The Hickensian

23.04.07

Coda

It has to be said, I’m an awful beta-tester. I get asked on a few of these things, only to rarely have to time to offer feedback or bug reports. Its not just lack of time though, I often find I’m not enthused enough about the product in question to be motivated.

Until last November, when the first alpha release of Coda came along. I then played with the Mac OS X app that I have been the most excited about in years. ‘Enthused’ didn’t really cover it, I was truly smitten.

Coda is a single application for editing, previewing and FTP, not to mention Terminal access and book reference. With Coda, I can have a single window, with tabs and split views to manage each site. Not just local HTML and CSS files, but I could have tabs with web-based admin panels and remote site. I click my thumbnail for The Forgiveness Project and immediately have everything I need to work on it – the local CSS, the remote Texpattern admin interface and the site itself.

There’s so much to write about, and too little time, but I wanted to say that Coda has won me over like no other Mac App has done before.

Comments | RSS

No.1

Dave Foy said 802 days ago:

Wow.

No.2

Eddie Garrett said 802 days ago:

I just downloaded Coda and have a quick question … you state that you have yoru Textpattern admin interface in the app, how do you do that? It sucked all my Transmit prefs and gives me access to the files, but how do I get the TXP pages in there?

Thanks!

No.3

Sam said 802 days ago:

Wow. Just wow. Really.

No.4

Christoph said 802 days ago:

I bought after 5 min using ist. Truely my dream-app.

No.5

José Carlos said 802 days ago:

Been trying it for about an hour. It’s simply amazing. Thanks.

No.6

Jeff Croft said 802 days ago:

Hate to be the voice of dissent, but even as beautiful as Coda is (and it does look great) — without Subversion hooks and extensibility (a la TextMate bundles), it just won’t do for me. If all you do is XHTML, PHP, and CSS and all of your files are stored locally or in WebDAV/FTP/sFTP, then it’s probably great. But more and more of us web developers are going to more agile platforms (Python/Django, Ruby/Rails, etc.) and storing our files in version control (usually Subversion, but others, as well). The beauty of TextMate is that it’s bundles makes adding custom functionality for these tools simple. Coda doesn’t seem to have any extensibility that I can see. I simply can’t go back to not having tab triggers for Django templates. It’s too much a part of my workflow now. I would image RoR developer will feel the same way.

So yeah…Coda looks like an amazing tool if you’re the kind of web designer/developer it expects you to be. If you’re not, it doesn’t seem very well suited to tailoring to your needs. I hope that changes, as the UI is freaking great, and I love Panic (I’ve bought every app they’ve ever made, and I use both Unison and Transmit almost daily).

No.7

Jon Hicks said 802 days ago:

Don’t forget this is just v1.0. I’m sure subversion is on their radar for the future.

While I don’t think it will convert Textmate users who rely on it’s flexibility and advanced editing features, it suits me down to the ground. Especially code hinting – which is still to make it into Textmate.

I’d also like to make the point that my fondness for Coda is nothing to do with it’s looks. The ability to have one window/app for everything makes it for me.

@Eddie – Just open a new tab, change it to preview mode (if it isn’t already) and the enter the address in URL bar, just like a browser. If you’re signed into the site in Safari or Camino, it will get you straight in. Coda remembers your tabs inbetween sessions, so once set up, it’ll always be there.

No.8

pr10n said 802 days ago:

I gave it a try. At first I felt the same as most others, “wow, cool!”. All the tools I use in one app! Great!

It wasn’t until I used Coda’s text editor when I realized how dependent I’ve become on TextWrangler. With it’s shortcuts for navigating and manipulating text, using grep to sort documents… and so on… For someone that spends every waking hour looking at code those features come in handy.

Panic usually comes up with some pretty good stuff, and with luck Coda will mature in time, but for now the text editor is enough to hold me back.

(And it would seem it crashed in the background as I was writing this)

No.9

bradley said 802 days ago:

very nice, although I do miss the find/replace from current site that skEdit has. this is a deal breaker for me (along with the massive price difference)

No.10

Colly said 802 days ago:

Doing the same with EE as you are with Textpattern, Jon. Editing my EE templates in a browser inside Coda, across several tabs, and then managing online image files in another tab. Exactly what I needed for lightweight site work. Text Mate and Transmit are there for the heavy lifting if I need them.

No.11

Eddie Garrett said 802 days ago:

Ah, brilliant. Thanks!

