Release Notes: Nova 11

Version 11

May 17, 2023

This new release brings huge advancements to Nova's Git features, adds flexible interface improvements, and provides advanced font support, as well as enhancements and fixes across all parts of the app. It's all part of our goal to make Nova better and better with every update.

Robust Git Support

Level up your Git workflow with repo and submodule management, commit signing, amending, and a fully redesigned Git sidebar.

Powerful Workspace Improvements

Add flexibility to your workspace with project tabs, pinnable workspace tabs, and magnifiable split panes.

Professional Font Feature Support

Configure optional font variations, ligatures, and an extensive set of font features.

New

Multiple projects can now be grouped into a single window as individual window tabs
Tabs can now be pinned to the left side of each tab bar
Individual splits can now be “magnified” to take up the entire content area
Split panes can now be closed in their entirety using the close button to the far left of its tab bar
Create new text documents and open existing files and folders in Nova using Shortcuts on macOS 13.0 (Ventura) and later
Added advanced support for configuring optional font variations and features in the editor
A URL scheme action has been added to open a file nova://open?path=[path]&line=[line]&type=[syntax]
Git: Added support for commit signing using GPG keys, SSH keys, or X.509 certificates
Git: The current branch name is now displayed in the status bar
Git: A new “Repository” sidebar section allows for management of branches, tags, and more
Git: Added support for amending commits
Git: Added support for manually merging branches into HEAD
Git: Changes can now be viewed as either a tree or a list
Git: Added support for automatic, configurable fetching of remote changes
Git: The commit message field will now autofill from a template if set in the Git configuration
Git: “Discard Changes” can now be used on untracked files to delete them
Git: Added support for resolving hostnames from ~/.ssh/config
Git: Changes can now be discarded for the focused file from the Project → Git submenu
Git: Mailmaps are now supported for displaying updated names and email addresses for past commit authors and committers
Git: Inline “Author” placeholders for uncommitted lines can now be hidden
Git: Inline “Authors” and “Show Last Change for Line” can now optionally ignore changes in whitespace
Git: The commit details popover now supports one-click copy of the long commit hash
Git: The “Commit” field of the Git sidebar can now be accessed through the menu bar
Comparison: Added support for ignoring changes in whitespace
Comparison: Now supports drag and drop of files
Comparison: Changes to text within each hunk are now displayed inline
Tasks: The current Git branch is now available as an argument or environment variable wildcard
Git Accounts: Added support for “Gitea”
Vim mode: Added support for Control-N and Control-P for navigation of completions in Insert mode
Vim mode: Added support for Control-A and Control-X to increment or decrement, respectively, the number under the cursor in Normal mode
Vim mode: Added support for zc and zo to fold and unfold code, respectively, in Normal mode
Color Picker: The hue slider no longer displays inaccurate color values in some circumstances
Accessibility: Three new indentation guide color palettes are available to help users with protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia
Added an option to suppress warnings when inserting characters with an incompatible encoding
Enforce a maximum width to minimap hover indicators for cases when symbol names are very large
Settings: Added a help button that links to documentation on how Nova sources Environment Variables from Settings > Tools
PHP: Added some missing function completions, such as http_build_query()
PHP: Added /** */ as an auto-closing pair (to assist Intelephense users with completion of documentation comments)
JavaScript / TypeScript: Improved object literal symbolication
Python: Inserting a newline after the ending : of a match or case statement now indents the new line

New for Extensions

Tree-sitter: Added support for several new filter predicates to allow for more complex queries
Language Servers: Added built-in support for “Format Document” and “Format Selection” when a compatible language server is available
Language Servers: Added support for “Jump to Type Declaration”, “Jump to Type Definition”, “Jump to Implementations”, and “Jump to References”

