Tools for Web Development on the Mac?
The last time I did any extensive web dev on the mac was about… oh, maybe SIX! years ago. Eek, I feel old. In any case, I’ve been doing everything on the PC since then, and while I have a number of really great tools on the PC that I like, I’m clueless when it comes to mac tools.
On the PC, the tool that I use the most is Dreamweaver. Not so much for it’s “WYSIWYG” feature, that doesn’t work too well for me, but it does auto-complete HTML tags, it knows php functions and can tell me what data types I have to pass in, does code highlighting. I even use it to make my stylesheets, because I can get it to pull up the “correct” way to write out a style definition if I forget (which is often).
So what tools do I need to do development on the Mac? I’ve downloaded a trial copy of Westciv Stylemaster which seems to give me what I need for writing stylesheets. I have BBEdit, but it doesn’t do the auto-complete stuff like dreamweaver does (of if it DOES, I can’t find it!).
Cany anyone make some recomendations? (Post in the comments please)
December 9th, 2004 at 10:42 am
For any serious work, I like jEdit, the java text editor. It has a number of plugin for XML/XHTML with autocompletion and syntax checking based on DTD.
While it’s not very pretty, and java’s speed leaves something to be desired, the feature set is pretty solid. Plus, it’s FREE!
http://www.jedit.org/
December 9th, 2004 at 11:00 am
Dreamweaver is available for Mac and is very good, so you don’t have to switch. That said, CSSEdit is a very nice CSS editor and for PHP/HTML you may want to use BBEdit, TextMate or skEdit.
December 9th, 2004 at 11:30 am
SubEthaEdit is the *only* thing I use.
December 9th, 2004 at 12:53 pm
SubEthaEdit (see link above) is what replaces BBedit for me. It’s great for PHP, HTML, Java etc.
I use it also in conjunction with Cyberduck, a small FTP/SFTP application which allowes me to edit my files directly on the server, and now THAT is sweet when it comes to workflow for quick changes and instant server feedback.
For CSS I have both, StyleMaster and CSSedit and I really like CSSedit, it’s fast and fluid. StyleMaster was great for me when I needed to see what works with which browser, but else feels a bit less fluid to me.
Then there is TacoHTML Edit which uses start/end tags on insertion and now also has support for PHP. It’s free and one of these lightweight apps which are quite powerful.
You probably know Dreamweaver from the PC side and then using it on the Mac would be a fluid switch of platforms.
December 9th, 2004 at 2:08 pm
there is a plug-in for bbedit that does auto-complete. more info here: http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/user/view/cs_msg/38914
I use BBEdit for everything. Even for cleaning up Dreamweaver files ;). it opens and saves to ftp, and has extensive script support. I have some good applescripts that I wrote to use with it, things that auto create href tags around words, and the like. And the ability to use GREP in BBEdit searches makes it the best tool I”ve found…
December 9th, 2004 at 5:46 pm
I have been wondering the same thing lately. Has anyone used TextMate
December 9th, 2004 at 7:23 pm
VIM
December 9th, 2004 at 8:02 pm
Cyberduck works pretty good for an FTP client.
December 9th, 2004 at 11:08 pm
This article is specifically about your question and includes lots of suggestions, though there’s some “Websites for Dummies” stuff at the start.
December 10th, 2004 at 10:10 am
Smultron is also a very good text editor. Similar to SubEthaEdit, but freeware (and no autocomplete yet). Otherwise, the Mac and Windows versions of Dreamweaver are mostly the same.
December 10th, 2004 at 2:38 pm
PHP command completion for TextMate, tres cool. Maybe I can do more coding on the Mac now….
December 10th, 2004 at 9:27 pm
You might want to check out “Arachnophilia” which is java based. Here’s the link:
http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.html
I used it for a long time when it was written as a windows app, and I didn’t care as much for the Java version, but it will work for the Mac being that it’s now “cross-platform”
December 11th, 2004 at 3:51 am
First off, Dreamweaver for Mac seems like an unfinished cousin of the Windows version. I use it and it beats having to use Windows but when I do, I appreciate the extra polish of the Windows program.
BBEdit is the best text editor available, period, especially version 8. It more than makes up for the deficiencies of Dreamweaver. It finally has tabs, automation and the best search and replace of any program on any platform. To gain your text compltion, a couple of plugins help.
Autopairs, which does bracket completion and BBAutoComplete, which , well autocompletes.
