Well over a year ago, I mentioned that I was working on a Velocity bundle for Textmate. Or, to be more precise: I mentioned that I’d already written one that we were using at NPG.

A year later, I’m ready to release the bundle; you can get it from its Google Code site. But before you go there, an explanation for the delay is in order – and on the way, I’ll tell you about how the bundle was written.

Problem: there’s no Velocity (VTL) bundle for Textmate.

Solution: write one yourself.

I’m currently working on a basic Velocity bundle for Textmate. We use it as a templating language at work, and, let’s face it, Textmate is an awesome editor with many, many ways to make your life easier. Given that it’s listed as a bundle people might be interested in… I’d better get started on it, right?

If you’re interested, leave a comment or drop me an email. So far I’ve got some basic function and syntax highlighting, along with autocompletion of some common constructs. Once it’s more finalised – and has been built in accordance to the VTL spec, not just the way I write it, I’ll start putting out releases.

(And if none of this makes much sense: Velocity/VTL is a templating language for Java web-apps. It’s one of the least sucky Java templating languages, apparently, but it’s not as mature of fully-featured as, say, Smarty.)