Like Unison for Mac, Transmit and Status Board for iOS, Coda aka Code Editor for iOS has been killed. I can understand this one more than Transmit tho. Apple’s creepy control prevented them from selling enough to be financially sound.
The biggest technical hurdle is the inability to run external processes on iOS and iPadOS.
Apps on iOS and iPadOS must use Apple’s Javascript interpreter, JavaScriptCore.
Everytime Panic kills a product, I look at that little hand held game they built (Playdate) and scream “This is your fault!”…
It’s a sad news, really. Web Developers nowadays have to deal with lots of framework to deliver ‘industry standard’ product. As a web developer, I feel the limited option of text editors that allow productive workflow and fast code delivery.
Coda/Code Editor was my go-to-app for fixing bugs on the go on my websites. They did an awesome job even on an iPhone, if you just needed to change something small in your code.
I do not know of any other app that accomplished that so well.
I may sound a bit frustrated, but there were so many developers that did cope with iOS’ limitations during all those years. And they accomplished a lot. It does not feel good to see this constant stream of developers of fantastic apps leaving iOS behind…
I don’t agree. There were other developers offering excellent apps of this sort before Panic and others still offering excellent apps that fill this need. Back with the very first iPad, “Gusto” was an app that actually offered a similar interface to Coda in that it had a sites view as well as code editor, ftp and preview. I used it during the first few years of the iPad before Panic offered Diet Coda and it was a great app. In fact, it’s the app that within months of the release of the original iPad had me thinking that the iPad was a real tool that I could use for updating client websites and I used in many times a week. An article from April 20, 2010 on Gusto.
On iOS, now iPadOS, I think Panic’s apps are overrated and seemed slow to adopt new iOS features. The biggest stand-out was any option to use the Files app. I was already searching and using alternatives when they announced the end of Transmit on iOS. The day they made that announcement I stopped using Coda as well as the writing was on the wall. Since that time I’ve been doing all of my web work on iPad with a mix of Textastic and FileExplorer. Textastic serves for about 90% with it’s excellent built in FTP, tabbed code editor and built-in preview. FileExplorer is a nice companion app for some file transfer situations but I mostly use that on my local network when transferring back and forth to my Mac which is basically just a file server now.
So what you are saying, you never found a replacment for Transmit? You are just making do with Textastic (90%)? I love Textastic but it is no Transmit. I still use Transmit, but I have always used it as an sftp client, not a web design app.
I’m typically an optimist in most areas of life but I’m not particularly bullish the vision of the iPad.
After the initial rush of excitement over the new iPad Pro reality set upon me. There are indeed people that can benefit from a $2000 but they are a niche of a niche.
When Apple recently updated older apps that haven’t been updated with new security certificates it made me realize how many once promising iOS apps are dead.
Apple’s idealism about this great world wide market never quite materialized.
My primary tools going forward will be Mac based. If “I’m” tired of ramming my head up against iOS limitations then. I can only imagine what Developers must be facing.
I should have been more clear. I also use FileExplorer as my ftp app in place of Transmit. For the work that I do, the workflow I have, I tend add image or other non-html files into project folders which are stored in iCloud. Those image files often correspond to edits I’m making on html files in Textastic’s folder in iCloud. So I’ll often move files via the Files app and do most uploads from Textastic. But other times I use FileExplorer which works great standalone or via the sidebar Files integration.
What I really love about Textastic and FileExplorer is that they both work very well with the Files app or sharing files clients might email to me from mail right to a server folder or a local project folder. Very flexible. It’s been several years since I’ve used them but as I remember it, Coda and Transmit are walled off and don’t allow for easy back and forth.