March 04, 2004 | View Comments (120) | Category: Our Thoughts
Summary: What software do you use for coding your XHTML/CSS pages?
I was wondering if anyone has tried the new Microsoft Frontpage, because I have been messing with it and I really must give it to Microsoft this time. They might have produced the greatest editor for developing webpages ever. Amazing. It's amazing that you might actually believe all that rubbish that I just said! Anyways, I have been using Vim for about 2 years now to write all of my XHTML/CSS code and have recently begun playing with WestCiv's new Style Master, which is turning out to be a quality piece of software. The beauty of Vim is that it has syntax highlighting for a ridiculous amount of languages and pretty much comes default on any unix system that you come across. Even better is the initial high learning curve so you can feel ultra-hip as the only person in your shop who can use it. So what do you use to code and why?
Trackback URL: http://9rules.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/169
I'm not amateur enough to use FrontPage, but not harcore enough to use emacs or vim. So, it's trusty old Notepad for me. Of course, I have zero design skills, so take that with a grain of salt - any tool would likely work fine for me.
Bill (http://bill.simonifamily.net)
I second Homesite. Big plus for me (especially when I'm fixing all my poorly designed sites from yesteryear) is the Extended Search and Replace - that will parse through directories and subdirectories and search/replace the files with lines, or even blocks of text.
kyle
At the moment I do everything in BBEdit. Pretty good search and replace!
When I used to work on a PC I used Homesite and Topstyle, a pretty good combo.
BBEdit and Stylemaster may turn out to be the killer combo on the mac.
Egor Kloos (http://www.dutchcelt.nl/weblog/)
Homesite+ 5.2 on my PC at work; SubEthaEdit on my iBook.
I swear by Homesite and have used it since its ColdFusion Studio days. Nowadays it survives as a hidden extra on the Dreamweaver CD but is crying out for a rewrite and Mac version.
SubEthaEdit helps to fill the void on Mac OS and its live HTML preview is a great feature.
barryf (http://www.redev.org/)
BBEdit is THE editor for Macs. I can markup huge quantities of text very quickly thanks to BBEdit's command-key configurability. It supports XHTML syntax, and has commands for nearly all possible tags. Set up shortcuts for the most common commands (select line, select paragraph, P, UL, OL, DL, STRONG, EM, A) and you can mark things up faster than a WYSIWYG. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. BBEdit is full of niceties:
But I also use VIM for quick edits because it is extremely efficient for jumping around a file and making small changes. I avoid it for major changes (at least without the GUI component) because moving big blocks around is easier with a mouse to select.
Also worthy of note, on the Mac is SubEthaEdit. It is short on features, but what it does is allow truly collaborative text editing. Multiple people can edit a file in real-time using OS X. Much more efficient than CVS when several people need to modify a file at once.
Gabe (http://www.websaviour.com/nexus/)
I used Dreamweaver forever, but noticed it liked to randomly indent and wrap my code, so I gave HTML-Kit a shot. After awhile I found a few things about it that I didn't like. So now I'm back to Dreamweaver MX 2004, but I'm in code view 95% of the time. I'll probably stick with it for awhile.
Brian (http://www.litzdesigns.com)
I'm on a pc so I'm jumping between Homesite+ and Dreamweaver MX (though I never use the design view these days - doing CSS designs on DW3 got me out of that habit early on).
I do find DW's site-wide find and replace a handy tool and that is what is keeping me using it.
I've just about finished a trial of TopStyle Pro and have to say I do like it, though persuading work to fork out for a replacement editor will be a tough one.
On a similar note, does anyone have any recommendations for a pc FTP, assuming I go ahead and ditch DW?
Adam (http://www.liptrot.org)
I tend to use skEdit(Mac Only) and Style Master in combination. I sometimes also use Web Minimalist or SubEthaEdit depending on what I'm doing. Also use DMX 04 but mainly for templates, site management etc. Downloaded CSSEdit (Mac Only) yesterday. Nice interface but not as full featured as Style Master which just rocks as far as I am concerned. I tried out Web Design for a while but find skEdit far superior. It's like a lightweight, (less clunky?) version of Dreamweaver, with a side panel that quickly lets you jump from one document to the next in the same window.
dez (http://dezwozhere.com/blog/)
who are you, and what have you done with Paul Scrivens????
