Review: Coda 1.0
Editor: Coda 1.0
Version: 1.0.2
Developer: Panic
Platform/OS: Mac
WYSIWYG: No
Price: $99 USD
There has already been so much talk about Coda, Panic’s foray into the world of HTML editors, I hardly know what I can add. It’s a startlingly good 1.0 release, to be sure, but it’s certainly not perfect. As an HTML editor alone, it doesn’t really stack up to its more powerful competitors (TextMate, for example), but, as an all-in-one tool, it’s quite an elegant solution.
What I Like
- A lot of people have made note of the look and feel of Coda. For an HTML editor, the interface is pure eye candy, but it’s also quite usable. Panic has stuffed a lot into the interface, but have kept it neat and tidy by using tabs and minimal icons/buttons.
- Copy as XHTML: “This will take your selected code, and place it on the clipboard, with XHTML markup applied to preserve the current syntax coloring. Useful for posting code samples to a web page.” link
- With the Find and Replace, Panic has introduced wildcard tokens, which allow you to create simple regular expression style searches without having to know regex.
- While Coda already supports a number of languages through its different syntax Modes, you can also create your own Modes for the editor (such as this one for ExpressionEngine).
- Coda validates (X)HTML (but not CSS).
- Syntax colour themes can be imported and exported. The set-up isn’t as nice as in TextMate, which lists all syntax themes, but it’s better than many editors out there.
- Code hinting and completion, of course.
- Column selection and editing.
- Live preview.
- You can drag colour swatches from the colour picker into your current document and they’ll be converted to hex colour values.
Gripes
- Neither selecting “Find & Replace” from the Edit menu, nor using the shortcut, brings up the Find and Replace dialogue. However, Command-F (or simply selecting “Find”) does the trick.
- Can only search one file at a time.
- The Books, which are supposed to be a cool feature, are available only when you’re online. When I went online (dial-up), they were too slow to load to be of any use to me.
- When I column select text, the selected column isn’t highlighted; rather, the entire lines are highlighted, which can be quite confusing (
this might be just my system — I’m using Synergy to share a Windows keyboard and mouse with my Mac Mini.EDIT: CodaLova has pointed out it’s not my system, but how Coda actually does it, so that you can edit throughout an entire block, rather than just the specifically selected column). - Code hints seem to only work for one language at a time (depending on the Mode, I suppose). For example, if you’re editing an HTML file which contains CSS, the code hints and completion will only work for whichever Mode is selected.
- A lot of editors have a menu or code hints for inserting special characters, but this is missing from Coda.
- The Clips palette is cluttered, and you can’t really organize clips into folders or sections.
- For me, the CSS editor feels a bit unnecessary — I prefer code hints to filling out forms.
- I want a 30-day demo! Not 15-day, but 30. (Read another way: I must learn to manage my time better and/or learn to only install a trial when I intend to use it.)
- I find Coda to be a touch on the pricey side, though the introductory pricing and the Transmit “upgrade” deal alleviate that a bit.
Wishlist
- More powerful snippets with more token types.
- A way to organize snippets.
- Draggable tabs.
- Code collapse.
- Code completion/hinting for more than one language at a time.
- Find in files.
Overall
The verdict? Panic has come out of the gate flying — this is a pretty amazing 1.0 release. Not only have they provided the standard fare; they’ve brought some innovations into a crowded field, not to mention some real style. Having said all that, Coda hasn’t completely won me over and I won’t be switching from my usual suspects (E Text Editor, WeBuilder, and TextMate), which still offer me a better coding experience. And, in the end, the “one window web development” pitch just doesn’t mean that much to me. I’m always going to be running multiple browsers (Preview); I’m not always online (making Books kind of useless and taking a little steam out of the integrated FTP); and I don’t use SSH enough to have a dedicated window open (Terminal). So, even though I dropped the cash for Coda, I don’t necessarily think it’s worth it — unless you don’t have a dedicated set of tools you already use for webdev. But that’s just my opinion; let me know your take on Coda.
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[...] out of 5 Ain’t Bad Eric Barstad of HTML Editor Reviews has posted a review of Coda. Sentiments run pretty much along the same lines as other folks, but he calls out a gripe [...]
Pingback by 3.8 out of 5 Ain't Bad « Coda Lova — May 28, 2007 @ 3:36 am
Yeah… It’s a pretty good app with loads of potential, but I’m not willing to pay the high entry fee. I’m going to stick with skEdit for now.
Comment by John — May 28, 2007 @ 6:12 am
[...] necessarily a lot of room for innovation in the editor world, there certainly is some room. Look at Coda, for example. Or, if innovation isn’t your bag, then at least grab some of the best features [...]
Pingback by HTML Editor Reviews » Review: HateML Pro 1.1 — July 22, 2007 @ 10:58 am