12 replies to this topic

[FirefoxRocks]

Does anyone recommend the use of an IDE for web development? If so, which one? I only know of NetBeans right now, but now that I think of it, Microsoft Expression Web and Adobe Dreamweaver can also be considered IDEs, but they are (supposedly) more powerful because they are paid products.

Personally I enjoy developing in Notepad++ and I use a lot of PHP includes anyways, so it's not a huge problem. But if I decide to move onto developing bigger sites, would you recommend the use of an IDE?

[Quatrux]

I can recommend Eclipse for PHP as it's free, same as Netbeans? Why don't you want to use Netbeans? ;]

But a cheap PHP IDE, which is one of the best I have ever used on Windows for such a cost is the current version of PHP Designer 7, you can read more about it on:

http://www.mpsoftwar...phpdesigner.php

It has all you need for web developing, especially it's good if you're moving from Notepad++ type of programs.. I guess Dreamweaver and a like applications are good when you're moving from such absurd programs like Microsoft Frontpage

For your personal preference, you can configure the look and feel and how PHP Designer 7 works for you best.

Edited by Quatrux, 13 May 2010 - 07:23 AM.

[fiage]

On windows I was using PHP Designer 2005. It is freeware. It may be difficult to get hold a copy of it now. It has snippets, builtin output window. If you have been working something like notepad++ then PHP Designer would be perfect next app to work on.

[yordan]

I was using Notepad++ in "text" mode when I was preparing my Unix shell-scripts. And I was very surprised when a colleague showed me how to display my file in "Shell" language mode, it's really nice, with the way giving different colors for the comments, the functions, the arguments. Notepad++ is definitely a useful tool.
I use the portable version, because I can have it on my USB flashdisk, so no need to install it, I have it on any computer I am using.

[wutske]

I've always built my sites in Notepad++, lovely app

I've used PHP Designer 2005 before and I just could not get used to it since the user interface was kinda crappy, that's why I just returned to using Notepad++ .
I'm not sure if Netbeans would be the right choice for PHP development, it's a great IDE, but it's more focussed on Java stuff so I'd consider it more an IDE for JSP than for PHP. You could also use Visual Studio (Express) for PHP development, there's probably a plug-in available, but it's the same story as Netbeans, but more focussed on Microsoft products like ASP.net .
Eclipse is indeed a good IDE, but it's not lightweight, but it's powerfull.

[8ennett]

I prefer to use Dreamweaver when developing PHP websites, purely because it speeds up the process of the graphical design in aspect like tables, divs and most definately CSS. Apart from that though the rest is all done using the code side instead of the graphical. I also prefer the syntax highlighting in dreamweaver as apposed to php designer, it's just that little bit more easier to read and go through to correct mistakes as far as i'm concerned.

If you are designing quite a nice looking website which is feature-rich then I would recommend using DW, however if you are developing quite plain web apps then PHP designer is for you.

Edited by 8ennett, 06 June 2010 - 12:54 PM.

[starscream]

I think Aptana which is stripped down version of eclipse is one good editor and it doesn't need installation. You can run it from USB. But these days i think dreamweaver and Notepad++ are enough for most of the languages. There are some other editors like mozila and Ultraedit and some other but i think notepad++ is one free and good solution. Visual studio and netbeans are heavy and not even worth for opening small files for editing. It takes a lot of time for doing simple tasks in these big IDE's. So notepad+
+ and ultra edit are good for such tasks. Ultraedit IDE/Editor is paid by the way.

[k_nitin_r]

Hi!

I use Visual Studio for ASP.NET web application development. If you are building applications targeting the Microsoft .NET platform/framework, Visual Studio is the only way to go. There are express editions of Visual Studio too, if you would like to have a free integrated development environment as a hobbyist, though you would want to switch to at least the Professional edition to do some serious development.

