about ko
ko is an editor for macOS
main features
fast
- loads large files
- keyboard centric
- nothing you can do with the mouse only
- includes lots of fancy shortcuts
commandline
- a single, non-intrusive input field to ...
- open files quickly
- find in text and search in files
- input terminal, coffee-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
- not all cursors are equal:
- main cursor is always distuingishable
- main cursor can be moved independently from other cursors
- powerful set of keyboard shortcuts for modification of cursors
minimap
- shows cursors, highlights and selections
- also for terminal, search- and coffe-script results!
- can be used to select large portions of text
- sets cursor by default when dragging/clicking
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 and functions/methods
- includes a few nifty 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
- inv toggle display of line-breaks
command-line
- operates in different modes:
- open new window
- search Search /search/ /Search/
- find Find /find/ /Find/ fiZd f*nd
- goto selecto
- term Term
- coffee
- macro
- each mode keeps it's own history
- clicking on the command name lists all modes and their shortcuts:
terminal
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!
find
search in current file
- ⌘F case insensitive
- ^F case sensitive
- ⌥F regexp insensitive
- ^⌥F regexp sensitive
- ⌘⌥F fuzzy search
- ⌘^F glob search
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!
multicursors
- ⌘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
cursors can be positioned after the end of line
- 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
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 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
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
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
windows
- ⌘⌥A switch between tiled and stacked windows
- ⌘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.
in ascii-header mode ...
- cursors are green
- backspace deletes the header character at the cursors
- most characters will be inserted automatically just by typing them
the mode will deactivate itself automatically in most circumstances. you can also force deactivate it with esc
minimap
- ⌘ while dragging to turn off cursor placement
- ⇧ while dragging/clicking to select lines
misc
- F2 global shortcut to activate ko
- ⌘L select more lines ⌘⇧L select less lines
- ⌥up|down move selected|cursor lines up|down
- ⌥/ toggle comment on selected|cursor lines
- ⌘I inverted line selection: select lines without a cursor or a selection
- ⌘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)
while command input 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
to use ko from a terminal
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
missing features
- plugin system
- customization
- git integration
- bracket matching
- regression tests
- correct highlighting of complex strings
final note
this is a pre-release in active development!
use at your own risk!
