What we know about Coda 2 (and we know a lot)
@katiekitay I'll say, uh, less than three months? And now that I said that, it'll be fourteen years. I really appreciate your enthusiasm! —C
— Panic Inc (@panic) April 14, 2012
Coda 2, the next major version of Panic’s fantastic code editor, will be released by the end of July.
How do I know? Because the developers said so! They may keep quiet on their blog and with the press, but the folks at Panic are more open on Twitter – specifically with their replies. I’ve compiled a pretty nice list of features and details for Coda 2 by going through the developer’s @ replies since the first of the year.
Pricing
The Panic folks have tweeted a lot about pricing, but it seems they are still figuring out what they are going to do – there are some contradictory statements. I’m positive they will still be selling both directly through their own store and through the Mac App Store, but I’m not sure on upgrade pricing or price differences between the two channels.
They will be launching the app on the Mac App Store as a new product (Reference). Since the Mac App Store has no paid upgrades there won’t be any upgrade path available. What’s not clear is whether there will be upgrade pricing when buying from Panic directly. They use the ambiguous phrase “Coda 2 will be a paid upgrade” (Reference and Reference), which could mean either that there is upgrade pricing, or that just like in the MAS, you pay full price for the new version.
And what if you buy Coda 1 today and Coda 2 comes out next week? That one is also a little hazy, with one tweet promising a discount and another, from the very next day, promising a free upgrade.
My personal opinion after reading through hundreds of their tweets, many referencing their intention to price as fairly as possible, is that they are leaning towards the “discount for a limited time” approach with both distribution channels (Reference and Reference).
It’s a Big Update
The developers have dropped a couple of hints that there is a lot coming in Coda 2. If you’re familiar with Panic’s other product, Transmit, they say that Coda 2 will be a bigger jump over Coda 1 than Transmit 4 was over Transmit 3.
Confirmed Features
- Full-screen support (Reference)
- Code folding (Reference)
- Improved source control (for example, being able to set ignore flags in SVN) (Reference and Reference)
- iCloud syncing of clips (Reference) and possibly sites (Reference)
- Folders before files sorting (Reference)
Detection of external file changes (Reference)
Update: Didn’t make the cut (Reference)- Better management of tabs/open files (Reference)
- Snow Leopard support (Reference)
- Tag-wrapping (Reference and Reference and Reference)
Likely Features
Assuming the reply “It’s a popular request” is confirmation.
- Git integration (Reference)
- Database integration (Reference and Reference)
- CSS live preview (Reference)
- Save all (Reference)
Not Happening
- No diff tool (Reference)
- No multiple remote sites (Reference)
- No PHP debugger (Reference)
- Autosave/versions is questionable (Reference)
Caveat
Although this all comes direct from the developers, plans can change and nothing is final until it’s released. So if August rolls around and Coda 2 still isn’t out, well, that’s software for you.