Alrighty. I have my Creative Cloud subscription and used Dreamweaver to create websites. However, I started the transition of moving over to Linux(Ubuntu) and I have decided to stick with an Open source Cross platform IDE for development, so I can use on Windows if ever necessary. For Php,HTML5,CSS3,Javascript,Jquery,Node,and some other open source technologies. I have downloaded and installed some of the most well known/used open source ides. Eclipse, Netbeans, and Aptana Studio. Eclipse is the PHP development package with the Web developer tools plugin + xml and xsl plugin. Netbeans is the new raw Netbeans 8.01. Aptana Studio is the version 3, build: 3.6.0.201407100658.... All latest. I was just playing around with them to checkout the code completion, code hinting and auto tabbing(<- Im sure there's a better word for that). My observations thus far(after 10minutes) Eclipse: When editing html in an html document of php document. If I type in an "s" it will show the suggestion/tag hints of all the HTML tags that start with "s". If I go down or press enter, then it will enter the- lets say i selected- <section></section>. And the cursor will be in BETWEEN the opening tag and closing tag( I dont like this because I will have to go up and then enter my ids or classes or whatever) And If i press enter again, it will send the closing tag to the next line. But it does NOT indent how i would like. So I have to tab before entering any new tab. ANNOYING!! Netbeans: Editing HTML/5 in an html document seems to work better than in Eclipse. The tabbing seems to work fine IF you close it immediately. If you open a section tag and press enter and close it immediately then it tabs the next line fine. However, I would still have to do back and insert the ids, classes, etc. When opening a tag and entering a letter, lets say, "a", a nice sized list of suggestions come up. I see that some are tags, some are javascript tags? and some are something else(tags I cant recognize)? But only the descriptions come up for the HTML tags. Nothing else has a description. ---- In Netbeans when editing HMTL in a PHP document, I dont get any code hints, completion, tabbing, nothing...? When editing PHP i dont get anything either. I tried re saving as a .php. I tried creating a new file. When trying to create a new file, there isnt any default for a PHP file. Tried the blank document and then saving as php. Still no PHP code completiong or anything. Aptana Studio: When you open a tag and enter a letter, lets say, "S". All the HTML suggections come up. When clicking and using one of them it closes it, and places the cursor INSIDE at the end of the opening tag. So the cursor will land <section RIGHT|HERE></section>. I definitely like this. And this is working with HTML inside a PHP document. When working with PHP in a php document, the suggestions recommend PHP tags. This is great. I noticed when typing the script tag and selecting javascript, it will suggest javascript attributes. Ok. Im starting to like Aptana. It seems to work well with figuring out which technology you want to work with at that particular time. Dreamweaver: Dreamweaver is not well respected amongst heavy duty programmers- FOR WHATEVER REASON. But Dreamweaver has many tools that allow tweaking with visual elements, like the css designer and other stuff like that. And I like the default layout and cusomization options(Like all Adobe programs). Dreamweavers suggestions and stuff like that are great. But it does not tab as well as Aptana. But one thing about Dreamweaver is it offers great prioritized suggestions for the particulatr elemnt youre in. So if you've just opened up a <script tag, it will offer 5 suggestions that are needed for script tags. And be focused on just that particular tag youre in. I like this slightly ove rAptana's because Aptana gives you too many options and may confuse and slow things down. That basic assesment there has lead me to think I will do fine with Aptana. However, Eclipse is extremely popular and has plugins for many languages I plan to dive into. Like Python, Lua, Node.js, and some other ones.... And Netbeans is a very respected PHP and Java IDE, and also has excellent support for Javascript and (I believe) 5 of some of the most popular Javascript Frameworks/libraries. I wanted to know. Are there any tweaks I can do to get Netbeans and/or Eclipse to function like Aptana studio? *P.s. This is only based off of 10 minutes of playing around. Are my conclusions correct, or have i messed some things up? I know that there was an error with Netbeans because I was getting no code completion or suggestions when editing php.
What is wrong with a simple text-editor? Sublime, Notepad++ or something similar? What's the reason you want this code-completion BS? It's rarely faster (as you point out, you need to navigate back and forth when it places the cursor in stupid places). I'm quite sure I could write and format the same code as you, without using any code-completion just as fast, if not faster, with IDs and classes and PHP-code and HTML and javascript in the same file (albeit, why in the world would you want to). I've never really understood the benefit of an IDE for simple text-programming, as in HTML, PHP, JS and CSS - all you need is a parser for what you're working on, any webbrowser will do. Dreamweaver is, and always has been, crap. Not to mention that whatever you see in the "preview" is based on bloated, garbage code, and at least up to the fairly recent releases of DW, it was based on IE and a box-model that was hopeless. Not to mention that it didn't support CSS3 until... I dunno. Way too late. It was FrontPage with bells and whistles, and that is hardly a compliment.
