Taking web development to the next level
 

I've done a few sites now and i just use Notepad. Being a (RDMBS) programmer previously, i like coding, so these WYSIWYG tools don't do it for me.

It's taking me longer than it should and i've got quite a few sites to do, so i'm looking for some web development tools.

I want to take things up a gear, so i want things/tools that will minify html/css on the fly, join js scripts all that stuff and an editor that colours attributes tags and maybe compiles would be nice.

I know there's a few developers on here, what's your choice of tools??

Visual Studio, Dreamweaver, a lot of people who like to knock up sites very quickly and attach tools with little or no coding use WordPress.

Deffo dump notepad and get into the 21st Century lol

You also might want to give WebStorm a try if you're working with a lot of JavaScript (and maybe repositories).

I use Dreamweaver, but tbh I only use it for coding. I don't really agree with all them drag and drop template sites. I've been thinking about switching to 'coda' which i've heard good things about, Mac only though I believe.

I do use Dreamweaver, but if you want the most efficient and SEO friendly code a good text editor is still the way to go.

75% of my work is done in raw code still.

I've worked in the web development industry for over ten years, currently a senior webdev, so I'd like to think I know enough to help you out ;)

Its good you've started with Notepad as no studio worth its salt will use anything like Dreamweaver. Look at Sublime Text 2 for starters, its like Notepad on speed. It's fantastic and a lot of developers swear by it - myself included. http://www.sublimetext.com/

I wouldn't worry about condensing your HTML/CSS as its something the webserver can do on the fly with gzip compression - depending on where you host your sites it may already be doing so. The gains from using tools that minify even further are practically pointless unless you're as big as Ebay. Joining JS files together is possible, but other than having everything in one file it doesn't really help much, in fact its often better to keep the scripts separate as its easier to manage.

If you're looking at get a job in the industry, there are a few things you should probably look at to expand your skill set.

HTML5/CSS3 - Its worth looking at the new things you can do with the lastest versions of HTML and CSS, however not everything works in all browsers so be careful! A good understanding will definitely help.

jquery - http://jquery.com/ is a Javascript framework. If you've coded JS before you'll know it can be a pain and jquery is the solutuion to that. Most studios will be using this now and its very much worth learning.

LESS/SASS - http://lesscss.org/ and http://sass-lang.com/ both tools which allow you to 'code' CSS, adding variables, calculations and functions (of sorts) which will speed up your CSS development massively. Its a bit of a VHS/Betamax situation at the moment, some people like LESS some like SASS, I use SASS personally.

GIT - http://git-scm.com/ a version control system. Basically used for disaster recovery - keeps track of any changes you make to files and allows you to roll back to previous versions. Most studios will use this or some form of version control so its worth getting to know.

Server-side scripting and database driven sites - have you looked at anything like PHP and MySQL? This is where the real fun starts and the proper programming comes in to play.

bit of a longer reply than I was planning... hope its of use :)

Coda looks ideal, but yeah Mac only. Something like for the PC would be ideal.

Yeah, that
What text editors do you use?

A fantastic response, many thanks, exactly what i was looking for :thumb:

I've downloaded Sublime Text the now, will check that out. I used to use "vi" & "vim" editor in a previous life, but wanted something more web focused. So hopefully that Sublime is good. Any other alternatives?

I've checked and the hosting company has gzip enabled as standard. So excuse my ignorance, but do i have to zip the files up, or does the server do it all automatically?

Point noted about minify. :) I just read a "speed up your site" article and it mentioned it and thought is would speed it up slightly.
http://browserdiet.com/

Don't know whether i'm going to get in the industry. I think i've missed that boat and i gave up the 9-5 lifestyle a few years ago, but i miss the money. :) My old skill-set is now redundant, so i need to retrain, so i'm weighing up all my options.

I've signed up/liked the website CoDrops. It's excellent. They have great tutorials & information, all using latest standards. Right now i'm just taking examples and tweaking. So i've not got a full understanding, but i'm able to change a few things and add browser compatibility elements.

They mentioned about Sass, so i'll check that out too. :thumb:

Git; This sounds great, as i tweak one thing at a time, as too many times i've changed stuff and can't get it back if it goes wrong. I ended up copying the whole folder as a backup just in case.

I'll save PHP & MySQL for another time. :lol1:

Vim is another one that's often used, but I've never really go the hang of it. I'm fairly certain it will do syntax highlighting for HTML and CSS, if not out of the box there will most certainly be a plug in or module!

If your host has gzip on, you need do nothing more. When a browser requests a file from your site it gets zipped by your server, sent to the browser, unzipped by the browser then displayed... all in the blink of an eye :)

Technically browserdiet.com is right as minifying will make files smaller, but as I say, there's little practical advantage for most people in shaving off a byte or two.

If you've a background in RDMBS and databases, you'd probably find you'd pick MySQL up quickly and database structure/query design is a skill that not many people excel at, you may find its a niche you fit in to without too much retraining.

Picking examples apart and finding out what they do is, IMO, the best way to learn as you can break down something that works and rebuild it your own way (or just learn what each bit does by breaking it!). There's no shame in using someone else's code and not knowing completely *how* it works, so long as you understand *what* it does.

GIT is bit of a, well, git to set up but both Sublime and Vim can be integrated with GIT to make it a bit easier, probably best to google for instructions for that once you've picked an editor though ;)

I use Coda and GITHUB on Mac. Add modules, configure, patch and bludgeon CSS. All Drupal hosted on Pantheon who take care of setting up the workflow.

Is there a PC variant of Coda that you know of Jack?

Must be something similar, otherwise it's a good excuse to use OSX. It is very good, daily use for me, Transit is built in if you need to work on server, which is nice. Validation has saved me tons of time. Preview on the iPad is funky, but doesn't get used. The iPad app is a cracker for quick fixes, take a look at the text magnifier, but strangly doesn't use iCloud for site settings like the desktop version, security no doubt.

It wasn't cheap if I remember correctly, but coming from Textedit, it's a game changer.

I use http://www.ultraedit.com/ as it allows some colour coding / indenting whilst still being a powerful text editor. Especially useful for the javascript part.

Although to be honest, most of the time I use Dreamweaver these days!

That looks good. Very nice search, way better than Coda.

I need to get Dreamweaver, is it still as expensive as it used to be?

Got a few to try out now, many thanks all. Let's see which one i get on with best.

There's also Visual Studio Express for Web if you're looking for a free editor. It should be pretty good for what you need and comes with IntelliSense support for HTML5, CSS, jQuery etc which can be quite handy.

+1

Don't like the monochrome interface of VS Express for the Web (2012 version) but 2008 version is v nice.

notepad, sublime meh! notepad++ is where its at :)

Yes! £345 from Amazon. I get mine from work thankfully.

That's not too bad, £245 and I'd buy it.