13 ms·

Fig now supports JetBrains IDEs

76 points by michael_fine 4y ago

DiabloD3 4y ago
I don't understand what Fig is actually for. Why would I want a "visual autocomplete" when I already get what I want out of bash-complete + fzf, a more technically complete and understood solution?
- ushakov 4y ago
  from what i know the end goal of Fig is to to build a proprietary platform for webapps that run as overlay on top of your terminal this sounds ridiculous because it is they can’t drop this shitty idea now, because they took tons of cash from venture capitalists to make it happen
  - mschrage 4y ago
    Our mission is to improve the developer experience in the terminal. We think that layer on new interfaces can help make the commandline even more powerful... as well as making it more accessible. Check out kui[0] to get an idea of what we're imagining. [0] https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kui https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kui
    - ushakov 4y ago
      where does terminal lack user-experience in your opinion? you really think your proprietary, VC-baked, telemetry-enabled product would improve developer experience? a terminal is accessible as it gets and doesn’t need a web interface this is just a pervert version of Electron
      - mschrage 4y ago
        Tens of thousands of developers use Fig everyday and seem to really enjoy the autocomplete affordances that we've added. That said, if you already are very comfortable in the terminal, some of the pain points that we're tackling might be less acute for you.
- imwillofficial 4y ago
  It's a little slicker and less cumbersome.
- mschrage 4y ago
  I think there are two main areas where we improve the default experience. 1. Zero configuration needed to get started. With Fig, the experience just works out of the box. A lot of developers - especially people less comfortable with the terminal - don't feel confident installing a bunch of 3rd party zsh completions or creating a custom setup. 2. Extensibility. We've worked really hard to make the experience of writing your own completions very easy and powerful. Lots of teams are using Fig to make internal scripts and CLI tools more ergonomic and discoverable. In my experience, writing custom shell completion scripts is not very much fun.
  - ushakov 4y ago
    > especially people less comfortable with the terminal - don't feel confident installing a bunch of 3rd party zsh completions or creating a custom setup are you telling us that your proprietary blackbox that asks my e-mail and sends telemetry data is better than open-source well-documented, widely-used, established tools? > Lots of teams are using Fig to make internal scripts and CLI tools more ergonomic and discoverable. can these completions be used outside of Fig? i guess not, because this doesn’t make you any money? > In my experience, writing custom shell completion scripts is not very much fun yep, because nobody usually writes them, they’re autogenerated by whatever CLI framework you’re using with Fig you write them and yes, writing autocompletions for Fig manually is better than writing Compdef manually but again, nobody usually writes them…
    - number6 4y ago
      If zsh is to complicated just use fish...
- zokier 4y ago
  Do you get rounded corners and soft shadows with bash-complete :)
  - mschrage 4y ago
    Don't forget the icons ;)
brianllamar 4y ago
Already use fig in my Mac terminal and love the attention JetBrains IDEs are getting with plug-ins. Going to check this out when I need to fire up PyCharm for scheduled script maintenance.
- mschrage 4y ago
  Adding support for JetBrains has been one of our top feature requests. [0] Glad to hear you'll be able to use Fig in more places now ;) [0] https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/49 https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/49
mschrage 4y ago
Hey HN! Didn't expect to see Fig here this morning. We just released a new version of Fig that allows users to install a custom input method on macOS. This means we now work with over a dozen new terminals, including all JetBrain IDEs, Alacritty, Kitty, WezTerm and more. The engineering behind it was surprisingly tricky since these APIs are not as well documented as you'd hope. (Indeed, the best place to look is the C header files [0]) But with a lot of trial and error, we've managed to get an implementation we're happy with. (That said, if anyone has tips on how to install an input method, without requiring a system restart, I'd love to hear them!) I'll be around all day to answer any questions about how Fig works under the hood! -- Also just to address some stuff that generally comes up when we're posted on HN: 1. Why is there a login? Autocomplete is just our first product, and it's part of a suite of tools focused on improving developer experience in the terminal. The idea is that you can configure your developer environment in Fig and then we'll sync it across all of your devices. 2. Is there telemetry? Yes, but you can opt-out entirely by running a single command. fig settings telemetry.disabled true 3. How will Fig make money? Fig will always be free for individuals. Teams pay for Fig for collaboration and discovery of internal scripts and for managing dev environment setup and onboarding. 4. Is there a Linux/Windows version? We are making really good progress and will have a prototype in the next month or so. See the Github issues for Linux[1] and Windows[2] [0] https://github.com/phracker/MacOSX-SDKs/blob/master/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Headers/TextInputSources.h https://github.com/phracker/MacOSX-SDKs/blob/master/MacOSX10... [1] https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/34 https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/34 [2] https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/35 https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/35
- shric 4y ago
  > The idea is that you can configure your developer environment in Fig and then we'll sync it across all of your devices. What's Fig's target audience? Developers. Developers have been using a tried and tested way to keep configurations for decades -- dotfiles. We sync them across all our devices using git (or any of a thousand other ways). This is a solved problem and doesn't require email addresses or logins.
  - 4y ago
peheje 4y ago
I don't understand why you need my e-mail during setup.
- mschrage 4y ago
