
This is actually a fairly fundamental security problem at the moment as there's no obvious (I haven't found one) way to verify what code might be behind whatever package you want to install.
I.e if I see a package in the package install list, there's no way to go "I know 100% where to go and look for the code for this" - I can google for the name and I might get the same repo or I might not.
A middle ground might be to add a "show metadata" type search that would give you the same package list as "Install Package" but instead of just installing it, open a new tab with info about where the code comes from, the author, repo etc.
https://packagecontrol.io/search/ (opens when you run "Package Control: Discover Packages")
What about a way to install programmatically by specifying the Git repo? I've been playing around, trying to get something like
$ subl --command install_package https://github.com/chriskempson/base16.git
to work, but the install_package command doesn't seem to support arguments.
If something like this could work, it would allow for all of the .dotfile junkies out there to automate yet another part of building their dev environment.
@tlindsay The advanced_install_package command takes a package name (or comma-separated list of package names) to install. However, it won't take an arbitrary git URL.
Currently you need to add a URL (such as to a GitHub repo) as a PC "repository" before you can install from it. This allows keeping a package up-to-date. Currently only GitHub and BitBucket are supported ways to install git repos since they expose zip downloads of repos.
@wbond I played around with the advanced_install_package command too, but couldn't figure out a way to supply args using subl --command or find any documentation explaining how that would work. Am I doing something wrong, or is this not supported?
@tlindsay I didn't think that the command line supported parameters to commands, however I figured you knew something I didn't. Looking at the docs (https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/osx_command_line.html) I see no mention of support for args to commands. I would say that it is not currently possible.
@wbond Right you are, which would probably explain why something like this doesn't already exist. I guess I misinterpreted those docs. Sorry for hijacking this thread.
Actually it is possible to pass arguments to commands run from the command line - see https://github.com/SublimeTextIssues/Core/issues/1109#issuecomment-220234081
ST most likely needs to already be running in order to execute commands provided by plugins.
Maybe in 2015 it wasn't possible yet but Packages UI tries to do something asked by the OP (another user tried to improve it).