Oh. Thank heavens. You were joking. Dear god, I thought you were serious. I was going to send for an exorcist.
I use Dreamweaver MX, mostly. Textpad when I need a text editor (decent syntax coloring - excellent regex, block select, etc. saves me hours every time I use it), CF Studio on occasion, (especially if I'm working with a lot of nested ifs or something, it has an excellent code collapse feature that they foolishly left out of dreamweaver MX) and Websphere Studio, mostly when I'm working with XML/XSL and things aren't working properly (it has a great tool for testing that stuff)
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
I caught the Emacs bug about a year ago. Various things such as syntax highlighting _and_ xhtml awareness (it knows what elements are allowed where), modes for every other programing language I use, tramp mode to edit files directly on servers via ssh, ability to save working environment (all open files) and pull it back-up on a re-launch, auto-text completion, and the combined blessing/curse of truly endless customization.
Most of the required quite a bit of set up to get it to work. So it is in no way double-click and go. It also took me 3 attempts (in as many months) before I got the hang of the controls enough to really start going with it.
That said, there are versions of it available for most any OS, and the customization files are fairly portable.
Xian (http://xian.mintchaos.com)
Adam -
WS_FTP lite works fine. It's ugly, but it's free and fast. I don't think it supports sftp if you need that though.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
jEdit (http://www.jedit.org), because I can use the same editor and plugins on OS X, Windows and Linux. It's become a little flakey with Apple's latest Java update, so I may have to switch to BBEdit until they get that fixed. Even with that, it has templates for dozens of languages, some really neato plugins, and is pretty darn responsive for a Java GUI.
Kevin (http://lawver.net)
I'm a HomeSite person myself. I've tried using DW and I have a copy of TopStyle Pro for CSS, but I always find myself headin back to HomeSite.
ray (http://www.reh3.com/)
I do everything whilst SSH'd into my server. Can't stand vim or emacs personally, so I use nano. Suits me just fine.
Jonathan Stanley (http://lambcutlet.org/)
I'm with Dez - skEdit all the way, and for the same reasons. I use BBEdit occasionaly for the really advanced features, but thats it.
Jon Hicks (http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/)
Scrivs, you scared the crap out of me with the FrontPage comments.
I use Dreamweaver MX exclusively but I want to start using BBEdit. I started using Dreamweaver with version 2 (the visual editing was perfect for me coming from the print worl) but now I find myself mostly working in the code view.
Todd (http://www.monkeyhouselounge.com/loungeact/)
Coldfusion for windows, it does all the highlighting I need for all the different things I use especially PHP. ePHP helps out alot.
Quanta+ and BlueFish for Linux which is where I write most of my stuff since I need a L.A.M.P. setup working to view the PHP pages at work. Or at crash to begin with. ;-)
Monty
HomeSite+ for me... I was using Dreamweaver MX 2004 for a bit, but when connected to the RDS server at work, it forced me to reupload EVERY image associated with that page every time I saved. Such crap... I have heard a Dreamweaver updater is coming, but nothing can take me away from HomeSite+ now :)
Josh Dura (http://www.joshdura.com)
I use HomeSite 5 at work and I love it. :-) At home, sometimes I just use plain ol' Notepad occasionally or the freeware version of HomeSite at it's version 1.2 or something stage.
SmartFTP is also a great FTP program!
Lea (http://xox.lealea.net/)
TopStyle 3.1 Pro is the one and only editor for me. I love it!
The validation buttons for CSS/(X)HTML/WAI are just great and the integrated HTMLTidy has saved me a lot of time.
Great performance for a small amount of money.
Minz Meyer (http://www.minzweb.de)
I use SubEthaEdit on my Macs. Love the live preview feature, especially with two monitors!
When I used Windows I used Topstyle Pro for CSS and HTML.
Derek Rose (http://www.twotallsocks.com/)
On a PC I am straight up HomeSite, sometimes using TopStyle Light for CSS.
On a Mac, its all about BBEdit.
Today, I have a lunch meeting with a usergroup i am a member of, and Microsoft will be there showing off Office 2003, and in particular, Frontpage 2003. I will try to take some good notes of the garbage they spill.
Anyone have any questions they want me to ask?
