Thread

I’m sure many of you have seen this already, but it’s Friday and I’m not quite ready to work:

MacRabbit, makers of the much-loved CSSEdit, have just announced a new Coda-rival for the Mac: Espresso. Currently in closed beta, Espresso looks to be a front-end web developer’s Swiss Army knife, combining text editor (with code completion, snippets), CSS editor (duh), file manager, FTP (with sync!), live preview, and extendibility.

MacRabbit plans on releasing Espresso 1.0 in November.

what the junk!? Looks good but I have been working on my sites new layout and this is almost identical! Oh well.

Anyways, I’d like to see where they go with this. I really like CSSEdit because of the override feature so it will be interesting to see what they do with Espresso.

I’m interested, too. I like Coda’s site management and terminal, but I don’t like the actual code editor or snippets. So, if Espresso’s site management system is decent and their code editor is solid, it should be a great product.

I wonder if they will support SVN and terminal. Those two I think are very important.

There’s no mention of SVN or Terminal on the website that I can see. Those aren’t important for me, but I’m sure they will be to a lot of people.

Long ways to go yet in November, but I must say I’m anxious to give Espresso a try. I use and love CSSEdit.

I have been using Espresso as part of the closed beta and I am pretty happy with it. A lot of the features or not active right now but it is really nice! Still no terminal or SVN support that I have seen… That is a little bit disappointing.

I am currently planning on writing a “Sugar” for ExpressionEngine. No promises though, I might be kinda busy but that’s my plan.

Got my version of Espresso today. Not much to be impressed with so far. Very few features work (no live preview, no snippets, etc). Ho hum. Much ado about not much so far.

So, I plunked down $30 and upgraded to BBEdit 9.

:-(

Sigh.

Maybe getting a web editor as good as CSSEdit is too much to hope for.

I use Text Wrangler and CSSEdit. Been hoping Espresso will tie in CSSEdit nicely and provide a good editor all wrapped into one, so to speak. It’s still in beta, so we’ll see what the release brings, I guess. Whenever that happens. Sounds like they have a ways to go yet, so a November release may not happen.

Workflow is a mess. Too many applications open and too much bouncing back and forth from one to another to another.

Most sites we work on these days have little HTML; mostly CSS and EE, so CSSEdit is a wonderful tool. Even CSSEdit with a simple but clean text editor with snippet capability would reduce the workflow substantially.

That’s tops on my list of “I want this.”  Espresso doesn’t look like much. Yet.

My tools of choice range from BBEdit, CSSEdit, to MAMP, xScope, YummyFTP, Fireworks. With some dabbling with Photoshop, Transmit, Coda, TextEdit, Xyle scope, and a few other tools.

My first reaction to their site is that the line, ‘Espresso is not a bunch of apps forcibly smashed together’, is a real let-down. I love the fact that Coda ‘forcibly smashes together’ coding, previewing and uploading - that’s the whole point of a decent IDE, surely?

Code folding looks good though - I wish Panic would get a move on with that.

I find Coda to be disappointing, possibly because it does “smash” things together. The editor is more for programmers than for web sites. The CSS is weak compared to CSSEdit. FTP is nominal except for speed, where it’s dreadfully slow compared to, say, YummyFTP. Snippets? Seems like an afterthought more than a planned, integrated, usable feature.

Put a clean editor with snippet control into CSSEdit and MacRabbit will make a lot of web site guys very happy.

I think coda is a great program. I love that fact that I can save files and shoot them up to the server in one application. I hate to open a ftp program like I do on a PC. As for the editor I don’t think it is any different from any other program. All I need is a blank screen and let me plug away, same for the CSS I just go right down the list and type out all my id’s and classes. Since I hand code everything, I might have a different work flow from others.

That is why I give coda two thumbs up.

I find Coda to be disappointing, possibly because it does “smash” things together. The editor is more for programmers than for web sites. The CSS is weak compared to CSSEdit. FTP is nominal except for speed, where it’s dreadfully slow compared to, say, YummyFTP. Snippets? Seems like an afterthought more than a planned, integrated, usable feature.

Put a clean editor with snippet control into CSSEdit and MacRabbit will make a lot of web site guys very happy.

I can see why you would feel that way and I guess it’s just proof that no app can please everyone. Personally I spend 95% of my time in the Edit and Preview areas (usually with the window split so I can see both at once) and like the fact I can quickly view changes as they’re made. I don’t like having code generated for me and find the CSS window far slower than typing classes manually, so don’t tend to go anywhere near it (I doubt I would in any app). As for FTP I agree it’s not really ideal for anything serious, but for publish-as-you-go stuff and minor adjustments it’s brilliant and I find it to be fast on the whole.

$85 for Espreso though, no thanks. Especially after already having purchased CSSEdit. I’m not dropping another $85 so I can edit HTML files. I’ll stick with Smultron, which is free and does the same thing.