Why Coda Really Needs Better Contextual Syntax Coloring

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SurfBits Coda Review

SurfBits has posted their own review of Coda today. It’s pretty straightforward, but does raise an interesting issue:

I like the method [in transfers] where you can see both sides at the same time, having to have blind faith that it will switch properly is kind of disconcerting, but it does work pretty easily when you get used to it.

I’ve run into this problem myself; I often have to double check my Transfer list is correctly showing either the local or remote server, particularly when the directories are identical. I’m not sure if there’s a solution to this given the current UI, but it would helpful to make it somehow clearer which server you are viewing at a glance.

Printing Compared

The blog Brnzwngs has a short piece comparing the printing features of Coda, BBEdit and Dreamweaver. Coda and BBEdit are pretty much on par, but Dreamweaver (not suprisingly) falls a bit short.

Gruber’s Take

The always spot-on Jon Gruber at Daring Fireball has well-reasoned ruminations on Coda:

The appeal of Coda cannot be expressed solely by any comparison of features. The point is not what it does, but how it feels to use it. The essential aspects of Coda aren’t features in its components, but rather the connections between components.

Coda: Minding the Gaps

Upstart Blogger posits that Coda “is a great all-in-one Web development environment, but it’s missing some of the power and refinement of dedicated applications.”

That’s certainly true, and they go on to list a number of free (or cheap) solutions and tricks that fill in some of Coda’s more deficient areas, such as CSS validation and Find Differences. It’s a good list, and hopefully will be whittled down as Coda is improved.

Coda 1.0.1 Released

As promised, Coda 1.0.1 has been released. The new features are slim, but the fixes are extensive. If your update wasn’t automatic from the app, get it here.

Here are the release notes in their entirety:

New:

• Includes ActionScript Mode
• Includes JSP-HTML Mode
• Includes Smarty Template Mode
• Added new “Local Root URL” option to site sheet
  • This will be appended when previewing local files
  • This significantly improves the local preview experience, particularly for those who run a local webserver

30 Coda Tips and Tricks…

Upstart Blogger has a great write up of 30 Coda tips and tricks. By now some are obvious, but there are a few gems, such as:

12. Hovering your cursor over a tab name will give you a balloon with the title and volume, but Command-clicking on the tab name gives you the path to the file (see below).

17. You can highlight any word in the editor and hit Command-’ to look it up in the library, or just double click on a word while holding down the Command key.

TidBits Coda Review

Joe Kissell at TidBits provides an extensive and cut-through-the-hype review of Coda. He pretty much nails where 1.0 is right now, from the point of view of hardcore code jocks.

StevenF Coda Tips

Steven Frank, Panic co-founder, has been posting great Coda tips in his blog. Coda: Master Editor is an extensive overview of editing in Coda. In his Quick Tip #3, he has this little gem: To quickly replace a file in an existing split, just drag in a new one.

Frank is on a (well deserved) vacation for a few weeks, but he’ll no doubt be back with lots more.

Coda: One Week Later

Panic Co-founder Cabel Sasser has posted a wonderful reflection of the first week of Coda’s existence. The proud pappa shares some insights on the crazy reaction to Coda’s launch, including nifty webstats and graphs. Oh, and candy.