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Null 0.1.1

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@github-actions github-actions released this 15 Oct 06:10
· 19 commits to main since this release
7af8a51

What testing on fresh Windows, Ubuntu and Mac machines found, installers and uninstalling
everywhere, several folders in one window, and a new license.

Windows, from its first tests

  • The window's minimise, maximise and close buttons work, and so do dragging, double-clicking
    and snap layouts.
  • Ctrl+O opens a folder; File › Close Folder (also in Ctrl+K) leaves the window empty.
  • Started from a shortcut, Null opens the last project; a file opened from the terminal goes
    to the window that holds it.
  • Git, Node, Python and other tools are found in their usual Windows folders, and a missing
    Git is said as such, not as "not a repository".
  • The welcome asks where AI answers come from on a step of its own, once AI is wanted.
  • Shortcuts work on every keyboard: on digits and symbols they follow the key's place on
    the keyboard (on a French AZERTY: Ctrl+ù terminal, Ctrl+: comment, Ctrl+& first tab), and
    Ctrl+J shows and hides the terminal (Join Lines moves to Ctrl+Shift+J). On Linux an
    AZERTY's digit row works without Shift.

Everywhere

  • Several folders in one window: Add Folder to Window…, folders dropped on the files, or
    null api web. Each folder is a heading in the files; ⌘P, search, symbols and git's marks
    cover them all; each gets its own language servers; git follows the file you're in, with a
    picker of the folders' repositories in the Git panel. The window remembers its folders.
  • Null is now under the GNU General Public License 3.0 (0.1.0 stays MIT or Apache 2.0).
  • Quick settings: − + and ← → are buttons; the ≡ button lists every command.
  • Committing a file ends the changes shown in it.

From testing on fresh Windows and Ubuntu machines

  • Windows: Null starts on a fresh Windows (it needed Microsoft's Visual C++ runtime,
    VCRUNTIME140.dll, which only comes with other software).
  • Linux: with no file dialog on the system (no desktop portal, as on a bare window manager),
    Open, Open Folder and Add Folder let you type the path, listing what's in each folder.
  • null --version and null --help answer in the terminal; on Linux without a display,
    Null says so instead of waiting.
  • Typing cart in Ctrl+P finds cart.rs before Cargo.toml: letters typed together come
    first.
  • Ctrl+P puts a source file before what's built from it: test_cart.py before
    pycache/test_cart.cpython-312.pyc.
  • Running the test at the cursor (and a file's, or all of them) uses unittest, which comes
    with Python, when the project shows no sign of pytest; each test's result is read from it.
  • Windows and Linux: Ctrl+Shift shortcuts (Ctrl+Shift+G the changes, Ctrl+Shift+P commands)
    work from the terminal too; plain Ctrl keys stay the shell's.
  • Ctrl+K: a theme typed by its name ("paper") is offered as itself, not the row that steps
    through themes.
  • Go to Line leaves the keys in the code, even when a list (the Git panel's branches) had
    them before.
  • With no folder open, the status bar doesn't show Null's own scratch folder.
  • Linux: keys the desktop doesn't take for itself. The test at the cursor is
    Ctrl+Shift+F10 (Ctrl+Alt+T opened a terminal), a cursor above or below Ctrl+Shift+↑/↓
    (Ctrl+Alt+↑/↓ switched workspaces).
  • Windows and Linux: Ctrl+P and Ctrl+N in the search results and the suggestion list are
    Go to File and a new file again (they moved through the list, as on the Mac).
  • The welcome keeps the keys while it shows: typing could reach a file reopened behind it.
  • Linux: a project's window reopened at start is drawn at once (over remote desktop on
    GNOME it stayed blank until a key was pressed).
  • Ctrl+K offers to install the file's missing language server ("Install Python Language
    Server"), as the status bar does.
  • The Windows installer doesn't ask about an existing folder when installing again.
  • After Close Folder the title and the files say no folder is open.
  • AI is off until you turn it on: the welcome's AI step starts on Off (if you already use
    AI, it stays on).
  • Linux: an API key is saved even where the system has no keyring yet (as after an xrdp
    login): Null asks for one to be made. The key can also come from its environment
    variable, as NVIDIA_API_KEY.
  • A hosted AI service that hasn't started answering after a minute is said as such (with a
    hint to try another model), instead of "Writing…" forever: NVIDIA's free models can keep a
    request waiting for minutes.
  • NVIDIA: the suggested models are ones its free tier answers today: Nemotron 3 Super, Nemotron
    3.5 Lightning (also for suggestions while typing) and GLM 5.3. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash never
    answered and the code models were gone; a saved one gives way to the default.

Installers

  • Windows: an installer, for you alone (no administrator): the Start menu, null on the
    PATH, "Open with Null" on folders and files, an uninstaller. The .zip stays.
  • Ubuntu and Debian: a .deb, null in /usr/bin for every terminal at once.
  • Linux's install.sh adds ~/.local/bin to your shell's PATH when it isn't there (zsh never
    had it).
  • Uninstalling, everywhere: the Windows uninstaller and Linux's new uninstall.sh (kept in
    ~/.local/share/null) ask whether your settings, saved API keys, history and language
    servers go too; on the Mac, ⌘K › Uninstall Null… quits, moves Null to the Trash and removes
    the null command. The guide has a section on it.