  I mentioned this in another comment [0]. > Autocomplete is just our first product, and it's part of a suite of tools focused on improving developer experience in the terminal. The idea is that you can configure your developer environment in Fig and then we'll sync it across all of your devices. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31113668 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31113668
  - peheje 4y ago
    Could this sync-feature be opt-in instead of mandatory?
ushakov 4y ago
Fig is macOS-only, proprietary, requires e-mail and has telemetry Fig relies on free labour to add completions and does not support open-source completion formats Fig is VC-funded and at some point will have to generate revenue for it’s investors - at your cost don’t use Fig! if you have zsh you can use zsh-autocomplete, which is no worse than Fig https://github.com/marlonrichert/zsh-autocomplete https://github.com/marlonrichert/zsh-autocomplete edit: this comment was the most popular before HN moderators pinned it down, turns out Fig is YC-sponsored, so i’m not surprised
- mschrage 4y ago
  `zsh-autocomplete` is a great tool as well! Some of this is just a matter of personal preference. I've answered a few of your concerns in a different comment[0]. tl;dr Autocomplete is just our first product, and it's part of a suite of tools focused on improving developer experience in the terminal. The idea is that you can configure your developer environment in Fig and then we'll sync it across all of your devices. Fig will always be free for individuals. Teams pay for Fig for collaboration and discovery of internal scripts and for managing dev environment setup and onboarding. A Linux/Windows version is coming soon. [1] [2] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31113668 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31113668. [1] https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/34 https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/34 [2] https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/35 https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/35
  - ushakov 4y ago
    > The idea is that you can configure your developer environment in Fig and then we'll sync it across all of your devices don’t make it look like you’re solving a complicated problem i don’t have 10000 computers at home that i want to sync my configs to neither do i change my zsh config every day you do understand that this is a non-issue? > Fig will always be free for individuals. Teams pay for Fig for collaboration and discovery of internal scripts and for managing dev environment setup and onboarding. what? people pay for it? you must be kidding, right? there’s one reason you’re being ridiculed here: you have no moat, no unique value proposition, but you can’t just take your ball and go home, because you have investors whom you promised that this shit is big and will make you guys rich luckily HN-community understands that and won’t eat your worthless crap
gourneau 4y ago
Is anyone else getting this warning? I am using macOS 12.3.1, iTerm2 3.4.15 and bash 3.2.57(1) bash: trap: __bp_install: invalid signal specification
- mschrage 4y ago
  Update your iTerm shell integration and the issue should be resolved! Please run `fig issue` and I'll investigate.
  - gourneau 4y ago
    Thanks that is working now!
zokier 4y ago
Hacking IME and/or accessibility features to provide shell autocompletion is certainly ... creative solution.
- mschrage 4y ago
  One of our core principles is backwards compatibility. We want Fig to be a seamless addition to your existing tools and workflows! It's taken some creativity on the engineering side, but has been super fun to see what we've been able to build when working with these constraints.
spark3k 4y ago
Of course there's a lot of HN bitterness here. But I like Fig. I've been running my own heavily customised .zshrc for about a decade with loads of bells and whistles in terms of autocomplete and customised prompts and what not and it has been great and I've kept it current with cool new toys. But I've dumped most of it in the last month for Fig. I like seeing command specific options, relevant to the current context, and in a long list which I can scan and scroll quickly. I go to documentation MUCH less now and I'm faster with it. And that's most of what I care about. Commence retaliations...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- spoils19 4y ago
  Learn the tools, stay away from the toys. Hundreds of developers have been incredibly productive with a regular shell - there isn't any practical need for a product like Fig. If it were me and I was seeking more productivity from my shell, I would dive into books into how to improve it for myself rather than hook myself to another tool.
  - cyral 4y ago
    If I was seeking to be more productive I would probably install a tool like Fig and be done with it rather than spend time diving into the books to customize my shell. I think a lot of people in this thread are overlooking the simplicity of installing it and having it "just work" versus spending time fiddling with zsh configs.
    - ushakov 4y ago
      configuring zsh is easier that you could possibly think you only have to do it once and forget about it
cyral 4y ago
This is the first time I've heard of Fig, just downloaded it and it's a hell lot slicker than zsh-autocomplete. It would be great to make the telemetry opt-out more noticeable, preferably on setup, I would not have noticed it unless I saw the comment with the command to run. (Although I now see it's buried in the settings too)
- ushakov 4y ago
  agreed! it's so awesome that we now have a proprietary, VC-baked, telemetry-enabled tool that does everything free and open-source zsh-autocomplete can!
  - cyral 4y ago
    Not sure why you are being so negative on this thread. It took me 30 seconds rather than fiddling with commands and installing various autocomplete plugins and packages to get a nice config. I've done that before and don't have time these days to work on my "perfect" zsh config. I don't really care how they got their money, telemetry is opt out and they claim it's private right on the homepage. zsh-autocomplete now has some competition so maybe both products will innovate at a faster pace.
    - ushakov 4y ago
      > they claim it's private right on the homepage yeah right, let's just blindly trust them! > zsh-autocomplete now has some competition Fig can't compete, because it only works on mac and isn't open-source

