Pro. Web development tools

[starshape]

Hi everyone,

I've just made the switch over to a Mac after using Windows for around 14 years (wish I had done it years ago) and was wondering what professional web development tools are available.

I'm not looking for a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver as I code my XHTML and CSS by hand though I do like having code completion. Ideally some kind of HTML/CSS validation and accessibility tools too and source code integration though these are not deal breakers. I've been using MS Expression Web for the past year or so both at work and home and I think it's a great piece of software but it isn't available for OSX AFAIK.

From what I have seen so far Coda and Espresso might fit my needs, anyone have any opinions on them or any alternatives?

Are there any free alternatives to Adobe Fireworks? I can't see past that for web graphics but I've blown all my budget on my Macbook so I will need to wait a bit before I can afford to buy. I have tried GIMP but hated it, though this was about 2 years ago and was the Windows version.

Looking forward to your comments.

Thomas.

 

[angelwatt]

I'd hit the stickies here in the forum and search through older threads (use MRoogle). Most of the software recommendations people have made are there. There's a combination of free and paid software and a bit of the free stuff is very good too. I use Gimp for graphics. I don't care for most Adobe products, though Photoshop Elements is good and cheaper than the full Photoshop.

 

[astroot]

Between Coda and Espresso, Coda is definitely my favorite. They are both good pieces of software. Both were built specifically for what you describe yourself as.. a hand-coder. I am a hand-coder myself, and both programs suit me well.

The nice thing is you can extend both by way of plug-ins.

Personally, I would pick Coda over Espresso but you can't go wrong with either.

 

[Angelo95210]

BBedit + Cyberduck + Photoshop is the way to go for me. But it's just me

 

[TuckBodi]

BBedit + Cyberduck + Photoshop is the way to go for me. But it's just me

I used to be a BBedit fan until it messed up some PHP code of mine by adding in some hidden characters. Took forever for me to figure out what was going on.

Since then I've been using it's free little brother TextWrangler (keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't do the same as BBedit) along with Textmate and another free app (Java) called Komodo Edit which I've been pleasantly surprised by.

I jumped around because one time I needed a tool for finding diff's, another tool for connecting directly through ftp, another for code completion, another for xxx...you get the idea. Yet to find one tool to do it all, for a good price. I'll be watching this thread!


Text Editor discussion going on here.

 

[Angelo95210]

I used to be a BBedit fan until it messed up some PHP code of mine by adding in some hidden characters. Took forever for me to figure out what was going on.

Really? Interesting... never happened to me but I can imagine the time you lost...

 

[angelwatt]

I used to be a BBedit fan until it messed up some PHP code of mine by adding in some hidden characters. Took forever for me to figure out what was going on.

Let me guess, a BOM that caused an included file to create problems when editing either the header or cookie information? That happened to me once and took me a little bit of time to figure out, but it wasn't BBEdit's fault, BBEdit actually allowed me to catch and fix the problem easily. I think Aptana screwed things up.

 

[memco]

I'm a big fan of Textmate, and while I think Coda and Espresso are good, I default to TM because it is powerful and highly flexible. I like to use it in combination with Transmit, which is a great FTP app that integrates with TM if you get the Transmit bundle.

 

[Angelo95210]

I'm a big fan of Textmate, and while I think Coda and Espresso are good, I default to TM because it is powerful and highly flexible. I like to use it in combination with Transmit, which is a great FTP app that integrates with TM if you get the Transmit bundle.

I agree. I don't like combinations. Textmate and Transmit are great.

 

[NathanCH]

First vote here for Espresso. Primarily two things separate it from Coda. The first is the ability to use skins. Sounds like a minor thing, but after you've been coding for 3 or 4 hours, it's a breath of fresh air to look at something other than a baring white page. The themes are very nice and I can't live without them.

The second thing is auto upload on save. Saves a lot of time to say the least.

 

[tominated]

I'm a big fan of Textmate, and while I think Coda and Espresso are good, I default to TM because it is powerful and highly flexible.

ditto, but I use cssedit as well as textmate. textmate+cssedit+cyberduck (ftp) = awesome

although it doesn't seem as cohesive, it is a lot more powerful than restricting yourself to one tool. The fantastic thing about textmate is its native support for just about every programming language under the sun, and heaps of shortcuts with almost all of them.