I am a web designer and developer but I don't know any scripting language. And I am looking for a robust web development WYSIWYG like software that can write code for me automatically in javascript and php.
Id go with dreamweaver because is has the design view as well as the code view. Aptana is more for developers rather than designers and developers. Dreamweaver will write some code for you (and you'll find out later that its crap!) so it'll get you used to the languages.
I used to work in Dreamweaver when I first started but now I can't get enough of Aptana.
WYSIWYG will only generate HTML page and a little JS at best. You need to know coding to offer interactive functionality.
You'll hate this answer but take some time to learn PHP and JavaScript - I stated off as a designer and tried to avoid code. Then instead of copying and pasting code hoping that it works I got to grips with the fundamentals of both languages and realised how easy it is and how there was nothing to fear.
Good resources are w3schools.com, stackoverflow (obviously) and my fav JavaScript books are DOM scripting by Jeremy Keith and Jeffrey Sambells and once you feel confident to learn some of the more advanced features of JavaScript, JavaScript Patterns by Stoyan Stefanov was helpful to me.
Like I say this doesn't actually answer your question. However Dreamweaver automatically produced a 700 line JS file for an interface action I wanted, using the resources above I did the same in an unobtrusive manner with 16 lines of code!
I realize this is an old thread but im sure the debate still rages on LOL... i've been a devote DW user for many many many years (Like since 2000 or so). I am a coder/developer... I never use DW auto complete or anything like that. Primarily the reason i've stuck with it is because my FTP is RIGHT THERE!... HOWEVER, LOL, I just ran into a problem where I needed to recover a file (all these years and i've never needed this feature). Anyway I just ran across this thread Recover Deleted Files in Aptana Studio 3? "By default Aptana Studio stores a history of up to 7 days if the file was within a project."... I guess i can live without having my ftp right there in the same program and just use filezilla. sigh lol. Also DW doesnt recognize keys which is a big let down but yea... anyway... I just started using Aptana Studio 3 so I hope I fall in love with it quickly lol I'm building my projects now :P
Well, just to clarify some stuff. Aptana does have ftp, and i even think it's easier to use than dreamweaver's ftp module...
Related
I've always used TextWrangler/ Notepad++ to develop websites from scratch. I'm now coding what I'd say are very advanced websites this way.
I want to know if it's efficient to do things this way and whether I should learn DreamWeaver and use that
I use Dreamweaver, basically because I'm a designer not a coder. I find it useful to use Dreamweaver, because it has all the tools you need to create a website. Dreamweaver has the ability to be a WYSIWYG in the "Design" mode, but you can easily switch to the raw code and mess about with the code. Which is what I tend to do anyway.
Dreamweaver isn't a cheat way of web design, it is a tool. Much like a pencil and paper would be to an artist, or a hammer to a joiner. It's not what is used to create a website that should be ridiculed or the designer who uses Dreamweaver should be abused. But in fact the website itself, and the application of web design skills/knowledge.
Dreamweaver has it's own project file system, so you know exactly what is in your project and what isn't. You can also see all the external files that are linked in one HTML file, such as a JavaScript file. You can swap between the source code of the HTML file and the external file source code, with one click and with no other open "windows".
Dreamweaver is quite easy to learn (in my opinion), and should at least have a fair trial run.
If I were you, I would download a trial version of Dreamweaver, and try it out.
I hope I've helped in some way.
There are code editors with assists that are far better than DreamWeaver, like Espresso, Brackets or the upcoming TweakStyle.
Each software have a different added value depending on what you're searching for.
I am a new web designer. I have learned HTML5 and CSS3. However, I find it difficult to burst forward without a WYSIWYG editor.
I want to be able to type in the code I have learned, or carefully gathered, but I also want to be able to see it working, immediately, so that I can be assured that I am on the right track.
QUESTION: Is there a way for me to combine Aptana Studio (or Notepad++) with a WYSIWYG view, as I type in the code and build the new website?
Please help me. Thank you for your time.
Currently, no way to combine Aptana Studio(or Notepad++) has get WYSIWYG editor. But you can try the others free WYSIWYG editors to fulfill your desire. Below software may be very useful for you.
Nvu
Amaya
pagebreeze
BlueGriffon
Since this is a popular post:
As of Dec 2016, the most popular and useful solution seems to be Adobe Brackets.
It has the Live Preview feature, where you can see changes in browser immediately as you type.
I'm a fairly new web developer, doing most of my work in JavaScript / CSS, but I will be doing work in PHP soon and I wanted to get a head start on debugging software.
