Preserved Topic: which editor do you recommend? (Page 2 of 2)

I tried to post this the other day but my connection dropped out ... Anyways, I'm in the mood for a gripe again so:

I've tried using Dreamweaver before but once you get used to working with the mark-up directly and you find a text editor your comfy with, it's actually a lot faster to code most things by hand. Cutting and pasting chunks of mark-up makes generating a list of links at least twice as fast in a text editor as it would in Dreamweaver. My text editor has a special shortcut button that'll quickly insert an <img> tag with the src="" pointing to which ever file I select from the dialogue pop-up and several other handy HTML based shortcuts.

It also supports regular expression "find & replace" functions on all open documents, custom tab and indent settings, custom mark-up colours for any file extension you choose, the ability to create document templates and clip-text libraries for useful bits of code like <doctypes>, <meta> elements or various JavaScript or PHP modules and so much more. Hell, I've even setup a syntax highlighting file for my lingo and action scripts.

It'll also preview web pages under 'localhost' from the web server I have installed on my PC which makes developing, testing and debugging PHP sites so much easier. The extent at which you can customise any decent text editor it usually fairly extreme and if you take the time to get settled in, you'll be better off for it.

Once you boil it all down, the graphical layer that dreamweaver uses is nothing more than an abstracted semi-metaphorical interface, and a time wasting one at that. It might seem faster and it probably feels "easier" to work with but your really just wasting time by dancing around all those windows, property dialogues and input boxes.

If you want to look into a HTML editor regardless of how experienced you are at HTML then I'd suggest 1st Page simply because it provides different interface levels from a full WYSIWYG editor to a fully text based environment. I realise Dreamweaver does this as well but IMHO, it's just way too overpriced for what it is, a program that abstracts you from a language as simple as HTML.

Yeah, I'm also interested in hearing about the notepad/validation issue. I can't imagine what could possibly make any difference?

I use a mix of EditPlus, FrontPage and Notepad. I have TextPad & UltraEdit but they are very much like EditPlus. Also have Beauty HTML, by Max, and 1st Page 2000 that also are similar to EditPlus, so I stay with EditPlus that was the first one and the one I'm more used to. When I want some WYSIWYG environment, I go to FrontPage for further editing in EditPlus. For very quick fixes or implementations, I use Notepad. Other editors that I have just for the sake of having are Active State Komodo IDE and DreamWeaver but I don't like them. Actually, there are too many text/html editors out there that's difficult to know them all.
If I had to pick just one, I'd pick EditPlus, but TextPad is as good as it (maybe it has even some more features).

Ah Dreamweaver's really nice, our school has it.
and VIM....that is if you can figure it out....



Maskkkk

- Face the Present
- AIM: MASKKKK

I really likes Max's HTML Beauty until I started writing things in XHTML. Then I went back to UltraEdit.

Haven't looked back since.

Although I remember reading that Mr. Max was going to add XHTML support to HTML Beauty, but it's been a while.....what's up with that?

I used Notepad for years until I went to a Macromedia conference in Atlanta last year. They were handing out free copies of Dreamweaver (for those of us who'd bought Flash and were invited to this shindig). I was skeptical, due to all the extraneous code that Front Page put into a friend of mine's pages. However, I have to admit, DW made a photo album page in 12 seconds where it would have taken me at least 12 minutes.

So, I hand code inside Dreamweaver now, using a few functions as needed. Of course, that's all gone to hell now that I am trying to learn to use css for as much as I can (and pulling my hair out, I might add, scrapping design after design).

I can only code the css (and php) in Notepad; otherwise, it's distracting. I use EditPlus whenever my php breaks and I need to fix it line by line.

~N

Hmmm...I use both DW and CuteHTML. And like PS, cut-n-paste.


WebShaman

I usually run Homesite for HTML & topstyle for CSS.
If that's not available, I go for Mr Max HTML-Beauty since it's so close to Homesite.
If that's out, whatever that can colorcode or Notepad.
I tend to use the snippets functions in Homesite/HTML-Beauty quite a lot.


I only use DW if an extremly quick sketch is needed or if I'm working imagemaps (I tend to end up using the codeview most anyway)

For PHP I like Winsyntax, ( http://www.winsyntax.com ) lightweight, colorcode, bracketmatching plus integrated php.net manual and freeware.
/Dan

{cell 260}
-{ a vibration is a movement that doesn't know which way to go }-

Heh... now I like Winsyntax, too.

Hey...me like winsyntax...definatley going to use this for me PHP.

Personally, I use UltraEdit exclusively. It does everything I want, and has text highlighting options for all the coding languages I use. It also comes with a notepad.exe program to replace the default one, but it takes a bit of tweaking to install. Just do a find on all copies of notepad.exe and replace them all. Windows will try to replace it back, but clicking on no usually solves that. If not, a search on notepad.ex_ should yield the windows source copy of the notepad executable.

As for the WYSIWYG debate, I have to agree that I can hand code much much faster than using an editor. If anything, I'll uses Max's HTMLBeauty just for the page view instead of alt tabbing to my browser and refreshing.

I use HomeSite. ditto Michael

. . : slicePuzzle

I use a combo of editors.

Mac: Pagemill 3.0 (my fave old-timer...) and BBEdit

PC: Dreamweaver and Max's HTML-Beauty



The programmer's national anthem is 'AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH''

Wolfen's Sig Site

oopss... double post

[This message has been edited by Wolfen (edited 03-10-2003).]

I learned what little HTML I know in Notepad. When I try to use Dreamweaver it makes my head hurt. Hard code is cleaner and easier to follow. Besides... YOU LEARN MORE. I've used Emacs in the past before but lost it. Anyone have a link to it? Not to mention the color coding .emacs initializing file?

GrythusDraconis
I admire a man who can budget his life around his pint of Guinness and I envy a man who's wife will let him. ME, inspired by Suho1004 here.

I'm another fan of UltraEdit. I've been using it for years now and it's the crown prince of my applications. Besides all the features listed above (code coloring, line numbering even the ability to compare files like a Unix diff command) , the one I use the most is the built in ftp functionality, it's just brilliant I can open up a page via ftp in my browser and then edit it and on every save, it save's the file via ftp (this way I can test on my work sites without having to save and then manually ftp the page over.

I should note I do far more work on the code side then the presentation side as well so I can't really make a fair comparison for this over a Dreamweaver or another WYSWIG editor since I haven't used on consistently ever.



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.