Changing HTML compiler

Untamedlemon

Hi,
Im wondering if I can use free software like notepad++ to make a website then change over to a paid software like adobe dreamweaver if and when the website begins to grow. Would this be easy to do or even possible at all?
Secondly, are there any good free softwares out there for HTML and CSS? I use ms visual studio for C++ and such but can't seem to get it to compile for HTML and CSS.
I've only just started HTML and CSS so I amnt too sure of things.
Thanks!

smash

HTML and CSS aren't compiled languages. You can use notepad++ to write them, personally I use sublime because I find it's a better editor. Haven't touched Dreamweaver in years, and even when I used it I only used the code view so it's not worth the money. Adobe Edge Code is free and might be worth a look though.

Untamedlemon

Sublime seems to get a lot of praise so I'll give that a go.
Thanks

Banta

If you're used to using Visual Studio, why not continue to use it?

I've recently start using VS Code (on OS X!) as someone mentioned it on the Development forum as being a good editor, and I have to say, I'm really liking it. I'd been using Sublime up to that point, and I still do a lot, as I'm just experiment a bit with VS Code. MS know how to make good editors and as VS Code is free I thought why not. So if you're familiar with Visual Studio, there's also no problem in sticking with it, just have to remember that HTML, CSS etc. don't compile - you just code and hope it renders in the browser.

smash

Banta wrote: »

MS know how to make good editors and as VS Code is free I thought why not.

Banta

Ha ha! Even as I typed it I questioned it and figured it would raise the eyebrows. Didn't like VS (specifically! Should've said that... editor for coding) initially but after a while I got used to it and grew to like it quite a lot actually. Surprised even myself. So yeah, excellent use of the meme, can't blame ye for it. But I do miss VS a bit. In saying that, happy to not be working on the projects I used to be working on.

smash

What I really hate about VS... Type a sentence, wait 5-10 seconds for the editor to catch up with you. And then tell you that your syntax is wrong, even when it's right!

Plus, I find it difficult to go back to white screen editors now. It's an odd one.

amen

What I really hate about VS... Type a sentence, wait 5-10 seconds for the editor to catch up with you. And then tell you that your syntax is wrong, even when it's right!

Plus, I find it difficult to go back to white screen editors now. It's an odd one.

what version of VS are you using ? How much memory in your machine?

Generally VS is very very good a lot better the other tools on the market.

jmcc

smash wrote: »

HTML and CSS aren't compiled languages. You can use notepad++ to write them, personally I use sublime because I find it's a better editor. Haven't touched Dreamweaver in years, and even when I used it I only used the code view so it's not worth the money. Adobe Edge Code is free and might be worth a look though.

I do most of my coding in Linux but that demo of Sublime looks amazing. Dreamweaver looks impressive as a web production tool but when it gets down to coding, even in PHP, its limitations quickly become apparent.

Regards...jmcc

Gordon

I use sublime text and notepad+ on windows. Sublime text for regular stuff as I like the colour scheme, notepad for comparing files, easy find on open/close brackets and doing editing/find-replace on large data files.

Sublime text and text wrangler on mac.

smash

amen wrote: »

what version of VS are you using ? How much memory in your machine?

Generally VS is very very good a lot better the other tools on the market.

8gig memory. Have the latest version but never use it unless I need to open a complete project, which is rare.

The zen coding extension for Sublime was great. I rarely use it now, but if coding a static site it would cut huge chunks off your coding time.

Graham

+1 for Sublime

add Emmet into sublime and you can pump out html terrifyingly fast.

Deliverance XXV

I'm currently using the free version of Komodo Edit for web dev and find it to be pretty good.

There is a nice feature that groups the open documents on a sidebar by various filters - as I have a mixture of HTML/CSS/JS/PHP files and scripts, I group the documents by file type so I find that I can manage open documents with ease. It also has pretty good support for OOPHP.

The Corinthian

smash wrote: »

In fairness, whatever about the quality of the output, MS have had a history of producing pretty good and easy to use IDE's. Or are you going to start singing the praises of Eclipse now?

Personally, for Web I typically use something like PSPad or UltraEdit. Neither are ideal but at the same time I've used other editors such as Bluefish and found them to be more trouble than they're worth (especially when you're more a back-end coder). Sublime looks interesting - worth a try in my never ending and fruitless search for the ideal IDE.