[HN Gopher] Chime 2.0 - a Go Editor for macOS
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       Chime 2.0 - a Go Editor for macOS
        
       Author : parsd
       Score  : 60 points
       Date   : 2022-10-31 18:13 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.chimehq.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.chimehq.com)
        
       | KerrAvon wrote:
       | I'd expect the website to describe some of the features, but I
       | can't seem to find any real sales effort. Lots of stellar
       | competition in this area considering Mac-only editors alone:
       | TextMate, BBEdit, Nova.
        
       | thangngoc89 wrote:
       | For context, this is probably posted after Apple ExtensionKit[1]
       | made it to the homepage of HN.
       | 
       | [1]: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/extensionkit
        
       | throwaway102233 wrote:
       | I just downloaded this to give it a trial and so far my exprience
       | has been infuriating. I go to quick open a file - it takes 5
       | seconds to provide me a suggestion, I select my suggestion and
       | hit enter, nothing, I double click, nothing, I hit the space bar,
       | nothing.... Okay, let me maximise the window, I double click the
       | window title, nothing, hmm, let me double click where the window
       | controls are, nothing. It hardly feels 'Mac native'.
       | 
       | edit: after typing this out and letting it rest in the
       | background, the quick open now actually opens a file.
        
         | mattiemass wrote:
         | I'm sorry it's working so poorly for you. 2.0 has some
         | performance issues that do make it seem more like slow-open in
         | a number of situations. We're working on it.
        
       | cytzol wrote:
       | Looks like the application requires macOS v12, which is only a
       | year old. What features does it require that means it can't be
       | backwards-compatible? Is it a SwiftUI thing?
        
         | mattiemass wrote:
         | Honestly, dropping v11 for 2.0 was a really tough call.
         | Adopting ExtensionKit, and getting that out the door right when
         | v13 shipped was difficult, but that was the goal we set out
         | for. Supporting v11 made a number of things more difficult, and
         | SwiftUI was some of it. It was not strictly technically
         | necessary, but it made it easier.
        
       | Hovertruck wrote:
       | Why does the title refer to this as a Go editor when the linked
       | page is talking about having support for 23 different languages?
        
         | Jtsummers wrote:
         | It seems it was originally a Go-only editor when it came out
         | five years ago (looking through their blog posts). Ruby was
         | only added earlier this year, and now this supports more
         | languages. So yes, weird to describe it as a Go Editor still,
         | but it would have been accurate before May.
        
         | parsd wrote:
         | I did ponder whether to not mention Go in the title, but I had
         | noticed that it's unclear what the devs mean by "support for 23
         | languages". Go is known to have been their main focus. In
         | general, there is no documentation whatsoever, although the
         | editor is interesting.
        
           | mattiemass wrote:
           | We did start off with just Go. After doing a bunch of
           | infrastructural work, we added another, Ruby. We've just
           | finished generalizing this, in a way that both more 1st- and
           | 3rd-party extensions can be created. To date though, we've
           | only gotten to Rust and Swift.
        
       | 0x37 wrote:
       | Seemed interesting based on the amount of languages the editor
       | supports on paper, but a quick trial showed that at least C#
       | support is very, very barebones, even theoretical, as I couldn't
       | get any kind of autocomplete to work, for example. After few
       | minutes of usage Im unsure of what it provides aside from some
       | syntax coloring. Maybe I did something wrong?
        
         | mattiemass wrote:
         | You did not. Aside from Rust and Swift, all the added languages
         | are preliminary. A minimal extension is required to, for
         | example, connect Chime up to an LSP server to get semantic
         | features going like completions and diagnostics. We do not have
         | a 1st-party extension built for C# yet.
        
           | nateb2022 wrote:
           | Why not implement first class support for LSP servers, and
           | offer extensions that wrap official LSP's?
        
             | mattiemass wrote:
             | That's more or less exactly what we've done. Our SDK does
             | have support for LSP. But, unfortunately those extensions
             | still need to be made. Or are you talking about a generic
             | LSP extension that is server-agnostic? That is definitely
             | buildable, but my experience has been that the experience
             | tends to be a lot better when customized for a particular
             | server.
        
       | woumn wrote:
       | The lack of integrated terminal or method of running a go program
       | makes me question what use this is to someone. Until either of
       | those is implemented, this is a no-go for me. Not even mentioning
       | that it costs money to use without adding any value over free
       | editors.
        
