espresso

QuickLook: Espresso

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I have been working heavily in Espresso from MacRabbit Software since MacHeist, and really enjoying its calming interface over Coda which is decidedly a bit loud in comparison. From the soothing fresh-brewed coffee cup icon, to the minimalist interface, Espresso keeps me coding happily - at least for the morning.

Features I like:


  • Quick Publish lets you send your files immediately to your server upon saving your document. Quite handy since you know we get tired of switching apps, dragging and dropping, refresh the page.
  • Live Preview lets you view your page right in Espresso. (Only HTML/CSS)
  • Tag Finishing - Espresso finishes your HTML tags for you smartly by knowing what element level you are typing within.
  • Simple Workspace - Clean, elegant single window view makes working in Espresso so sweet.

Feature That Need Help:

  • Auto pairing - I’d like to Espresso match up quotes, square braces and curly brackets when typing. This only occurs when Espresso uses it’s CodeSense for completion.
  • Sugars ended up being nothing more than new CodeSense language files. Would like to see this idea expanded into more directions beyond code finishing and syntax coloring. Maybe a live PHP ouput?

Espresso Main Window

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MacRabbit Releases Espresso Beta to Public

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Espresso is a web development environment for the Mac designed and developed by the folks at MacRabbit who brought you the awesome CSSEdit. Well-known for their beautiful user interfaces, Espresso so far is a stripped down text editor with some project management features.

One feature that should make Espresso is it’s Sugars. These are add-ons for your Espresso. Third-party developers can create these sugar mods and make Espresso work as you see it should.

Another great feature is Espresso uses the same Live Preview that its own CSSEdit uses which should make crafting a web layout much easier.

Espresso is free while in public beta but will cost 59.99 Euro which is about $85 US. I think it’s a little on the high side, but I’ll reserve judgement til the final product is released. Overall its a nice text-editor but if I don’t yet see it replacing Coda or TextMate at the moment.
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