76 points by michael_fine 4y ago

I don't understand what Fig is actually for. Why would I want a "visual autocomplete" when I already get what I want out of bash-complete + fzf, a more technically complete and understood solution?

ushakov 4y ago
from what i know the end goal of Fig is to to build a proprietary platform for webapps that run as overlay on top of your terminal this sounds ridiculous because it is they can’t drop this shitty idea now, because they took tons of cash from venture capitalists to make it happen
- mschrage 4y ago
  Our mission is to improve the developer experience in the terminal. We think that layer on new interfaces can help make the commandline even more powerful... as well as making it more accessible. Check out kui[0] to get an idea of what we're imagining. [0] https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kui https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kui
  - ushakov 4y ago
    where does terminal lack user-experience in your opinion? you really think your proprietary, VC-baked, telemetry-enabled product would improve developer experience? a terminal is accessible as it gets and doesn’t need a web interface this is just a pervert version of Electron
    - mschrage 4y ago
      Tens of thousands of developers use Fig everyday and seem to really enjoy the autocomplete affordances that we've added. That said, if you already are very comfortable in the terminal, some of the pain points that we're tackling might be less acute for you.
imwillofficial 4y ago
It's a little slicker and less cumbersome.
mschrage 4y ago
I think there are two main areas where we improve the default experience. 1. Zero configuration needed to get started. With Fig, the experience just works out of the box. A lot of developers - especially people less comfortable with the terminal - don't feel confident installing a bunch of 3rd party zsh completions or creating a custom setup. 2. Extensibility. We've worked really hard to make the experience of writing your own completions very easy and powerful. Lots of teams are using Fig to make internal scripts and CLI tools more ergonomic and discoverable. In my experience, writing custom shell completion scripts is not very much fun.
- ushakov 4y ago
  > especially people less comfortable with the terminal - don't feel confident installing a bunch of 3rd party zsh completions or creating a custom setup are you telling us that your proprietary blackbox that asks my e-mail and sends telemetry data is better than open-source well-documented, widely-used, established tools? > Lots of teams are using Fig to make internal scripts and CLI tools more ergonomic and discoverable. can these completions be used outside of Fig? i guess not, because this doesn’t make you any money? > In my experience, writing custom shell completion scripts is not very much fun yep, because nobody usually writes them, they’re autogenerated by whatever CLI framework you’re using with Fig you write them and yes, writing autocompletions for Fig manually is better than writing Compdef manually but again, nobody usually writes them…
  - number6 4y ago
    If zsh is to complicated just use fish...
zokier 4y ago
Do you get rounded corners and soft shadows with bash-complete :)
- mschrage 4y ago
  Don't forget the icons ;)