No.12

Olly said 802 days ago:

Admit it, it’s really the leaf-based logo which makes you love it…

No.13

Travis said 802 days ago:

I’m with the TextMate guys too – it’s a beautful app (i.e. it’s a Panic app), but TextMate is the better editor for me. I guess I’m not too fussed about having to swap between apps to get my work done :)

No.14

Christian said 802 days ago:

I couldn’t agree more, Jon. It is jaw-droppingly amazing.

No.15

Dave Simon said 802 days ago:

I, too, have been way spoiled by TextMate, but I see the potential in Coda.

My workflow has been Transmit/TextMate/CSSEdit for a while, and I think it works well for me.

But Coda does bring a lot to the table. I like the integration. I like the books for reference. I just miss my TextMate bundles.

I think I’ll keep it around though. It can only get better.

No.16

Jeff Croft said 802 days ago:

Don’t forget this is just v1.0. I’m sure subversion is on their radar for the future.

Sure, and that’s cool. It’s unfortunate, though, that Coda doesn’t have an extensible framework like TextMate does, so that someone else could add the functionality in the meantime.

While I don’t think it will convert Textmate users who rely on it’s flexibility and advanced editing features, it suits me down to the ground.

Perhaps not, and that’s fine if that’s the target market. I am just a bit disappointed because it feels like it’s this close to serving the needs modern web application developers as well as those making traditional web sites. It’s just disappointing when something looks like it could meet 80% of your needs with such beauty and grace, but simply doesn’t handle the other 20%, that’s all.

Especially code hinting – which is still to make it into Textmate.

Code hinting is a cool feature and one reason I’d love to use Coda. I don’t feel like I need code hinting (I’ve never had it before, so I don’t have to start now), but if I had it, I’d definitely take advantage of it. Like I said, Coda would make 80% of my work easier, faster, and better thanks to features like this — but the other 20% simply isn’t accounted for. Bummer.

No.17

Joe said 802 days ago:

Is there a live preview feature hidden somewhere?
That’s what stopping me from buying it at the mo – CSSEdit is just better for styling so far.

No.18

Dave Simon said 802 days ago:

Anyone know where Coda keeps custom clips? I’d like to be able to sync them from home to work and vice versa. If I could do that, and build a library of clips, I’d be on the way to trying it full-time and trying to replace TextMate.

That said, TextMate and CSSEdit are so good, that, as good as Coda is, it won’t truly replace them in the near future.

I wish Panic had licensed TextEdit instead of SubEtha… (if they could.) Maybe they could hack in support for Bundles…

No.19

luxuryluke said 802 days ago:

Well, for one thing, it’s been a long time coming. Seriously.

This app has so much wrapped into it, like the SubEthaEngine, Transmit, and quite a bit of the experience from apps like CSSEdit and skEdit, that I purchased it sight unseen, the moment i heard about it (funny that CSSEdit updated today, too).

I own all the other editors, and currently at work i’m just not allowed to employ newer site engines beyond php (we’re on a Netscape Enterprise for cryin’ in the night!), so an app like this is an easy sell (and it will help our newbies get going with the whole process with only one app, not 6).

Jeff, you have really good points, but for sites like those (the type i’d love to start creating), let’s just hope Cabel has (yet) another trick up his sleeve.

Many props to him, meanwhile, for his outstanding efforts and a wonderful shareware step forward in the “It’s not dreamweaver?…[gasp!!]” arena.

No.20

adriand said 802 days ago:

Wow, can’t wait to try this!

No.21

Jason Campbell said 802 days ago:

I love the concept, but what I would really love is a setting where I can push the preview through my local server so my php renders.

No.22

Russ Wittmann said 802 days ago:

I simply love it, cool idea look for version 2.0

No.23

Jon Hicks said 802 days ago:

@Jason – I use Mamp, and view the localhost site through Coda to do that.

“I wish Panic had licensed TextEdit instead of SubEtha… (if they could.) Maybe they could hack in support for Bundles…”

I hope you meant TextMate! ;o)

@Joe – yes, hit apple 3, or click the ‘preview’ button in the toolbar.

No.24

Simon said 802 days ago:

Very cool! Did you notice it even comes with a new font, Panic Sans? Think it’s only used by default in the Terminal view.

Jason, re. pushing your stuff through a local Apache instance, I’d like that feature too. In the meantime have you seen Headdress – I find it invaluable.

No.25

Jason Campbell said 802 days ago:

I use mamp as well but when I swap back an forth between views on every page I edit I have to set the url to my localhost.

I’m just saying I would like a preference added to the site so I can give it a preview root or something so that it knows that any page I open for this site it should run through localhost when I switch to the preview tab, so I can skip having to set it on every page.

