Coda 2 & Diet Coda

Hell yes. I've been beta testing Coda 2 for a few weeks — it's a fantastic update, still very much the same Coda I've enjoyed using for years, but totally cleaned up and refreshed. It's still the best way to edit static/PHP web sites on the Mac.

Which does mean, alas, it's not ideal (in this very picky Rubyist's opinion) for working on web sites or apps written in languages or platforms that aren't based around individual files like PHP is — while Coda's Ruby syntax support is solid, it still lacks a really easy way to preview pages if the URL is something other than http://site.root/filename.ext, and in fact v2.0 has moved the preview feature so that it's easier to find and use, but even more tightly linked to an individual file. Maybe they'll improve this in a future release, or maybe there's some trick I'm not aware of that makes tools like Rails, Sinatra, and Jekyll a little easier to work with.

I'd like that, because Coda is such a nice editor in so many ways. Coda 2 adds Git support, a built-in graphical MySQL client, and (best of all) "syntax pops" for CSS, a new UI for Coda's GUI stylesheet editing tools so that they appear as popovers while writing code, rather than a totally different editing mode. That's a very nerdy way of saying that Coda knows when you're trying to type in a hex code, CSS gradient, border radius, or etc., and will helpfully offer you a way to set those things up visually so you don't have to know the exact code you want. They've even changed their syntax mode format so that CSS preprocessor languages like Sass also get this feature.

Also out today: Panic's first major iPad app, Diet Coda, which is (OMG) a mobile version of Coda with a surprising lot of the desktop version's features. Unlike regular Coda, Diet Coda only does remote editing (i.e., it'll edit files on your server, but doesn't keep any copies of files on the iPad for offline work), and it only supports a few of Coda's most popular languages (CSS, HTML, JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby). But it includes a built-in Terminal client based on Panic's other iOS app, Prompt, and features the best iOS text editing interface to date. The editor replaces the regular iOS cursor-moving loupe with what they call the "Super Loupe", which is bigger and much more precise.

Coda 2 is available both from Panic's web site or the Mac App Store; its regular price will be $99, but it's on sale for just $49 (50% off) today only. Because the Mac App Store doesn't support paid upgrades, the App Store version of Coda 2 has been released as its own new app, so if you bought the original Coda there you'll need to buy it all over again, at (potentially) full price. In other words they've chosen to go the "Tweetie 2" route, rather than the "free upgrades for life" route, which I can't fault them for — Coda 2 is a major upgrade, and it's absurd for Apple to expect them to give it away for free. I just hope Panic doesn't suffer too much bad press as a result. (If you bought Coda directly from Panic, you should qualify for upgrade pricing starting tomorrow after the promotional price ends.)

Diet Coda is (naturally) only available from the App Store, and it's also on sale today for $10 (marked down from $20).

Both apps are highly recommended for anyone who makes web sites.


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