The blog MacApper has posted an “exclusive” review of an OS X application by Panic Inc. called Coda that is purported to be released Monday. I do think that something will be released, especially since Cabel from Panic was looking for beta testers a while back. From what I read, Coda is an all-in-one FTP/editor-type application. Initially this reminded me of skEdit but Panic goes far further than that.
Coda handles FTP transfers, comes with a fully-featured editor capable of syntax highlighting for common programming languages and an integrated CSS editor (think CSSEdit or the CSS tool in Adobe GoLive). Continuing with the feature list, Coda lets you open a terminal within it as well as view live previews of your website in addition to something called books. To the best of my knowledge, the books feature is something like a manual for various languages. Ideally, you wouldn’t need to resort to PHP.net to find out how to use something like say checkdnsrr() when writing an email verification script.
It appears as though Panic is targeting a specific type of web development user with Coda, if that is in fact the name of this application. The application seems to be designed as a one stop (development) shop. I can see a Coda user being a beginner to novice developer but I don’t think professionals will be bothering with this. I think Coda is trying to be too much.. I mean integrated terminal? Is having a separate terminal window open so bad? Also, once you go TextMate, you’ll never go back.
My development work flow involves TextMate, Transmit and a browser – nothing more, nothing less. Regardless, I’ll be interested in trying this app out for myself. Cabel, how about floating me a review copy like last time?
What my screen usually looks like when developing stuff.
How do you get your coding/development done?
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I use Taco HTML/CSSEdit/Transmit
I use TextMate, Transmit and couple of different browsers for testing.
TextMate, CSSEdit and Transmit. Done.
I would love to check this Coda app out though, it really does look pretty cool. I don’t know if I’d completely switch over to it if I liked it anyway, but it would be nice to have lying around to be able to do a quick change if I spot something wrong.
All-in-one apps usually look and feel damn awful but hopefully this’ll be all good.
Just a shame MacApper had to ruin it. I’d rather they had reviewed it the day of release than before it – unless they were told they could by Panic.
@Steffan – yeah there is something fishy about that review. Panic made them take down the screenshots.
My favourite coding app is skEdit but I keep Textmate in the dock alongside Dreamweaver (for managing large static sites). I actually like the fully integrated development model of Dreamweaver but the current version is annoyingly unstable on OS X. It crashes every time I quit the application.
Panic’s products are top notch, so for those of us who dig feature-packed IDEs, this an exciting announcement, given Dreamweaver and its tendency to bail out.
Hi! There’s something stange about that review, we’ll wait until tomorrow to see if there’s something true.
I usually use XCode if I’m using C,C++. Otherwise Smultron + Cyberduck.
@Paul – Hmm, didn’t realise that until you mentioned it! Something is definitely wrong there.
I personally use Transmit for FTP and Dreamweaver for the code. If I just need to add/edit some code very quickly, I either use the built-in tool in Transmit, or I use SubEthaEdit. I also bought a copy of CSSedit back when it was on sale for the Christmas holidays, but I haven’t gotten around to play a lot with it yet.
When I develop, I use TextWrangler and MacFuse+SSHFS. This way, I can work on a given project directly off of my server, which saves time.
Transmit, TextMate (or Smultron) and so occasional use of CSSEdit. I look forward to looking at Coda; sounds interesting.
What shocked me when I’ve tried to convert to Mac is that there is absolutely no viable FTP client that remotely resembles a client on Windows. Don’t try to list any because I’ve probably tried over 30 of the popular ones.
I agree with you: there’s nothing like TextMate, Transmate and a bunch of browsers for testing… :)
Since I’m restricted to Windows only at work (ugh), I’ve been using Aptana (http://aptana.com/). It’s great, works flawlessly with a variety of JavaScript frameworks (I use Prototype, YUI and Dojo often). Plus it’s built on Eclipse which I’m using for Perl and Java as well; so it’s my one stop develop shop pretty much.
And with the recent purchase of the RDT team by Aptana; it’s going to turn out to be a really great product.
I’ll try it out. I use Dreamweaver on Windows at work and I really enjoy the tag auto-finishing (maybe I’m just lazy?). I haven’t found anything with that for free or cheap on the Mac side.
Yeah, I work with php, and I use Textmate, Transmit, and PS CS3 for image work. Textmate is an awesome app, , but I’m actually considering switching to coda after working with it for 10 minutes. It’s a beautiful program, I’ll give it that much. Pretty similar interface to Transmit(for obvious reasons), integrated php/html/css books. I hate programs like Dreamweaver, and Panic doesn’t seem like it’s trying to get that crowd. It is a handcoding app, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s pretty good at it. This seems aimed more at the pro developer, although I’m currently having difficulty previewing php. I’ll probably run out the trial on this, but I am pretty close to switching(even after shelling out $50 for Textmate).
Textmate and Transmit for me.
@Andreas:”I personally use Transmit for FTP and Dreamweaver for the code”
Isn’t ftp built right into dreamweaver? the only reason i still use dreamweaver occasionally is for the ftp support