Filed under: Internet Tools, Developer
Coda 1.6 released, offers plug-in support
A cheery little dialog box informed me just a few minutes ago that Coda 1.6 is available from the fine folks at Panic.
Coda is a one-window web-development and editing environment that is one of my favorite apps, and one that we've covered here before.
Coda 1.6 introduces a plug-in architecture that extends Coda's already pretty robust text-editing functionality. With Coda Plug-in Creator, even users who aren't familiar with Cocoa can create plugins, which follow a similar format to TextMate's command bundles. The plug-in functionality mirrors that of up-and-comer Espresso, with its Sugar plug-ins. Espresso is still in beta.
Also included in the update is the Open Quickly command: a Spotlight-like command that searches your sites for files to open. Hit Control+Q to show the Open Quickly window, type a few characters, and open one of the files listed to get to work.
On top of that, Coda improves spell checking support, and now includes an Objective-J syntax mode. Full release notes are available here.
Coda 1.6 is available from Panic's website, or from inside the app by selecting "Check for Updates" from the Coda menu.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dave said 5:53PM on 11-11-2008
Has TUAW ever done a head-to-head comparison of features, price and usability for all these fancy text editors? I've been using TextMate recently and I'm pretty happy with it (it has vastly more features than I need), but I wonder if something like BBEdit or Coda might have an easier workflow?
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Kristian Freeman said 5:57PM on 11-11-2008
Well the point of Coda is it isn't just a text editor – it's an IDE (integrated development environment) and so it also can update your site with your code changes, and support for built-in programming books, etc.
It's actually a really cool program, a bit over my head also, but Panic designs fantastic apps nonetheless.
Yaphi said 7:00PM on 11-11-2008
If you are a Textmate user it is still impossible to use Coda. Read my reasons below.
Dave said 9:37PM on 11-11-2008
Thanks for the info guys.
DarthSnuggles said 6:07PM on 11-11-2008
Why would I use this over Eclipse?
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Delta778 said 6:42PM on 11-11-2008
@DarthSnuggles: Because Eclipse sucks? No offense, but its a pain to work in Eclipse after using even the simplest native editors...
@LuminousNerd: Nothing is going to blow Coda out of the water. Espresso will give it some great competition, but please, spare us your hyperbole... "Of course, I haven't tried it yet..." Really? You don't say?
Yazdgerd said 4:24PM on 11-12-2008
Coda is a fancy IDE; the environment looks shiny, but not practical. Mouse is needed all the time and you can't use only your keyboard. A real development environment needs a much simpler interface.
I don't think anyone uses Coda for quick editing a little html file. People prefer something light weighted and fast loading.
LuminousNerd said 6:24PM on 11-11-2008
I'm holding out for Espresso. No ill will intended here, but from the looks of it, Espresso is going to set an entirely new quality standard for IDEs, and blow Coda out of the water. Of course, I haven't tried it yet, only seen what the makers have to say, but I mean they made CSSEdit. It really does show huge amounts of promise, and I can't wait to get my hands on it.
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Chris Newton said 12:02AM on 11-12-2008
Having used Espresso beta, it is currently nothing to write home about. Still, it's in beta, but your *hope* is currently far from fact. Coda as it stands blows Espresso out of the water, regardless of the fact that the css editor in Coda is very annoying.
Having said that, I still use Textmate+Versions+CssEdit+YummyFTP. Though it's not integrated, it's a much better feel overall to me than either Coda or Espresso (which is currently to buggy and feature free to use)
Ryan Trevisol said 6:37PM on 11-11-2008
Is it me, or did the price of Coda jump tremendously in the last 6 months? I was setting up my new computer at work and I thought about purchasing Coda as a treat for myself, remembering that it was like $30. Now it's $99 . . . I still have my old freeware copy of Taco HTML Edit, and FileZilla.
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Zack said 7:04PM on 11-11-2008
I believe when it was first released in April 07, it was selling for $79 ($69 for transmit owners). I don't believe it ever sold for under $50.
