![Coals [2] Newcastle](http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/3562/21346596076295/1600/z/839315/gse_multipart37953.png)
For the record, I have loved Komodo since version 2.0. The thing that first attracted my gaze was the amazing Rx Toolkit, which anyone who uses regular expressions even occasionally needs to have handy. The ability to test a regexp thoroughly without writing a huge test case for the entire class/method/function/whatever is a blessing and a time saver of epic proportions. Beyond that, however, Komodo has always been best at handling just about any language I want to use, without being as persnikity about making me learn it's super-secret shortcuts as, say, emacs, or vi, or TextMate. So I have always had a copy of the dragon at my side, even if I'm doing most of my work in Eclipse, or Zend Studio (which is now Eclipse), or Flex Builder (Eclipse again) or yes, TextMate.
So when I saw that version 5 was out today I was excited. I cast my ballot some days ago, so I wasn't in any rush to get to the polls today, and was free to poke around the new IDE and see what was there.
Everything you see on the site is true: verson 5 is faster to load than version 4, faster to run, calls tooltips and auto-completes more accurately and quickly than before, even in multi-language situations that stump most IDE's. The chrome (a word that Google has spoiled somewhat) matches the local system better, by which I mean that Komodo on the Mac doesn't look like a Windows port any more.
The problem is that anyone who has used Komodo for a while is kinda spoiled, and a lot of the big work looks insiginifcant, because you're used to it: Komodo has been effortlessly detecting and using my default installs of Ruby, SVN, PHP, python, etc. etc. for years now, so the fact that the newest version can do that is no big news. Granted, I can only usually get an Eclipse based IDE to work with Apple's built-in SVN client, but I don't expect as much from Eclipse-based IDE's. A long time user of Komodo will feel right at home, perhaps too much at home. However, upgrade licenses are not terrible (USD$95.00 until December 23, 2008, then USD$145), so it would definitely be worth it for anyone who gets paid to write code.
Komodo manages to be full of useful features without being heavy and overwrought like some IDE's (*cough* Visual Studio *cough*). I don't know how many people know about the incredible macro feature, or how well it's used in Komodo's Ruby on Rails development, but it's amazing to me that it's there and so foolproof. I can create macros in Komodo in half the time it would take me to re-read the chapter in the TextMate manual (sold separately) on creating macros; so about a fourth the time it would take me to create the TextMate macro.
Which brings us to support. Once again, Komodo excels. The built-in help and tutorials will show you how to solve most of your problems before it gets to the forum stage, but I have had questions I needed to post in the forum and I have always come away satisfied. If you haven't visited the Komodo forums, you owe it to yourself to do so. Questions are usually answered by Active State staff, often within hours of being asked.
Overall, if you don't currently have a Komodo license, I heartily recommend you get one; it's well worth the price of admission.
Unfortunately, that's my one sticking point: the price has gone up a bit, and I'm no longer a student, so I don't qualify for the student price (which has also gone up, from around USD$50 to USD$100). This isn't a surprise; everything has gone up a bit, and even at the new prices it's still worth it. But it does mean that, after my 21 day trial ends, I'll be back to version 4 until I can scrape up the cash for the new license.
So when I saw that version 5 was out today I was excited. I cast my ballot some days ago, so I wasn't in any rush to get to the polls today, and was free to poke around the new IDE and see what was there.
Everything you see on the site is true: verson 5 is faster to load than version 4, faster to run, calls tooltips and auto-completes more accurately and quickly than before, even in multi-language situations that stump most IDE's. The chrome (a word that Google has spoiled somewhat) matches the local system better, by which I mean that Komodo on the Mac doesn't look like a Windows port any more.
The problem is that anyone who has used Komodo for a while is kinda spoiled, and a lot of the big work looks insiginifcant, because you're used to it: Komodo has been effortlessly detecting and using my default installs of Ruby, SVN, PHP, python, etc. etc. for years now, so the fact that the newest version can do that is no big news. Granted, I can only usually get an Eclipse based IDE to work with Apple's built-in SVN client, but I don't expect as much from Eclipse-based IDE's. A long time user of Komodo will feel right at home, perhaps too much at home. However, upgrade licenses are not terrible (USD$95.00 until December 23, 2008, then USD$145), so it would definitely be worth it for anyone who gets paid to write code.
Komodo manages to be full of useful features without being heavy and overwrought like some IDE's (*cough* Visual Studio *cough*). I don't know how many people know about the incredible macro feature, or how well it's used in Komodo's Ruby on Rails development, but it's amazing to me that it's there and so foolproof. I can create macros in Komodo in half the time it would take me to re-read the chapter in the TextMate manual (sold separately) on creating macros; so about a fourth the time it would take me to create the TextMate macro.
Which brings us to support. Once again, Komodo excels. The built-in help and tutorials will show you how to solve most of your problems before it gets to the forum stage, but I have had questions I needed to post in the forum and I have always come away satisfied. If you haven't visited the Komodo forums, you owe it to yourself to do so. Questions are usually answered by Active State staff, often within hours of being asked.
Overall, if you don't currently have a Komodo license, I heartily recommend you get one; it's well worth the price of admission.
Unfortunately, that's my one sticking point: the price has gone up a bit, and I'm no longer a student, so I don't qualify for the student price (which has also gone up, from around USD$50 to USD$100). This isn't a surprise; everything has gone up a bit, and even at the new prices it's still worth it. But it does mean that, after my 21 day trial ends, I'll be back to version 4 until I can scrape up the cash for the new license.
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