Open source web coding tools?

July 5, 2005 10:40 PM

What software are you using for web development?

I've been coding with Homesite for a long time, just because I had a copy of it and it has good autocomplete and replace all functions. But, it's more geared to Cold Fusion, which I'm not using anymore. I'm wondering if there is any new software that I should be checking out that does the same thing. I'm working primarily in PHP, HTML, and CSS. And, of course, I'd like it to be available for free/donation.

posted by trbrts to Computers & Internet (27 answers total)

I strongly recommend Macromedia Dreamweaver even though it costs money, because it is just fantastic for web development. It allows easy editing of every major web language (if you want to call them that) and integrates with your ftp and mysql servers, and is basically awesome. CSS and HTML tag editing are super easy, as well. If you still want to go the free route, you can check out Context (or its mac friend BBEdit), but its a bit more simple and doesnt have the completion your looking for.
posted by Mach5 at 10:55 PM on July 5, 2005

BBEdit. But I'd kind of like something that handles version control with a neat web interface like Wikipedia's version history thing.
posted by trevyn at 11:15 PM on July 5, 2005

pico and bbedit. in the end, it's all code.
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:17 PM on July 5, 2005

vim and samba to a local machine I keep in my basement that runs NetBSD.
posted by devilsbrigade at 11:41 PM on July 5, 2005

vim, and I work right up on the server so that I can see changes without having to ftp or copy. I have a custom vim preferences file with tools and macros to help me complete tags and find completed tags; it's keyed to .html files so that I can edit PHP files and have my preferences work in there as well. (I do strict separation of code/content/styling.)
posted by SpecialK at 11:50 PM on July 5, 2005

Yeah, subversion kicks ass ... It also really impresses clients when you say, "Ok, I'm going to install all 3,000 changes we just made to your code base now." and you do it with one keystroke.
posted by SpecialK at 12:03 AM on July 6, 2005

I use Homesite (have done since the wee small days), Dreamweaver and TopStyle.
Having seen ConTEXT, I'm swapping and taking the dogs with me.
posted by NinjaPirate at 3:15 AM on July 6, 2005

jEdit is awesome. It's done in Java and is definitely cross-platform. Its syntax coloring is excellent, its expandability is breathtaking, and its preferences can be shared across platforms as well (so you can literally copy your settings from a Windows box to a Mac one and be in the exactly same environment).

Frankly, it's the best text editor I've ever found in an IDE.

(I've also been hearing pretty good things about Nvu but I haven't had a need to check it out.)
posted by bbrown at 4:13 AM on July 6, 2005

Oh and if you're at all interested in BBEdit, which is quite expensive, Bare Bones has released a slimmed down version called TextWrangler for free.
posted by bbrown at 4:15 AM on July 6, 2005

Sorry to reply again, but a quick Google search turned up this site and this page of reviewed editors, which seemed like a pretty good resource.
posted by bbrown at 4:18 AM on July 6, 2005

I'm a big fan of SciTE or UltraEdit, vim or just about any text editor. HTML/CSS/JavaScript are simple enough that you don't need fancy features. When I do JSP and serverside development it's with IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse.
posted by furtive at 4:39 AM on July 6, 2005

Ahh... if only there was a bbedit version for windows.

At any rate, I always kinda liked Homesite -- I found it worked alright with php, html, and whatnot. These days, because the version I've got is now old and completely unstable, I use pspad instead.

Pspad isn't going to blow your mind -- it's just a simple, nice, free editor. While the program itself isn't OS, it does everything one would expect in terms of syntax highlighting for a variety of languages and provides a fair variety of built-in, but relevant, tools to help with web development.
posted by ph00dz at 4:49 AM on July 6, 2005

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned TextPad yet. It's not free, but there is a trial version (and I'm not sure when it expires). It's quite inexpensive, and there are a number of syntax files that can be added and/or modified to suit your needs. It's less bloated than some of the other "text editors" (some of them are really IDE's).