My editor of choice is Vim, so I'm looking for suggestions for a debugger workflow, either a Vim plugin or a separate program, preferably something that could match the feature set of Eclipse or Visual Studio, but if that doesn't exist I'd like to know.
I found several Vim plugins online:
- VimDebug looks nice but only supports Python, Perl and Ruby.
- vdb looks promising but also confusing (at least to me)
- VimDebugger is in early stages
I also found gdb, which was the only non-IDE debugging tool I found (if anyone has found others I'd love to hear about them!), as well as vim-debug, although development seems to have stalled on that one.
In short, does anyone have any working experience with the above tools? Or have a better suggestion? Does anyone have a working workflow debugging code with Vim?
Thanks so much in advance!
There is also the relatively new and actively developed Vdebug:
https://github.com/joonty/vdebug
It talks to debuggers supporting the DBGp protocol (which includes PHP with Xdebug and also many other dynamic languages).
This question has been asked few times here and there, but you see all of them seem to have a linux desktop, i don't want a notepad++ alternative for a linux desktop, I want a notepad++ alternative for centos server, and I want it to be like nano not like vi, I don't know vi, so i'm looking for an editor that let me open a file on vps, choose a programming language, and it should correct my coding mistakes, this way I would not waste my time uploading files from windows to the vps, it should be easy to use and small, I don't want to waste my vps resources on an editor
Does such an editor exist?
Edit
#romainl
my vps is from 2host.com, I have centos 5 64 bit VPS E-CLASS, go to there for more info, that's all the info I know.
It's my production vps true, but i asked because i have another vps from chvps.com, the cheapest plan, i have mysite.com and mysite.net, I bought mysite.net, so no one can steal it, so i redirect users from mysite.net to mysite.com, I'm creating a new script for my site so chvps host mysite.net where i do some testing for the new version, like a staging server.
moreover i play with django on alwaysdata.com so I would like to get an editor.
I have seen many people saying that they love vim/vi, i will learn to use vim if you can tell me why vim is more powerful? aren't they all just editors?
To answer your question directly, here are a few CLI editors:
ne
joe
midnight commander's editor
As far as I know they won't show syntax errors as you type or even on save, you won't get any (semi)auto-completion either. All in all these are more powerful than nano but less powerful than NP++ (which I'm not familiar with) and a fortiori vim or emacs.
Anyway, a stock vim, even built with "huge" feature-set won't check the syntax of your PHP files as you type or on save, you'll need a bunch of plugins for that.
I don't know about emacs, but vim can be used in "easy" mode like this: vim -y yourfile.php.
Vim is one of the two best editors out there, learning its basics is not that hard. You probably don't have much time to spend on it right now but, once you do, try it. It rocks.
Can you tell us a bit more about your workflow (server layout, use of a VCS…)? At a glance it looks like you are editing files directly on a production server which is not really recommended.
<EDIT>
About Vim and all the others being just editors.
Yes they all have the same set of basic features: ability to input text, cut, paste, move the cursor… but even these basic features can be implemented in many manners. You say that you want NP++ features in a CLI editor, we can assume that you have tried other editors and ultimately decided to go with it because it worked better for you than the others.
All the CLI editors are different, like their GUI counterparts they shine in one place and lack in another. Because you are a programmer you "need" some advanced features and any editor not having a full fledged search/replace system supporting regex, some sort of auto-completion, macros, ability to build and show errors and so on.
Vim and Emacs both offer these fatures and sooo much more either natively or via plugins. As far as I know they are the only CLI editors really suited for programming so, to be able to work directly on your VPS, and be productive, you don't really have much choice: it's either one or the other.
The first problems you may be facing is the abruptness of the learning path and the weirdness of their "models" but most vim/emacs users will tell you that once its internalized it's hard to come back.
Why Vim (or emacs)?
I don't have a specific selling pitch to serve you. I was an advanced TextMate user, for me it was the best editor and it fitted all my needs but I was a little bored.
Then I stumbled on a Python screencast where everything looked magical to me and I found other screencasts by Dereck Wyatt and others and I was hooked: the way they moved through their code, the way they search/replaced, the omni-completion, the crazy plugins (surround rocks), the freaking motions and text-objects…
I took advantage of a slow week to learn the basics and make/revert a lot of mistakes and now I look at TextMate the same way you'd look at Notepad (not ++).
Here are a bunch of additional vim links for you:
One of the greatest answers here on SO
Coming home to Vim
Vi for smarties
The Physics of VIM
Vim Introduction and Tutorial
Ask HN: Suggestions for mastering vim?
