Coda is the New Coca-Cola
I am was a long-time Dreamweaver user going back almost 10 years. In the early days I loved it for it’s WYSIWYG capability, and for developing straight up HTML it was just the ticket. Over the years, as I shifted my development process, I found that I wasn’t using the WYSIWYG editor any longer and the only things I were using Dreamweaver for were for coding and the built-in FTP client, and it doesn’t really do either of those things particularly well.
These days I am using an application called Coda (sorry, Mac only) for all my code writing. It does everything I need it to but adds a couple of things that Dreamweaver lacks, specifically Terminal and Subversion access. For me, Terminal access is absolutely key as I have some clients on dedicated servers and sometimes need SSH access to debug PHP or restart the server and Subversion gives me the SVN client I need to track Elgg development and download code changes. Very handy indeed.
Coda has some other nifty features like a decent CSS editor, built in javascript console and even a reference library. While Dreamweaver has these things as well, I never really used them, probably because they weren’t very intuitive. That said, I don’t want to knock Dreamweaver too badly. It is a good development tool, its just not the right tool for me any longer. Plus, at $99 US I think Coda’s a little easier on the wallet.
Truth be told, I don’t blog often, but when I do you can read it here. Generally you will find the odd post about a particular piece of technology or useful web application that’s caught my eye.