One of the things about having a new platform is getting to try a bunch of new tools. I've tried a few different tools over the last day, and I imagine I'll be trying a few more in the weeks to come. Today I played around with coda and ecto.

coda

One of the tools tried was Coda, a web development tool developed by Panic software. When I first saw Coda, I thought it was a bit gimmicky. I'm wary of 'all in one' tools, and Coda seemed very much along those lines. I'm pretty impressed with it, though. I may even have to lay out the cash to get a licensed copy.

Coda makes editing files on a remote site really, really easy. Coda works around the idea of 'sites', you set up the site to connect via FTP, SFTP(ssh), FTP with SSL extensions, and WebDAV. You can also set up a terminal profile, which configures SSH connection information specific for that profile. Panic understands that sometimes you just have to get onto the server; it's nice that they've included an embedded shell that lets you do just that.

ecto

Another tool I have heard about recently is ecto, a blog editor. The tool is meant as a client-side editor for blogging that interfaces with several blogging applications like Blogger and Movable Type. Again, seems a bit gimmicky, but worth checking out (not the least because I'm a scholar of blogging, so it's kinda within my research interests to look at the tool).

I'm using it right now, and I'm not entirely sure the real benefit of it. I can see it being useful for writing posts when offline, say in an airport or (as I plan on using it tomorrow) sitting in a garage. But offline editing is only so useful. After all, if you're like me, you're hitting the web while you're writing your post.