Use Vim Like A Pro
Power Vim Usage
Why, oh WHY, do those #?#! nutheads use vi?
How I boosted my Vim
Ho, I just remembered another CLI editor: diakonos.
</EDIT>
If you asked allready a few times maybe the application you're looking for doesn't exists yet. I have to do the same things like you (edit files on the server, config and scripts) and I do it with jEdit with the langauge specific plugins plus FTP plugin. At least you could give it a try.
I'm in a bit of a pickle at work. My department designs a number of internal systems for the company, mostly data-reporting related. We have less than 10 true content pages that actually need to be maintained by a human. These pages were written in PHP and maintained through Dreamweaver by a non-technical staff members - they used the design editor, and avoided the code as much as possible. There were issues, but overall it worked well.
Recently this project was updated and converted to a ASP.NET Web Application. This resulted in some architecture changes, making the content harder to edit with a WYSIWIG editor (it's now revision controlled, it's compiled and thus must be re-deployed after modifications are made, etc.). We sort of assumed that the staff member who had been maintaining it would just continue to do so, now using Visual Studio's "Design" mode instead of Dreamweaver's. We were mistaken, and it isn't an option for technical and non-technical reasons.
The staff member will not be touching any HTML - we need a WYSIWIG editor (this is a requirement we were handed...no arguing with them over that). I started looking at CMS', mainly Drupal, but after a bit of playing around I see that content 'Blocks' don't really have a WYSIWIG editor, instead expecting HTML. Is this true for all CMS'? Is there some easy-to-setup CMS out there that comes with a WYSIWIG editor? Does anyone have any other ideas? Don't care what language it's in, I'll make something work.
This really isn't my area of expertise - I do application development primarily, with an occasional web front-end. Not sure I'm even asking the right question, but hoping someone can help.
WordPress makes use of TinyMCE, and it works pretty well for some NON techie clients of mine. You can write (PHP) scripts that will call the WP functions and pull the page content.
Back to the point, I have found the backend of WordPress to be usable and friendly to a good mix of people. We often use it for a backend and build something completely custom for the frontend, and have had good results.
http://www.cushycms.com/
They let you add easy WYSIWYG capability to any website, regardless of the technology used.
You just add a tag once in your source file, and let your users go to CushyCMS.com to add text content.
I am by no means a CMS expert, but I believe SiteCore might suit your needs. It is a .NET system, built on top of ASP.NET, and from my limited experience with it, the UI for business users is very usable.
Take a look on Joomla. It includes WYSIWYG editor. It is much simpler than Drupal
As Frank points out, TinyMCE is a great option, in fact you use it here :D. Have a look at some examples: http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/examples/full.php
The good point is that TinyMCE is just javascript, so in theory you can add it to any CMS, or in fact to any HTML form.
Also, I think is the default input method for Joomla if you are interested.
I would recommend CKEditor (the successor to the FCKEditor), I haven't used FCKEditor in ASP .NET code, but have used it in PHP with a lot of success. I haven't gotten around to converting old code to CKEditor, but plan to in the future.
If this is something where you can load HTML files from your server that has FTP access...a quick and dirty solution I have used is CushyCMS.com, you supply ftp credentials and hook up the files and they are good to go. Non-technical customers of mine have liked the editor a lot. It allows you to specifically say what you want edited and what you don't.
In PHP the way I usually architect using CushyCMS is to have the main page do a require_once on the content page and the content page has the HTML block that I want them to be able to edit.
so the code looks like this:
<?php
//...other code
require_once("page_content.php");
//...other code
?>
where page_content.php looks something like this:
<div id="whatever" class="cushycms">
editable text here
</div>
Hope this helps.
I used to think that for user friendly editing, you need a WYSIWYG editor, such as the TinyMCE that has already mentioned. Not any more.
Editing content in such a rich text editor is not very handy. Very often you end up messing up the content, and either does a technically savvy person have to come to help, or you have to switch to CODE view (= HTML) to clean up the mess.
Now I'd be far more inclined to use something Markdown, like this site (and Reddit) uses. For most purposes, you don't need rich text, and it is just as handy a WYSIWYG tool. If you need a few rich text touches, like making some text bold or italic, this works quite easily too. Lists, either numbered or bulletted, are a snap. And making links... Those WYSIWYG tools always seem to be able to mess it up in ways you can't even imagine.
Plus, this way, the resulting HTML is always clean and minimal, and it's extremely hard for the user to mess up.
What about Expression Web? It is made to edit ASP.NET web pages, and can integrate with TFS