main features
fast
- loads large files
- keyboard centric
- nothing you can do with the mouse only
- includes many shortcuts and advanced editing features
commandline
- a single, non-intrusive input field to ...
- navigate the file system and open files quickly
- find in text and search in files
- input terminal-, script- and macro-commands
- goto lines or class/method/function-definitions
terminal
- alias, history
- echos commands as ascii-headers
- output of commands editable/searchable
file search
- search for strings/regexp in project files
- automatic determination of project files
- search results are editable
- edits can be saved back to files
- more powerful than conventional search and replace
multicursors
- a little less chaotic than some other implementations
- powerful set of keyboard shortcuts for modification of cursors
minimap
- shows cursors, highlights and selections
- also for terminal-, search- and script-results!
- can be used to select large portions of text
- sets cursor by default when dragging/clicking
- includes a special mode to insert or edit ascii-headers that show up nicely in the minimap
autocomplete
- completes words from visited files and project files
- automatic determination of project files:
- indexes files below directory containing .git or package.json
- ignores node_modules, .git, etc.
syntax highlighting
- for coffee, cpp, h, html, js, json, md, noon, pug, py, sh, styl
- ansi-colors in terminal view
optimized for coffee-script
- completes function/method names from required files
- terminal commands to list classes, files or functions/methods
- autoconverts 'simple' strings when "#{}" is inserted
- removes 'then' when breaking single-line 'when' or 'if' statements
- deletes whitespace after function names when surrounding selected arguments with ()
- includes a some nifty macros for coffee-script
commandline
operates in different modes:
- open new window
- find Find /find/ /Find/ fiZd f*nd
- search Search /search/ /Search/
- goto selecto
- term Term
- coffee
- macro
each mode keeps it's own history
clicking on the command name lists all modes and their shortcuts:
while the commandline has focus:
- ^up|down move command input up|down
- ⌘up|down move command input to top|bottom of window
- ⌥up|down move command input a quarter of window up|down
open
opens files quickly via fuzzy matching
- ⌘P open file quickly
- ⌘⇧P open file quickly in new window
on activation, it ...
- lists recent files on top
- the most recent file is selected by default
while the list is open:
- . list current directory without previous files
- .. navigate directory up
the list content depends on the file currently opened in the editor
- files in surrounding project directories are included
- switching projects is simple: just open a file in the new project
find
search in current file
- ⌘F case insensitive
- ^F case sensitive
- ⌥F regexp insensitive
- ^⌥F regexp sensitive
- ⌘⌥F fuzzy search
- ⌘^F glob search
when the find commandline has focus
- enter select next highlighted word
- shift+enter select previous highlighted word
- tab set focus on editor
- ⌘enter select next highlighted word and set focus on editor
search
search in project files
- ⌘⇧F case insensitive
- ^⇧F case sensitive
- ⌥⇧F regexp insensitive
- ^⌥⇧F regexp sensitive
editing search result lines will ...
- mark them for saving
- changes are propagated immediately to all open files
- ⌘S (while the search-results view has focus) will save all pending changes in open and closed files
- deleting lines from the search results will not remove them from their original files
- changes from the editor are not yet propagated to old search results
- this means: only edit and save fresh search results!
- this is a very powerful feature but not tested thoroughly yet and probably not working correctly in all cases!
- use at your own risk! backup your files!
goto
- ⌘; activates goto command
- text jump to function, class or file
- positive number jump to line
- negative number jump to line relative to end of file
in editor:
- ⌥enter goto word under main cursor
- ⌥click goto clicked word
term
- ⌘T to activate pseudo terminal input
special commands
- alias
- without argument: list aliases
- with one argument: clear alias
- with two arguments: set alias
- history
- without argument: list command history
- !! to repeat last command
- !n to repeat command with id n
- !~n to remove command with id n
- classes
- list coffee-script classes and their methods
- click on result jumps to definition
- funcs
- list coffee-script functions and methods
- click on result jumps to definition
- files
- list indexed project files
- click on result opens file
- words
- list indexed words
- click on word starts search command
classes, funcs, files and words results can be filtered by adding arguments
all other commands are passed to a child process running bash
- only works for commands that terminate!
coffee
evaluates coffee-script code in the main process and prints results in terminal
- since the code is evaluated in the main process ...
