I automatically bought Nova (cue fainting) when it came out because Panic has provided me with a lot of value over the years (yes, I paid for an FTP client, too).

I still use VS Code the most, but I don't enjoy tinkering with endlessly customizable tools to get the perfect environment. I like an opinionated tool that has a solid handful of niceties, and doesn't abdicate features to a bazaar of plugins. Nova's good like that, but I miss Espresso, which I consider even more Mac-like for being a little offbeat but also had some genuine innovations like a GUI for CSS attributes. It hasn't been updated in several years, but I'm trying it again to see if it works better for the kids (learning web design) than Nova.

Zed code editor looks more interesting, plus it is modern, open-source, and actively developed

I tried to make it work for me working with Rails and could never achieve anything close to the productivity I get with RubyMine. I understand these two products are in completely different leagues, but I thought it might be interesting to try the native alternative... It just was never really viable for me to work with... even for simple quick editing, the load time is to much compared to any slimer editor... I was happy to contribute with a licence for a native product, since I believe in that, so no loss really...

I really wanted to like this editor, but it chugs while working with 10,000+ file projects. It also seems to index all the files each time the project is relaunched.

Sublime runs flawlessly working with this same codebase...

Happy Nova user here. I use it for our embedded C Code. I use the SeaDragon plugin with it. I was pretty frustrated trying to figure out how to configure VSCode to work with our toolchains, and I didn’t want to learn CMake just so I could use CLion. We had been using the free version of QT IDE, but that got less and less useful/available.

What are the advantages of this over Visual Studio Code or JetBrain’s Tools?

Related. Others?

Is Panic done with Nova? (Native Mac text editor) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41506472 - Sept 2024 (1 comment)

Nova – a native macOS code editor from Panic - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37902938 - Oct 2023 (1 comment)

Nova 9 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30701613 - March 2022 (99 comments)

Nova by Panic - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30066298 - Jan 2022 (257 comments)

Nova by Panic - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24495330 - Sept 2020 (542 comments)

I normally think of code editors in one of 3 categories:

1. Plain text editors that can be extended and turned into semi-IDE/IDEs. This includes tools like VS Code or Sublime Text.

2. Opinionated editors with some type of extensions/plugins (normally more limited that the other 2 sections). This includes tools like Coda or Nova.

3. Full IDEs with extensive extension support. This includes tools like JetBrains, Eclipse, etc.

I prefer #3 but have used all 3 at different parts of my career. Started with Notepad++ then moved on to Coda, then Sublime, then Idea. Coda was really nice and I'm sure Nova is too if your needs are met by it. Meaning if you don't need support for anything outside of the core offerings or extensions available. Once you do need more then you have to either jump to 1 and build it yourself or jump to 3 and get most of it out of the box. #1 can be incredibly powerful if you are willing to put in the time and effort to set it up and keep it updated. Personally I want more "out of the box" than #1 and I'm very happy with the extensions/plugins available to me.

Another observation I have is that #1 is going to be the most cutting edge followed by #3 with #2 bringing up the rear (largely due to market share). #2 can be an amazing place to be if what you are writing is well supported but if you need to step outside of the "happy path" you are going to have a rough time whereas #1/#3 can handle that without issue.

Lastly, I will probably end up buying Nova at some point just to support Panic. I own a lot of their software (I use Transmit for pretty much all my file transfer needs) and their level of polish is unrivaled in the space they compete in. Their software always puts a smile on my face. Something that a lot of people don't seem to know is they are also the company behind the games Firewatch [0] and Untitled Goose Game [1] as well the Playdate [2]. They are a really cool company.

[0] https://www.firewatchgame.com/

[1] https://goose.game/

[2] https://play.date/

Is there a single code editor that provides the same experience with Remote SSH and Devcontainers as vscode?

This is the first thing I look for when considering the alternative

I find the colors in the screenshots to be really odd. I find them to be very cartoonish and garish. That alone would probably keep me from considering it.

I couldn't stand their unnative looks so I stopped paying (and not using it). The tabs in the titlebar are hideous!

Does anyone have experience using this to develop with elixir / phoenix liveview?

[dead]

*paid editor

There are a lot of great and fast IDE-like programs on Mac (CodeEdit, CotEdit, etc.) - try those before forking out $99 for a text editor.