MacAttapp: Apple Software and Application Reviews

Coda 1.1 is a Web Development Application for the Mac developed by Panic Software

MacAttapp REVIEW:
If you’re looking for a low-cost alternative to expensive Web design suites like Dreamweaver and GoLive, Coda is a good alternative. This one-window Web design app has all the tools you need for creating great Web sites, except for WYSISYG. Coda’s tools let you seamlessly work together with others, and includes and easy to setup and use FTP sidebar– using the power of Panic’s Transmit–helps you get your site updated quickly via HTML coding. Hand coding experts will like the full-featured CSS and text editors, with tools that are always only a click away. Time savers like the Clips feature make frequently used code handy and convenient, but not for the novice, these features can be overwhelming.

So in case you haven’t already guessed, from within Coda you can use FTP, terminal, preview, a CSS editor, and of course live edit your remote files on the fly. When I first launched Coda it was easy to grab a site via FTP or load one from a local directory.

The real nuts and bolts of an app like this is its live editing feature. Some of the other work-flow apps I’ve used really don’t handle the remote editing of files that elegantly. Working live on sites that are on servers states or countries away is a snap with Coda, live FTP enables you to do quick edits to a site quickly.

Which brings us to the built in code editor. All of the usual languages are supported and styled appropriately including: CSS, HTML, Javascript, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, SQL, XML, and straight text. Again, I’m leaning towards recommending Coda for advanced users looking for more control of sites over those provided by Dreamweaver or even others that I’ve reviewed.

Coda also comes packed with a CSS editing tool, a VERY Cool one at that. I’m by no means a hard coder and found this CSS editor far superior than anything I’ve worked with in the past, blew away the included CSS editor in Dreamweaver. If you are a novice with CSS, Coda might just be your best friend. Stashed off in one of the tabs is a books section which was outfitted with the PHP manual and 3 others. I didn’t see an option to add your own books, or how this could even be done, but having all of my dev literature in one place is a pretty remarkable concept.

We’ll see how it goes, but after a few hours working with Coda I’m already a fan of many aspects, the included Terminal is very useful to those hard, hard coders, and the nicely designed code editor are the best features. It’s almost guaranteed to be a huge hit with other OS X developers. Be sure to check out Panic’s site to get your own copy. The copy I have expires in 14 days (up on Monday), and we’ll have to wait and see if I really shell out the $79.

Bottom Line:
Coda is really short for Coder, Coda is for Coders and those that want a powerful and easy to use CSS editor. I would recommend Coda an addon to your web development arsenal, but not a the lead program.

Get it:
You can grab a 14 day trial here or jump right into a license for $79.00. From the looks of their buy page that price may go up to $99 in the near future.

For now, of the three reviews of Mac Web Development Tools under $100 my vote goes to RapidWeaver 3.6.6. (Click here for the full RapidWeaver review by MacAttap)

NEXT ON MacAttapp.com: Several reviews are coming of smaller apps, many Freeware, so stay tuned the best Mac Software Review Site in the World!

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