Good Free IDEs for Web Design

Lusankya

First of all, let me make it quite clear that I don't mean WYSIWYG editors or anything of the sort. Specifically, I'm looking for an IDE that works well with XHTML, PHP and JavaScript. Tag/command coloring is a must, and an integrated debugger would be nice (but not necessary, as I'm already used to hunting bugs down the hard way). As well, if there's anything open source out there that comes close to the functionality of Microsoft's IntelliSense, I'd love to know about it.

Google yields a fair list of IDEs, but I don't really want to have to install them all and try them out. Any recommendations?

EDIT: On the IntelliSense note, I do have a copy of VS 2008, so an add-in that let it work well with PHP and JavaScript would do as well. I just won't touch ASP.NET, because I don't have the money for a Windows Server license on my project's new home.

Apreche

Vim in one Window, Firefox with Firebug and other important extensions in the other Windows. Done and done.

Lusankya

Vim in one Window, Firefox with Firebug and other important extensions in the other Windows. Done and done.

I'm currently using vi through Putty and Firefox, but I want something beyond the functionality of a standard text editor. I want something more suited for RAD, as I'm not only working with a deadline, but lazy to boot.

Apreche

I'm currently using vi through Putty and Firefox, but I want something beyond the functionality of a standard text editor. I want something more suited for RAD, as I'm not only working with a deadline, but lazy to boot.

What functionality could you possibly want that VIM doesn't have? VIM does everything! Are you sure you aren't using notepad?

Lusankya

It doesn't color my tags, have an imbedded debugger, have an intuitive way of managing multiple code snippets, auto-complete commands or have a fluffy wuffy GUI. Sure, working in the console makes you look hardcore, but the skilled programmer is the one who gets the job done right the fastest. VS 2008's debugger has me spoiled.

Apreche

Vim has syntax highlighting. If you're talking about some other kind of tag, I don't know what to tell you.

In all honesty, I've personally never actually found a need for a debugger except with Firebug/JavaScript. Using echo/print statements and some terminals have always been more than sufficient for my purposes. Though, I imagine I would use gdb if I was writing some low level code. Though there are vim debuggers.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by managing multiple code snippets, but vim has tabs. You can also use GNU screen on top of multiple vim instances, if you like screen better than vim's tabs.

Is this The kind of auto-complete you are looking for?

Vim does have a fluffy wuffy gui. It's called gvim. Try using it instead of running vim on the command line through PuTTY.

Remember, Vim and shit-emacs are basically operating systems. If there's something you think they can't do, it's probably because you don't know how. It might take some time to figure it out and learn it, but once you do, it's typically way better.

I forget who said this, but a very important idea in computing is the difference between easy to learn and easy to use. Let's pretend I have a line of text. I want to copy it once and paste it ten times in a row. In windows I highlight it with the mouse, press ctrl+c, then press ctrl+v 10 times. I can also use the mouse and the copy and paste buttons. This is very easy to learn, it's obvious. It's very hard to use, so many presses! In vim I can press yyp10p. yy copies the current line of text, p10p pastes it ten times. That's not easy for most people to learn. It's completely non-obvious. But once you learn it, it is way way easier than pressing ctrl+v ten times.

The moral of the story is that it is worth your time to learn vim if you write a lot of code. In the long run it will save you a ton of time and awesomeness.

Lusankya

I've been using vi for years, but not vim. I'm quite comfortable with vi's handier functions like /, [1,2]s//[/g], d[1]d... Well, that's really the extent of what I use on a routine basis. I'll have to give vim a look when I get home. Tabs would drastically improve my workflow (and sanity), and that auto-completion feature is exactly what I'm looking for. To be honest, I was under the (ignorant) assumption that vim was just vi in a different console.

YoshoKatana

I've slowly been learning vim, but I'm not sure how to get syntax highlighting to work. It works automatically in gvim, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Alan

For free I'm still a fan of the good old Textpad and Firebug.

Norvu

ConTEXT is good enough for me, although I'm no programmer/web developer.

Apreche

I've been using vi for years, but not vim. I'm quite comfortable with vi's handier functions like /, [1,2]s//[/g], d[1]d... Well, that's really the extent of what I use on a routine basis. I'll have to give vim a look when I get home. Tabs would drastically improve my workflow (and sanity), and that auto-completion feature is exactly what I'm looking for. To be honest, I was under the (ignorant) assumption that vim was just vi in a different console.

You're not using vim? Are you serious? vim has been the standard editor for years and years. vi is something people only use in an emergency on an old UNIX machine that doesn't have vim. You've been having trouble because you've been using tools from the stone age!

Lusankya

vi is something people only use in an emergency on an old UNIX machine that doesn't have vim.

My first job as a level I admin was maintaining those old monoliths. I was raised in the stone age, and now it's time to learn some new tricks ^_^

Apreche

My first job as a level I admin was maintaining those old monoliths. I was raised in the stone age, and now it's time to learn some new tricks ^_^

Well, vim is an old trick. It was released in 1991. It's just such a good trick, that nothing else has come to beat it.