HTML Editor Reviews | Reviews and Discussion of (X)HTML Coding Tools

Review: Espresso 1.0

MacRabbit’s newly released Espresso has clearly been positioned as a rival to Panic’s Coda (review), with each striving for one-window web development supremacy on the Mac. What’s interesting about comparing these two apps, however, is their different approaches to what’s essentially the same basic functionality. Each program is defined by its heritage: Coda shares a lot of its DNA with Transmit, featuring powerful FTP and project management tools. The weakest part of Coda is the text editor. Espresso, on the other hand, is CSSEdit’s much more multi-faceted younger sibling and it has learned many of CSSEdit’s tricks, plus a slew of new ones. As a result, Espresso’s strongest feature is the text editor.

Continue reading Review: Espresso 1.0 »

Review: E Text Editor 1.0

I first previewed e back in December, and while I thought it looked promising, it was buggy and costly for a beta. Four months later, e’s developer, Alexander Stigsen, changed his focus from collaboration to TextMate compatibility and I purchased the beta, which I’d initially balked at. Since then, on an almost weekly basis, new features have been added to e and it’s become my main editor. E is a code monkey’s dream.

Continue reading Review: E Text Editor 1.0 »

Review: HateML Pro 1.1

Well, I’m not quite sure how to even pronounce the name of this editor — is it supposed to sound like H.T.M.L. or HATE em el? I guess it doesn’t matter because I won’t be using it anyway. Ok, that’s a bit harsh, but it’s also true. HateML doesn’t bring anything new to the HTML editor scene, and what it does bring doesn’t eclipse what’s already out there. Same old, same old. While there isn’t 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 from other editors, as e has done, giving Windows users TextMate snippets and bundles. Don’t get me wrong: HateML isn’t a bad editor; it just doesn’t stand out in an incredibly crowded market.

Continue reading Review: HateML Pro 1.1 »

Review: Coda 1.0

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.

Continue reading Review: Coda 1.0 »

Review: ExpressionEngine 1.5

Yeah, I know — ExpressionEngine’s not an HTML editor. But it is a damn handy piece of software for putting websites together. Plus news of EE has been making its rounds in the blogosphere of late, thanks to the re-branding of EllisLab (formerly pMachine). Plus I’ve recently built two sites using EE, so it’s fresh in my mind. Plus, it’s my site and I’ll do what I want. ;)

Continue reading Review: ExpressionEngine 1.5 »

Review: Komodo IDE 4.0

(Please note: this review is based on the Windows version of Komodo IDE 4.0.)

Ok, before I say anything else, I’ll say this: Go get Komodo IDE 4.0 and test it out. This is a great editor, packed with excellent features. If you code for the web, it’s got most if not all of the tools you need to not only build your sites and applications, but test and debug them as well.

Continue reading Review: Komodo IDE 4.0 »

Review: Nvu

I’ve had quite a few requests to review Nvu, the free, Mozilla Composer-based WYSIWYG HTML editor from Linspire. And I’ve actually had Nvu on my computer for a long time in order to review it, but have never gotten around to it. In fact, I’ve been avoiding this review. Why? Because I’m not a fan of Nvu. A lot of people seem to really like it and often recommend it in different forums, but I have trouble seeing why. Sure, it’s free, but so is a lot of software I find infinitely more useful. In the end, though, I guess it comes down to what you need out of an HTML editor — and for me, Nvu doesn’t have it.

Continue reading Review: Nvu »

Review: BBEdit 8.5

Bare Bones Software has just released an update of the venerable BBEdit that improves on the earlier 8.2.5 (review) with some great new features. While BBEdit is still both more and less of a tool than I need, I really like the changes Bare Bones has made, including the $74 USD price drop. Some of my praise and complaints remain from the last version, so I won’t repeat myself here. Rather, I’ll share impressions of this new version and add a few things I forgot to mention last time around.

Continue reading Review: BBEdit 8.5 »

Review: CoffeeCup HTML Editor 2006

Not long after beginning this site, my Inbox was deluged with requests to review CoffeeCup HTML Editor 2006. After a bit of miscommunication with the marketing dept. at CoffeeCup Software, I finally received my copy of the software last week. Well? After all the fanfare, I’m underwhelmed. In fact, I’m pretty disappointed. Maybe all the emails I received were from the developers themselves, because I can’t see this software having much of a fan-base.

Continue reading Review: CoffeeCup HTML Editor 2006 »

Review: Adobe GoLive CS2

I’d never really given Adobe GoLive much thought. Sure, it came bundled with CS2, but I already had a couple editors to choose from. On paper, GoLive CS2 is an amazing-looking product, full of great features. In practice, however, the program falls a bit short. To be fair, I’m not exactly GoLive’s target market — I prefer hand-coding to WYSIWYG editing. At the same time, the product could offer more of a balance (the way Dreamweaver does) between visual editing and source editing.

Continue reading Review: Adobe GoLive CS2 »