Nova - Panic's native code editor with free download

Panic, the makers of Coda, have introduced the Mac-native code editor "Nova". The programming aid should offer strong performance, flexible workflows, a lot of stable extensions, many settings for individualization and extensive compatibility. Like Coda 1 and Coda 2 before, Nova is made primarily for web development. Projects from the older editors can be transferred accordingly and brought into the new Internet age with the Nova app for the Mac. The free download applies to the 30-day trial version. Further details as well as a review that emerged from a beta and 1.0 test can be found below.

TL; DR: You can go directly to the website here

The new Nova Editor from Panic should make web development better, faster and natively possible on the Apple Mac in 2020. Here you will find details about the features, a list of the supported scripting and programming languages ​​and content from a Nova Review by Watts Martin.
The new Nova Editor from Panic should make web development better, faster and natively possible on the Apple Mac in 2020. Here you will find details about the features, a list of the supported scripting and programming languages ​​and content from a Nova Review by Watts Martin.

Panic Nova - code editor with flexible interface

The Nova app for the Mac is what is known as "native software", ie software that has been specially tailored for a particular system. This system is macOS on the Apple Mac, iMac, MacBook and so on. Although cross-platform apps have the advantage that they can be used in a wide variety of environments, there are penalties in terms of performance and hardware usage. This is exactly what the Panic developers wanted to avoid.

Nova should therefore be a particularly stable, fast and extensively applicable code editor for web development on the Apple Mac. On the linked website, which Panic created especially for the app, it says: "It's new, hyper-fast, and flexible, with all the features you want: smart autocomplete, multiple cursors, a minimap, editor overscroll, tag pairs and brackets, and way, way more.“- There is an overview of the features mentioned on the page in the form of an animation.

Built-in support for these programming languages ​​/ scripts

A total of 25 programming and scripting languages ​​are supported by Nova “ex works”. In addition, the makers emphasize that the app is extremely expandable, offers a robust API and also has a built-in extension browser. On the Website for the app you will also find the note that Panic has incorporated its own text layout engine because the one from Apple came along with too many bugs. This not only circumvented these bugs, but also increased performance. You can benefit from this with these scripting and programming languages:

  • CoffeeScript
  • CSS
  • Diff
  • ERB
  • haml
  • HTML
  • INI
  • JavaScript
  • JSON
  • JSX
  • Less
  • Moon
  • Markdown
  • Perl
  • PHP
  • Python
  • Ruby
  • Sass
  • SCSS
  • Smarty
  • SQL
  • TSX
  • TypeScript
  • XML
  • YAML

Nova Editor - Introduction in YouTube Video

Panic offers one Video that introduces you to the Nova Editor in two and a half minutes. It explains everything (in English), from creating and opening individual projects to customizing the user interface to the extension browser with a large selection of extensions. A good introduction for anyone interested in the software:

The price for the Nova Editor from Panic

The Nova app for macOS can be downloaded and used free of charge for a 30-day test. After this test of the Nova app, however, the purchase of the full version is necessary if it is to continue to be used. The price to be paid for this is as follows:

  • New software purchase: $ 99
  • Purchase with existing Coda license: $ 79
  • Renewal of the update cover: $ 49

If you buy the software for 99 US dollars (complete new purchase) or 79 US dollars as an existing customer with a “Coda 1” or “Coda 2” license, you will receive the corresponding Nova app for one year as well Updates and fixes free of charge. If updates are to be obtained after this year, it will cost $ 49 per year. However, this is not necessary for the pure use of the editor. The "subscription" is only valid for updates, not for the program itself.

Watts Martin's opinion: Professional developer on Nova

Those who (like me) are not very familiar with programming, web development and code editors will certainly be positively addressed by the features listed and the polished presentation of Panics Nova. But can the Code Editor from 2020 compete with VS Code from 2015, Sublime Text from 2008 or BBEdit from 1992? That's what Watts Martin goes for in a blog post a. In his Nova Review from September 17, 2020, he makes comparisons and shows weaknesses.

"... Almost every programmer has one stupid huge file to deal with“, It says among other things. And with a large file in which 50.000 or even 450.000 lines of code are to be edited by hand, Nova can bring along a few performance drops. In addition, your own language server is not as strong as the offerings of other apps. On the other hand, the native layout on macOS is shown in a small file size (compared to VS Code and Sublime Text). However, if you want to use AppleScript, you will search in vain at Nova.

To reproduce all the points from the linked Panic Nova Review here would go beyond the scope. However, a few weak points are highlighted, which in turn are balanced with numerous advantages. If you are looking for a comparison to the editors also mentioned, you should also click into it. The bottom line is that while Panic still has a few improvements to make, Nova is off to a good start. With further development, the current disadvantages should be ironed out.

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