What can I say, I’m lazy ;)

No.26

Jason Campbell said 802 days ago:

Oh and…

Simon I had not looked into Headdress but I will.

Would also love to have it recognize imported style sheets for the css editor.

No.27

Dave Simon said 801 days ago:

Ack! Jon, you caught me. That’s what I get for posting while sleepy.

Yes, I meant TextMATE instead of TextEdit. :P Of course.

Note to self: READ the post…

No.28

Dave Simon said 801 days ago:

After further review, Coda is web design bliss. I can use TextMate whenever I want, but Coda can easily replace Transmit in the Transmit/TextMate/CSSEdit Triad for most tasks.

Great product. Just might take a day or two to adjust my work habits to using it to it’s fullest potential.

No.29

Jon Hicks said 801 days ago:

Thats the key thing. You can easily integrate with Textmate in your workflow (or skEdit in my position) but use Coda as the basis for everything.

No.30

Joe said 801 days ago:

Sorry, I meant I can’t figure out how to do a live preview of a blog (wordpress or whatever), applying my own local stylesheets to it. Like the most advertised feature of CSSEdit. I don’t like having to set up my own local copy of my wordpress blog.

No.31

prisca said 801 days ago:

thank you for pointing this one out – amazing :)

Been going mad jumping around between apps all the time, trying to do too many things at once and getting slowed up by the whole switching around… Now here’s my answer ;) for my purposes it’s perfect :) and it does all the essentials with style :) love the little site icons :) :) do something similar myself usually – it’s dream to have a program do it for you :)

just got it today – so I might just not have looked deep enough into it – but does anyone know whether is a command to tidy up the code, ie get all the indentations nice and neat (I used to use TacoHTML which had that function, very handy)?

Thanks, Jon ;)

No.32

Nathan Olsen said 801 days ago:

I’ve been hooked on skEdit since you mentioned it a few years ago — I gave Coda a try and it seems like pretty much the same app. I somehow got bumped off Sean Kelly’s beta list for skEdit 4 so I don’t know what he’s got up his sleeve for the future, but what makes Coda so much better? The features seem really similar.

No.33

Jesse C. said 801 days ago:

I’m liking the ftp’ing from the sidebar, but am struggling a bit with some of the skEdit things that I’ve come to rely on. I even changed the text editor font ot Courier to make me feel more at home.

But my biggest issue is having to type in http://localhost:xxxx every time I want to preview. I use headdress/mamp so I can create local sites. The prepend function in skEdfit has me really spoiled. Could be a dealbreaker.

No.34

cpk said 801 days ago:

I really really want to like this app but it doesn’t appear to offer me much more than I’ve already got. I have been a long time fan of Transmit and there is no question that Panic makes quality software but I’m just not feelin’ it – but maybe I am just missing something here.

It seems that the text editor is the sticking point for some of us and the limited ftp features when compared to Transmit is a close second with only the benefit of having all your specialized web-fu apps rolled into one multi-paned app as the real desirable feature. The css editor seems a bit out of place to me (unless you are a skedit user) since Coda looks to be targeted at people experience with hand coding css. As mentioned elsewhere, why not a php or ruby editor as well.

As a long-time BBEdit user it would be difficult to give up all the robust features that either it or TextMate have for the watered down text editing features in Coda. This leaves the multi-pane access as the remaining “must have” feature. For me, this was solved with Virtue Desktops. I put Transmit and BBEdit in one desktop, FF, Safari, etc. in another, and Photoshop in another. A simple keyboard shortcut gets me quickly between each desktop or app. If I need another app like Terminal open, I simply put it into another desktop or group it with other related apps. This approach basically addresses one of the main benefits of Coda.

Don’t get me wrong I am still testing Coda to see if I am actually just missing something. But, so far, I don’t see that I am getting anything more than I already have, except, of course, the beautiful Coda UI.

I would like to know more about Jon’s workflow, using Coda with TextPattern. It seems like you would only edit css and ftp in Coda and do all your TxP template editing inside Coda’s preview browser. Seems like you are still doing a lot of work inside a browser window.

No.35

Simon said 801 days ago:

I simply felt in love about Coda, I’m “just” a html & css coder, and this app really suit my needs…

I’ll use my TextMate license when I’ll learn Ruby :-)

No.36

andykettle said 801 days ago:

Thank god… I thought I was the only one ‘not feeling’ Coda. It’s a beautiful app it really is, but I don’t like having all my eggs in one basket, I like switching between apps and I just don’t quite feel comfortable with the way Coda doesn’t let me see the remote and local sites and the same time.

I’m going to try a whole project with the demo and see how I get on, but at the moment I’m going to stick with Transmit and TextWrangler – they do all I need for now.

