Nova by Panic • Hacker News Board

Re: Nova by Panic

#431

Post by ClikeX » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 7:48 AM UTC

threentaway wrote: post #381

sumedh wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do the Windows based laptops have a similar touchpad like the Mac which just works, last time I checked they did not.

Can you explain why this is such an important feature? How often are you writing code where you're not at your desk with a real keyboard and mouse?

I use a dedicated keyboard, but I put the MacBook on side and use the trackpad as my mouse. It's smooth to use, has great gesture support for switching between applications.

And the most important feature for me. I can work a full day on it without any RSI related symptons. No other mouse can do that for me.

I use a normal mouse on my gaming rig, though. Because trackpads are awful for gaming.

Re: Nova by Panic

#432

Post by Cthulhu_ » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 7:51 AM UTC

nixpulvis wrote: post #342

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company itself would likely have become part of Apple if not for one bit of unlucky timing. Apple wanted to turn Panic's Mac OS 9 music player, Audion, into iTunes. https://www.panic.com/extras/audionstory/

Why must success be becoming part of Apple?

It's not becoming part of Apple that's the success, it's earning millions, if not billions in one go and being set for life, both financially and in terms of reputation.

Re: Nova by Panic

#433

Post by ClikeX » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 7:52 AM UTC

seventhtiger wrote: post #403

scott_w wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% of the time for me. I prefer the trackpad over the mouse.

Trackpads are really un-ergonomic when they're attached to the laptop. Both your wrist and neck are bent because the trackpad and screen are attached that way. Consider getting a separate USB trackpad and putting it in a "mouse like" position so your wrist is straight and you can raise the laptop to just under eye level.

I position my MacBook where I'd place my standalone trackpad. I could probably get a Magic Trackpad from work. But that would mean I need to carry another accessory with me.

So I'll have a proper monitor and a standalone keyboard in front of me. And the MacBook screen on the side is being used to display secondary information (chat windows and logs I don't need to actively look at).

Having the fingerprint sensor and the TouchBar lock button within reach are also nice (yes, I actually like the touchbar)

Re: Nova by Panic

#434

Post by am391 » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 7:53 AM UTC

jmnicolas wrote: post #412

ooobit2 wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% of the time for me, I wouldn't wipe my butt with a trackpad, let alone use one for work. It's always fun for me to meet people who do things the complete opposite I do them. It's oddly satisfying, like, I'm glad someone is my polar opposite on an issue or activity.

Tabs or spaces ?

That made me smile....thanks @jmnicolas :)

Re: Nova by Panic

#435

Post by franga2000 » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 7:53 AM UTC

fsloth wrote: post #416

ddevault wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I can't imagine the world of hurt, discomfort and frustration of developing against a lib set I can't read source code of or improve. Thank you . It boggles the mind that anyone who can write code would ever use a closed source operating system.

Oh, the prejudice! I like developing on Windows. Especially since the programs I write are run only on Windows. That's what the specific trillion dollar industry my employer serves uses mostly on desktop. I don't want to tweak the platform. I want to concentrate on the code I write. I could be equally productive on OS X or Linux, but frankly, I don't care . They are all interchangeable computational substrates for me…

Is is not incomparably faster to fix a problem in an open source component than it is to write a full replacement for it? Would your employer not prefer to see you spend a few days digging through source and submitting a patch upstream than spend many weeks writing a text layout engine from scratch? The result is the same (working text layout), but the time (== money) required is substantially less in the open source situation.

I get your argument for a closed platform where you have a direct phone line to its developers that will fix any platform bugs you find ASAP, but MSFT hasn't been that kind of platform for years...

Re: Nova by Panic

#436

Post by Cthulhu_ » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 7:55 AM UTC

SCLeo wrote: post #48

xavdid wrote: post #22

I really like their pricing structure here. If you want updates forever, it's functionally a subscription (which makes sense - constant updates require constant dev work). The key difference is that if you stop paying, you keep everything you've paid for previously (the app and all past updates). That's a _great_ way to do a subscription.

I feel a lot of software is like this before all the SaaS crap.

Sort of; before the SaaS was that big a thing (which coincides with general availability of the internets) we got annual versions, every year they tried to cram in features (and backwards incompatibility) to warrant upgrading to a newer version.

But in the past decade or so we've seen companies move away from that; leaders (I would say) are companies like Google whose Chrome browser was "evergreen" and released / updated constantly with no extra cost, and Apple who made iOS free and changed MacOS / OSX to the same system (although they still do only big bang annual updates, probably for marketing reasons), as well as pretty much all software on iOS - although with that platform, microtransactions also became a thing.

Re: Nova by Panic

#437

Post by yeahoo » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 8:03 AM UTC

jmnicolas wrote: post #414

RussianCow wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But 95MB is small enough that it doesn't matter—1/3 the size of basically nothing is still basically nothing. Even in terms of memory or CPU usage, VS Code is relatively efficient compared to some other products on the market such as the JetBrains IDEs. Say what you will about Electron apps in general, but Microsoft has done a great job in making VS Code not feel like a typical Electron app.

If you have 4G of ram and 120G of disk and a slow internet connection all of this matter. Fwiw before getting internet fiber, a 95MB file resulted in about 20 min download (my reference was 300MB an hour).

It's more about "enough proportion of ..", and my 5 cents are that using mac hardware _always_ with a very tiny internet connection is kind of rare. So not enough to base an argument on, in my opinion. Kinda having expensive mac hardware most probably implies access to some time of a good internet connection to download/update tools needed.

Re: Nova by Panic

#438

Post by FullyFunctional » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 8:16 AM UTC

1986 wrote: post #375

FullyFunctional wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I change platforms many times a day (macOS, Linux, occasionally Windows) and VS Code being cross platform is essential for my use of it. Being Mac-only is a complete deal-breaker.

How do you deal with the difference in common keyboard shortcuts / text selection with keyboard (i.e. option vs ctrl, command vs ctrl)? I also go back and forth between macOS and Linux and it always takes me 30 min to get the correct muscle memory back.

Touché. I do desperately miss macOS's emacs bindings across the board and the wonderful Cmd that leaves Ctrl alone. I constantly look for a Linux distro that actually "get it", but so far all I've seen are efforts to make it _look_ like macOS, without making it _feel_ like it.

TL;DR: I cope, begrudgingly.

Re: Nova by Panic

#439

Post by nxpnsv » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 8:21 AM UTC

Nova is pretty, i liked the synthwave neon mode (probably would not use it for an extended amount of time though). Markdown preview was not great. App crashed when I attempted a git commit. I think I'll wait for a little while before trying it again.

Re: Nova by Panic

#440

Post by biztos » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 8:22 AM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #262

biztos wrote: post #219

I'll definitely give it a try but it seems very web-dev-centric at first glance. There is a "preliminary alpha" Go extension for example, but there is first-class support for... FTP. It took me a few minutes to notice the magical sometimes-visible "download" link but now I have the trial, and I hope it's as useful as it is pretty!

You couldn’t find the download link? The one that everyone else in this discussion is raving about? It’s the huge blue button right in the middle of the page that reads “Download Nova for free.” They couldn’t make it more obvious unless the forced an auto-download.

Indeed somehow I missed that. Scanned right past it, even though I took a minute to play with the stars. I guess I registered the "buy now" link and then went right into the content section.

Clearly my bad, looking at it now obviously it's a prominent call to action.