brianllamar 4y ago

Already use fig in my Mac terminal and love the attention JetBrains IDEs are getting with plug-ins. Going to check this out when I need to fire up PyCharm for scheduled script maintenance.

mschrage 4y ago
Adding support for JetBrains has been one of our top feature requests. [0] Glad to hear you'll be able to use Fig in more places now ;) [0] https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/49 https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/49

mschrage 4y ago

Hey HN! Didn't expect to see Fig here this morning. We just released a new version of Fig that allows users to install a custom input method on macOS. This means we now work with over a dozen new terminals, including all JetBrain IDEs, Alacritty, Kitty, WezTerm and more. The engineering behind it was surprisingly tricky since these APIs are not as well documented as you'd hope. (Indeed, the best place to look is the C header files [0]) But with a lot of trial and error, we've managed to get an implementation we're happy with. (That said, if anyone has tips on how to install an input method, without requiring a system restart, I'd love to hear them!) I'll be around all day to answer any questions about how Fig works under the hood! -- Also just to address some stuff that generally comes up when we're posted on HN: 1. Why is there a login? Autocomplete is just our first product, and it's part of a suite of tools focused on improving developer experience in the terminal. The idea is that you can configure your developer environment in Fig and then we'll sync it across all of your devices. 2. Is there telemetry? Yes, but you can opt-out entirely by running a single command. fig settings telemetry.disabled true 3. How will Fig make money? Fig will always be free for individuals. Teams pay for Fig for collaboration and discovery of internal scripts and for managing dev environment setup and onboarding. 4. Is there a Linux/Windows version? We are making really good progress and will have a prototype in the next month or so. See the Github issues for Linux[1] and Windows[2] [0] https://github.com/phracker/MacOSX-SDKs/blob/master/MacOSX10.6.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Headers/TextInputSources.h https://github.com/phracker/MacOSX-SDKs/blob/master/MacOSX10... [1] https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/34 https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/34 [2] https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/35 https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/35

shric 4y ago
> The idea is that you can configure your developer environment in Fig and then we'll sync it across all of your devices. What's Fig's target audience? Developers. Developers have been using a tried and tested way to keep configurations for decades -- dotfiles. We sync them across all our devices using git (or any of a thousand other ways). This is a solved problem and doesn't require email addresses or logins.
- 4y ago

peheje 4y ago

I don't understand why you need my e-mail during setup.

mschrage 4y ago
I mentioned this in another comment [0]. > Autocomplete is just our first product, and it's part of a suite of tools focused on improving developer experience in the terminal. The idea is that you can configure your developer environment in Fig and then we'll sync it across all of your devices. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31113668 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31113668
- peheje 4y ago
  Could this sync-feature be opt-in instead of mandatory?

ushakov 4y ago

Fig is macOS-only, proprietary, requires e-mail and has telemetry Fig relies on free labour to add completions and does not support open-source completion formats Fig is VC-funded and at some point will have to generate revenue for it’s investors - at your cost don’t use Fig! if you have zsh you can use zsh-autocomplete, which is no worse than Fig https://github.com/marlonrichert/zsh-autocomplete https://github.com/marlonrichert/zsh-autocomplete edit: this comment was the most popular before HN moderators pinned it down, turns out Fig is YC-sponsored, so i’m not surprised