Improved

Code hovers now use the same font size and scaling as the editor
In-window notifications with large body text can now be scrolled
Parsing of all built-in languages has been moved to the NovaParseService XPC service
Performance improvements to scroll responsiveness for massive files (>100MB)
Languages: The XML, INI, Diff, and Shell Script parsers have been migrated to Tree-sitter
Automatic insert of closing delimiters now happens after typing additional characters, instead of immediately
Zero-width control characters now display the hexadecimal codepoint instead of an “unknown” glyph
Improved handling of CRLF (Windows) line endings for certain text movements, especially in Vim mode
Git: Improved handling of SSH StrictHostKeyChecking support
Git: Avatar fetching is now performed with GitHub first, before falling back to Gravatar
Git: Improved error reporting when attempting to push to protected branches without adequate access
Git: Custom hooks now inherit the login shell environment also used by Tasks, to better emulate as if running in an interactive shell
Git: Improved handling of timezone offsets when updating the Git reflog
Movement or selection forward by word now takes identifier prefixes into account (such as $ in PHP)
Extension syntax detectors are now consulted when determining if a file can be opened as text, before consulting system identifiers
TypeScript/TSX: Angle brackets are now treated as a surrounding pair when typing the opening bracket
Files sidebar: While editing a filename, double-clicking now selects individual components, not the entire filename
Launcher: Remote project items now show their URL in the list view location column, if applicable
Navigation controls are now always displayed for the remote sidebar, regardless of the “show navigation controls” preference

Fixed

Addressed a potential hang when closing the preferences window after editing a text field
Resolved an issue with using Move Lines Up / Down with multiple cursors on consecutive lines
LSP completions now work as expected when using multiple cursors
Addressed a problem with ligature rendering when using a block-style cursor
The “Save In Keychain” checkbox for SSH key passphrase alerts now works as expected
Code structure headers no longer display a line number when disabled in the editor preferences
Resolved a potential hang when displaying a code structure header that contains a very large number of characters
The line number gutter now sizes itself more accurately when using a proportional font with varying digit widths
Fixed a potential crash when attempting to display tooltips for text decorations that have already been removed
Visible path bar folder list pop-overs are now automatically closed if the file’s path is changed in the background
Resolved an issue which could cause narrow content splits to resize when focus or selection changes
Interactive spell checking can now be performed without enabling “check spelling while typing”
Resolved a potential case where the editor could “jump” when the scroll viewport was near the bottom
Fixed a potential crash when parsing JavaScript template literal expressions which contain only a string substitution
Resolved a case where certain characters in filenames would render incorrectly in transient tab titles
Improved some cases where typing performance could be slower than expected following large sections of code that had been folded
The “Save & Publish” menu item can now be rebound to a custom key binding independently of the “Save” item and its alternates
Resolved a case where error propagation in the JS Streams API could crash the extension service
Pressing Tab from within the Find banner “Replace” field now moves focus to the editor
Addressed a visual flash that could occur when opening document tabs and using the dark themes
Settings: The Nova Developer sign in sheet now validates after being autofilled from macOS Passwords
Tasks: Expanding variables containing special characters, such as the ampersand, now works as expected
Tasks: Invoking a large remote task script should now properly send the entire script before sending an EOF
Project Settings: Resolved an issue with saving extension task configurations if project settings was closed while editing a value
Project Settings: Resolved a case where renaming a task or remote destination to a name already in use would delete the renamed item
Git: Resolved an issue preventing use of SSH two-factor authentication
Git: Fixed an issue that prevented commits if the repository was in a detached HEAD state
Git: Resolving a merge or rebase state outside of Nova now clears the prepared commit message
Git: New repositories without commits will now show the default branch name instead of “No Commits.”
Git: Addressed an issue which could prevent editor gutter change annotations from updating after a commit
Git: Invoking the “Project → Git → Push” menu item in a repository with multiple remotes now works as expected
Git: Pushing references to a remote that is up to date will now skip the push, preventing remote hooks from triggering unexpectedly
Git: Fixed a potential crash when creating a commit or tag if the value of user.name or user.email Git config options were malformed
Git: Improved handling of repository initialization and deletion from external sources while Nova is running
Git: Attempting to merge a branch into HEAD when uncommitted conflicting changes are present now displays an alert and aborts the merge
Comparison: Resolved an issue with building comparison regions if the final region intersected the end of both files without a trailing newline
Comparison: Scroll position is now more accurately maintained when the comparison views are updated after editor settings are modified
Terminal: CSI r, A, and B should now respect terminal dimensions
Terminal: Mouse events are now sent in reverse when holding control-option-command
Terminal: Resolved a potential issue combining characters that follow wide characters
Terminal: Tabs no longer become focused when reconnecting as part of state restoration
Terminal: Remote terminal windows should now prompt for Yubikey PIN entry when applicable
Vim mode: Fixed a potential issue with movements that cross emoji
CLI: Resolved an issue with the creation of unsaved files
CLI: Resolved an issue where piping an opened file to stdout would fail if the path was specified as absolute
CLI: Attempting to open a symbolic link or alias which points to a folder now opens the folder as a project
Files sidebar: Invoking the “Publish” contextual menu item now honors publishing ignore rules
Files sidebar: Right-clicking the filename of a selected file no longer causes the filename to become editable
Files sidebar: Expanding recursive symlinks in the Files sidebar no longer leads to a hang or crash in some circumstances
Files sidebar: Fixed an issue which prevented files from being displayed when “Ignore files excluded by Git” was disabled
Find sidebar: Resolved an issue where the progress indicator could appear to fill backwards as directories to search were enumerated
Symbols sidebar: Addressed a case where adjusting the slider to the first position would not collapse all symbols
Symbols sidebar: Improved performance of displaying and updating the tree of symbols for very large or complex documents
Debug console: Improved parsing of terminal ANSI color codes
Debug console: When accepting completions, settings for whether Tab or Return accept are now respected
Preview: Addressed a potential crash when dismissing a JavaScript alert due to queued keyboard events
Publishing: Deleting and recreating the local publishing root folder no longer enqueues the folder itself
HTML: Entities using a Unicode escape code should now highlight properly
Ruby: Syntax highlighting of method arguments is now more consistent
Ruby: Autocomplete no longer improperly adds “self” to completion of instance method definitions
JavaScript: Fixed an issue which prevented Web API completions from being offered
Extension Library: Fixed a potential layout issue for extensions with many categories