For Java development, I've used NetBeans, Eclipse, and Borland JBuilder. Borland eventually tossed away the Borland JBuilder IDE in favor of a customized version of Eclipse so you might as well just use Eclipse or NetBeans unless you have a specific requirement that you can't seem to get done with the free IDEs.

PHP development is best done with Eclipse or a commercial IDE such as the NuSphere PHP Ed.

Notepad++ is a pretty good text editor. It does not provide any of the advanced features that integrated development environments have to offer but for a quick job, it's a really good choice as it keeps all of the clutter out of your way.

[Entheone]

Personally, I use Adobe Dreamweaver for almost all of my web-development needs nowadays. I find it easy to use, quite intuitive, and extremely feature-rich.

When I first started out in web development (i.e. back in the days where HTML was the only game in town, even before DHTML and CSS had come out), I used to prefer Notepad and other simple text editors. The main reason for this, other than my own feelings of savvy and superiority , was the fact that all the IDEs on the market at the time were totally standards-non-compliant and they infused your website with so much unnecessary and strange code.

Still, I tried almost all IDEs I could find at the time, and even then Dreamweaver (which was then created and owned by Macromedia, not Adobe) struck me as the best of its class. Sure, it cost a good deal of money, but you do get your money's worth - at least, I feel that I did.

Nevertheless, I understand there are numbers of very good open-source IDEs available nowadays. And while I have no immediate need (or time) to try them out, I suppose they're worth checking out for anyone who's just getting their feet wet in the web-development pond :-)

[k_nitin_r]

Adobe Dreamweaver is a good addition to just about every web designer's/developer's tool kit. It speeds up the building of websites and can manage the cascading style sheets for you. The What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get interface is much more superior to most other products out there and offers a near-browser preview of what your web design would look like in the editor. It beats having to update the markup in a text editor and having to refresh a browser window to view the update, though you would still have to test your markup across different browsers.

[starscream]

Well if we have to look for more than one language then ultraedit is much better than dreamweaver. The reason is you can execute and view the results for most of the languages which are not supported by dreamweaver. For example, python and ruby on rails which are having frameworks for webdevelopment. I think that considered ultraedit and textmate are good text editor. They do things which are important while working with multiple web development languages. Atleast ultraedit is usable for multiple web development languages in comparison to dreamweaver.

[k_nitin_r]

Hi!

I've noticed that Ultra edit costs sixty dollars for a license and TextMate, which only runs on the Mac OS, costs fifty dollars. While I would pay for an integrated development environment, I wouldn't really want to pay for a text editor because there are free alternatives that get the job done and when I do want to have something with more advanced functionality, I would get an integrated development environment.

Notepad++, by comparison, is a whole lot cheaper. In fact, Notepad++ is free and open-source! The core of Notepad++ is stable and works exactly as advertised, though you may find that some of the plugins are flaky. I don't really use the plugins so that has never bothered me - Notepad++ provides me with a quick-startup editor that provides syntax highlighting and the ability to work with Unicode text. Unicode may not be a priority for some people but I work on a couple of projects that require multi-lingual support.

Adobe Dreamweaver, however, provides an excellent WYSIWYG interface, which is why I would consider buying it if I do extensive work with web markup, but in most cases I would just use Notepad++.

[starscream]

If we have to compare between ultraedit and dreamwevaer for web developement IDE. then i'll go with ultraedit and the reason is that the support it is doing for many languages. Dreamweaver is less with support for many languages. But anyone who wants to do the development solely for flash, php, html and flex then in that case and only in that case it is worth to waste money on dreamweaver. Else i think notepadd++ which is free will do the job and if you want to spend few bucks then why not spend on ultraedit ? I don't mind spending on ultraedit by looking at the features and support that it offers. Just because notepad++ is free doesn't mean it'll get work done faster than ultraedit. In fact we have to compromise on many things with free things like notepad++. But one point where both these editors are better than dreamweaver that both of them supports large number of languages than dreamweaver.