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My Dad, the Switcher: Day Zero
This is the first part of an occasional series about my Dad, who, as a long-time Windows user, decided to switch to the Mac. If you're interested in the whole story, more installments are here. As far as database management and Windows programming is concerned, my dad is what you'd call "hard-core." He's been writing software since the 1960s, starting at Honeywell, then Hewlett Packard, eventually starting his own business. He is an expert with the HP 3000 minicomputer, which, in its day, was heavy computing iron to have lying around. So it came as a bit of a shock when he called last week and said, "I'm ready to buy a Mac." He and I are working on a web development project together using open-source tools. Because his workstation is set up for the Microsoft world of SQL Server and .NET, installing XAMPP was wreaking havoc with his complicated array of security software, including Norton and BitDefender. He wanted to start fresh, and work on a system without having to worry about something randomly disallowing access to port 3306. Understandable.
Espresso testers selected, beta coming late November
If you've been salivating for a shot of Espresso, the upcoming integrated web development environment for Mac OS X, you'll have to wait just a little bit longer. An email sent this morning by the developer, MacRabbit's Jan Van Boghout, confirmed the status of those accepted into the beta program, but he also indicated that the top priority was to give plug-in developers working with the Sugar framework "a solid SDK to start with." Van Boghout expects that the company will release a beta in late November. Espresso, which stares Coda straight in the eye and says, "Yeah, I'm lookin' at you," is from the same people who make CSSEdit, and was announced in mid-September.
Coda updated to 1.5.1
Lost in the din of yesterday's Apple announcements, Panic has updated Coda, its all-in-one website editing tool, to 1.5.1. The update largely fixes possible crashes, issues with source control, and squashes several bugs. CFML syntax coloring has been improved, and the release notes promise more syntax coloring improvements to come. Coda 1.5, released on August 26, added Subversion source control, multi-file find and replace, custom books, and a host of other additions and improvements. Coda 1.5.1 is available by selecting Check for Updates... from the Coda menu, or via their website. Thanks, Gordon!
TUAW Tip: Regular Expressions for Beginners
Sometimes I think Regular Expressions are like the tax code: if someone professes to know everything about them, they're probably not telling the truth. In reality, Regular Expressions (or RegEx) is a syntax to help you construct very precise search terms to find and replace bits of text in a variety of applications. In applications like Coda, BBEdit, and TextMate, you can search for a "string" -- meaning just any old collection of letters next to each other -- using a Regular Expression. For example, I could search for the string "laugh" and it would show up in laughter, slaughter, and Laughlin. While I can't show you everything about Regular Expressions, I can at least start you off. Keep reading for more about how you can integrate Regular Expressions into your workflow.
My favorite Mac apps: Christina's Picks
Picking just three favorite Mac applications was harder than I thought it would be. I decided to forgo anything that was either built-in or part of a major productivity or creative suite and just focus on applications that make my Mac computing experience unique and complete. Coda Even before this week's 1.5 update, Coda had a permanent spot on my "favorite app" list. For me, when it comes to developing or maintaining a web project, Coda is just the best. Sure, TextMate (which I'm using to type this post) might be superior if you're looking for just a source-code editor. CSSEdit might be a better CSS editor, Panic's own Transmit is a more robust FTP client. Coda is still the best all-around web development app for my workflow. It lets me access all the files for a project, locally or on a server, make the changes or additions I want to make, preview how it will look in Safari (or with one click, open it in Firefox, Opera, Camino or OmniWeb) and immediately execute any changes. And now I can use it as a Subversion client too. Even better, it is a distinctly "Mac" application. Every UI detail reminds me why I love the Mac and why OS X is the best platform for software around. Aperture 2 While Lightroom 2 is really, really nice (and I prefer it for some types of retouches), Aperture 2 is simply my favorite photo editing and photo management tool. I'm not a professional photographer, I don't even have a high-end DSLR -- just a tiny 8 megapixel Nikon that fits in my purse or the back-pocket of my jeans -- but I still want my photographs to look their best. iPhoto is great, but I need more precision. Aperture 2 lets me fine-tune my images, whether from my digital camera or scanned in from some of my older SLRs, crop them, adjust noise levels and color and just generally make everything prettier. The Photo Book I made for my mom for Mother's Day this year, using Aperture 2, was amazing and brought tears and smiles to both of my parents' faces. Their reaction was worth far more than the price of the software. MarsEdit Although I can't really use it for most of my WIN blogging, MarsEdit is the tool I use to publish to any of my other sites. My personal site runs on WordPress, and while I love the software, I detest its write interface. I know plenty of people like it, I just don't like composing everything in a web form. MarsEdit's Preview mode is a great way to see how something will look before it's published, whether I use HTML or Markdown or Textile. If I need to edit an old entry, I don't have to worry about sifting through the "visual" or "code" view, inadvertently breaking something if I change a URL. Integrating media from Flickr or uploading new images is seamless. MarsEdit just makes my life easier.
