ActiveState Software on Tuesday is releasing Version 5.0 of its Komodo IDE for dynamic languages, offering more speed, more support for distributed version control systems, and improved code-sharing across a team.

The IDE is now built on the Mozilla 1.9 code base, the same code as Firefox 3, and also on Python 2.6, ActiveState said. This makes the IDE faster and more attractive visually, the company said. It supports development with languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, and Tcl.

Support has been added for the Git, Mercurial (hg), and Bazaar distributed version control systems. Previously supported systems include Subversion, Perforce, and CVS.

Improved code-formatting enables better code-sharing across a team, ActiveState said. Consistent formatting makes it easier to read and maintain code. Featured are built-in code-formatting tools and the ability to hook in external formatting tools such as PHP Beautifier, Perltidy, and astyle.

The IDE development team added requested features such as multiple top-level windows and cleaner user interfaces for tabs and sidebars.

Komodo features multilanguage editing and debugging, code-sharing and productivity tools, customization, and extensibility. It is based on an open source foundation via Komodo Edit and the Open Komodo Project. The IDE is designed for small and diverse developer teams.

Five-packs of the IDE currently are available for US$995, for a savings of $500 off the regular price, ActiveState said.