- indexer internals and windows are accessible (via global main object)
- results are
- persistent for the lifetime of the app
- shared between windows
- the commandline input is nice to do quick math calculations or other single line tasks
- you can evaluate complex code too, just press ^enter in the editor to evaluate its whole text
macro
general macros
- inv toggle display of line endings
- fps toggle the fps graph besides the info area
coffee-script macros
- dbg insert log line which outputs class.method + variables under cursors
- req insert require statement for word at cursor
- class creates a new file with simple class skeleton
misc
minimap
- ⌘ while dragging to turn off cursor placement
- ⇧ while dragging/clicking to select lines
multicursors
ko differs a bit from common implementations of multicursors:
- not all cursors are equal:
- main cursor is always distuingishable
- main cursor can be moved independently from other cursors
- in most cases cursors are kept in their respective lines
- no weird cursor chaos when some cursors cross line boundaries and some don't
- in ko, cursors can be positioned after the end of lines
- cursors after the end of line have two representations: blue and orange/yellow
- the orange/yellow position shows where text will be inserted
- missing spaces are added automatically in multicursor mode
shortcuts:
- ⌘click add or remove single cursor
- ⌘up|down grow all vertical cursor lines up or down
- ^⇧up|down grow only main cursor line up or down
- ^up|down|left|right move main cursor independently (clears other cursors when moving over them)
- ^⌥up|down|left|right align all cursors vertically with up|down|left|right-most cursor
- ^⇧right align all cursors vertically with right-most cursor while moving text to the right
- ⌘delete delete backwards over line boundaries
windows
ko is a multi window application.
it compensates a lacking tabbing feature by autoalignment of tiled windows and fast switching to recent files.
shortcuts:
- ⌘⌥A switch between tiled and stacked windows
- ^W close file in active window
- ⌘W close active window
- ⌘⇧W close all windows except active window
- ⌘` activate next window
- ⌘⇧` activate previous window
- ⌥` open window list
- ⌥[1-9] activate window with id
- ⌘⇧N clone current file in new window
- ⌘⌥Q close all windows (they won't restore on next start) and quit
the ascii-header mode lets you insert or edit ascii-headers
- ⌘3 activates the ascii-header mode
- if the cursor is not in a header already, one will be generated for the word at the main cursor
- typing #> will create a header for the following word and switch to header mode as well
in ascii-header mode ...
- cursors are green
- backspace deletes the header character at the cursors
- insert common characters as headers just by typing them
the mode deactivates itself automatically in most circumstances. you can force the deactivation any time with esc
info
at the right end of the commandline (above the editor minimap) some useful numbers are displayed:
- top row:
- cursor column
- [cursors]
- [selections]
- [highlights]
- indexed classes
- indexed functions
- bottom row:
- cursor line
- line count
- indexed files
- indexed words
when clicking on these numbers:
- cursor column|line
- set cursor to column|line 0
- line count
- selections|highlights|cursors
- clear the selections|highlights|cursors
- indexed classes|functions|files|words
- run the term command classes|funcs|files|words
various shortcuts
- F2 global shortcut to activate ko
- ⌘E (selects word under cursor and) highlights occurences of selected word
- ⌘D (selects word under cursor and) selects next highlighted word
- ⌘⇧D deselects last selected word
- ⌥up|down move selected|cursor lines up|down
- ⌘L select more lines ⌘⇧L select less lines
- ⌥/ toggle comment on selected|cursor lines
- ⌘I inverted line selection: select lines without a cursor or a selection
- ⌘return insert empty line below cursor and move cursor down
- ^return evaluate current buffer with coffee in main process and print the result in terminal view
- ⌘⌥up jump to counterpart file (coffee <-> js, cpp <-> h, pug <-> html, etc)
- *⌘* toggle left side text offset when window is as wide as screen
- ⌘R reload/revert current file
to use ko from a terminal
either install the npm package
npm install -g ko-editor
ko
or download the release dmg from github and create a symlink:
ln -s /Applications/ko.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin/ko /usr/local/bin
settings (windows, command histories and other stuff) are saved to
~/Library/Application\ Support/ko/ko.noon
terminal aliases are stored in
~/Library/Application\ Support/ko/alias.noon
missing features
- plugin system
- customization
- git integration
- regression tests
- correct highlighting of complex strings
final note
this is a pre-release in active development!
use at your own risk!