No.37

Julian Schrader said 800 days ago:

Coda makes a very good impression at first sight. I’ll have to test it a little bit the next weekend…

My current workflow is TextMate/CSSEdit/Transmit, Safari and Camino aren’t far away while developing and if I do Rails, I need the Terminal as well.

I think Coda could be a great app for all the “lighter” stuff—everything at one place. When digging deeper into one part of development I’d probably use the other apps—I edit RoR code and XHTML in TextMate, heavy CSS work gets done in CSSEdit and massive file uploading with Transmit.

No.38

Ethan Dunham said 800 days ago:

The Panic Sans font that is included with Coda is actually Bitstream Vera. They just renamed it and included it so that (my guess) the interface remained consistent across installations. Nice touch.

No.39

ER said 800 days ago:

After working with it for an hour last night here’s what I’d like to see implemented:

In Edit mode (or Preview), when you split the windows, have a way to link the windows together when you scroll. Also, when the windows are linked, if I click (or double click) on an area, that area is highlighted in the other window (code to preview and visa versa). [like Dreamweaver]

When working with css files, have a way to group css tags together. Also have a way to display the tag column as seen in the css mode in the manner when editing the css file. [like CSSEdit 2]

Let us preview an image in the file list without having to open it up in the document tab list (I don’t want to have to close a bunch of image windows when trying to work on my other files).

As for the shortlist of things I love that it does already:

* Code indenting via ‘Shift Left/Right’ instead of hitting the tab key

* Shortcut key for commenting and that it knows what comment code it needs (html vs.css)

* Code highlighting so I can not only see changes I made, but changes others made (if I was collaborating on files)

* Any number of split windows for a single document (because 2 sometimes doesn’t cut it)

* Code snippets and use of shortcuts for them + the ability to define your own [whatever]

Sorry if these were mentioned. Just thought this might help anyone who’s shopping this app.

No.40

Chris Platts said 800 days ago:

Great app – SubEtha engine a bit light, but cmd-opt-E is there to open current file in Textmate for heavy editing (don’t know what the shortcut does if TM not installed), which then saves changes back to Coda. Love it.

No.41

Erik said 800 days ago:

I just noticed that Coda supports the SubEthaEdit “Mode” files. Just drop them in ~/library/application support/coda/modes/ and it will show up in Coda as a new syntax mode. Code-completion doesn’t seem to work, but syntax highlighting does.

No.42

Chris Platts said 800 days ago:

Sorry – cmd-ctl-E!

No.43

Frederico said 799 days ago:

I’ve been testing Coda every other day and it really looks good. The only thing that is really anoying me is the default Mac colour box. I can’t specify hex colours. Another thing is that Coda doesn’t recognize linked css files. Is that something you’ve all noticed or is it just me? :o)

No.44

Stef said 798 days ago:

One wierd omission..

No “overflow” in the CSS editor that I can spot!

Apart from that oddness and the fact it’s ever so slightly crashy (mainly the preview I think) it seems like a nice app.

No.45

Bradillac said 798 days ago:

I bought Coda on Monday and have been trying it out all week. It’s definitely a little more friendly than SKedit. So far I’ve only found one thing that erks me. I can’t figure our how to tab out an entire selection of text.

Another thing that I really wish it had built in is the fuctionality of MAMP and a MYSQL Administrator… oh well. Maybe in time.

No.46

Anthony Green said 796 days ago:

Am I missing something here ?
Can Coda compile and preview PHP/ Ruby or JSP ?
If it can’t, whats the point ?

How many websites these days are not dynamic in nature ?

If I have to preview a template code built website by runnning a local webserver then I’m going to do all my CSS editing in Firefox Web Developer Toolbar and my Javascript debugging in Firebug.

Deployment usually has file related dependendies so you have to use a tool like Capistrano.

No.47

Jon Hicks said 795 days ago:

“If it can’t, whats the point ?”

The point is, it’s not the right tool for you.

No.48

Dusan Smolnikar said 794 days ago:

I really like the program functionality, but it seems really sluggish to me. The program freezes for a second or two, whenever it does something (code completition, switching editors, etc.) CPU usage for coda is high when it’s frozen.

anyone else having such problems?

I’m using 1.8ghz G5 with 1gb ram, so I think that should be enough

No.49

Paul Ledbrook said 793 days ago:

Love it, love it, love it! Panic are the badgers knadgers!

...but an ASP syntax mode would be really helpful. I’ve checked the subEthaEdit contributions but no one seems to have come up with one. Has anyone come across anything?