mschrage 4y ago
`zsh-autocomplete` is a great tool as well! Some of this is just a matter of personal preference. I've answered a few of your concerns in a different comment[0]. tl;dr Autocomplete is just our first product, and it's part of a suite of tools focused on improving developer experience in the terminal. The idea is that you can configure your developer environment in Fig and then we'll sync it across all of your devices. Fig will always be free for individuals. Teams pay for Fig for collaboration and discovery of internal scripts and for managing dev environment setup and onboarding. A Linux/Windows version is coming soon. [1] [2] [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31113668 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31113668. [1] https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/34 https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/34 [2] https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/35 https://github.com/withfig/fig/issues/35
- ushakov 4y ago
  > The idea is that you can configure your developer environment in Fig and then we'll sync it across all of your devices don’t make it look like you’re solving a complicated problem i don’t have 10000 computers at home that i want to sync my configs to neither do i change my zsh config every day you do understand that this is a non-issue? > Fig will always be free for individuals. Teams pay for Fig for collaboration and discovery of internal scripts and for managing dev environment setup and onboarding. what? people pay for it? you must be kidding, right? there’s one reason you’re being ridiculed here: you have no moat, no unique value proposition, but you can’t just take your ball and go home, because you have investors whom you promised that this shit is big and will make you guys rich luckily HN-community understands that and won’t eat your worthless crap

gourneau 4y ago

Is anyone else getting this warning? I am using macOS 12.3.1, iTerm2 3.4.15 and bash 3.2.57(1) bash: trap: __bp_install: invalid signal specification

mschrage 4y ago
Update your iTerm shell integration and the issue should be resolved! Please run `fig issue` and I'll investigate.
- gourneau 4y ago
  Thanks that is working now!

zokier 4y ago

Hacking IME and/or accessibility features to provide shell autocompletion is certainly ... creative solution.

mschrage 4y ago
One of our core principles is backwards compatibility. We want Fig to be a seamless addition to your existing tools and workflows! It's taken some creativity on the engineering side, but has been super fun to see what we've been able to build when working with these constraints.

spark3k 4y ago

Of course there's a lot of HN bitterness here. But I like Fig. I've been running my own heavily customised .zshrc for about a decade with loads of bells and whistles in terms of autocomplete and customised prompts and what not and it has been great and I've kept it current with cool new toys. But I've dumped most of it in the last month for Fig. I like seeing command specific options, relevant to the current context, and in a long list which I can scan and scroll quickly. I go to documentation MUCH less now and I'm faster with it. And that's most of what I care about. Commence retaliations...

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
spoils19 4y ago
Learn the tools, stay away from the toys. Hundreds of developers have been incredibly productive with a regular shell - there isn't any practical need for a product like Fig. If it were me and I was seeking more productivity from my shell, I would dive into books into how to improve it for myself rather than hook myself to another tool.
- cyral 4y ago
  If I was seeking to be more productive I would probably install a tool like Fig and be done with it rather than spend time diving into the books to customize my shell. I think a lot of people in this thread are overlooking the simplicity of installing it and having it "just work" versus spending time fiddling with zsh configs.
  - ushakov 4y ago
    configuring zsh is easier that you could possibly think you only have to do it once and forget about it

cyral 4y ago

This is the first time I've heard of Fig, just downloaded it and it's a hell lot slicker than zsh-autocomplete. It would be great to make the telemetry opt-out more noticeable, preferably on setup, I would not have noticed it unless I saw the comment with the command to run. (Although I now see it's buried in the settings too)

ushakov 4y ago
agreed! it's so awesome that we now have a proprietary, VC-baked, telemetry-enabled tool that does everything free and open-source zsh-autocomplete can!
- cyral 4y ago
  Not sure why you are being so negative on this thread. It took me 30 seconds rather than fiddling with commands and installing various autocomplete plugins and packages to get a nice config. I've done that before and don't have time these days to work on my "perfect" zsh config. I don't really care how they got their money, telemetry is opt out and they claim it's private right on the homepage. zsh-autocomplete now has some competition so maybe both products will innovate at a faster pace.
  - ushakov 4y ago
    > they claim it's private right on the homepage yeah right, let's just blindly trust them! > zsh-autocomplete now has some competition Fig can't compete, because it only works on mac and isn't open-source