Jeremy Flint (http://www.jeremyflint.com)
Used notepad for a long time, but currently digging Crimson Editor. I like it because it's free (w00t!), very fast, and offers just enough support (auto-indent, context highlighting, etc.) without getting in the way, which is what I found tended to happen with a lot of other programs I tried to use. It has highligting support for a ridiculous number of languages, and will even change the color of a function/tag/selector to let you know that it is valid/exists.
Paul G (http://www.relativelyabsolute.com)
I use UltraEdit, great piece of editor for Windows, supports PHP, CSS, HTML, blah blah.
Great text editor.
dusoft (http://www.ambience.sk/)
I third Homesite. And lately, I've been using Firefox's Web Developer and EditCSS extensions intensively when comping web sites.
Sergio (http://overcaffeinated.net)
I use kate, the editor that comes with KDE. It does the usual stuff, syntax highlighting, a small amount of project management, etc. It's a KDE application, so it can edit files on remote systems through sftp/ftp/webdav/etc just as easily as on local filesystems.
Basically, it includes a small amount of very useful features, and gets out of my way as much as possible, which is why I like it.
Jim Dabell (http://www.jimdabell.com/)
On my Mac I use BBEdit and lately CSSEdit, but I'm going to try StyleMaster3 and see how that goes.
On my PC (at work) I use Homesite and have for years.
Keith (http://www.7nights.com/asterisk/)
I havent used any editors before; i just use notepad, should i be using a HTML/CSS editor?
Steven
Steven: Yes for the syntax highlighting. Notepad doesn't have that.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
I've been building websites now for about one year and a half and I've been using Crimson Editor all the way.
Although I've experienced some minor problems with syntax highlighting I really like this editor. It's a solid piece of software. I particulary enjoy the built-in FTP.
Moreover it's free, as mentioned above.
Geert DD
Homesite - been using it for years now. I'll probably switch to something ligher that does syntax highlighting this coming fall... It just works, although im finding that I use the Homesite features less and less, while using topstyle lite more and more.
andrew (http://www.walkingnorth.com)
I used Dreamweaver MX (non 2004) and I have always been happy with it. I haven't dabbled into Homesite yet, so I would like someone to give a rough comparison between the two if they could.
Thing about DW for css is that sometimes it lacks support for certain things. Border-collapse, transparent, I think child selectors (>), and other stuff. What is HomeSite + css support like?
bryan (http://www.gamecubecheats.info)
I edit my site in PageSpinner, a web authoring package for Mac OS that supports HTML, XHTML, JavaScript, PHP, SSI, and CSS.
Nick (http://www.nickpunter.co.uk)
I use Notepad exclusively.
I only use Dreamweaver to FTP stuff to my server.
It really helped me learn good, accurate HTML / XHTML coding and I've just stuck with it ever since.
cm (http://telerana.f2o.org)
I had been a long time user of homesite/cold fusion studio. At the time I used it because I worked tech support for Allaire way back.
I had tried dreamweaver but seems to be to bloated and in the past has had memory leaks.
I now use Top Style. Nick Bradbury makes some good products he also created homesite so I guess thats why I am comfortable with it.
Brian (http://savedbyzero.org)
You had me worried for a minute... I tell my web design students that they aren't allowed to use the "F-word" in my classes! I use DW MX (not 2004) for most stuff and do any css in editpad. I use the code view in DW most of the time, but I do like the visual view for editing stuff like tables when they are used... yes, I'm not totally tableless yet.
Debby (http://www.collegeteacher.org)
I use BBEdit for everything. I do have a bare-bones CSS file that I always start with though, does that count? :)
Mike (http://phark.typepad.com)
I've hand-coded exclusively in Notepad in the past, before I moved to hand-coding in HomeSite, which I actually bought with my allowance money when I was a wee 14 year old. I was pretty snobby about hand-coding and anti-WYSIWYGs for a long time because of my experience with Frontpage and other such crap.
Now I use Dreamweaver MX 2004 but in the half-code, half-WYSIWIG way. The CSS support isn't all there, so I will occasionally just close the WYSIWYG part and revert to hand-code. Not using something like Homesite or Dreamweaver seems silly to me now. Great file support, search and replace functions, code cleanup, etc. Though 2004 is way better than 2003 in regards to CSS/XHTML support, they do need to do better.
