Best Web Dev Environment

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rleitman
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Best Web Dev Environment

Post by rleitman »

Hi,
I am new to web development. I would like to developed my own e-commerce and travel sites. I wonder if someone can tell me the best design and dev environment to use for -

1. HTML design / edit
2. code dev - easy and ready plugines / templates
3. easy deploy and install

Thanks,
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social_experiment
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by social_experiment »

rleitman wrote: 1. HTML design / edit
2. code dev - easy and ready plugines / templates
3. easy deploy and install
It is up to personal choice in my opinion. If you are new to design / development you might want something with a wysiwyg editor, if you don't want to spend money on an ide you can use something like notepad++ which is a text-based editor, more geared to intermediate / advanced developers & designers. Your operating system might also affect the decision.
Last edited by pickle on Thu Jul 07, 2011 3:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: "imo" is a language abbreviation
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
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califdon
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by califdon »

This is a highly subjective choice. I have a personal bias against WYSIWYG development tools, but as social_experiment said, they are sometimes a good choice for someone whose requirements are not complex and who doesn't want to spend the time learning the underlying technology--"just get the job done." Also, it will depend on what platform your development system is running on (Linux, Windows, or Mac) and what server platform it will be deployed on (Linux/Apache, Windows/IIS), which in turn will determine what scripting language you will use (PHP/ASP/.NET).

For my operations, I use PSPad, a free editor that manages your local and remote files, highlights code syntax in dozens of languages (HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, XML, VBScript, Perl, PHP, Python, etc.), and even has a preview browser.
construct
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by construct »

Heres my list of a good quality development environment (assuming windows OS):

- WAMP or XAMMP
- NetBeans
- simple MVC framework like http://mobilephenom.typepad.com/files/simplemvc.zip or more commerical grade like http://www.developercoffee.com/the-top- ... rameworks/
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greyhoundcode
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by greyhoundcode »

social_experiment wrote:if you don't want to spend money on an ide you can use something like notepad++
Just to add, it is also possible to get some good IDEs without opening your wallet.
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social_experiment
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by social_experiment »

jaydeee wrote:I like dreamweaver...
I do too but it is a resource hog on a windows operating system :\
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
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Bill H
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by Bill H »

I have had to do followup work on sites created with Dreamweaver, and that environment creates absolutely horrible HTML. There may be newer versions that are better, but working on the html that it created was an absolute nightmare. It was not consistently indented, line breaks were erratic as hell, the markup was scattered all over the place, and it was cluttered with proprietary comments unique to Dreamweaver. It was all but completely unreadable.

After that experience I made it a point to check before agreeing to update or modify websites. If Dreamweaver was involved I eather declined the job or charged extra.

In short, I hate, loathe Dreamweaver.
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califdon
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by califdon »

That has been my (limited) experience with DW, too. Personally, I have yet to see a WYSIWYG web creation tool that produces standards compliant html and css and javascript code. The formatting could be corrected with Tidy, but the rest I wouldn't touch with a 12-foot pole (size matters).
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Bill H
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by Bill H »

I'll see your 12-foot pole and raise you.

I would not touch it with a 14-foot Russian. :lol: :lol:

Oh, lord, I crack myself up. Anyway, all of the WYSIWYG's are bad, but Dreamweaver is a nightmare.
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social_experiment
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by social_experiment »

Bill H wrote:all of the WYSIWYG's are bad
Are there any bad plain text editors or plain text editors that shouldn't be used (apart from the obvious word processors)?

To add to the bad wysiwig's: Frontpage
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
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califdon
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by califdon »

social_experiment wrote:Are there any bad plain text editors or plain text editors that shouldn't be used (apart from the obvious word processors)?

To add to the bad wysiwig's: Frontpage
Like Bill Clinton said, "it depends on how you define" plain text editor. I understand that to mean that you have to enter all the text from the keyboard and that absolutely nothing is added by the editor--no formatting, no markup that you didn't directly enter. With that definition, there can't be any "bad" plain text editors, but there are some that provide other conveniences, such as syntax highlighting, preview html parsing, ftp connection, quick reference charts, etc.
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social_experiment
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by social_experiment »

califdon wrote:but there are some that provide other conveniences
Good point, i didn't think about it in that sense.

It seems that the preferred editors are a combination of certain parts from a wysiwyg editor (syntax highlighting, preview abilities) and plain text editors (not adding anything except what you type, no ability to 'view' your site unless through a browser).
“Don’t worry if it doesn’t work right. If everything did, you’d be out of a job.” - Mosher’s Law of Software Engineering
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Weirdan
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Re: Best Web Dev Environment

Post by Weirdan »

Add specific keyboard interface the user is familiar with. I, for example, can't really use most of the editors available simply because I'm used to vim keyboard interface.
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