Yea. Dreamweaver's built-in preview has always failed. As far as a simple text editor. Im a windows user so I definitely have been using my Notepadd++ for the necessary occasions. But it isn't cross platform. Sublime Text isn't open source/free so I don't see a need to pay for that, when I can use Aptana or another free cross platform one. As far as the IDE vs Raw text editor- There are some things that an Ide can offer, like help with Debugging. Im not necessarily going to be depending on the code suggestions 100%, but as I am still learning, it may come in handy. When I know these languages like the back of my hand, then maybe I will stick to a text editor- MAYBE. But Aptana gets great reviews, and may help me out.
True, if the cross-platform is truly necessary - personally I don't really see the need for it, as a text-editor is a text-editor (even though I have my preferences, of course, this is mostly for plugins or similar added functionality), so as long as the text-editor has syntax highlighting and color-codes I'm happy. I can just as well use vi on a shell on a linux box, if need be.
I think Aptana is a solid choice for you. It's polished and has a variety of language support (and is based on Eclipse so I believe can use some of it's plugins). Netbeans is also a very good choice, especially if you get more in to PHP and can handle pretty much any languages. Eclipse has a ton of power, but I've personally always found it more of a pain to work with for web projects. There are always the IDE vs Text Editor comments and I agree that in most cases a simple text editor is the way to go. You should probably strive to keep things simple. There are some great text editors out there that will get most jobs done without the bloat and overhead of a full-blown IDE. However, as you get more involved in a particular language or work with bigger and more complex projects you might appreciate what an IDE can do. Especially for version control integration (seeing which lines in a file have changed, history, committing, reverting, etc), code debugging (step-through PHP debugging and breakpoints for instance), deployment, navigation of complex object oriented code bases, etc... For instance if you need to find a particular method or class quickly or want to see which methods are being overridden elsewhere.. that's where using a good IDE truly shines. But in most projects you probably don't need hardly any of these features. In the end no one is right or wrong and each person has their own preferences based on experience and figuring out what works best for them and their projects. You just have to try them all and see what fits. Give them all a good try (maybe a few weeks or more) and you'll quickly have a feel for what you want to use. Good luck!
I definitely understand... I also did see a developer using sublime in a video tutorial, and there's a function I really liked. Instead of young out the whole tag and class, he just types something like : div.leftSection. .... And it prints out to <div class="leftSection"></div> ....... That's a nice little feature to have.
Solid info. Thanx. Yes, I know if the idea vs text editor debates. LoL. I really had my eyes on netbeans for php development and maybe java down the road. It was bugging me the other day though. But for now, I will stick with aptana for my front end stuff and then see how it fairs with php debugging in a little bit.
Try creating a new project as a PHP Project, not just a solo file. NetBeans' PHP hints, completion, and such all work fine for me. There are a lot of ways to configure NetBeans both in the Tools -> Options presented in the IDE and also by editing the NetBeans configuration file. I know very little about that. You will have to research it.
O.OK. Cool. I will check that. Yes. I was trying to edit single file as apposed to creating a project..... Thanx
Yeah, that's the Emmet-extension - available for a lot of different text-editors: http://emmet.io/download/
I thought about this later. One can create macros in NetBeans to do different things. Maybe a macro could be recorded to do certain things that the original poster feels is lacking.
Wow. Niceeeeee. That extension is programmed for several of the most popular ide's and text editors. I see netbeans, komodo(which I like), notepad++, eclipse, and several others. That's a nice little free addition. So I don't have to buy sublime for that feature. I wonder what other common extensions people use, that I don't know about
I've wondered what's the purpose of macros in notepad++, and other editors and ideS. I have no experience programming a macro. All I know if macros are the scripts people make to do automated repeated tasks on websites. Like registration, following, etc....
Macros in general are meant to ease the process of repeated tasks - hence a way to write shorter syntax and then have it automatically translated to proper HTML is a good example. Others would be for instance writing 'black' or 'white' or similar and have it automatically translated to the proper CSS-color codes, for instance '#000' and '#fff' or 'rgba(0,0,0,1)' and 'rgba(255,255,255,1)'.
A macro can be recorded to repeat a series of key strokes. I have not used macros in NetBeans but have in Excel. Perhaps you could right a macro to put in class or id attributes, place the cursor in a position where you want it after you create an element, or other things.