Version 11.10

September 10, 2024

New

Beta releases of Nova can now be installed, if desired! Please see Settings > General for more information.

Fixed

Addressed a potential crash when scrolling text files with multiple invalid characters
JavaScript: Completions for Window are now exposed in the global context
Terminal: Fixed an issue with soft-wrapping in tmux that could cause text to overflow split panes
Localization: The “Close Window” menu item now properly translated in all languages

Version 11.9

March 6, 2024

Improved

Greatly improved editor scrolling / typing performance when very large Git change annotations extend offscreen
CSS: Completions have been updated for the latest standardized and experimental language features
JavaScript: Simplified completion suggestion weights with the intent of improving user experience
JavaScript: Completions have been updated for the latest official language release
Python: Added syntax highlighting for the bitwise assignment operators (&=, |=, and ^=)
Workspace: Improved automatic resizing of splits when adding or removing panes

Fixed

Addressed an issue with syntax highlighting preferring general selectors over specific ones in some circumstances
Fixed a crash when displaying invisible characters in documents containing Unicode code points in the range 0x200B–0x200F
Resolved a case where code structure headers could get out of sync during rapid scrolling
Improved automatic adjusting of the scroll viewport when “Wrap Lines” is disabled
Addressed a potential hang when local volume listings aren’t working as expected
JavaScript/TypeScript: Fixed symbolication naming of certain object literals from being displayed as k1k1
Files Sidebar: Addressed an issue with renaming new folders created on iCloud drive
Files Sidebar: Resolved a crash when auto-revealing items while the file tree is filtered
Files Sidebar: Spaces are no longer auto-inserted when pasting into a rename field directly after a period .
Files Sidebar: Improved drawing of the file name edit field when using a Graphite system accent color
Find Sidebar: Fixed a possible crash when performing a project-wide replace using a zero-width regex expression
French Localization: Corrected translation of “tabs” (as in indentation) to “tabulations” where appropriate
Git Accounts: Addressed a case where SSH keys specified in account settings were not used as expected
macOS Big Sur: Resolved a rare crash on launch
Microsoft Azure: Improved handling of errors when user names contain invalid characters
Spell Check: Parsing of very large plain text regions should no longer cause the UI to hang in some circumstances
Themes: Selections now properly draw above backgrounds applied to specific text ranges
Workspaces: Improved positioning of project windows reopened outside of macOS state restoration
Workspaces: Resolved an issue with new project windows not cascading in certain situations
XML: Fixed syntax highlighting of tag names containing underscores