Yazdgerd said 4:29PM on 11-12-2008
Coda is way expensive!
Yaphi said 6:58PM on 11-11-2008
I bought Coda when 1.5 came out and hoped that it had caught up to Textmate in terms of speed and power (editor wise). While the plugins add some nice possibilities, Coda is still missing some *key* features here.
* When typing a tab-triggered Clip, indentation of the closing tag is always (!!!) wrong.
* You are only allowed one Selection Insertion, making quick stub work in clips impossible
* The Quick Find is actually an implementation of Spotlight?! In Textmate it just shows the files in the current project. I am going to be accidentally opening random files from within Coda? Ugh...
These three bullets make it impossible to move from Textmate. The plugins feature brings things oh so close!
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DJCarbon43 said 7:56PM on 11-11-2008
Hey there, as for the third item on your bulleted list, if when you are in the quick find HUD, you click the gear button on the lower left corner of the pane, you can choose wether to make your search Hard Drive wide, site wide, or select a specific folder to search. I actually like it better than the text-mate one, though there is always the debate about whether its better to have more options, or limited... but there you are ^_^
Mike Rapin said 8:43PM on 11-11-2008
WOWOW. Talk about making my day easier!
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Cabel said 8:53PM on 11-11-2008
Some notes to Yaphi et. al. :)
1. Open Quickly automatically limits searches to your site's ("Project", if you will) folder, and intelligently only includes web-related matches. So, you're fine.
2. The limitations you raise with "Clips" are valid, but are almost all fixable by using Coda Plug-ins. You can even try importing your favorite TextMate Bundle Commands using the Coda Plug-in Creator.
2. Coda has definitely never been $30. :)
Thanks for your feedback!
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Mike said 8:53PM on 11-11-2008
I've used Coda on and off the past month or so and it is pretty good, but I still can't let go of BBEdit. I've been using BBEdit since version 3 and the killer feature for me is it's powerful grep implementation. I'll admit that most other editors are pretty slick, but until they can at least equal BBEdit's powerful search and replace I'm sticking with the old man on the block.
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Chris said 9:50PM on 11-11-2008
I've used Coda, and while I like it for working on basic web site work (get in, get out), I use ActiveState's Komodo IDE for all of my web application development. I just don't think anyone can beat it. I buy one license, and I can carry it anywhere, and on Win/Lin/Mac.
Of course if $99 is expensive, Komodo will seem outrageous, but it's my right hand, and it helps me earn my income. They do have a free "Komodo Edit" version, with only a few features left out, so if you are on a low budget, that's a good choice!
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Jonathan Badeen said 12:38AM on 11-12-2008
I by no means did any in depth analysis but the plugin architecture and purpose for Espresso and Coda are a horse of a different color. Espresso is based on XML through and through while Coda requires an app provided by them or Cocoa programming (I do Cocoa development). Their goals also seem quite different. From what I can tell Coda's plugins are for running specific commands in a non-proactive role. This can be incredibly powerful but much of Espresso's architecture is about creating Intellisense/Code Sense functionality in addition to the command like options. Right now I use TextMate and I don't see either really replacing it but I will tell you I would enjoy some Coda/Xcode style Code Sense in Textmate which is why Espresso is intriguing to me because to my knowledge Coda doesn't have any way to put 3rd party languages in there w/o Panic providing it (I could be wrong and would love to know if I am).
I have the beta of Espresso but I wouldn't dare comment on it as it is a far cry from what the final product is described as. I'm not saying they won't get there and in a timely manner I'm just saying the versions out there are so far from being hooked up that nobody should even use it as an indication of what the final product will be like.
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Luigi193 said 12:40AM on 11-12-2008
I use dreamweaver for CSS stuff (for the live preview)
Transmit to FTP
XCODE for the Objective-c
TextMate for Ruby, PHP and C. TextMate is my favorite. Its completion and indenting are TOP NOTCH, also being able to run my Ruby code without having to switch into terminal is AWESOME.
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