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

Two New CSS Framework Tools

Boks is an Adobe Air application that provides a user interface for working with the Blueprint CSS framework. Boks handles the grid and baseline settings and then exports the CSS and HTML files.

For the 960.gs framework, which is what I’ve been trying out for the last little while, there’s a new jQuery plug-in called 960.gs grid overlay that does as the name implies — it overlays a semi-transparent 960 grid over your layout as you develop your site. According to the developer, there is also a bookmarklet in the works.

E Text Editor Goes Open Source

As of April 3, E Text Editor has gone open source as part of developer Alexander Stigsen’s transformation of his company into an Open Company. The source for E has been released on GitHub.

What does this mean for the future of the editor? The developer explained:

What the release means is that you can never risk ending up with a product that is totally abandoned, that many more eyes will be there to find and remove bugs, that companies and individuals can themselves add features only they need for inhouse use and that the community can help speed up the development of e and hopefully free me up to work on the more innovative features (of which there are many in the planning stages).

This move to open source also means that a Linux version of E will be possible once a Linux version of the ecore library is released. To give back to the community, Stigsen has said that the Linux version of E will be free.

For more information, check out the developer posts about releasing the source and becoming an Open Company.

Foxmarks Now Supports IE and Safari

Foxmarks, the bookmark and password synchronizer for Firefox, now also supports Internet Explorer 6 & 7 and Safari 3, letting you share bookmarks across multiple OSes and browsers. Last March, I wrote about using BookIt and Foxmarks to accomplish the same thing, but BookIt doesn’t support Firefox 3. Now, you can simply install Foxmarks. You can download Foxmarks from the Foxmarks website.

Tools of the Trade: Balsamic Mockups

Thanks to @masuga on Twitter yesterday, I discovered a product called Balsamic Mockups — an Adobe Air application for quickly and easily creating low fidelity user interface (UI) mockups and wireframes. Here’s a very quick sample of the top portion of my business website:

The interface and the drag-and-drop elements are all meant to have a handwritten/handdrawn esthetic, as if you were using pencil and paper to create the concept. This is so clients don’t confuse the wireframe with an actual design. Yet, despite the rudimentary look of the drawings, the mockups can be surprisingly detailed. For example, you can add scroll bars to windows, highlight table rows and tabs, add different icons, etc. Check out the sample mockups and the intro video to get an idea of what can be done.

Overall, Balsamic Mockups is very intuitive and easy to use. The elements are all drag-and-drop and most everything can be resized and repositioned as required. There is a version of the software for the desktop ($79 USD) as well as collaborative versions for Confluence, JIRA, and XWiki. Since the program is built on Adobe Air, it works on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Komodo IDE 5.0 Released

ActiveState has just released Komodo IDE 5.0 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The new version now has support for Git, Mercurial (hg), and Bazaar distributed version control systems, compatibility with external code formatters such as PHP Beautifier, and is built on the Mozilla 1.9 codebase.

Komodo IDE 5.0 is $245 USD until December 23, after which time it will be $295. There is a 21-day trial if you want to check it out before shelling out.

See our review of Komodo IDE 4.0.

Software Updates: Aptana and TopStyle

Well, two editors have just been updated. Most recently, Aptana is now out of beta. Aptana Studio 1.0 comes in two flavours: Professional and Community. Professional’s intro price is $99 USD; Community is free. I downloaded the Community version for Mac last night but haven’t checked it out yet. Aptana Studio is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Also, TopStyle 3.5 has been released. 3.5 is a free upgrade for those who already own TopStyle 3. TopStyle is Windows only.

Tools of the Trade: Synergy

Of all the tools I use, Synergy is arguably the most unsung but valuable of the bunch. It sits in the background on both my PC laptop and Mac Mini and allows me to share one keyboard and mouse between them. “So what?” some might say. “A KVM switch can do the same thing.”

Continue reading Tools of the Trade: Synergy »

Review: Komodo IDE 4.0

(Please note: this review is based on the Windows version of Komodo IDE 4.0.)

Ok, before I say anything else, I’ll say this: Go get Komodo IDE 4.0 and test it out. This is a great editor, packed with excellent features. If you code for the web, it’s got most if not all of the tools you need to not only build your sites and applications, but test and debug them as well.

Continue reading Review: Komodo IDE 4.0 »

Review: Nvu

I’ve had quite a few requests to review Nvu, the free, Mozilla Composer-based WYSIWYG HTML editor from Linspire. And I’ve actually had Nvu on my computer for a long time in order to review it, but have never gotten around to it. In fact, I’ve been avoiding this review. Why? Because I’m not a fan of Nvu. A lot of people seem to really like it and often recommend it in different forums, but I have trouble seeing why. Sure, it’s free, but so is a lot of software I find infinitely more useful. In the end, though, I guess it comes down to what you need out of an HTML editor — and for me, Nvu doesn’t have it.

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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.

Continue reading Review: Bluefish 1.0 »