What web dev tools are you using?

easylancer

Junior Member
List the software you use when doing web development and how they help.

I use e-texteditor, firebug, web developers toolbar, cakephp framework and kohanaphp framework.

I like using e-texteditor(PC) because it is lightweight and has alot of features like Textmate(Mac), you can create your own Bundles, macros to make working alot easier and the Tab Trigger has to be the best feature i use.

Firebug is used for debugging and making changes on the fly to see the look of the website without needing to change the code and refresh. Web developers toolbar i use in a similiar way aswell.

I have recently started using Cakephp framework and i like it already, it makes writing PHP and MySQL applications so easy as most of the base code and components you need are already written. The naming convention rule is great aswell.

I was using Kohanaphp until recently when the developers decided to make a complete change of the core and i decided these changes were too drastic and wasn't for me. I still do projects on version 2.2 of Kohana as it is very flexible and extendable and has that Codeigniter feel to it. I will also say the learning curve for beginners can be a bit steep since the documentation is not that great.
 
I'm old-fashioned. Notepad does the trick for me.

I've tried using some web language editors, but I just never did like the "features". Coding things yourself is always the best way to know your website, so I'm not really geared to any of those automatic HTML-page setup features, or using a button to add the PHP tags in a document. The only feature I like with most text-editors is that they give colour to the text.

However, penguins are colour-blind - so that's pretty much down the drain, too.
 
Coda! Coda! Coda! Coda! Coda! - http://www.panic.com/coda/

If you haven't guessed as yet I use Coda for coding it just has some brilliant features that save me a lot of time.

I use a little tool called (http://www.unmarked.com/textsoap/]TextSoap[/url] as well which will clean up any text generated in an editor such as MS word e.g. replacing characters such as formatted apostrophes and speech marks.

MAMP Pro is a nice Apache/MySQL server with a nice easy admin interface.

I use Sequel Pro which is a simple MySQL database management app

Easyfind - Search application

Parallels - VM Ware for IE testing

These are all mac applications by the way

Firefox
- Web development toolbar
- Firebug
- ColorZilla
- MeasureIt
- Live HTTP Headers
- LinkChecker
- Screen grab!
- Source Viewer Tab
 
easylancer said:
I like using e-texteditor(PC) because it is lightweight and has alot of features like Textmate(Mac), you can create your own Bundles, macros to make working alot easier and the Tab Trigger has to be the best feature i use.

I just discovered e-TextEditor this morning and I'm so glad that I found it.

TextMate if the best text editor I've ever used and this is an awesome PC version. Much much better than Dreamweaver or any open source solution.
 
@mrleesimpson Yeah i have been using e-texteditor for awhile now and its brilliant.

@Skipper Wow in times like these you still use Notepad, man thats devotion. I personally think Notepad is a waste of time since there is no automation what so ever, I like applications that makes me work faster while still having control over the code. Notepad++ is another editor i use at time as it have some useful features.

@Everyone else it is nice to see the tools you all use i will be looking into some of them to see how they can help me with my work.
 
I'm a bit old fashioned as well, but I've just upgraded from Notepad to Notepad++ :)

And sometimes I use the Web Developer plugin for Firefox.
 
Hey yo - Not strictly 'web dev' - but they aid in web development :)
A few tools you might like -

I use this simple Color Dropper tool all the time:
Color Cop

Plus to manage all the website passwords, ftp & DB details that you build up as your portfolio grows I can't recommend Passpack highly enough - again something I use daily.

Plus this Screen ruler is often handy for gauging pixel widths - checking alignment etc.

See ya
 
I've tried quite a few and generally use either Espresso or Dreamweaver depending on what I need to do. Espresso is really neat, slick and fast whereas Dreamweaver doesn't run quite as well but does have more features.
 
  • Dreamweaver mainly
  • Coda for simple stuff like html emails because it's a sexy app
  • Textmate (editor) and cyberduck (ftp) work nicely together
  • Visual Studio is brilliant though not for mac
  • Firefox and the extensions:
    • Firebug, which is essential;
    • Screengrab;
    • Tamper Data for seeing what is posted in forms;
    • Eyedropper tool;
    • and the good old error console.
I've just realised Firefox is more essential than any of the above as they could easily be replaced with a simple text editor, a good memory and an ftp client. It's the ultimate website proofing tool!

oh yes and Virtual Host X which is quite useful for testing
 
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