HTML Editor Reviews | Reviews and Discussion of (X)HTML Coding Tools

Review: Araneae 5

Prior to it being suggested in the forums, I had never heard of Araneae. I was even more surprised to see that the fifth version of the the software had just been released (frankly, in these Web 2.0, everything-is-in-beta days, I’m surprised to see version numbers larger than 1.0 anymore). Upon launching the program, I was pleased by the clean interface. Unlike TextMate, however, Araneae’s simple appearance doesn’t belie a flexible, complex, and powerful editor; rather, Araneae is basic inside and out and lacks many (almost all) of the features I’ve come to rely on in an HTML editor.

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Review: PHP Designer 2007 Professional

PHP Designer 2007, just released this week, is the newest iteration of MPSoftware’s PHP Designer series. Long touted as one of the best free PHP editors around, PHP Designer’s new version brings with it a new licensing structure: There is the free Personal version (which can’t be used for commercial work) and the more robust Professional version, which is now priced at €55/$69 USD. While PHP Designer 2007 Professional is primarily aimed at PHP programmers, the editor certainly holds its own in the HTML editor arena. Is it worth the new price? I guess that depends on the type of coding you do.

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Review: Bluefish 1.0

One of the reasons I wanted to set up Linux on my computer again was to take a closer look at Bluefish, the free, GTK-based editor. I’d tried a beta version a year or so ago, more for fun than anything, and I remembered it being a fairly pleasing experience. So, I was excited to try it again, this time for the sake of proper evaluation. The result? I’m still excited. Not because It’s made me want to switch over to Linux, but because of its potential.

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Site Updates

For the sake of consistency (and speed), I’ve come up with a kind of grading rubric for reviewing the editors. I’m currently going back through the list to update the ratings on past reviews. If you refresh your browsers, you’ll notice the rating now shows up more predominantly. As well, I’m no longer just using increments of 0.5, but rather 0.1. The categories on the side should now reflect this.

I have currently gone back an re-evaluated WebBuilder, TopStyle, TSW WebCoder, Dreamweaver, and TextMate. The rating of Dreamweaver changed the most, based on the criteria I’ve used in my rubric, knocking it down to 3.4 from the original 4.0 I had given it.

Of course, rubric or not, the reviews and ratings are still highly subjective, and the criteria I’ve used are things that are important to me and not necessarily anyone else. However, I think people will still find the ratings useful and perhaps a little more accurate than before.

Here is the list of editors left to re-evaluate. I will cross each out as they are completed.

• Quanta Plus 3.5
• Alleycode HTML Editor
• HTML-Kit 1.0
• BBEdit 8
• skEdit 3.6.1
• AceHTML Pro 6

UPDATE: I had to make a slight change to the rubric, and this affected scores for Textmate, skEdit, and TSW WebCoder, bumping them each up slightly.

UPDATE 2: For some reason my .htaccess file disappeared, so the site was sending a lot of 404 errors. Thank you to John (aka m13b) for letting me know.

UPDATE 3: Friggin’ IE! Didn’t realize the new ratings weren’t showing up in IE6. Discovered this bug for the first time. Should be fixed now. Please refresh if you use IE (or get a better browser).

Review: TSW WebCoder 2005

At first glance, I thought TSW WebCoder 2005 might replace WeBuilder 2006 as my editor of choice. It has almost all the features I look for in an editor, plus it’s lightweight and relatively inexpensive. Upon further inspection, however, TSW WebCoder 2005 lacks some polish. Regardless, it’s a solid editor, and I find it surprising that I’ve only just heard of it.

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Celebrity Interview: Eric Meyer

Eric Meyer has been working with the web since late 1993 and is an internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML, CSS, and Web standards. The widely read author of Eric Meyer on CSS and More Eric Meyer on CSS (New Riders), Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide (O’Reilly & Associates), and CSS2.0 Programmer’s Reference (Osborne/McGraw-Hill), he is also the founder of Complex Spiral Consulting, which counts among its clients America On-Line, Apple Computer, Inc., Wells Fargo Bank, and Macromedia.

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