Panic — makers of the FTP software Transmit and Unison Usenet newsreader — on Monday introduced Coda, a new visual Web site editor for Mac OS X. Coda costs $79.
Coda is billed as “one-window Web development,” created to solve the problem of having to keep a text editor, FTP client and Web browser all open simultaneously while editing a Web site.
Working with a site metaphor, Coda automatically tracks what you’ve changed and publishes it for you. It supports FTP, SFTP, FTP+SSL and WebDAV transfer protocols, so you can upload to a variety of different servers hosting your Web site.
The integrated text editor supports standard Web page editing features like syntax coloring, line numbering, auto completion, block editing and international support. It also integrates the Subetha Engine, so you can collaborate with other users, including those on the same network using Apple’s Bonjour technology. You can also plug in frequently used text clips, or find and replace text using drag and drop.
Coda’s preview engine is based on Apple’s WebKit, so it offers a visual experience like Safari. A DOM Inspector lets you view your site’s element hierarchy, and a Javascript console lets you view possible errors and line numbers. PHP is also supported.
Coda sports a built-in Cascading Style Sheet editor so you can design layouts without having to rely on an outside application; Visual Mode lets you piece together your style sheets point-and-click style, while Text Mode supports full-blown text editing of style sheets. Other features include built-in terminal access and a built-in reference guide: The Web Programmer’s Desk Reference.
Normally priced at $99, Coda costs $79. Registered users of Transmit 3 can get a $10 discount.
System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.4 or later. Coda is a Universal binary.