[H-GEN] html/dhtml/javascript editors

[Ben Fowler]

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Tony Nugent wrote:

> There are a number of html editors available for linux (not too
> many), and I'm just wondering which ones are "highly regarded" by
> those here who are more experienced with pumping out web pages.
> Not to mention vi... vi/vim/gvim is my current html editor :)
>
> Any advice on which direction to take would be most welcome.

Hi,

I work as a programmer and I spend way too much time churning out web 
pages and building web apps, and I can tell you that vim (tweaked of 
course) and a little know-how will take you just about the whole way 
towards building good looking, functional pages [1].

I've found that many WYSIWYG web page editors emit pages of wretched 
quality, and that the most powerful way of editing web pages is spending 
a little time getting familiar with HTML and CSS, and writing the pages 
by hand.  Many tools just don't give you the control you need.

Learning HTML and CSS isn't as hard as it sounds.  I used to know a 
school teacher who's as dumb as a box of hammers when it comes to 
computers, and she still was able to crank out nice pages after a few 
hours reading.  HTML and CSS is not exactly rocket science.

The tools I use are vim for the editor, HTML Tidy (from the W3C) to 
clean web pages (excellent tool).  I view pages using Lynx, Mozilla, 
Opera and if needed, Netscape 4.  If I feel like using an editor with 
on-the-fly validation and other nifty features, I like GNU Emacs using 
the PSGML mode (PSGML mode is very powerful for editing and validating 
any kind of HTML/XML document).

For debugging layout, I sometimes use the DOM Inspector in Mozilla, 
which can be a useful troubleshooting tool especially when you're 
messing with CSS.

I hope this helps.

-regards,

Ben.

[1] As an example, the HUMBUG web site is hand built.  I don't think 
that the authors would have been caught dead using Frontpage or Composer 
on it :)

-- 
  Ben Fowler, email: <ben.fowler at humbug.org.au> pgp/gpg key id: FFDE6AF7
    vanity web page: <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~zuul/>
       "Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier" -- Colin Powell


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