evanem

Hi, I'm Evan, developer of Modern CSV, a tabular file editor for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

I posted about version 2 a year and a half ago and thought I'd do a follow up since I've added a lot of features since then. I just added printing and PDF export capability, a popular request among my user base. I've also added pivot tables, JSON and XML importing and exporting, improved statistics, ASCII Separated Values parsing, aesthetic improvements, and a bunch of little things to improve the user experience.

It's enough to justify a major version upgrade, but I have some lofty plans for version 3 which is in the works. If you have any requests, I'd love to hear them!

Many of your complaints were addressed in version 2. These include:

- A preferences window for settings, keyboard shortcuts, and file extension options

- A Unique Values feature

- A File Metadata pane to easily set up things like header rows

A few were addressed in version 1:

- Persistent storage of settings set via command

- Headers rows frozen by default

Header columns work the same way as header rows, just vertically. I use consistent verbiage for clarity. If they appeared to do nothing for you, the reason is probably that the number of header columns is 0 by default. I haven't seen any confusion about it since adding the File Metadata pane.

There's a Minimum Number of Table Rows/Columns setting that's set to 50 by default. You can set it as low as 1. There's also a Number of Buffer Rows/Columns that will add rows and columns beyond the data. It's set to 2 by default.

I'll take a good look at scrolling on Mac. I haven't seen problems with my setup, so I'll work to reproduce what others are seeing.

It does delimiter auto detection and for the Statistics feature, it automatically detects dot vs. comma decimals.

I've never seen or heard of this issue. By any chance, could you send me a file that it crashes on? That or a video showing the crash. You can send them here: https://www.moderncsv.com/report-a-bug/

I would expect this to take some time, but not minutes. I'll see if I can make it quicker and if not, I'll have to add a progress bar.

1. If you copied from another table, it should paste as a table. If you copied a bunch of delimited text, then yes, it'll paste into a single column and you can you the Split Selected Cells Horizontally command to separate it into columns.

2. That first bug is known and for reasons I don't recall, is much trickier than one would think. It's still on my to-do list. The thing with dragging and selecting everything sounds like it might be scrolling really fast.

3. I'll consider it. Perhaps a smart paste option where it attempts to determine the nature of the text (e.g. whether it's a database table or what kind of delimiter it uses) and pastes accordingly.

4. I'll give this some thought as well. I'm not sure that disabling the commands is the way to go if the user doesn't know why they're disabled.

5. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. Also, if you do buy and change your mind, just let me know and I'll issue a refund right away.

I've been meaning to do this. I appreciate the reminder.

I appreciate that. However, I did know what I was getting into. :)

When you select after filtering, are you doing a select all (ctrl+a or cmd+a in Mac)? Or selecting the top row and hitting shift+down to get to the bottom? Ideally, it shouldn't make a difference, but with the way it works now, it does. That's something I need to fix. If you do a select all, you can use the down arrow key to push the selection below the header.

I'll set up a similar file and see what I can do to improve this.

For now, one alternative is to filter OUT the data you want removed, then use the Remove All Filtered Out and Hidden Data command.

Definitely not my intent.

Just to clarify, I did give you version 2 license keys that worked on those beta releases and this version 2 release at no extra charge, as I promised. I also changed the beta releases to not have a time limit and accept license keys instead. The beta releases I provided had nearly the same capability and quality as this one.

There's a setting to automatically fit the column widths based on the contents and it's turned on by default. You can turn it off and manually change the sizes, but they'll be lost once you close the program. If you change the file name externally, it'll assume the current file has been deleted. You can change the file name within the program with the Rename File command.

That's a fair critique. While the app last year was mostly ready to go (aside from a few features I later decided to add), most of the issues I've had to deal with since have been related to other things (sales form, website, etc.). The license keys I gave you should work on this latest version.

You're right, Mac trackpad handling is something I need to address. It's on my to-do list.

The name only refers to the app's features and appearance. Well before I started development, I was looking for a CSV editor for my own use and everything I tried had a 90s look and feel. I figured just because the format is ancient doesn't mean the applications for it should be.

Yes, you can use it on as many machines as you want and there's no limitation on platforms either.

It can convert date and time formats. It can also write down the current date/time in whatever format you want.

That has not been on my roadmap, but I'll think about it. It sounds like it may have to be a separate product, not that that's a bad thing.

Qt 6 with C++.

Hi, I'm Evan and I developed Modern CSV. Last year, the beta version of version 2 was posted here on Hacker News. As a follow-up, I'm letting you guys know that the beta period is over and Modern CSV 2 is now available.

Modern CSV is a tabular file editor/viewer for Windows, Mac, and Linux. I developed it out of frustration with how spreadsheet programs handle CSV files. Plain text editors, on the other job, do a poor job of handling columns. With Modern CSV, I attempt to combine the best of both worlds.

With version 2, you can expect to see an improved UI/UX, better performance, more useful features, updated documentation, and for Mac users, native Apple Silicon support.

If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot and let me know what you think!

I made a file of 9s and it took about a second. I made a video: https://moderncsv.com/videos-temp/load-image9.mp4

You have to change the setting in the Settings file (Edit Settings command) under the "User Value" column. Changing it under the "Default Value" column is a common mistake that's really my fault, so I intend to rectify it soon.

If it still doesn't perform like that for you, let me know.

I figured out it. It's due to the Auto-Fit Column Width setting. By default, it's enabled. Most files don't have a ton of columns so it's fine, but for 1920 columns, it can really slow things down. When I loaded the file with the setting enabled, it took about 40 seconds. When I tried again with the setting disabled, it took about 1 second.

For now, I may put a band-aid on it with a popup asking if you want to disable the feature when there are a lot of columns. I have some ideas on how to make it more efficient. I'll see what I can do before the full release.

It's handled much larger files than that, so if it's something you don't mind sharing, you can send the file at https://www.moderncsv.com/report-a-bug. It is a beta version, so I'm trying to fix all these issues now.

Edit: On second thought, it's probably grayscale intensity hex values of a 1920x1080 image. I can reproduce that myself. Feel free to send me your file if you want, but it might not be necessary.

I could do that for vim users.

That is really useful information. Thanks!

That seems to be a common issue. I put "!!! Make changes below !!!" above the User Value column, but if you scroll straight down to the Theme row, you may miss that. Perhaps I could swap the User Value and Default Value column or pop up a message if the user edits the Default Value column.

You and I think alike because that was my initial thought. The practical considerations make it tricky. I may still do it, but I first plan to embed Python to allow users to implement their own commands.