News

Komodo IDE Features Built-In Tutorial Maker

• By David Ramel
• August 23, 2016

With the new Komodo 10.1 IDE, developers can use a built-in tool to create a tutorial on how to use the IDE -- or any other lesson.

"This tool allows you to create your own tutorials, as well as use tutorials shared by others," said Nathan Rijksen in a blog post yesterday.

The tool's functionality is explained in detail in Web site documentation. "The tutorial tool is a tool which allows you to write and run your own tutorials," it says. "If you've ever used an online 'learn how to program' tool you're likely already familiar with the concept. Where Komodo's tutorial tool sets itself apart is that you are in a full-blown IDE environment, so the possibilities of what you could do with the tool are endless."

The IDE's creator, ActiveState Software Inc., actually ate its own dogfood as described in the aforementioned hypothetical example.

"Write and use tutorials that will run in Komodo," the product's Web site states. "We are using this mechanic ourselves with the introduction of some useful 'getting started' tutorials. The possibilities here are endless, you could learn how to program in a new language or framework completely from Komodo, or use it as an educational tool for the classroom. We're excited to see where the community will take this."

The Komodo IDE is described as a cross-platform (Windows, Mac and Linux), polyglot IDE for building mobile and Web apps that supports a multitude of languages, including Python, PHP, Go, Perl, Tcl, Ruby, NodeJS, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and many more.

Along with the code editor, the IDE features: code intelligence, such as autocomplete, go to definition and so on; graphical debugging; version control and integrated tools, such as PhoneGap, Cordova, Gulp, Grunt, NPM and so on; workflow and file management; add-ons and customization; dev team capabilities (Komodo for Teams); and the aforementioned wide variety of supported programming languages (with various languages seeing support for various functionality, such as code intelligence, debugging, editing and syntax checking).

Although the bulk of development work for this incremental release was spent on minor enhancements and bug fixes, other functionality was introduced along with the tutorial-making capability.

"You can now force push and force pull files, which is incredibly useful for workflows where all you ever do is upload changes," the Komodo Web site says. "Additionally we're introducing a dynamic toolbar button for Publishing actions, letting you quickly access common publishing tasks."

The Komodo IDE is available for a 21-day, with regular pricing information listed here. The company also offers a free, open source Komodo Edit, a code editor counterpart to the full IDE.