Looking at independent HTML/PHP editors

Just throwing this up there in case I missed anything...

I've been evaluating several of the independent HTML editors and have found that each of them has features I absolutely love. However, unless there's a piece of software I didn't come across (likely), I can't find one that has the features I've come to love.

skEdit: I love the tag auto-completion, snippets, and integrated file browser. The FTP is shady and the overall stability could definitely be improved, but Sean says he's working on it.
SubEthaEdit: Supports basically every major coding and scripting language, and Rendezvous collaborative editing. No integrated file browser.
Tumult HyperEdit: Has a better snippets implementation than skEdit, and built-in W3C validation is huge. No integrated file browser.
Taco, PageSpinner and WebDesigner are on the docket, but their product pages don't appear to have what I'm looking for.

Also, all three above do not support site-relative linking like <a href="/page.php">. I tend to author my sites like this as it allows for consistency in linking and references, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who does such.

After spending dollar after dollar on BBEdit, Dreamweaver and GoLive, I'd like to save some bucks for a change and do some good for some people out there.

If anyone can tell me of an editor with the power of SubEthaEdit with the benefits of skEdit and HyperEdit, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Michael

FattyMembrane said:

give taco a try. it's by far my favorite. i've tried the others - free and shareware and i haven't found anything else as good. if you're going to be doing php work, it's a clear choice - taco will provide syntax coloring of your php within html and give you live previews of your php code. not only that, you can check your tag structure syntax, php syntax, and have it check the tag structure of the html generated by the php. once you throw in the imagemap wizard (worth it's weight in gold if you work with maps a lot), clips, advanced find, and project view, it's a great all-around package.

Click to expand...

So I just downloaded it and opened a project I'm just finishing. I do like the project view a la skEdit. However, and this is consistent among the various editors, is that pages won't render correctly unless document-relative linking (../code/styles.css instead of /code/styles.css) is used. Also, it uses presentational <b> and <i> instead of the more semantically correct <strong> and <em>. The Clips feature looks pretty cool and the color-coding looks great and easy to follow.

tomjleeds said:

I know it's not 'independent', but I'm still in love with Dreamweaver. I only ever use the code editor these days, but the syntax colouring beats any other editor I've seen, and when combining PHP and HTML in one page, it just works.

Click to expand...

I too have been a longtime fan of Dreamweaver, and I remember sitting in that crappy studio in Princeton reading about it's first release all those years ago. Dreamweaver MX was so awful that it drove me to have a brief affair with ever-bloated GoLive, and MX 2004 started wooing me back.

I'm looking at the indies because I've had great success with other shareware/freeware apps like PathFinder, disclabel, ecto, Adium X, and others. I'd like these guys to continue providing great apps to the Mac community, and it would be a crime if these better-than-anything-on-Windows apps were to die off because no one used them.