Version 11.8

December 19, 2023

Fixed

Resolved a potential crash when using Find -> Replace All in plain text documents
Scroll bar annotation markers now adjust properly during window resizes
Addressed an issue that could cause the parser to enter an infinite loop when highlighting or indexing certain files
SFTP/SSH: Implemented a security fix for CVE-2023-48795, which could allow an attacker to downgrade the security of SSH connections
Terminal: lines no longer draw outside of the terminal region when GPU acceleration is disabled on macOS 14
Terminal: Cursor position is now properly reset after a CSI 3J
Color Pops: Resolved a button label layout issue with the German localization
File Transfers: Fixed an issue with the conflict resolution sheet background color on macOS 14
File Browser: Fixed drawing of the breadcrumbs in light themes when “Show File Count” is enabled on macOS 14
File Browser: The “Servers” and “Quick Connect” tab labels are no longer clipped on macOS 14
First Launch: Action button titles are no longer clipped on macOS 14
First Launch: Resolved a layout issue with the Coda 2 migration pane in German and French localizations

Version 11.7

December 5, 2023

Fixed

Improved text layout performance of very long lines containing differing syntax highlighting attributes when line wrapping is disabled
The “Editor” main menu item and its counterparts (“Terminal”, “Preview”, etc.) now resize properly when swapping tab types on macOS 14
Multi-line selections are now drawn as expected on macOS 14 “Sonoma” when line wrapping is disabled
Code structure headers are no longer misaligned when using specific screen resolutions or font sizes
Addressed an issue that could cause code structure headers to become scrambled in some circumstances
Improved horizontal sizing of the Language Server Protocol hint hovers in certain cases
File Browser: Improved layout of permissions section of the information sidebar/window
Remote Terminal: IdentityAgent config directive is now parsed as expected when using jump hosts
Terminal: Emulation improvements when using older versions of nano
Terminal: Fixed file list rendering when using zsh-interactive-cd
Extension Library: The correct license tab content is now displayed when viewing library extensions that are not yet installed.
Resolved an issue where editor keyboard shortcuts were not always routed correctly when using macOS 14.2+

Version 11.6

September 26, 2023

Fixed

Fixed an issue where Code Structure Headers could cause the editor to jump position when adding or removing new lines
macOS Sonoma: Type and Function Separators are now displayed as expected when line wrapping is disabled

Version 11.5

September 22, 2023

Improved

Node/Deno Debugging: Added support for explicitly defining path mappings between local and remote filesystems when debugging a Node or Deno instance running remotely, such as in a Docker container

Fixed

Addressed a potential crash when using “Move Lines Down”
Fixed a case where scrolling could cause code structure headers to flicker
Publishing: “Save & Publish” no longer re-enqueues the file for publishing in some cases
Chrome Debug: Resolved an issue with code stepping in some nightly builds of Chrome
Find & Replace: Fixed a potential crash when doing a multi-file replace with an empty replacement string
Git: Fixed a case where the current branch in the toolbar would not update when changed from outside of Nova
Tabs: Pinning a tab now makes it non-transient
Tabs: Dragging a tab out of the tab bar and then back into a new position now adjusts pinned state accordingly
Vim: Fixed behavior of cw and cW when used on a single-character word
Terminal: Addressed an issue that could cause Nova to hang when restoring project state
Terminal: Improved scroll-to-bottom behavior to better work with page up/down
macOS 14.0 “Sonoma”: Resolved an issue with drawing of multi-line selections when line wrapping is disabled
Workspaces: The “Close Window” menu item now properly renames itself to “Close Window Tab” when multiple window tabs are present

