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ActiveState released an [upgrade to their Komodo IDE][1] this morning. The new version 4.0 of Komodo IDE features a number of enhancements and is available for download. Komodo IDE is a unified workspace for web application development an supports languages such as Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and XML.
ActiveState claims Komodo IDE 4.0 is everything you need to edit, test, and debug entire web applications. In short Komodo wants to be your one ring. ActiveState provided us with a demo version last week and I've been playing with it for several days to see if it delivers on that goal.
Chief among Komodo 4.0's new features is browser-side support. While previous versions offered syntax coloring, Komodo 4.0 adds debugging, a DOM viewer, and HTTP Inspector and more.
With the rising popularity of AJAX and the difficulties involved in debugging Javascript, it's no surprise that ActiveState is touting Komodo's new JavaScript debugging capabilites. Unfortunately this is one case where you'll have to leave the IDE. Komodo's Javascript debugging involves using the Firefox web browser and the Komodo JavaScript DBGP extension.
Similar to the popular Firefox Javascript debugging extension [Firebug][2], the DBGP extension allows you to step through your code within debugging sessions.
For more tradition programming language Komodo offers all the features you'd expect in a good text editor and integrates a shell in the lower pane so you can run your scripts (see screenshots below).
I'll confess that I'm a text editor junkie and this is the first IDE I've ever used, but for people like me Komodo now offers modal Vi keybindings to emulate navigation, as well as text insertion and visual selections which mimic the command-line modes of Vi and Vim. Komodo also supports emacs keybindings.
Komodo also offers a plugin structure using Mozilla APIs based on XUL, XBL, and XPCOM, as well as Komodo's own structures which support plugins written in Python and JavaScript. The company claims "if you've written an extension for Firefox, you'll be comfortable writing one for Komodo."
Komodo was stable and had no speed issues on my MacBook Core 2 Duo. While I don't think I'll be abandoning my beloved text editor any time soon, if you're looking for a full fledged IDE Komodo 4.0 does indeed deliver the goods.
Komodo IDE 4.0 is $295. Right now Komodo is offering a promotional price $245 which lasts until the end of February. Current users can upgrade for $90 and there's a three week trail version as well.
[1]: http://www.activestate.com/products/komodo_ide/ "Komodo 4.0 now available"
[2]: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1843/ "Firefox extension Firebug"
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