Coda 2.5.1
Panic’s coding tool’s first update in two years: worth the wait?
This 2.5 version sees Coda remain a friendly, capable website coding environment, suitable for both professionals and amateurs alike, in terms of its feature set. Although not strictly a singlewindow app, it prefers this model, with you working in tabs that house documents, Terminals or database connections. Tabs can be split to simultaneously see multiple sections of a document or to house code in one part of the window while a live web preview is shown in another.
Panic says Coda 2.5 is faster and has a revamped UI, both of which were evident during testing, with OS X Yosemite getting a subtle, tasteful window transparency treatment. There are new features, too. New column guides prove effective when working with nested elements, and publishing now tracks external changes, which will be a relief for anyone using CSS pre-processors. There’s a new plug-in manager that’s basic but handy for juggling styles, modes and new sidebar plug-ins, all of which can be written in HTML.
The app introduces Panic Sync, a cloud-based service for syncing clips and server information across devices and software. During testing, it worked flawlessly across Transmit iOS and Coda, but Transmit for OS X and Diet Coda for iPad were (at the time of writing) still waiting for updates to take advantage of this.
Other new features also feel like they’ve not reached their potential. Local file indexing now (optionally) goes through a site’s local files, to provide site-wide autocomplete of functions, classes and variables; this worked great when editing JavaScript, but it’d be good to see smarter autocomplete go wider, taking BBEdit’s ‘match anything’ approach. Similarly, CSS overriding, while welcome, feels unfinished. It’s designed so you can override a live site’s CSS with a local edit, but Coda’s implementation lacks rival Espresso’s X-ray feature and awkwardly forces you to switch back and forth between CSS and live pages when
It introduces Panic Sync, a cloud-based service for syncing clips and server information across devices and software