Interview With Two DC WordPress and Drupal Developers
At DC based WordPress and Drupal design and development headquarters, WDG, an ongoing debate has been which text editor is better: Coda or Sublime. Both of them work extremely well, but have different specialties. To get a better idea of why some developers are choosing Coda while others are choosing Sublime, I interviewed two of our developers, a Sublime-user, Dave, and a Coda-user, Mike.
Interview with Dave
How long have you been a Sublime user?
Almost 2 years, since beta.
Why do you use Sublime?
I like it a lot…I have programmed for a long time and it has all the features that you use whenever you are typing syntax. Most of these features are also supported in other text editors but Sublime does all the standard things and it does them well, plus a few extras.
What standard features and extras do you really like?
For those not familiar with Sublime, the minimap shows a small version of the code on the side of your screen. It allows the programmer to see how the code is organized and progressing as well as skip to a certain area of the code with a click. Check out Sublime Text for yourself.The standard features that I like the most include: code folding, tab autocomplete, good syntax colorizing, it supports lots of different programminglanguages and extensions and it does it seamlessly, underline bracket matching, underline tag matching, syntax autocomplete, everything is already set up to your liking (color schemes, settings). If I am on Mac, Lynix, Windows, I can use it and I get the same setting for all the different platforms.With regards to extras, it handles really large files well and has minimap.
What are Sublime’s most important qualities?
Colorized syntax. If it is not colorized it is hard to visually see syntax.
Have you ever used Coda?
No.
Is there anything that Sublime is lacking?
These are connection protocols to view and edit files on other machines, eg web servers.Native ssh and ftp support.
How excited are you for Sublime 2?
I am not losing sleep or wetting my pants, but I really like it as an editor and it pairs with Ubuntu really well.
Interview with Mike
How long have you been a Coda user?
5 years.
Why do you use Coda?
That’s what I was introduced to when I started programming but the reason I was introduced to it is because it has a much better integration with mac. Panic makes a suite of software that all blend together and work together really well.
What standard features and extras do you really like?
The standard features I really like are the autocomplete functions/variables, clips (little code snippets that autocomplete), live preview (as you are making changes in the code you can see it live), find and replace with tokens. The extras I like are the version control built-in with git (saves multiple versions of files instead of simply the most recent) and the fact that it can handle built-in files.
What are Coda’s most important qualities?
It has everything all in one package and program and handles every task that I will do as a developer. Even more important, it has a smart interface.
Have you ever used Sublime?
No.
Is there anything that Coda is lacking?
Yes, handling databases. The only thing Coda doesn’t do at the moment is modify/create databases.
How excited are you for Coda 2?
Like a kid on Christmas morning.
There you have it. No matter which system you prefer, there’s one out there that will likely fit your needs. Weigh in on your favorites in the comments.
