I spent 48 Hours coding in Nova and forgot about VS Code

I spent 48 hours with Nova, a new native IDE for MacOS released by Panic on September 14th.

Two days ago I downloaded the free trial of Nova, installed the TypeScript extension, snagged a theme, opened a TypeScript project and started typing. I was pleasantly surprised.

Nova is fast. Files open with haste. Find in Project... delivers search results fast. There's no visible slowdown editing large files. When I open multiple text editor panes and terminals Nova doesn't skip a beat. The native IDE just works.

Nova's text editor is delightful. Theres multiline editing, intuitive autocompletion, code hints. The TypeScript extension features some refactoring functionality for all those code smells. Panic found some novel uses for the MacBook Pro Touch Bar including running your npm script at the press of a button, as if typing npm run start took too long.

The design is clean and intuitive, very familiar to anyone using MacOS. Finding stuff is easy. When I click on the whimsical iconography theres subtle user feedback. Thats kinda fun but honestly a little weird coming from the sterile environment that is a Microsoft app. In Nova, youll open a dialog and find yourself staring into the depths of outer space. Panic is the same company that released a handheld game device with a hand crank... because they could. It's part of the charm.

Nova has all the things you've come to expect from a modern IDE for JavaScript development. Theres extensions for TypeScript, Prettier and ESLint, Git integration, integrated terminal and Chromium development server. You can connect to a variety of servers including Amazon S3, Azure, and Rackspace, or via protocols like SSH, FTP, WebDAV HTTPS. I appreciate this feature for all sorts of small projects Im working on. Panic syncs your server configurations across workstations. The nova command line tool opens files and workspaces from the MacOS Terminal.

VS Code definitely has some advantages over Nova including better Git integration, a robust debugging experience, large extension ecosystem. Despite all those wonderful features, VS Code pauses briefly before opening some files. VS Code doesn't tokenize large files because it bogs down the application. VS Code feels out of place on MacOS. Nova UI is snappy in comparison, feels native to MacOS. Nova is a very capable JavaScript IDE. The performance alone is worth it, but the native MacOS feel prompted me to switch.

At $99 ($49 yearly subscription after the first year), Nova is reasonably priced. If you have a serial number from Panics legacy IDE Coda, the initial price drops to $79. Nova is a ground up rewrite of Coda.

Download the free trial of Nova. You may be surprised how a native IDE can really improve developer experience.

Disclaimer: Im not paid by or affiliated with Panic.