The first class of productivity is has access to each char in the code right closer you hand. This is what Vim means to me. I am creating this topic so Nova community may discuss on how to brig vim extension to life!
Development of a Vim emulation extension for Nova is not currently possible, but we have been tracking ways that we might expose extension points to make it possible, as this has been a very popular request from users.
By our current thoughts, we would expose a way for an extension to declare additional “modes” for the editor, and a keyboard shortcut that would enter that mode. While in a secondary mode, all keystrokes would be forwarded through the extension, which would enable an extension to add emulation for Vim’s Normal / Navigation mode, for example. A second key combination would them be used to exit back into “Insert” mode / the standard non-modal editor behavior that exists in all GUI-based text editors.
Feel free to mention here if you feel this would be sufficient to handle the majority of cases a Vim emulation extension might require, and we can consider it our plans for this.
Notes: tracking internally as #2020.
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I’ve thought about this a bit and have a couple other things I’d want for vim emulation:
- A way to display the command I’m currently typing in Nova’s UI if I’m in command mode
- Vim allows using j/k to move my selection up and down, and it preserves the column I’m in, even if I click into a space where there’s no text. I don’t think nova’s current text selection would properly support this and I don’t think an extension could emulate it since extensions don’t have a way to intercept mouse events.
- In visual mode, a way to change the cursor mode between “bar”, where it’s in between characters, and “selection” where it’s over characters. I suppose this is probably doable just by manipulating selections.
- My vim setup configures relative line numbers, which make vim a lot easier to use
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This sound like a good place to start. Note that Vim is in “normal” mode by default, in which h, j, k, and l move the cursor, x deletes a character, etc. So to behave like Vim, the extension must be able to specify which of its declared modes is the default mode for new editor views. If a new Nova-Vim-extension editor view were to start in “insert” mode, it would be very confusing for Vim users.
If you all don’t mind me reviving this thread a bit:
Now that Nova 5 has the necessary functionality (unmodified and modal key bindings), I decided to give this a shot. I’ll start listing hiccups as I hit them.
Ideally, there’d be some way to tell what mode you were in. In most vim-like GUI editors, this happens two ways:
- The shape of the cursor changes between a vertical line and a block. Nova has a setting for this, but no way to change it programmatically AFAICT.
- The name of the current mode appears in the status bar. As far as I can tell, Nova doesn’t support extensions adding anything here.
First of all, I love using Nova. The trial is so awesome and I want to buy it. But, without a vim support I can’t use an editor. I like the ideia of exposing “modes” which extensions and attach to. This is really nice.
Another way of doing this is use neovim as a backend (in headless mode) to handle all vim operations and Nova can be a true vim editor. If this is possible, I’m 100% committed to develop such extension and maintain it. I like Nova so much, is a awesome and beautiful editor, I hope we can get this to working.
Thanks!
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I’m using the trial now. It is awesome. But I’ve gotten so used to vim that I can’t go back to using arrows to navigate and learn another set of shortcurts. @lucastrevisan , I would be glad to help maintaining with you. I don’t ask for a true vim editor. I just want keybindings like:
- h, i, j, k
- w, e, b, ge, ^, $, 0,
- .
- search
- d, y and their modifiers
1 Like
Thank you! Let’s make Nova an even better code editor with vim bindings!
@logan heeeelp us! hahaha
Hi!
I suppose that current vim mode is a nova’s extension.
Il would like to know if it is possible to open source it to improve it and fix bugs?
Best regards,
Fred
No, Nova’s Vim mode is not an extension; it’s built-in to the app. If you encounter issues, please contact Panic support.
So sad to read that :'(. Do you know if it is possible to improve it using the public API?
Best regards,
Fred
Unfortunately, no. Extensions do not have access to it. Again, please contact us to let us know what you feel needs improvement, we are more than happy to consider it.