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Kod is a new Node.js scriptable code editor for OSX

118 points| tonyskn | 15 years ago |kodapp.com | reply

67 comments

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[+] thomas11|15 years ago|reply
I don't quite get how node.js comes into play here. I've seen lots of blog posts about it, but never used it. It seems to be about network programming. Indeed, the node website says "Node's goal is to provide an easy way to build scalable network programs."

Would someone enlighten me what the motivation is to use it as an editor's scripting environment?

[+] axod|15 years ago|reply
node.js is a way to get people to click on an article. If it said "new editor" no one would care. But the buzzword fashionable 'node.js' means people will assume it's earth changingly awesome.
[+] rasmusfabbe|15 years ago|reply
Node.js is a universal environment much like Python or Ruby, but runs the highly performant V8 JavaScript virtual machine. The choice of JavaScript is simple — many people know it and it's the future of scripting. Also, I'm active in the core dev of Node.js which makes it extra fun to use.
[+] KeithMajhor|15 years ago|reply
This is a separate idea, but...

The "Chromium-like user interface where tabs can be torn off and moved between windows" would be awesome if it were implemented directly in Mac OSX. Then applications could drop all of that code and just let the OS deal with it. Also, you'd be able to group distinct applications. I'd love to have a [Browser, Text Editor, Terminal] tab group.

EDIT: Another thought... Chrome tabs don't look like any other tabs in Mac OSX. Applications lose uniformity as they're forced to define more about themselves.

[+] pak|15 years ago|reply
Chrome tabs are some of the best-behaving and best-looking tabs on any OS, though. See TotalFinder for a Finder mod that applies Chrome tabbing to all Finder windows. Makes D&D a snap.

http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/

[+] jrockway|15 years ago|reply
Here's what I don't get about tabs and the phrase "programmer's text editor" -- what programmer only has 8 files open at once?

Looking at ibuffer, I have 92 buffers open in Emacs right now. What would that look like with tabs?

[+] gcr|15 years ago|reply
My observations:

Most people in word have 1-2 documents open at once. Most people in text editors like gedit, kate, eclipse, VS have maybe 10 or 20 tabs But most emacs users have at least 80 or 90 buffers open! It's an interesting phenomena that I haven't seen elsewhere. Why is this? Are tabs too much overhead or does emacs have really good buffer management?

Not a criticism, I'm slowly picking up some emacs after 2 years of vi, and I'd like to understand more of the nuances.

[+] Detrus|15 years ago|reply
Tabs are one of those design decisions where everyone else is doing it, so it must be smart. I don't bother with tabs myself, most of my projects are small enough that I can find the files in the file list on the side in TextMate, Eclipse, etc..

I think a smarter solution would be to put recently accessed files in that file list on the side, vertically.

[+] petercooper|15 years ago|reply
Much the same as it does in TextMate, probably. As many tabs as can realistically be identified plus an extra drop down menu with all of the rest.

(But I use the project view anyway, because I also see tabs as pointless, and most other developers I know rely on things like PeepOpen or Cmd+T's file finder.)

[+] Swizec|15 years ago|reply
Managable.

To expand on that: I really like the notion of tabs in text editors. I like having a quick and visual represantation of how many files I'm working on. It's also very easy to memorize where a certain file is spatially.

But then I'm a very visual person, if I can only see one file at once without knowing all the open files at a glance, I go absolutely nutters.

[+] foljs|15 years ago|reply
It just seems that a) you're not doing a very good job at staying focused b) your editor doesn't help you much managing all this chaos
[+] itsnotvalid|15 years ago|reply
How about cloud9 (http://www.cloud9ide.com), Bespin (https://bespin.mozillalabs.com/), Codemirror (http://codemirror.net/) or Ymacs (http://www.ymacs.org/).

It would be just lame to have another editor on just OSX only, considering that most people have used some script-able code editor (like emacs or vim) that are openly script-able (or compilable). If it is just for OSX, then there is a specific scripting language called AppleScript which is OSX only and should be even more integrated to the OSX APIs.

Well at least the "Chromium-like" part triggers my thoughts on web based editor.

[+] alwillis|15 years ago|reply
It wouldn't be lame; it would be awesome to have another kickass editor for Mac OS X, especially one that takes full advantage of the features of Snow Leopard and modern hardware.

Signed up for the beta; looking forward to trying it out.

[+] szopa|15 years ago|reply
You've listed three browser based editors and one which seems to be completely focused on JavaScript editing. If I understand correctly, Kod is supposed to be a universal editor for programmers, only scripted in JS.

(But thanks for the link to cloud9, I didn't know about it and it looks interesting.)

EDIT: meh, it was actually 4 browser based editors :(

[+] micaelwidell|15 years ago|reply
Finally some potential competition for textmate.
[+] dedward|15 years ago|reply
I hear this more and more lately - and sure, competition would be good.. but, what's wrong with textmate at this point?

I bought a few copies a few years ago, and I've been using them ever since, lots of extensions, still nice and light, still awesome to use... I dont' find myself sitting around thinking "Man I wish this guy would hurry up and bring out a new version!".... like, it's not minecraft....

[+] liamk|15 years ago|reply
While there are certainly some nice features in Kod it has a long way to go before it offers some of the features that textmate does (e.g. snippets). With that said, I'm hoping Kod becomes a real alternative to textmate!
[+] spacemanaki|15 years ago|reply
Vim and Emacs weren't enough?
[+] frank06|15 years ago|reply
Looks good. But I don't really care if I can style the editor with CSS3. Concretely, why should I scrap my current code editor and start using Kod? Is it somehow targeted to Node.js devs; how is that better than Cloud9?
[+] technoweenie|15 years ago|reply
I don't think it's a client-side in-browser editor:

"Written from scratch with modern OS X 10.6 APIs providing maximum OS integration while avoiding reinvention of the wheel."

Though CSS styling and Node scripting leads me to believe it's using some v8/browser stuff.

[+] samratjp|15 years ago|reply
It's built using Node.js fyi.
[+] udp|15 years ago|reply
Will it do C++? I still haven't found a good C++ editor (with class member autocomplete popups and such) - at least, nothing that compares to Visual Studio over in the Windows world.
[+] cubicle67|15 years ago|reply
screenshot appears to be C++ code (might be wrong on this though, as I've never written any C++, and only use C occasionally)
[+] srik|15 years ago|reply
gcc and vim with proper c++ handling work really well for me.
[+] pyeahtras|15 years ago|reply
Why not Xcode?
[+] rroar|15 years ago|reply
Hey, does anybody know what font is used on that screenshot?
[+] szopa|15 years ago|reply
This is quite exciting. Anything is known about the authors or a release schedule? I would love to beta test it.
[+] adestefan|15 years ago|reply
If it can't fix those curly braces in the screenshot then I don't want to go near the thing.
[+] cubicle67|15 years ago|reply
not sure what you're referring to. If it's the font, well Im assuming that's changeable and if it's the brace on line 47, then that's just word wrap making it look odd. If you're referring to the fact that the open braces are on the end of the lines, well... that's where God himself intended them to be :)