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Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:45 am
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,
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:29 am
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.
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:36 am
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.
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 1:02 pm
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/
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 9:54 am
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.
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 4:27 am
by social_experiment
jaydeee wrote:I like dreamweaver...
I do too but it is a resource hog on a windows operating system :\
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 9:44 am
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.
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 12:24 pm
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).
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:27 am
by Bill H
I'll see your 12-foot pole and raise you.
I would not touch it with a 14-foot Russian.
Oh, lord, I crack myself up. Anyway, all of the WYSIWYG's are bad, but Dreamweaver is a nightmare.
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:34 am
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
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 12:45 pm
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.
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 1:34 am
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).
Re: Best Web Dev Environment
Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 6:46 am
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.