Alex Hardy

Panic have celebrated their 10^th birthday and released Coda in time to submit it for the Apple Design Awards. As a long-time user of Transmit and fan of Panic, I didn’t waste any time in downloading the trial.

In a nutshell, Coda aims to smoothen your web development workflow by replacing your HTML editor, CSS editor and FTP client with one slick, unified app. It’s inexpensive at only $99 (£49.50).

My own process comprises of Dreamweaver 8, CSSEdit 1 and the aforementioned Transmit. I’m very fond of both CSSEdit and Transmit, with DW being my main stumbling block to adopting Coda.

I use only a fraction of DW’s bloat functionality. I don’t use the sites list, behaviours, FTP functionality (after a couple of bad experiences I don’t trust it)… I use it as little more than a HTML/PHP editor with colour coding and predictive input.

DW finds itself on my Mac more for the company it keeps than its own merits. I need Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash and Adobe CS3 is the most economical way to buy them. DW comes in the box, so I augment it with CSSEdit and Transmit and get to work. Ironically this means that buying Coda would be an additional expense.

If a new tool or approach makes you more productive then $99 is nothing, so I’ll note a few of my observations. I base my opinion on the functionality I need. I manage quite happily with my software trio and don’t dream of one do-it-all app, quite the opposite in fact! My favourite thing about shareware is that the best apps do one job well, rather than trying to be a jack of all trades…

Eye candy and other cute features

• The little sticky pages that represent sites are sweet, as are the 3D effects that open them. I’d like the option to turn this transition off, because I’m sure the novelty will quickly wear off.
• Tabbed windows are most welcome, but CSSEdit’s implementation is better.
• Coda remembers the state you left your project in (ie: what files were open), a nice touch.

Searching

• Search CSS in visual editing mode filters the selector list in a similar manner to CSSEdit. Disappointingly it doesn’t work in edit mode though, you have to call up the Find panel. This feels clunky.
• Search Files looks only at file names (not content) which isn’t terribly useful. It only operates in the directory that you are viewing.
• Find & Replace only works within a document or a selection. DW can also operate on all open documents, selected files, a specific folder or the entire site.
• I’d like to be able to save Find & Replace operations. I use saved F&Rs in DW to expand and collapse XML files for a Flash app I work on.

HTML editing

• Just about everything I want is here, good job Panic!
• It would be nice to be able to browse for images as you embed them.
• DW is aware of the classes and ids in your CSS files and suggests them as you code. I’d like to see Coda implement something similar.

CSS editing

• The visual tools are well thought out, but I couldn’t find a way to resize the selector list. I have one pane wasting space and one that I can’t fully see
• No simple way to add comments.
• I miss CSSEdit’s ingenious system for defining ’subfolders’ within a CSS file.

FTP

• Panic have incorporated their new Transmit Turbo engine for whizzy-fast FTP.
• The Publish All button is a cool feature for when you’ve updated multiple files and want to upload them all.
• I’ll have to experiment with this a bit to overcome my misgivings. I tend to feel like I’m losing control of my files…

If I was a freelancer on a tight budget I’d seriously consider Coda. I’ll be sticking with my current toolbox for the time being, but I look forward to future versions.

[rating:3.5]

Posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 11:02 am under Development, Toolbox. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.