Version 11.4

August 10, 2023

Fixed

Improved display of hover identifiers following folded codeblocks
“Jump to clicked position” now works more reliably when using editor scroll bars
Tab-indenting lines using multiple cursors no longer causes incorrect cursor positioning in some circumstances
Scrolling a document with a wheel mouse and clicking or typing no longer jumps the editor by several lines in certain cases
Resolved a case where tag auto-closing with multiple cursors may not work properly
Addressed an issue with option-double-clicking to select words when the cursor is within the second half of a glyph
Large text insertions or deletions no longer scroll the editor unexpectedly in some circumstances when line wrapping is disabled
Workspaces: New project windows now cascade when created to ensure visibility
Workspaces: Inactive tabs no longer display progress indicators when disabled in project settings
Terminal: Opening the find bar no longer causes text to draw too far down
Git: Resolved a potential crash when rapid filesystem changes cause repeated updates of the Git status listings
Git: GitHub account authentication now requests the workflow OAuth scope to ensure that repositories using GitHub Actions can be cloned properly. (This may require you to re-authenticate your GitHub account in Nova’s settings)
Vim: Fixed a crash which happens when invoking next occurrence / f within a blank line
Minimap: Deleting blocks of whole lines in a plain text file no longer causes visual display issues
Minimap: Selected ranges and line highlights are now properly reflected after the document has been scrolled
Comparison View: Code hovers are now disabled as expected when viewing previous commits
The Code Actions popover is now scaled properly when “Show scroll bars” is set to “Always”
Improved scroll viewport positioning during animated scrolls, such as after Page Up / Down
Loading of project metadata (Tasks, Publishing, and Swatches) stored in iCloud Drive now works more reliably in betas of macOS Sonoma
Resolved a potential hang when opening or saving files in betas of macOS Sonoma

Version 11.3

July 17, 2023

Fixed

Extension completions are now offered when an extension does not also contribute a grammar
Improved scrolling performance of huge, single-line files with line wrapping off
Resolved a potential crash that can occur when invoking “Undo” or “Redo” with focus within a sidebar
Terminal: Fixed a potential deadlock when drawing
Terminal: Improved drawing while scrolling in certain versions of macOS
Git: SSH authentication no longer fails if a repository URL does not contain a username, and the osxkeychain credential helper is enabled
Resolved a potential crash when deleting a trailing document CR newline
Converting line endings of a document no longer incorrectly inserts a newline in some circumstances
Image documents no longer unexpectedly enable the Save menu item

Version 11.2

June 9, 2023

Fixed

Resolved a potential crash when modifying or pasting code with the minimap visible
Saving Plain Text files for the first time no longer results in a crash in some circumstances
Autoclosing of tags in regex-based grammars now works as expected
Git: Fixed a case where merge commits could be created incorrectly when integrating changes from the upstream branch
Git: Resolved a crash when discarding files via the Git sidebar
When copying a public key immediately after generation the key name and device are now included

Version 11.1

June 1, 2023

Fixed

Addressed a memory leak in the XPC parsing service
Improved auto-closing of tags in various circumstances
Resolved a potential crash when displaying very long code structure headers
Fixed a case where code structure headers would display with incorrect indentation
Addressed a problem with continuous word selection when using click-and-drag
The scroll viewport now maintains position during animated scrolls, such as after Page Up / Down
Resolved issues with tracking file indentation against the global indentation settings
Using the “Sort Tabs by Name / Type” commands while one or more tabs are pinned now works as expected
Fixed an issue with editor font styling that could cause some italicized fonts, like Operator Mono, to also be emboldened
Publishing: Marking a large number of files for publishing simultaneously no longer causes the editor to become temporarily unresponsive
Publishing: Publishing a folder no longer uploads it multiple times in some circumstances
Publishing: Filesystem events no longer unexpectedly enqueue multiple files when using certain project configurations
Accessibility: Improved contrast of selected text in some themes
When disabling parsing or swapping to Plain Text, rainbow brackets now recolor as expected
HTML: Resolved an issue preventing tag matching annotations from being displayed
HTML / PHP: Completions at the very end of a file now work as expected
JavaScript / PHP: switch statements can now be folded
Git: Resolved a case where merging two branches would fail unexpectedly
Git: Invocation of the post-checkout hook now properly provides the expected arguments
Minimap: Unfolding code containing bookmarks now updates them in the minimap as expected
Open Quickly: Bookmarks which contain multiple lines now truncate more reliably
Image Viewer: The path bar and footer placard are now visible when using a dark editor and light window theme
Preferences: Searching for the term ‘map’ now returns results for the minimap
Find sidebar: Fixed a potential layout issue with the “No project folder” placeholder
Newline characters can no longer be inserted into Server configuration text fields
Improved sidebar tab appearance when the “Increase Contrast” accessibility option is enabled