Alanna (http://www.expio.net)
I got homesite 4.5 bundled with DW4 when I bought it. I think I use DW 2-5% and Homesite 95-98% of the time
Joe (http://www.kapiti.net.nz)
Brian --
doesn't CF studio have more memory leaks and worse performance than about anything else you've ever touched? I love the way it works (if you remove design mode) but the thing crashes alot, and always throws an error on exit, even on a fresh 2k install.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
At work, I use IntelliJ IDEA for Java, JSP, and HTML. At home I use HTML-Kit for HTML. I've always used TopStyle Lite for CSS.
I downloaded the evaluation copy of StyleMaster last night, and unfortunately I find it disappointing. It doesn't seem to live up to all the postitive remarks I've seen. Even after telling it what code format I want to use, I still found it trying to use its old default format. The editor really just doesn't cut it for me. Kept messing things up. Plus I couldn't find any sign of that advanced color-picker that they have screenshots of on their site. Think I'll stick with my current setup. Or TopStyle Pro might be an interesting thing to try out.
Jennifer Grucza (http://jennifergrucza.com)
Eclipse with WOLips, Perforce and GoLive CS. I switch between Mac and PC doing WebObjects development.
Michael
Dreamweaver MX (coding side) for the majority of code creation. Here's why:
-fantastic syntax hightlighting
-code completion
-function templates (the tooltip with the argument names)
and SCiTE for quick file edits.
David House
I use Macromedia MX at work, sometimes Notepad and sometimes XML Spy for XSL stuff. I used to use Frontpage (a while ago now), but never liked its intrusiveness - "here, let me add some html for you"; "No I don't want your html, Frontpage"; "Oh, but I insist - you won't feel a thing until after you've saved the file, I promise".
Anyhow, I'd be interested in seeing the results of your poll in stats format seeing as you've received a lot of replies.
Cheers, Richard
Richard MacManus (http://www.readwriteweb.com)
BBEdit as of right now. I might later use skEdit and/or StyleMaster. We'll see what happens.
Chris Vincent (http://dris.dyndns.org:8080/)
JC,
Studio was basically Homesite with some added stuff. That added stuff certainly bogged it down and caused issues. Speaking of memory leaks, the CF Server was very leaky.
--
I've glanced at Dreamweaver MX and it just seems like overkill. What I like about Top Style is it is pretty lightweight, it gives me some tag insight and tag completion, color coding and that is all I really want. I suspect I am missing out on lots of features, not only in Top Style but other more robust apps.
Brian (http://savedbyzero.org)
I stared out building pages in Pico and viewing them in Lynx.
Right now I only use tools created by Nick Bradbury... seriously. TopStyle, Homesite and Feeddemon.
I can't say I ever tried Style Master though I am sure I could get a copy to review on Digtial Web if needed.
Anyway, as for markup, nothing beats Homesite in my book.. I have been using it since it was a shareware beta. I even got involved with suggesting features and seeing them implemented.
I am pretty dissapointed in how Macromedia is handeling Homesite users and how responsive they haven't been to suggestions. It seems they keep shoving me towards Dreamweaver... hey, if I wanted a WYSIWYG editor I would have bought Dreamweaver, but I don't... I want a hand coding editor and Homesite is what works for me.
Nick (http://www.digital-web.com)
I use Homesite 5. As Kyle mentioned, the extended search and replace function (especially over directories) is invaluable. Although I am impressed with the newst version of TopStyle. I might start using that when I get my new computer.
For FTP I use either FileZilla (http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/) or WinSCP (http://winscp.sourceforge.net/) for secure FTP.
JonathanB
I started on notebad back in the good old days then tried a few of the freeware :notepad on steriods" apps.
A new job where they actually spent money on software is where I fell in love with HomeSite and now that I run my own shop I force TopStyle Pro onto everyone.
