Nuclide Review

Productivity Features For JavaScript Development

To improve the quality of JavaScript, Nuclide integrates with Flow, a static typechecker for JavaScript. Because of this integration, Nuclide offers developers features that increase their productivity as they work on their Flow-enabled JavaScript.

One of the productivity features for developing JavaScript is code diagnostics. With this feature, when a written code fails the Flow typechecker, Nuclide generates the error details. Another feature is the capability to jump into definitions and symbols. As an example, if developers want to go to the definition of arr_length(), they can hover over it and press Cmd-<mouse click> (Ctrl-<mouse click> on Linux). They can also jump into its definition using  Cmd-Option-Enter (Ctrl-Alt-Enter on Linux).

Pinning type hints in Flow files is made possible by Nuclide’s type hinting feature. This feature permits developers to hover over a variable and access its type directly inline. To pin the type hint of a variable, they just need to click the pin icon when they hover over a variable. Meanwhile, Nuclide has a type coverage feature which lets developers determine how much of the Flow file has been covered by the Flow typechecker so far.

IDE For Hack Projects

Nuclide allows users to build Hack projects. In fact, it is the first IDE that provides support for Hack. Hack is a programming language for HHVM, an open-source virtual machine and execution engine. Users need to install both Hack and HHVM on their system so they can take advantage of the Hack integration features. Through such integration, developers can access search options that are specific to the Hack programming language.

Task Runner

Through the aid of its Task Runner toolbar, Nuclide makes is possible for developers to build, run, test, and debug Buck projects. Buck is a high-performance and fast build system developed and used by Facebook. From this toolbar, they will be able to access the options they need in managing Buck projects. In addition, Nuclide’s Task Runner toolbar permits the creation of Swift packages as well as the execution of tests for such packages. Swift is a powerful and multi-purpose programming language.

Built-In Debugging Capabilities

Nuclide provides a built-in debugger that is designed based on  Chrome DevTools. This debugger can work on various languages and platforms. With the Nuclide Debugger, developers can set breakpoints, track the values of global and local variables; and step into, over, and out of code using its stepping functionality.

Remote Development

There is a very interesting feature in Nuclide which allows users to manage their projects remotely. Nuclide is composed of an optional server which can be set up on any remote machine through a Node apm package. After the Nuclide server is installed on the machine, users then connect to the server to work on their projects remotely. As remote connection is established, the root folder of the project is added to the Project Explorer’s File Tree, an area within Nuclide which organizes both local projects and projects on remote machines.

Define Working Sets

Nuclide has a feature called Working Set which permits developers to select a subset of folders or files contained in a root folder. This is a handy feature for developers when they just need to work on specific folders and files within a large project. This feature can be accessed from the Project Explorer.

At the upper right corner of the Project Explorer, developers will see a  + button which allows them to select the folders and files that will be included in the Working Set. Once they’re done selecting all the necessary folders and files, they will observe that the Project Explorer’s File Tree becomes more condensed, hiding the folders and files they don’t need and showing only the ones they selected.

Support For Mercurial Projects

To wrap it up, Nuclide extends the source control capabilities of Atom and optimizes them by providing support for Mercurial. For instance, the development environment uses File Tree highlighting so developers can see the files that have been changed in a Mercurial repository or project since their last commit. Files that are highlighted in orange means there are changes made to such files. When folders are highlighted in orange, it indicates that the files within those folders have been changed. For files or folders that are ignored or untracked, Nuclide shows them in grey. Lastly, green files or folders indicate that they are newly created.