Panic releases Coda 1.5
Panic has released Coda 1.5, a free update to my favorite all-in-one web development application. Coda 1.5 adds several major new features, including find-and-replace across multiple files and a fully-integrated Subversion client. Also included in the update is a user-customizable bookshelf, which allows you to specify any given website as a "book." You can also enter a sample search URL with a wildcard character, and command-click on terms to look for them in the book you created. Syntax highlighting has also been improved, as well as performance running under Leopard. Full release notes are available, too. The update is free for all registered Coda users, and $99 for new users. Discounts are available for registered Transmit owners, too.
Panic releases Coda developer's resource
Coda is Panic's awesome all-in-one web worker's application that we've written about before. We even got a nice first hand look at this month's Macworld Expo.Today, the folks at Panic have released a Developer Zone for Coda, which is full of great resources like video tutorials, quick tips, handy Applescripts and feature articles. If you're a developer or a power user, you'll want to check this out. It's quite useful.[Via Shawn Blanc]
Shawn Blanc examines Panic's Coda
Shawn Blanc continues his outstanding series of Mac software reviews by looking at Coda, the all-in-one web worker's application from Coda (we've mentioned Coda several times). He explores Coda's performance as a text editor, CSS editor, FTP client and more, while extolling the little touches like the Clips feature:"You can save any text you want as a "Clip"... [which feature] a Global database as well as a site-specific database...."We love Coda, too, as well as Shawn's comprehensive -- even exhaustive -- explorations (somehow, "review" seems inadequate). Have fun reading, and if that doesn't convince you to purchase Coda, we don't know what will.
Show floor video: Panic's Coda provides one-stop Web authoring
We've talked about Coda plenty here, but it was nice to find the Panic crew on the show floor and get a quick overview of Coda's interface and capabilities. If you're looking for a single tool to do web authoring, check out Sandvox, Rapidweaver, and Coda for your needs. Video after the jump.
Panic updates Coda to version 1.1
Hot on the heels of a rather brilliant update to CandyBar, developers par excellence Panic have updated their all-in-one-window web development application Coda to version 1.1. As the release notes show, there are more little updates for version 1.1 than you can shake a (fairly sizable) stick at, including a tonne of Leopard-y goodness. One such change is the application going from the original (in-house developed, and much fabled) toolbar to the default Leopard GUI, meaning it's now customizable - a minute difference from a user standpoint, but kudos to the folks at Panic for biting the bullet and moving back from their bespoke design.There's plenty more for web development gurus to get their hands on in this free update, which is available from the Panic website, or via the in-application updater.
Upgrade roadmap from Panic covers Leopard compatibility
I know we aren't supposed to play favorites when it comes to Mac developers -- remember, we're all basically on the same team here -- but I have to admit to a slight geek crush on Cabel Sasser. Sure, he & the rest of the Panic crew code a pretty mean FTP client and a well-regarded multitasker for Web development, but that's just business: if any other Mac hacker could compose the world's most hilarious musical about video game bugs, well, I'd be a fan of theirs too.Cabel, thoughtful dude that he is, posted a status update for Panic's applications and Leopard compatibility that runs down what works and what doesn't come Friday night. Most of the Panic apps will continue to work in Leopard, some with minor issues (Transmit) and some just fine (Coda); the one major exception is system icon tweak tool CandyBar 2, which unsurprisingly is not yet compatible with the new Leopard "big icon" format. The good news for CandyBar fans is that version 3, with full Leopard goodness, will be available by the end of November.As other Mac developers announce Leopard compatibility info (like RealMac did earlier for Rapidweaver), we'll be sure to let you know. (Pssst. Developers -- over here! Be sure to let us know when you update your apps for Leopard, and we'll pass it along.)