         | nicoburns wrote:
         | > The lack of integrated terminal or method of running a go
         | program makes me question what use this is to someone.
         | 
         | I'm quite happy with my current editor and probably wouldn't
         | use this, but I have also never used either of those features.
         | I run my code using a separate terminal in a separate window,
         | and can't really understand why anyone likes squashing their
         | terminal into the same space as their code (although I
         | recognise that they do, and I'm glad that they can if that's
         | what they want) - seems like it would be distracting and reduce
         | the amount of code you can get on screen at once.
        
           | whimsicalism wrote:
           | Only benefit i have found is if it is on a remote machine and
           | you do not feel like ssh-ing twice.
        
         | kactus wrote:
         | I like having my terminal attached to my editor, but I don't
         | like it integrated with the editor. Some of the integration
         | features are cool, like clicking to view a file in the editor
         | straight from an error message, but I always get frustrated
         | with the integrated terminal's small size, and it's not
         | convenient to resize it. Or it can slow down the editor when a
         | lot of output is happening (VS Code). Sometimes it's a third-
         | party solution that isn't well maintained (Atom, Sublime Text).
         | 
         | Ideally, I'd love a way to glue sets of windows together and
         | move them around as one piece, without being a tiling window
         | manager.
        
         | cweagans wrote:
         | For me, the lack of those features is itself a feature.
         | 
         | I don't have any interest in using the subpar
         | terminals/"execute this thing" buttons included in many
         | editors. I'd rather use a terminal that I actually like -- the
         | one I use for everything else.
         | 
         | I also don't want any "magic" to happen under the hood to run a
         | thing (looking at you, Java IDEs). I want anyone to be able to
         | download the thing I'm working on and run it without being tied
         | to a particular editor/IDE, and the best way to do that is to
         | put your build/run stuff into something portable (shell script,
         | Makefile, task file, whatever) instead of relying on a button
         | in a GUI somewhere.
        
           | chank wrote:
           | > For me, the lack of those features is itself a feature.
           | 
           | For me as well. However language specific IDEs these days
           | usually don't have much if anything on more popular editors.
        
           | nateb2022 wrote:
           | With maybe a few exceptions that I'm unaware of, all
           | integrated terminals are optional features that can be
           | disabled. I agree that editor-specific run configurations are
           | over the top and bad form, however an integrated terminal is
           | a very useful feature that I use all the time, especially
           | when working with Go.
           | 
           | Edit: And that said, if I'm paying money for a product it
           | better have features that I'm going to need, and if I don't
           | need them it better have a way to disable them.
        
       | ankurpatel wrote:
        
         | Kukumber wrote:
         | what other features do you need in a text editor other than
         | typing text and getting code completion?
        
           | smoldesu wrote:
           | A pricing scheme where I don't pay $29.99 for a minimalist
           | editor that gets one year of updates.
        
             | sgt wrote:
             | It doesn't expire and it's a way to support the little guy
             | while getting a great product. I don't see the issue here.
             | Also, $30 is how many cups of coffee? 6-7?
        
               | smoldesu wrote:
               | You Mac users and your coffee comparisons... there are
               | free editors out there that would put Chime to shame. I'd
               | rather use Coteditor if I want a MacOS-native editor, or
               | BBedit if minimalism is paramount.
               | 
               | I'm also the sort of person who balks at Sublime
               | licenses, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Still
               | though, there are many (even Mac-native) editors that put
               | up stiff competition.
        
             | Kukumber wrote:
             | there is value in independent craftmanship
             | 
             | you can still feed the big corps with your data if that's
             | what you prefer
             | 
             | but the people working on vscode don't do it for free
             | either ;)
        
               | smoldesu wrote:
               | > you can still feed the big corps with your data if
               | that's what you prefer
               | 
               | This is an app for MacOS, the desktop operating system
               | that sends Apple telemetry after every time you open an
               | app. The notion that Chime is more private than
               | comparable open-source editors is an outright lie, I
               | welcome you to prove me wrong.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related:
       | 
       |  _Chime, a Go Editor for macOS - v1.0 Now Available_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22436773 - Feb 2020 (26
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Chime - A Go Editor for macOS_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21963708 - Jan 2020 (126
       | comments)
        
       | bendur_ wrote:
       | How is Chime better/different from other options, like say
       | Sublime Text?
        
       | 404mm wrote:
       | Cute but seems a bit too simple. I'm no fan of VSCode, I like my
       | UI clean and simple (like Atom for example). Oh well, will
       | continue waiting on Zed.
        
         | zero_ wrote:
         | out of curiosity: still using atom or vscode or switched to
         | something else?
        
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       (page generated 2022-10-31 23:01 UTC)