5 ms·

Show HN: Nightcode, the Clojure IDE, just hit 0.1.0

68 points by gw 13y ago

Intermernet 13y ago
Wow, this looks brilliant! I think this is what will finally persuade me to play with Clojure more. Public domain license as well... Nice work.
tyler-codenvy 13y ago
Nicely done - very impressive set of capabilities for an early release. Definitely interested in trying and learning more about Clojure with it.
billrobertson42 13y ago
A thought for you. Put up an image that hasn't been scaled for your screenshot. It looks fuzzy and indistinct, not the best first impression.
j_m_b 13y ago
We already have an IDE, it's called emacs.
- cbp 13y ago
  Speak for yourself. Not everyone using clojure uses emacs.
  - unlogic 13y ago
    I use Emacs for Clojure development (and pretty much everything else) and still think there should be a project like Nightcode. I frown everytime someone recommends Emacs to a newbie interested in Clojure (and hasn't used Emacs before). There is a lot of yak shaving to get the whole thing work (and comfortable) to scare away anyone.
    - Derbasti 13y ago
      Very true. I use Emacs myself, and I am happy to show it off and rave about its merits to felliw developers. But I don't recommend it to newbies. Newbies have enough on their plate with learning a new language. They don't need any distraction from that.
- pjmlp 13y ago
  It is a Lisp environment with a builtin text editor, not an IDE.
- reader5000 13y ago
  Maybe it's just me, but emacs is a huge pain to get set up on windows. I've been happy using lighttable for clojure hackery lately. This looks cool too, especially the android/java integration.
  - em7 13y ago
    Yes, it's a very huge pain in the back to get it set up right and get used to it, but it was worth it. I use it (for Clojure and Python) when I can not get modern IDE. However I checked counterclockwise after a long period of time - and there is almost nothing I miss. Eclipse is not my cup of tea (I'm IDEA user, let the Holy IDE War begin :) ), but more pleasant experience than emacs.
- d0m 13y ago
  "We already have transportation, it's called horses".
  - mschaef 13y ago
    A horse can do better than a Jeep, when the terrain gets rough, you don't have access to fuel, you don't want to make too much noise,... Horses for courses, as it were.
    - d0m 13y ago
      So, you're saying paper is better than Emacs when you don't have a computer nearby.
      - mschaef 13y ago
        Yes.
- mapcar 13y ago
  Doesn't Rich Hickey use emacs (aquamacs) for his development?
dman 13y ago
What ui toolkit is this using?
- gw 13y ago
  It is using the Clojure seesaw library, which is a wrapper around Swing. The theme is the Graphite skin from the Insubstantial project.
  - pjmlp 13y ago
    Great to know, plus points for using desktop libraries and not some HTML 5 wrapper thingie.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
pjmlp 13y ago
Nice work, I will surely have a try.
geertj 13y ago
This is the second IDE announcement on the front page in 2 days (the other one being PyCharm). So far I have resisted the temptation to use an IDE. Whenever I thought I needed a feature from an IDE, I investigated how to achieve it in Vim. I've become a reasonably advanced Vim user, and I feel very productive in it. Am I a dinosaur on its way to extinction? Or can none of these new IDEs match the power of Vim?
- gw 13y ago
  I actually wrote the initial release of Nightcode with Vim. I definitely don't expect many seasoned Vim/Emacs users to switch any time soon. I intended Nightcode to be a great "ready-made" way of getting started with Clojure, because it has everything you need built in. That's not to say advanced users can't find it useful, though. I now work on Nightcode using Nightcode itself, as a way of dog-fooding my own software.
  - JPKab 13y ago
    Quick question as a guy learning Clojure currently: I'm using LightTable right now, and thoroughly enjoying the Clojure experience. Can you explain what you see are the key differences in Nightcode vs. LightTable? I'm curious, because I would love to hear the thoughts of Nightcode's creator on this. I'm planning on giving Nightcode a try tonight.
    - gw 13y ago
      I think Light Table is more innovative, while Nightcode has a more "all-in-one" experience, bundling its own copy of Leiningen along with a few of its plugins for ClojureScript and Android development. Additionally, if it matters to you, Nightcode is free software (public domain), supports paredit mode, supports Java, and is entirely JVM-based rather than browser-based.
- TylerE 13y ago
  Frankly, yes. The code completion, inline documentation, refactoring, etc, in a modern IDE (especially IntelliJ products) is will beyond whats acheiveable in Vim. And there's always IdeaVim so you don't have to give up your muscle memory.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
systems 13y ago
This just works, great but where is the documentation? I also checked the github page, nothing there too
emeraldd 13y ago
Nice work! The interface looks clean and, so far, everything is pretty easy to use. A small note, I was able to get a default android target to Run but Build crashed. It looks like the Build option isn't pulling in the android.jar file ...
- gw 13y ago
  Thanks, I'll look into that.
- gw 13y ago
  Just wanted to alert you that the issue has been fixed and will be pushed out in the next release.
em7 13y ago
Very very good. However when I have a project with imported namespace (ns project.core (:require [seesaw.core :as s])) then when I write s/ and hit ctrl+space, the autocompletion does not see the stuff defined in that namespace. Do you plan to add this support to the editor, or it would be too big pain?
- gw 13y ago
  I'll make a note of this, thank you.

