TextMate is one of the most popular editors to use in conjuction with ExpanDrive. TextMate does not have SFTP support built in, but with ExpanDrive you can edit remote projects directly from within Textmate, as if they were on your hard drive. There is no distinction between what is local, and what is remote.

TextMate has an interesting habit of refreshing the metadata on every file in a current project every time the window regains focus, even if the file isn’t open. It is checking if a file has been changed or deleted by some external process. When those files are on local hard disk, you don’t notice this additional overhead. However, on a higher latency drive, like a network drive, it has the effect of sending out a request over the network for each file checked. If your project has a large number of files, there is a noticeable delay in gaining window as Textmate issue hundreds of requests that get piped over a network.

ExpanDrive employs a variety of caching techniques that alleviate this delay. However, if you have HUGE projects, like an entire rails tree, even ExpanDrive might show a small delay. In this case, consider installing the Ciarán Walsh’s ReMate plugin. ReMate allows you to selectively disable the automatic refresh when gaining focus, effectively removing any delay you might experience.