Chris McMahon (http://www.citrusinteractive.com)
Nick - As far as I can tell, MX contains all the features of HomeSite except for the code collapsing bit. Not sure if it has the feature that lets you specify keyboard shortcuts to wrap selected text with a tag or insert a tag with a keyboard shortcut (something I used occasionally in CFStudio for CFOUTPUT tags). One thing MX has but doesn't do well is the HTML/ColdFusion reference material -- in CF Studio (sorry, I didn't use homesite but they're essentially the same product) there was that great bit where you could highlight a tag or a function and get excellent reference material that you could copy and paste examples from and so on... in MX, it's reduced to a box about 2 inches wide, 6 point font, with funky line breaks. And you can't select text in it. Pain. royal pain. But likely one that'll be modified eventually.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
I've used homesite, cfstudio, htmlkit, topstyle, and now I'm on jEdit.
I haven't settled for an editor yet, and I think it'll take a couple more years to. But jEdit does have some nice features and plugins. I specially like shell integrated diff and indent folding. The XML structure browser is slightly awkward but useful.
Topstyle is great, but it's a very webdev oriented editor, and since I code in a lot of different languages, I prefer a single editor that can handle them all, so I don't have to remember how things work in different editors -- it's already complicated remembering how things work in different languages --, jEdit handles that fine.
Caio Chassot (http://v2studio.com/k/)
I use Quanta+ mostly (on Linux), sometimes KWrite. For quick fixes on the server nano through ssh will do.
Ben de Groot (http://www.stijlstek.nl/codematters)
ColdFusion Studio/HomeSite+ at work, TopStyle Pro 3.x is pretty close to replacing it, but it doesn't have the same find a replace features that I rely on and also old habits die hard.
I have BBEdit on my Mac at home but, bearing in mind I haven't used it much at all, is there a way to make it do auto completion of tags and attributes? Please someone tell me there is!
If HomeSite came to Mac (ha! fat chance Macromedia are you listening!!) or even Top Style Pro 3 I would be one happy camper.
Jason
I use BBEdit. I have GoLive too, since it came with Adobe CS, but I haven't really used it.
For CSS, I've used CSSEdit for awhile, but I'm really liking the new Style Master.
Andrew Dunning (http://www.webinspiration.ca/)
I use Dreamweaver MX 2004 (code view ONLY) and Crimson Editor for Web stuff, TopStyle for CSS, Visual Studio for VB6 and C# stuff, and Eclipse for Java stuff. I've used a LOT of other editors and IDEs but these are the ones I know best.
Vinnie Garcia (http://blog.vinniegarcia.com/)
I'm another big fan of BBEdit for bigger jobs - although Gabe's post above suggests I don't make the most of it's capabilities - with SubEthaEdit stepping in for light chores, and the occasional coding collaboration.
(I use the latter for writing too, in combination with various Services. It's a very comfortable application to use, for want of a better word.)
Jack (http://www.submitresponse.co.uk/mt/)
I personally like to use SciTE for any work I do. It has decent enough color coding for the languages I work with (PHP, C++, CSS and XHTML), and it's barebones enough to not get in the way.
Curt
TopStyle Pro is the best tool I have for website development. I bought a licence for personal use over a year ago, and I hate to work without it, so my employer purchased it too. Since I've moved to Linux I've learned that I'll have to give it up, or spend some time with WINE. It's been really great to see all these options in the comments though.
Justin (http://bluealpha.com)
UltraEdit and TextPad, both cheap (~$30) and very powerful for both source code and other text-editing needs.
Richard Tallent (http://www.tallent.us/)
Wow... 65+ comments and no one has mentioned NoteTab - I think it's great for people who are used to hammering out raw code in Notepad. It automates the hand-coding process, if that's not an oxymoron... I've always used the Light version but the ($20) full version has more tools and is even more customizable.
Dave M
Dave, give textpad a try (www.textpad.com).
couple of my coworkers used notetab, up til the day they tried textpad. easier interface, faster searching, file diffs, searching the contents of files in a directory (or an entire drive, for that matter)
JC (http://http;//www.thelionsweb.com/weblog)
sure. you're the king. rah rah sis boom bah, scrivens scrivens rah rah rah
JC (http://http;//www.thelionsweb.com/weblog)
King? Hmmmm, I like that...yes, I am the king with no riches.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
I use Homesite at work (for app development the search and replace functions are great), and Dreamweaver MX 2004 at home (it's gotten alot better, even from MX to MX 2004. Tip: only use code view). DWMX requires some tweaking to get it to NOT screw with your code, but after that it's great, if a little on the fat side of resource usage.
