I'm looking for suggestions for web development IDEs. I'm currently looking at Aptana Studio and it looks rather impressive so far. Anyone have other suggestions?
I'm looking for support for HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Thanks!
+14
A:
Take a look at Visual Studio 2008, or the free Visual Web Developer 2008 Express (both with SP1, please). Very standards-compliant and powerful, and with SP1, the JavaScript debugging/Intellisense has been improved.
As an update, the latest VS 2008 versions have extended jQuery support, including complete Intellisense. Very impressing, though I'm not into web development :)
OregonGhost
2008-09-26 17:12:36
If only IntelliSense worked for jQuery... (yes, I have the hotfix and followed all instructions). :)
Pawel Krakowiak
2009-07-25 10:46:42
On my system, it works quite good ;)
OregonGhost
2009-07-27 09:14:18
Personally I find VS2008 and VS2010 far too slow for Javascript development especially with jQuery. I use a quadcore at work so there is no excuse for delays after starting a <script> block. I'm sticking with Komodo Edit or VIM. Aptana is ungodly slow when you include jQuery for code completion.
lark
2010-07-12 05:27:19
Just tested in VS2010. I didn't experience any delays. A big plus for me is that I'm basically living in Visual Studio all working day anyway, so switching between IDEs would cause more overhead. But since I don't see the delays your talking about (and my machine isn't really the fastest), I'm fine :)
OregonGhost
2010-07-12 08:17:17
+8
A:
If you just need webdev, I agree with OregonGhost, but if you need support for Prototype, JQuery or other libraries, I'd go with Aptana, or a good text editor. On a Mac, Textmate has good support for HTML, and I always prefer hand coding to fighting the garbage that IDE's add. (Yes, I'm a little anal about my HTML)
James Deville
2008-09-26 17:14:23
Thanks James. jQuery support is important so at this point I am leaning towards Aptana. Digging in to it now...
remrick
2008-09-26 17:19:09
Now that I read this again - did you ever try Visual Studio 2008 SP1 for HTML? Apart from it having full Intellisense in the code editor (including CSS), it also doesn't add any garbage in design mode if you only use it for writing the text and basic layout, which is what most professional web developers will do anyway. In other words, you typically won't have to fight the IDE, unless you begin dragging things around in the design view.
OregonGhost
2009-08-19 08:32:20
A:
TextMate on OS X or E-TextEditor on Windows.
More code editors than IDEs, but both very good.
Chris Hawes
2008-09-26 17:27:06
+2
A:
Aptana blows Visual Studio away and the price difference is immense to say the least. I have Visual Studio 05, 08 and Expression Web and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Microsoft products are not optimal if you are trying to integrate with anything that isn't Microsoft. They are all good if you intend to use ASP.NET or ASP but if you want to make custom web pages using other JS libraries use Aptana.
But there is a free Visual Studio Web Developer, so there is no real 'price difference'.
DMan
2010-07-17 00:31:22
+4
A:
Eclipse is a pretty good option if you don't mind putting in the work to get the necessary plug-ins installed and working. With its plug-in architecture Eclipse has been able to offer comprehensive support for Javascript, HTML, CSS as well as a host of web development languages such as PHP, Java (obviously), and Flash.
In addition, Eclipse is free and open-source with an extremely strong and loyal following. It promises to be around for a long time to come.
Noah Goodrich
2008-09-26 17:38:34
+1
A:
If you are looking for an editor to just do HTML, CSS, and Javascript then I would start with Adobe Dreamweaver. I know that people complain that it can be a resource hoag but you can't beat it's WYSIWYG, HTML, and CSS features. I would then use Firebug in addition to Dreamweaver to debug the Javascript.
If you want to get into dynamic web development with PHP, Ruby, Python, etc. then I would use an editor like Komodo or Textmate.
Visual Studio is great and it has a lot of the same HTML and CSS features that Dreamweaver has but if you are not doing ASP.NET development then I don't see a reason to use it.
While I have used all the tools I mentioned, I always go back to VIM because I prefer to stay close to the metal without a big IDE because it forces me to really understand the code and to keep it clean and maintainable.
markkoberlein
2008-09-26 17:58:37
Dreamweaver's auto-generated code, if you drag/drop using it's WYSIWYG interface isn't as clean as it should be. Just something to keep in mind.However, I'm in total agreeance with Vim as the right choice ;)
camflan
2008-09-26 18:01:13
+1 for VIM, -2 for DW. It's been a while since I deigned to touch DW but I spent a good 2 years of my career cleaning up the damage it inflicted, mostly caused by the WYSIWYG parts. Never again. VS Express is free. If you don't want to use a good text-editor, I see no great reason not to use it on a win box.
annakata
2009-04-20 10:17:46
A:
Vim. If you need features either write them yourself or download from the thousands of plugins out there.
NERDTree for file/directory/project/ IDE type file browsing. XMLedit for html/xhtml/xml tags, helps with autoclosing, matching, etc.
Macros will make you happy all day long.
camflan
2008-09-26 17:59:50
+2
A:
I've used Aptana and Komodo, both of which seemed pretty helpful. If you can get by with just a decent programming text editor though my two of choice are PSPAD for Windows and Coda in OSX (both of which are great, extremely flexible, have loads of features and are much better then your standard issue text editor)
The Brawny Man
2008-09-26 18:11:22
A:
Oregon Ghost is correct as is James Deville but to add to it I will say that it is possible to get jQuery Intellisense working in Visual Studio 2008 if that is a must. Check out these articles for details:
http://blogs.ipona.com/james/archive/2008/02/15/JQuery-IntelliSense-in-Visual-Studio-2008.aspx
http://weblogs.asp.net/bradvincent/archive/2008/04/28/better-jquery-intellisense-in-vs2008.aspx
slude
2008-09-26 18:37:46
+1
A:
If you need for HTML CSS and Javascript with WYSIWYG then no one can beat "Microsoft Visual web Developer 2008 Express Edition".
If you need a with PHP Support then Komodo Edit is the Best.
metal-gear-solid
2009-04-13 18:00:31
+3
A:
For php, java and many other languages Netbeans ( http://www.netbeans.org/ ) works great out of the box with no special configuration. I tried most of the IDEs mentioned in this post (and many others) and netbeans worked the best.
For asp.net web applications visual studio 2008 works great. You have to get the update (http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/11/07/hotfix-to-enable-vsdoc-js-intellisense-doc-files-is-now-available.aspx ) and include a .js file (http://docs.jquery.com/Downloading_jQuery#Download_jQuery) and add "/// " to the top of your .js file.
ccompton
2009-04-26 16:26:45
A:
You can try Visual WebGui which offers simple web development (Form based) that would do the HTML, CSS & JavaScript coding for you but also allows you the flexibility to extend and customize with integrated design tools, jQuery integration and customization in the control level.
The upcoming version will also include the option to use XAML based programming for a development paradigm that uses markup languages and allows ‘on demand' compilation.