Reply to: Which web authoring tool?

[Sysman]

Must admit - I've given up on Nvu and Komposer.

I found that both of them crashed too often. Having said that, I did find them useful for giving me the right syntax when I was upgrading a load of ancient (and horrible) stuff to XHTML 1.0 Strict.

[Jaws]

Another good thing about the MS Visual Web Developer software is the intellisense in the editor which has to be useful to people who don't know HTML inside out.

[NickFitz]

...ms visual web developer express edition gets my vote - easier than dreamweaver to use and ... it's free !

Although I'd never use it to actually create something, MSVWD2008EE (and whatever other bits they've added to the name this week) is invaluable for debugging JavaScript on IE. It's also useful for working out some of the ways in which IE manages to make a complete bollocks of laying out a page - although, disconcertingly, it also allows one to determine that sometimes IE is convinced that something is in one place when it's clearly in a totally different place. I've even seen it highlight an element which is obviously being rendered at (0,0) whilst asserting that it's somewhere like (640, 373)

(Sometimes IE's left hand doesn't know what its right hand is doing. Actually, sometimes IE just doesn't know what it's doing, full stop.)

But still, MSVWD2008EE is one of the best tools out there for working out how to fix IE's brokenness. The IE Developer Toolbar is useful, but if you really want to get into the guts and carry out a proper diagnosis, MSVWD2008EE is FTW

Although you have to dig around a lot on the web to find out how to get it to work in the first place...

[adestor]

Good Lord ! The conversation has descended into editors. And nobody's mentioned xemacs ! I guess we're all very bored or very drunk.
I've mostly been using scintilla recently. And don't be put off by the amateurish website.
As for website gui editors, ms visual web developer express edition gets my vote - easier than dreamweaver to use and ... it's free !

[cojak]

Must admit - I've given up on Nvu and Komposer.

I'me just going to use a TiddlyWiki for my site - you can't get more basic than that....

[realityhack]

And another thing...

If you're getting to grips with markup for the first time, then there's no substitute for notepad. I believe there's no better way to learn than to start from first principles. WYSIWYG editors will just confuse/impede you.

+1 on NF's semantic markup comments.

[realityhack]

Another vote for a lightweight text editor with syntax highlighting (and monospaced fonts) - I use Notepad++, but have been known to use BBedit, NVU & Dreamweaver (but never in design view - bleaugh).

[expat]

PSPad is the best programmers text editor.

It's very good. Nearly as good as Textpad.

NickFitz, WHS+1. A very old idea, that I grasped in the days of IBM mainframe Sctipr/VS. Why do people not get it? It is integral to the idea of browser: the writer says what it is, and the user says how they will have such a thing presented to them.

Nick, agree about Notepad too: as a professional, be able if the need arises to use the tools that are sure to be on any environment you meet.

That has got to be your good sense allowance used up for the day.

[NickFitz]

Why anyone would consider hand coding in plain ol Notepad is beyond me

To annoy the permies

Actually, although I was being silly there, there is good reason for being able to do stuff in Notepad if necessary.

The other year I'd popped down to a client site to upgrade some bits'n'bobs on the intranet system I'd written for them.

I was ready to leave and just chatting to the manager responsible for the project about what I'd just done. He mentioned that it would be cool if they had features [a,b,c] and asked how much work would be involved in implementing them.

I immediately turned to the machine next to me (through which I'd been working on the intranet server), logged back in, fired up Notepad, wrote a few scripts, edited a few configuration files, and he had the desired functionality within five minutes of asking for it, before his very eyes.

This led to massive customer satisfaction.

Obviously one would have to be half-mad to actually use Notepad as a development environment on a regular basis. But being able to do so when the need arises is epic win.

[DiscoStu]

HomeSite 4.5!!!!!!!!!!!

Sure you got enough exclamation marks there?

[SP-Man]

HomeSite 4.5

HomeSite 4.5!!!!!!!!!!!

[FiveTimes]

If you like vi, have a look at Vim. It includes colour syntax highlighting.

Xeno ought to be along shortly to award some geek points for that post

If you want a colour mode then there is no better than emacs in colour mode and change font locks in .emacs to the desired colour

[NickFitz]

Why anyone would consider hand coding in plain ol Notepad is beyond me

To annoy the permies

[Shimano105]

Not the greatest authority on this stuff but Notepad++ is extremely useful. Auto syntax highlighting for loads of languages etc.

Why anyone would consider hand coding in plain ol Notepad is beyond me

[lightng]

PSPad is the best programmers text editor.

Hey, had a look on the site and its not half bad. Will have a look at it properly later. Nice find Dinker!