{"id":19713,"date":"2014-04-01T13:01:54","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T05:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=19713"},"modified":"2025-04-04T01:43:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T17:43:32","slug":"koala-application","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/koala-application\/","title":{"rendered":"Koala App: A Cross-platform App for Modern Web Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the days of Netscape and Internet Explorer 6, most web developers only wrote web documents in plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Today, we have plenty of utility tools to write those 3 web languages more efficiently, with LESS, Sass, CoffeeScript and Jade, just to name a few.<\/p>\n

We can write codes in these new languages, then compile them in the standard form. The compiler takes place in Terminal, and is done through command lines. Alas, not everyone is comfortable working with command lines<\/strong>. It could be a hassle. Let\u2019s check out Koala App<\/a>, the application that lets us compile them via a nice GUI.<\/p>\n

Getting Started<\/h2>\n

Koala is a free<\/strong> cross-platform application. So you can use it regardless of your Operating System (OS). It\u2019s available for Windows, OS X, Ubuntu, and other Linux distributions. Download the installer package accordingly; .exe<\/code> for Windows, .dmg<\/code> for OSX, .deb<\/code> for Ubuntu, and .tar.gz<\/code> for Linux. Follow the installation instructions as per your OS, and launch the application.<\/p>\n

Troubleshooting<\/h3>\n

However, if you are using Ubuntu 13.04 or 13.10, you will probably encounter a problem where the application cannot be launched and run; it just suddenly closes.<\/p>\n

To solve the issue, you can do the following:<\/p>\n

1. Download Udev library from this page<\/a>; libudev0_i386<\/strong> for Ubuntu with 32bit architecture or libudev0_amd64<\/strong>, if you are using Ubuntu 64bit.<\/p>\n

2. Launch the .deb<\/code> package that you have just downloaded. It will open the .deb<\/code> in Ubuntu Software Center. Click the Install<\/span> button.<\/p>\n

\"installed<\/figure>\n

Launch Terminal, and type navigate to \/usr\/lib<\/code> directory with this command line:<\/p>\n

\r\ncd \/usr\/lib\r\n<\/pre>\n
For Ubuntu 64bit, type the following command instead:<\/p>\n
\r\ncd \/usr\/lib64\r\n<\/pre>\n
Lastly, type this command.<\/p>\n
\r\nsudo ln -s libudev.so.1 libudev.so.0\r\n<\/pre>\n
You should now be able to run Koala App<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
Using Koala<\/h2>\n
At the time of the writing, Koala App supports these languages: LESS<\/a>, Sass<\/a>, Compass<\/a>, and CoffeeScipt<\/a>. Assuming that you have created a folder containing project files that includs one of the mentioned languages, you can drag and drop the folder into the window application to add it as a \u201cKoala Project\u201d. It will list the supported files as follows:<\/p>\n
\"add<\/figure>\n
Project Settings<\/h3>\n
In the Project Settings<\/strong>, we can customize the file output. Click on the gear icon at the sidebar of the application window. This opens an overlay dialog box, as shown. At the left hand side of the box, you can see a number of menus or panels to customize the application as well as the menu for each language that it supports.<\/p>\n
\"settings\"<\/figure>\n
For an example, let\u2019s navigate to the LESS<\/strong> panel. In it, there are a number of options, as follows:<\/p>\n