Firefox, of course, with the Web Developer extension. But I’m sure that your already kenw that. It doesn’t have all the extensions of the the Windows version but still an essential part of my web tool kit.
Stylemaster is also more polished on Windows but still quite usable on Mac. It isn’t up to TopStyle in ease of use. But it does an adequate job.
For PHP, there’s always Zend Studio. It works beautifully.
One place where the Mac really shines is with some of the organization type programs. I keep all my files organized in DEVONthink. It’s a brilliant digital shoebox/outliner.
Curio is a program that I’ve been exploring. It works with “Idea Spaces”. I does all sorts of useful things. I don’t even know how to describe it. But I think that it will shortly be my main project brainstorming and organization too. There’s nothing like in on Windows, reason enough to go OS X.
iWork is what I use for customer and project tracking and invoicing. It’s simple, inexpensive and adequate.
Omnigraffle is great for flowcharts and site diagrams. It came with my Powerbook.
Spamstopper is a free utility to encode email addresses.
YourSQL is a simple and free program for creating MySQL databases
One thing I’ve found is that Windows and OS 9 handle ftp better than OS X. There are a few decent ftp programs for Mac but none of them move large directories of files anywhere near as quickly as any Windows ftp programs. Worth looking at are Transmit, Captain FTP and Interarchy.
December 13th, 2004 at 7:51 pm
Has anyone tried PageSpinner for OS X? It seems to me like a complete program with specific tools for PHP, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Server Side includes etc. I’m not exactly an expert to put it mildly… but it might be worth looking at. No I don’t work for them.
December 13th, 2004 at 7:54 pm
duh.. the link for PageSpinner is here
December 13th, 2004 at 8:39 pm
The immortal Zeldman uses PageSpinner. I’ve tried it and found 1 annoying lack-of-feature to make it a no-go for me. It doesn’t do line numbers. You can go to a line number but you can’t see them displayed. Other than that it is a full featured program.
December 14th, 2004 at 9:17 am
I tried a few of these, and I have to say that so far JEdit is my favorite. I was even able to get work to give me Dreamweaver for my mac - but would you believe, I’m still using JEdit (well, actually I’m using both, but mostly JEdit). Some features that I now can’t do with out:
The fact that it shows you beginning and ending tags and braces with a visible line in the sidebar. So if you’re short a brace or have one to many, you can see it right away.
The fact that it shows you with a little red line right on the page, where/if you have any php errors. (This is from a plugin).
I now prefer IT”S method of “auto-complete” for tags. That you can have a dozen open tags, and then just hit </ and it’ll close the first tag that needs to be closed, then you do that again, and it closes the next, etc. etc.
The ONE and ONLY thing I don’ like, is the function completion. That’s from a plugin. I wish it could pop up suggestions as I type.
Also - I played around with Zend Studio (on the pc - I assume it’s the same for the mac) and I really like how once you hit $ it shows you all the available variables in the file you’re working with. I wish JEdit did that as well.
Other programs I tried but didn’t care for: BBEdit (still can’t get the auto complete thing to work), TextMate (couldn’t get the php function complete to work, nor could I get the auto tag complete to work), Taco (nice simple html editor - but I need MORE! More features!), SubEthaEdit (didn’t have the features I wanted). I think I will give pagespinner a spin though… looks interesting. But so far JEdit has won my heart.
(In fact, I’ll probably be downloading it for my PC too)
December 14th, 2004 at 10:09 am
Gave Pagespinner a quick test… still love JEdit. (I should probably add that some of the features I’m looking for MAY be in some of those apps I tried, but I couldn’t immediately find it, or had trouble implementing them. Where as with JEdit, installing plugins was VERY easy, and the features were easy to find. So I guess we’re also scoring usability here as well as features)
December 14th, 2004 at 4:09 pm
Jennifer at scriptygoddess asked her readers about web development tools for the Mac. I would have said Dreamweaver, as some…
December 17th, 2004 at 6:18 pm
I my self use Tag by talcia to create webpages its really nice and it does autocomplete for css, xhtml, php, etc…talacia
December 19th, 2004 at 3:37 am
Thought you might like to check out:
HyperEdit.
December 25th, 2004 at 4:52 am
Adobe GoLive is available for the Mac as well.
March 7th, 2005 at 1:27 pm
Hi
I forgot Cocoa MySQL for creating MySQL databases and for installing php and mysql go to Marc’s Software. This site is excellent and mostly free.
Rich