I have been developing things for internet for more then 5 years now. I started out as a script kiddie when I was in first year at DAIICT. I started out by creating simple websites using Microsoft Frontpageand publishing them on different [free] servers. As time passed, I started hacking javascript code, learnt the concept of CSS and why styling should be done using CSS and not HTML (seperate design from content!). Since then I have done countless number of projects, designed and redesigned my website and also participated in different programs(Google SOC 2007 with Drupal :). Today, I thought I should share the programs that I use for web development and ask you what you use.
As I mostly work on windows, the programs listed here are specific to this OS. Of course this does not mean that these are as fast or function rich as vi.
Editor: I generally use multiple editors for creating the web pages. Notepad++ is one of my first choices. It has tabs, syntax highlighting and it supports almost all the languages that I want to develop in. The only thing missing is the auto-complete feature. If there is such a feature available, I could not find it.
The other editor, that I have had an on and off relationship with, is Aptana. It is a fully featured IDE based on Eclipse and supports all the client and server side languages that I can think of. The only thing that goes against it is the bulkiness. I can never open more then 10 files at a time and still work without being slowed down by it.
Reference: For references on topics related to Web Development, I usually go to Google. I specially find articles on A list Apart, quirksmode to be of real help when dealing with compatibility issues. In addition, there are quite a few resources that have come up recently. One of such resources is Google DocType.
Testing: The rule of thumb here is to develop in Firefox and then tweak and patch-up for IE. Doing work in Firefox is very easy due to the huge number of extensions and plugins that make your life easier. Firefox is also straightforward to develop for as it does not act weird in implementing web standards.
Debugging: Of course nothing is complete without proper debugging tools. Here I find the Web Developer Extension for Firefox and Firebug to be really helpful. You can do almost anything from the combination of two.
With the combination of above tools, the life has become so much easier for me :). Hope it helps you too.
Is there something that I am missing out on? Do tell me in comments!
