SFTP not functioning as expected

You can just download a single file, edit it and upload it again (see http://www.textasticapp.com/manual/lessons/How_can_I_quickly_upload_downloaded_files.html) – and then delete the local file. You do not need to download the whole directory structure if you don't want to.

What other applications do you use to edit files remotely? Unless you're talking about an SSH terminal session, I'm quite sure they basically do the same thing (download the file, let you edit the file, but upload the file automatically when the file is closed).

When working on a web site, I find it too cumbersome to download, edit and upload single files. As well, I'm not always online. And I actually DO want to download the whole directory structure. But of course, that's no good to me if there is no way to two-way sync changes between systems.

About other apps, I see your point. There are none, at least that I have, that do FSTP and webdav like I would expect to see on a destop. I don't have any knowledge of how iPad apps actually work or what Apple's rules are, so I'm completely ignorant of what the constraints are. Perhaps if the unison package were ported to the iPad OS, apps could hook into it.

I found the Textastic way confusing at first, but I think it may be very good for the iPad. It just takes getting used to. I've downloaded just key files that I edit a lot from various sites into a small, efficient directory structure in Textastic. Since the app remembers where each file came from, I can leave the server filesystem behind and just focus on the files that I usually need to fiddle with. It also means that the app is not downloading and syncing a lot of files I don't need (images, for example).

So, I guess my bottom line would be that maybe such a "live sync" option would be helpful (more Coda-like), I would want to make sure Textastic preserves the "lazy sync" technique it currently uses too. Alexander is right to note that behind the scenes these two options are much the same, but in avoiding a full reconstruction of the server filesystem and the need to always resync everything, Textastic ends up more appropriately scaled to the iPad.