I want to edit HTML code and see character-by-character live preview.
I want really good code completion. When I "<tag>" I definitely want "</tag>"
I want to be able to WYSIWYG edit and see HTML code change.
I want to do this on the Mac.
I don't want to spend a fortune.
Espresso 2.0.1 does decent char-by-char live preview. I'm pleased with its code completion (use the TAB key). I suspect that HTMLBundle.sugar might improve code completion (for HTML only). It does live-preview, but not WYSIWYG editing. I can't find any doc on how to use it. Launches in 1 second.
Coda 1.7.5 does decent auto-complete, but only click-another-tab preview. It has no WYSIWYG editing. It looks like maybe the "Lively" plug-in gets you live-preview in another window. Starts in 3.5 seconds.
Flux 3 has nice WYSIWYG editing, tolerable live-preview, and worthless (not context-aware) auto-completion. Best used for WYSIWYG editing with a few tweaks in HTML.
Chocolat 0.8 has good char-by-char live preview, but you can't control the relative size of the code/preview. It does Markdown live-preview too. It reportedly can import TextMate bundles and themes. It starts in 2 seconds. No doc.
http://htmledit.squarefree.com/ does char-by-char live preview, but nothing else.
http://fundisom.com/live_preview.html does char-by-char live preview, but little else.
I like the code completion in Aptana (Eclipse), but you have to save the file to get the preview. It takes 7 seconds to launch. First launch of the day is 20 seconds. Code auto-complete is inadequate.
http://livereload.com/ gets browser auto-reload on file saved for any editor for $10. Sublime has a plug-in that mostly does the same thing for free; I could only get it working with Chrome and only with http:// URLs.
Ordinary text editors:
* SublimeText 2 launches in 3 seconds for the first launch after boot, and launches in 1 second otherwise. Choosing options is via editing text files. :-( Sublime's unofficial doc is at http://readthedocs.org/docs/sublime-text-unofficial-documentation . "Snippets" are good. Sublime works on Mac, Windows, Ubuntu.
* TextMate launches in 1 second.
* Cocoa Emacs (http://emacsformacosx.com/about) launches in 1 second.
* macvim (http://code.google.com/p/macvim/) launches in 1 second.
* Komodo Edit launches in 4 seconds. Preview on file-save only. It runs on Linux, Mac, Windows.
Emacs and Vim are great editors, and if I coded all day, every day, I could stay proficient enough in one to make it worthwhile. "Stale" in either one is frustrating. Emacs pinky is a problem too. For new languages/concepts, they always happen first in Emacs.
At this point it looks like the following contenders:
* An ordinary text editor (Sublime Text 2 or TextMate or BBEdit or Komodo Edit) $60/$55/$50/$0 and LiveReload @ $10.
- Note: A single Sublime license can be used by one user in both Windows and OS X.
* Chocolat @ $35/50 (beta/final). If it were finished, it *might* be really good.
* Espresso @ $80
* Emacs @ $0
* If I really want to do WYSIWYG editing, I could use Kompozer @ $0
For now, I think I'll use Sublime Text 2, and keep an eye on Chocolat and Expresso.