68 points by gw 13y ago

Wow, this looks brilliant! I think this is what will finally persuade me to play with Clojure more. Public domain license as well... Nice work.

tyler-codenvy 13y ago

Nicely done - very impressive set of capabilities for an early release. Definitely interested in trying and learning more about Clojure with it.

billrobertson42 13y ago

A thought for you. Put up an image that hasn't been scaled for your screenshot. It looks fuzzy and indistinct, not the best first impression.

j_m_b 13y ago

We already have an IDE, it's called emacs.

cbp 13y ago
Speak for yourself. Not everyone using clojure uses emacs.
- unlogic 13y ago
  I use Emacs for Clojure development (and pretty much everything else) and still think there should be a project like Nightcode. I frown everytime someone recommends Emacs to a newbie interested in Clojure (and hasn't used Emacs before). There is a lot of yak shaving to get the whole thing work (and comfortable) to scare away anyone.
  - Derbasti 13y ago
    Very true. I use Emacs myself, and I am happy to show it off and rave about its merits to felliw developers. But I don't recommend it to newbies. Newbies have enough on their plate with learning a new language. They don't need any distraction from that.
pjmlp 13y ago
It is a Lisp environment with a builtin text editor, not an IDE.
reader5000 13y ago
Maybe it's just me, but emacs is a huge pain to get set up on windows. I've been happy using lighttable for clojure hackery lately. This looks cool too, especially the android/java integration.
- em7 13y ago
  Yes, it's a very huge pain in the back to get it set up right and get used to it, but it was worth it. I use it (for Clojure and Python) when I can not get modern IDE. However I checked counterclockwise after a long period of time - and there is almost nothing I miss. Eclipse is not my cup of tea (I'm IDEA user, let the Holy IDE War begin :) ), but more pleasant experience than emacs.
d0m 13y ago
"We already have transportation, it's called horses".
- mschaef 13y ago
  A horse can do better than a Jeep, when the terrain gets rough, you don't have access to fuel, you don't want to make too much noise,... Horses for courses, as it were.
  - d0m 13y ago
    So, you're saying paper is better than Emacs when you don't have a computer nearby.
    - mschaef 13y ago
      Yes.
mapcar 13y ago
Doesn't Rich Hickey use emacs (aquamacs) for his development?

dman 13y ago

What ui toolkit is this using?

gw 13y ago
It is using the Clojure seesaw library, which is a wrapper around Swing. The theme is the Graphite skin from the Insubstantial project.
- pjmlp 13y ago
  Great to know, plus points for using desktop libraries and not some HTML 5 wrapper thingie.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

pjmlp 13y ago

Nice work, I will surely have a try.

geertj 13y ago

This is the second IDE announcement on the front page in 2 days (the other one being PyCharm). So far I have resisted the temptation to use an IDE. Whenever I thought I needed a feature from an IDE, I investigated how to achieve it in Vim. I've become a reasonably advanced Vim user, and I feel very productive in it. Am I a dinosaur on its way to extinction? Or can none of these new IDEs match the power of Vim?

gw 13y ago
I actually wrote the initial release of Nightcode with Vim. I definitely don't expect many seasoned Vim/Emacs users to switch any time soon. I intended Nightcode to be a great "ready-made" way of getting started with Clojure, because it has everything you need built in. That's not to say advanced users can't find it useful, though. I now work on Nightcode using Nightcode itself, as a way of dog-fooding my own software.
- JPKab 13y ago
  Quick question as a guy learning Clojure currently: I'm using LightTable right now, and thoroughly enjoying the Clojure experience. Can you explain what you see are the key differences in Nightcode vs. LightTable? I'm curious, because I would love to hear the thoughts of Nightcode's creator on this. I'm planning on giving Nightcode a try tonight.
  - gw 13y ago
    I think Light Table is more innovative, while Nightcode has a more "all-in-one" experience, bundling its own copy of Leiningen along with a few of its plugins for ClojureScript and Android development. Additionally, if it matters to you, Nightcode is free software (public domain), supports paredit mode, supports Java, and is entirely JVM-based rather than browser-based.
TylerE 13y ago
Frankly, yes. The code completion, inline documentation, refactoring, etc, in a modern IDE (especially IntelliJ products) is will beyond whats acheiveable in Vim. And there's always IdeaVim so you don't have to give up your muscle memory.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

systems 13y ago

This just works, great but where is the documentation? I also checked the github page, nothing there too

emeraldd 13y ago

Nice work! The interface looks clean and, so far, everything is pretty easy to use. A small note, I was able to get a default android target to Run but Build crashed. It looks like the Build option isn't pulling in the android.jar file ...

gw 13y ago
Thanks, I'll look into that.
gw 13y ago
Just wanted to alert you that the issue has been fixed and will be pushed out in the next release.

em7 13y ago

Very very good. However when I have a project with imported namespace (ns project.core (:require [seesaw.core :as s])) then when I write s/ and hit ctrl+space, the autocompletion does not see the stuff defined in that namespace. Do you plan to add this support to the editor, or it would be too big pain?

gw 13y ago
I'll make a note of this, thank you.