I also downloaded Style Master 3.5 last night and that's fantastic on first impressions.
For those of you wondering why not just use Notepad, consider these points:
* No line numbers. For PHP/ASP/Perl development this is an ABSOLUTE must.
* No syntax highlighting. Again, this makes your life easier.
* No template system. You use the same tags at the top of most HTML pages, right (doctype, meta etc)? Why not let the program insert all of those automatically when you create a new document?
* Crap search and replace.
I recommend TextPad for those of you who want a no-frills, freeware (with occasional reminders) editor. It's damn good once you configure it properly (line numbers etc).
Just my AU $0.2.
Brad
13th recomendation for BBEdit here. Even the (now unavailable) lite version was amazing. Totally worth the small outlay of cash -- even just for the user-defined keyboard short cuts.
Justin French (http://indent.com.au)
Dreamweaver MX04 for site-wide search and replace, integration with fireworks
TopStyle Pro for CSS
EditCSS extension for Firefox and view ancestors bookmarklet for quick testing and deconstructing.
Adam Bramwell (http://www.octapod.org/adam)
This might be a new record of posts :) 75 (whoops, now 76 :)) damn!!!!!
Bryan (http://www.gamecubecheats.info)
Yeah it's a record, would've been nice if you added some input Bryan :P
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
I do it all by hand, but I will use BBedit when I get a mac. Also, I use TopStyle lite for CSS but it's not much better then Notepad, just more colorful.
Andrew (http://andrewblog.weblogs.u)
When I want a "heavy" workspace (for example, when I'm at work), I use Homesite. The code collapsing it invaluable.
When I want a "light" workspace (when I'm at home or I just want to open a single file), I use EmEditor.
wink (http://site-unseen.net/wink)
Yet another TextPad advocate here.
TextPad is just so damn handy:
Syntax highlighting works well.
Great search and replace which, when combined with a powerful regex engine, can do (almost) anything.
Difference viewer.
Can save and open workspaces.
Very configurable.
Unlimited Undo.
Bucketloads of features, but the above make it stand out to me - I've tried other editors, but TextPad always draws me back.
DarkBlue (http://urbanmainframe.com/)
Textpad for me too. It amazes me that people proudly declare they use notepad, it's not hardcore it's stupid.
Scott Hutchinson (http://www.unidentified-frequency.net)
GoLive if I'm in a rush but using it less and less these days doing most stuff in the next mentioned program. What I do in GoLive is always in source view, never ever using layout because of its naty habit of messing with my CSS. Topstyle Pro for all CSS. Ace FTP for, you guessed it, FTP!
Adrian Rinehart-Balfe (http://www.boogenstein.com/)
Good to see all the input here. It's funny, I was just thinking about changing from using strictly Notepad to a CSS editor with syntax highlighting and other features and wondering what program would be best to use.
From the looks of it, Topstyle looks like a great alternative to Notepad and the GUI looks appealing. Textpad also looks like a great editor of choice.
Choices. Choices. All these choices and empty pockets.
kartooner (http://www.kartooner.com)
Forgot to mention that I use Dreamweaver MX 2004 extensively at work. Instead of repeating what was said above I'll just say that the best feature for me is the code / design view.
Granted, it isn't perfect by no means but it's still a nice feature. Does anyone know if there is a way to have it auto refresh that view (design view) instead of having to hit F5 or Refresh each time I want to see the changes made.
Other than that, DMX2004 is a robust program that could use a bit more tweaking, but overall is a better version than previous versions.
kartooner (http://www.kartooner.com)
BBEdit, Bluefish and CSSEdit on my mac.
I also looked at mozillas built-in editor to edit the contents of webpages. I think this wonderful and easy editor has long been misunderstood (yes, in the beginning with netscape it was awfull). But now, it's one of the few wysiwyg-editor which makes clean and proper html/css.