Cabel's Coda toolbar and the Three Pixel Conundrum
Panic's Cabel Sasser has updated his blog (finally! His Miis were cute and all, but I was tired of seeing them every day) with a really interesting post about how he designed the toolbar for the everything-web-development tool that apparently is the bee's knees, Coda.Instead of using the standard rounded bevel of OS X's unified toolbar, Sasser decided he wanted to do something a little different, and created a tab-ish vertical indent. Unfortunately, the way OS X's toolbars work didn't vibe with his idea (there were just three pixels at the bottom that couldn't be edited the way he wanted), so the Panic team ended up developing their own entire toolbar. That, he says, is why you can't rearrange the icons in Coda-- because the app isn't using the system toolbar.But the best part is saved for last. All the hard work paid off, because even though Sasser had to drive his team nuts just to figure out a way to get around those three pixels, Apple eventually agreed with him. And the new toolbar in Leopard looks strangely familiar. Great story, and a real shot in the arm to developers who might not otherwise be pushed to bother with all the coding required to get the look they want exactly right.[ via DF ]
Coda 1.0.3 is available
The busy folks at Panic have released Coda 1.0.3. We know what you're thinking - that's quite a minor release to highlight on TUAW. We thought so, too, until we saw the laundry list of changes that are a part of this update. Highlights include: Reorder your tabs with drag and drop New ASP / VBScript syntax mode Cold Fusion (CFML) syntax mode Drop a folder on the Dock icon to change the local file list to that folder (cool) There's more, of course, and you can get the full run-down here. Coda retails for $99 and requires 10.4 or later.Thanks, Nik!
Tip: Easily cycle through toolbar icon sizes and formats
Steven Frank has been blogging a number of Coda-related tips since Panic released this ground-breaking app last week. Fortunately for the non-code ninjas in the crowd, Steven's tips haven't been all PHP and CSS-obsessed, however, as he just released this handy gem that I've never seen before. Apparently, in most Mac OS X apps (probably the Cocoa-based ones, so Firefox is out), you can cmd-click the 'standard toolbar widget' in the upper right of the window (the one that looks like a throat lozenge) to cycle through all the different states of toolbar buttons. Large icons + text, small icons with no text and even two different sizes of text-only buttons are all readily available for you to customize in most apps. This is a handy tip especially for me since I *hate* how large Apple made the default icon size in the toolbar, and I previously was right-clicking and chosing 'Use Small Icons' in every single one of my apps. Until a developer comes to my rescue with some sort of AppleScript that can set the default icon size in every app to what I believe it should be, this tip is the next best thing. Thanks Steven!
Panic releases Coda web editor
The folks at Panic are celebrating the tenth anniversary of their incorporation today with what developer Steven recently called "...our biggest, most ambitious new software launch of all time." Today, we can tell you that project is Coda. It's being billed as "One-window web development," and from what we can tell, it looks pretty awesome. I only played with the demo briefly, so there's obviously a lot more to this app then you'll find here (Steven's blog is a good place to go for the full scoop). First of all, the UI is beautiful. When first launched, Coda offers to import your Transmit favorites, which it did perfectly for me. It then "taped" each project if found in my copy of Transmit to the main window. To work on a project, just double click it and it "flips" into view. One more click logs into the project's remote files and displays them in the left hand sidebar. Select any file to begin working on it. Super easy and fast.One more thing that needs to be mentioned, and I'm only scratching the surface here, is the "Books" feature. One click and you're brought to a virtual bookshelf that houses volumes on HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP. Click any book to begin "reading" it, and quickly jump to any topic you are particularly interested in just by clicking a keyword. You can also order hardcopy versions of any of the books.Coda retails for $99 (lower introductory rates are available for now) and requires 10.4 or later. Now if you'll excuse me, I really want to stop typing and return to playing with Coda.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!