Although, Nvu and Context look pretty cool. (On preview, so does pspad).
posted by purephase at 4:58 AM on July 6, 2005

UltraEdit with the PHP dictionary extension.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:17 AM on July 6, 2005

Seconding jEdit. It's delightful.
posted by boo_radley at 6:26 AM on July 6, 2005

There is only Emacs!

My web development environment is set up roughly like this. Having the PSGML key combos in muscle memory means HTML is pulled into existence as though by magic.
posted by letourneau at 6:36 AM on July 6, 2005

Dreamweaver's code editing view basically is HomeSite.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:40 AM on July 6, 2005

I use Homesite (have done since the wee small days), Dreamweaver and TopStyle.
Having seen ConTEXT, I'm swapping and taking the dogs with me.
posted by NinjaPirate at 3:15 AM PST on July 6 [!]

How is ConTEXT any better (or different) than Homesite? Just askin'.
posted by NoMich at 7:18 AM on July 6, 2005

oh wow, that jedit background image is hilarious.
posted by bruceyeah at 7:50 AM on July 6, 2005

Maybe take a look at Nvu. Just hit 1.0 -- open source, free (as in whatever)
posted by misterbrandt at 8:11 AM on July 6, 2005

I think TSW Coder is pretty slick, particularly for something free.
posted by skryche at 8:29 AM on July 6, 2005

NoMich - all of the extension language highlighters. Homesite is pretty limited in what it recognises of PHPs more advanced stuff, especially now it's in v5. ASP is slightly better, but that's because it's so goddamn basic. The ColdFusion one is virtually pointless.
ConTEXTs plug-in extensions can be updated when the language is, either by the author or you can do it yourself - looks easy.

So even though the lookin's not so pretty, I'm happy swapping that for the subconscious aid that the highlighting gives me for any programming language under the sun. The rest of the functionality (that which I use) is almost identical, so I'm not really losing anything at all.

(I'm seriously chuffed - thanks Mach5!)
(JEdit looks funky too, but I'm inherently suspicious of Java - I'll give it a whirl)
posted by NinjaPirate at 8:31 AM on July 6, 2005

For PHP: vim on the server, notepad2, vim and (occasionally) dreamweaver on the local machine. So much of my coding time is taken up with tiny, tiny edits that I can have the change completed in a notepad clone before dreamweaver's even opened up - hence I use the most lightweight editor I could find that supports syntax highlighting.

CVS and TortoiseCVS for code, Visio for database schemas, Word for documentation, and a wiki for making notes when I'm trying to work with someone else's code.

For MS stuff: just use the MS toolchain. So much less pain than going your own way.
posted by Leon at 9:09 AM on July 6, 2005

TextPad for editing, whether text, html, css, javascript, php, whatever. I tried a bunch of different editors and TP was the one that had all the features I wanted. I proselytize for it. I used ConTEXT for a long time, but it just doesn't compare, honestly.

I have a copy of FrontPage (or at least I did on the computer I just switched from) that I use to repair other people's code, because it has a very robust find/replace feature that I don't think DreamWeaver has matched. I've got DreamWeaver, too, for some of its features (that I can't think of now).

I also use a bunch of Delicious bookmarks for color schemes, code libraries, and cheat sheets.
posted by Hildago at 9:50 AM on July 6, 2005

Ha, I mean TextPad
posted by Hildago at 9:50 AM on July 6, 2005

I use dreamweaver when I'm not doing straight perl coding.
posted by crunchland at 9:57 AM on July 6, 2005

Thanks for the info NinjaPirate. I think for what I do, Homesite is perfect. Basically, I just do HTML and none of that fancy book-learnt stuff that y'all do. Besides, I get it for free. HA!
BTW, I cannot think of a more fierce warrior than a Pirate that is schooled in the ninjastic arts.
posted by NoMich at 10:40 AM on July 6, 2005