SubEthaEdit is fine too (especially the live preview).
cric
Others will likely provide better summaries, but for those who are interested, I've posted links to and a ranking of the editors I found mentioned in these comments:
http://www.rodentregatta.com/archives/005771.php#005771
Steve (http://www.rodentregatta.com/)
TopStyle Pro .That's it.I think it's better than style master.less CPU occupation.
zGaso (http://962zy.51.net/)
bbedit for everything at home but i use transmit for ftp, i don't like bbedits' ftp. dreamweaver at work with filezilla for ftp (dreamweaver's ftp sux), but i hate it and use only the code view unless i have to show the work being done to my boss. :Z that style master looks excellent! i'm going to give it a try this weekend. great thread!
andrea (http://mellowtrouble.net)
Another Topstyle Pro fan here! I really like the embedded IE and Moz active x preview, syntax highlighting, code hinting etc etc.. Can't live without this editor now.
John Serris (http://phonophunk.phreakin.com/)
Another vote for TopStyle here. I use it exclusively for my CSS and I'm splitting time between it and Dreamweaver MX for writing code. Especially if I'm doing quick editing, TopStyle is great because it's small and loads fast, even on my old (P3 700) laptop.
Josh (http://www.jsquaredesign.com)
Jonathan,
Right on! FileZilla is my ftp client of choice. Easy to use with all the necessary features. Open source and free is bonus!
I had been using TextPad for a long time and have recently moved to HomeSite. Its the best eventhough costs $99. But boy, its good. Well the credit really goes to Allaire and not Macromedia. But small edits I prefer Araneae. Compact, quick, unobtrusive. Its free and has a low footprint. Opened files are in a tabbed interface (mozilla users will fit right in!).
Maybe I will get Crimson Editor a go, but I am sold on Homesite.
Sunny
Personally I use DW mx2004, I've been using it for so long now that I can just fly along, I know exactly what code hints will be popping up and rarely type an entire tag these days.
As for homesite fans, I've never been quite sure why anyone uses that anymore as it seems like just using a crippled version of DW. But then I haven't used it much, so maybe I'm missing something.
DW's code view is great, but the biggest win is the site control features, between its find and replace (best I've seen), the checkin/out system, handling of includes, testing and staging site controls... there is a list.
But most recently I have been going back to the design view. Not to code sites, but to make my IA diagrams more interactive... I make sitemaps and wireframes in freehand then bring them into DW and turn them into a prototype using just the design view. Great for presentations and super quick. The code in doing this is SO much better than it used to be. Not near good enough for a finished product, but great for this sort of thing.
But that is what I like about DW, it has the plain as you like text editor, but it can also add lots.
scottbp (http://www.worldwithoutshrimp.com)
HomeSite was the best. Now TopStyle Pro is the only way to fly.
Garrett Dimon (http://www.brightcorner.com)
Hmm.. look at this... he's holding out on posting anything new til this thread reaches 100 replies.
To stay on topic... Tried Dreamweaver MX 2004... CSS is much better... but I want my dreamweaver 4 layout back! I hate this all in one BS, I want multiple floating windows so I can get rid of everything except what I explicitly want to see! Just pay adobe the damned licensing fee and tack 20 bucks onto the price of each copy of studio MX, no one who's actually paying for legit copies will complain
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
dw mx 2004, and stylemaster 3.5.
dm has too many goodies to overlook, and stylemaster is a fantastic css tool.
mh (http://www.eudaimonia.ca/index/)
I always have TopStylePro opened on my system - its not only great for CSS and HTML, but I have it set up to use my local server and so php can be parsed in it too. It was a great editor before, now (3.0 and above) its amazing!
I also use EditPadLite for text editing because its easy to turn line numbering on, and I can have more than one file open at a time.
Great question, I really enjoyed reading the replies. :)
kristine (http://kadyellebee.com/)
I've been using DW since learning HTML (over two years ago). I experimented with HTML-Kit for a while, but found I had become too comfortable and familiar with DW.
Top Style Lite was recommended to me but I never used it for anything more than choosing elements. Currently I hardcode my stylesheets and edit them online using CSSEdit (Firefox extension).
blair (http://doepud.tk)
I don't think anyone has mentioned what I use - HAPedit. Does a very good job with HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, pretty much anything. I've used it for probably a year and a half now.
Trent (http://cheesepizza.net/)
I've never used anything except Metapad, which is like an improved Notepad. Am I missing anything?
Peter (http://www.mouldingname.info)
I'd prefer to use something else, but currently Dreamweaver MX is my editor of 'choice'. This is largely due to my needing near flawless support for Japanese characters (encoding with UTF 8 and Shift JIS).
I'd love to find something a little more lightweight; however, most of the other HTML editors I've tried out haven't been very asian character friendly.
Jesse Wilson
I started my web designer life using WYSIWYG editors like DW and GoLive, but about 4 years ago made the transition to hand coding. Funny enough, this was the same time I started trying to use XHTML and CSS only as much as possible, and editors like this could really mangle your nice standards based code. I believe they've improved a lot in this respect, but once you've gone down the hand coding path, and the path of using dedicated tools for each job, there doesn't seem to be a lot of reason to look back. So, in summary it's
* BBedit for HTML 'cos as the guys from Bedford say "it still doesn't suck", and once you've mastered grep, the world is your oyster.....
* Style Master for CSS: tried TopStyle originally but have to admit it made CSS a bit of a bewildering nightmare, whereas StyleMaster, along with its clear tutorials got me up and running. And yes, love the new version.
* Anarchie for ftp uploads: always been a great tool, though I'm having a bit of alearning curve with the new version
* when I really have to work on Windows I do quick HTML edits using Wordpad, and luckily enough I can get Style Master on Windows as well. AceFTP for uploading is reliable and easy to use.
Clara Patrick
I use GoLive CS all the time. I'm constantly in split source mode, so I get the best of WYSIWYG and source code. And, Its new CSS editor rocks. Definitely worth a look, IMO.
Bill Merikallio (http:///)
I use GoLive CS all the time. I'm constantly in split source mode, so I get the best of WYSIWYG and source code. And, Its new CSS editor rocks. Definitely worth a look, IMO.
Bill Merikallio (http:///)
I use "WinEdt" to hand code my HTML and CSS. I find it convenient as I use the same for LaTeX and Fortran as well.
I have also used the following WYSIWYGs: Dreamweaver, Frontpage and Namo web editor. They all suck, but Namo sucks the least.
The "non-WYSIWYG part" of Dreamweaver is nice too, so is HTML-Kit... but somehow I find WinEdt most comfortable to use.
Niket (http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gte207x/)
Editpad Classic for html - the most simple, yet elegant text editor i know of for the PC.. i guess an auto-indenting / coloring html-specific editor would be nice, but i stick with whats comfortable, and i like Editpad's tabbing and formatting features. I've been trying out Top-Style lite for the last couple of months for CSS, seems like a pretty nice application.
chris andrews (http://thebigcity.co.nz)
I use dreamweaver MX usually in split view. I'm just getting into css beyond fonts/line spacing and dreamweaver aint helping me get my tableless designs to work in mozilla/ns. the new version is supposed to have greatly enhanced css support. will it help code-deficiant people like me? we shall see.
Will (http://www.luktown.org)
Editors; what a can of worms mr scrivs! For me, I use vim in the main, simply because you can use it for anything, anywhere it seems. In Windows, you'll often find me in Code-Genie.
Mike (http://www.dx13.co.uk)
In recently dropping GoLive (I'm in the process of converting to a Standards Junkie) I've chosen SubEthaEdit. I previously used it for perl scripts, and some html.
Its free, its fantastic, it has collaboration tools. It's a great program. www.codingmonkeys.de (no german required)
anotherMike
Personally I use notepad and vi, depending on whether I'm on my Windows box or SSH'ed into the server
Arno Bean
Well, I started out with HomeSite back in the day - before Allaire bought it, before Macromedia bought them.. Then I moved on to DreamWeaver..
I'm now using UltraEdit - it's simply the most incredible editor I've used. FTP, SFTP (Secure FTP), the usual bells and whistles, REAL regular expression for search and replace.
I find I code faster by hand, and I'm generally 100% XHTML compliant from the start - I write it, it's usually valid. (Go me!) ...Instead of having to fix what a WYSIWYG editor has mangled (and to be fair, they've gotten much better).
Twyst (http://twysted.net)
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#1
HomeSite's my editor of choice for most projects - I've used it for about five years now and have never looked back. It does syntax highlighting, block collapsing, code sweeping, tag and function insight (which I don't use, but some people seem to like), and all sorts of other niceties.
About the only times I don't use it are for .NET stuff (Visual Studio.NET) and when I'm working on a Mac (BBEdit, though I'm a complete newbie with it).
Ben Scofield (http://www.culann.com/grumble)