So long?
So, a lot has happened recently, none of it on this site. Got swamped with work, got married, went to the UK for a month, got back, got swamped…
But it’s not just being busy that’s kept me from posting; it’s being satisfied. Since switching to the Mac last November, I’ve been happily using TextMate, Coda, and (more recently) ExpanDrive to get my work done, and I haven’t felt a need at all to look at other editors. This site was born out of my search for the best HTML editor, and I feel that, for me, TextMate is the one, with Coda and it’s site management features pulling up the rear.
So, what does this mean for the site? Is it dead? Well, I guess that’s up to you. I’d like to hear some ideas as to where I could take this site. Ultimately, I’d like to make it more interactive, more of a community, with users contributing their own analytical reviews, tutorials, etc. I’m open to ideas, and I’d like to keep the site going. What do you think?
Software Updates: TopStyle, Transmit, CSS Sculptor
On Aug. 23, TopStyle 3.5 Beta was released. 3.5 will be a free upgrade to owners of the current version of TopStyle and includes these new features:
- Box Spy – exposes an HTML tag’s margins, padding and content box as you mouse over it in the preview
- Ability to apply the current style sheet to an external URL
- Replace in files (“Extended Replace”)
- Style definitions for Firefox 2, IE7, Safari 2 and Opera 9
- Support for PNG images in the thumbnail viewer
Yesterday, Panic’s FTP client Transmit 3.6 was released. New features include Amazon S3 support and the ability to copy and preview remote web URLs. 3.6 is a free upgrade for owners of version 3.
Finally, there’s a new Dreamweaver add-on called CSS Sculptor from Eric Meyer that’s just recently been released. It’s got a good name behind it and hopefully it’ll help those new to CSS get into web standards and table-less design.
innotek VirtualBox and Gardening
The first: a “powerful x86 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use.” The second: the reason this site has the swampy smell of stagnant water.
Continue reading innotek VirtualBox and Gardening »
Two posts in a month? WTF!?
Sometimes, in freelance, “when it rains, it pours.” Last few weeks, I’ve been hammered with work (yay!), but I’m coming up for air in order to breathe a little bit of life back into this site (so many mixed metaphors, so little time…).
Anyway, a little while back, I added del.icio.us links to the sidebar. I’ll try to keep them HTML/CSS/freelance related so that they’re useful to readers here. And, I wanted to point out a few of the ones that you might have missed but are worth checking out:
Freelance Switch: An awesome site, with great, relevant articles for web/graphic freelancers. In its own words: “a Community & Resource for freelancers of all varieties – designers, writers, programmers, illustrators, photographers …”
Linux Font Equivalents to Popular Web Typefaces: An excellent article on Linux fonts. I don’t think about Linux much when building sites, but I should. This is a good place to start.
SWFObject: I’ve been working with a designer who likes to create Flash headers, and this is his method of inserting them while leaving the layer of HTML below accessible to the search engines.
BlogMate: Blogging in TextMate. Brilliant! In its own words: “BlogMate is a free, graphical plug-in (+ a bundle too) for the popular TextMate editor that enables creating and editing blog posts for MetaWeblog-enabled blogs, Twitter, and Jaiku accounts from a floating palette within TextMate.”
(Aside: Is the Mac app world more lively and innovative than the Windows world right now, or are Mac apps just getting more press?)
Slightly less flashy than BlogMate, I’ve been using a combination of e Text Editor and the It’s All Text add-on for Firefox to create blog posts . It works, when I remember to use it.
*tap* *tap* Is this thing on?
Ok, another one of those “fell-off-the-planet” months. No reviews, no telephone calls, not even a single, heart-rending, electronic billet-doux. But I’ve thought of you often, I promise.
Anyway, big news (?) today in the HTML editor world (at least for Mac users): Panic released Coda today, described as “one-window web development.” Looks snazzy. I’m hoping to get my grubby little hands on a review copy as soon as possible.
Also today: CSSEdit 2.5 was released, featuring brand new X-ray Inspector, new selector builder, document tabs, and more.
Do you think Adobe will send me a copy of the new Dreamweaver for review? Anyone interested in me reviewing it?
In Windows news, e Text Editor has become my go to editor recently, especially with all the work I’ve been doing in ExpressionEngine. It seems a new version is released every week with some minor/major improvements — most recently, support for auto-pairing of characters like quotes and brackets. Definitely worth a look if you’re on Windows and have TextMate envy.
Watch for Falling Rocks
I’m going to be playing around with some different themes for the site, so there is going to be some inevitable weirdness. Namely, ratings and stuff will disappear, as well as the forum posts in the sidebar. Sorry for any inconvenience…
UPDATE: I’ve decided to go with the “Internet Jobs” WordPress theme. I’m still tweaking, but the basic layout is what I want. Like it? Hate it? Let me know (with reasons).
Trust
Whew, long time no post. Blame it on being busy and a short-term fixation on accounting. Time to correct that…
For consistency, I base the reviews found on the site on a kind of grading rubric that gives or docks points for features or the lack thereof. While the rubric provides an excellent guideline, it often seems to fall a little short when judging certain software, and until now I haven’t been able to put my finger on why. The simple reason is because the rubric doesn’t measure or account for trust. Trust is the one feature that can really make or break an editor: If you can’t rely on your editor to help get your work done the way you expect it to, then that editor should be put back on the shelf.
As an example: WeBuilder 2006 has held the top spot on this site since the reviews began. I love the feature set, its similarity to TopStyle, and its great price. However, in recent versions, little quirks and bugs have crept into the software, at times making it unusable when I’m in a rush to get things done. In other words, WeBuilder is losing my trust.
Another more positive example: BBEdit. When I need to search multiple files (maybe hundreds or thousands) for a specific term and I need the results quickly, BBEdit is the software I go to. I have yet to find a search function more reliable in any editor on any system. I trust BBEdit’s search implicitly; I never second guess its results.
So, what does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Only that I’ve figured out that intangible quality I inevitably seek in every editor I evaluate. And that my search for that perfect editor is certainly not over.
Thoughts? I’d love to hear them. As well as more editor suggestions.
The ever ubiquitous apology for not posting…
Sorry for the lack of reviews in the last while to anyone who’s still checking the site for updates. Being autumn, work has picked up considerably and I’m also taking some accounting courses, so I’ve had very little time to evaluate HTML editors. Here are a few things I hope will tide you over:
- Apple is winning me over. I just have a first-gen PPC Mini, but I’ve been using it more and more for webdev. I heart Textmate — just a brilliant all-purpose editor. With Parallels and the new Intel machines, the Mac seems like the perfect webdev machine. I want a MacBook so bad it hurts.
- WeBuilder and TopStyle should get married and reproduce. Their offspring would be the perfect editor for Windows. As it is now, I find myself switching back and forth between the two, which is annoying and counter-productive.
- CSSEdit 2.0 for the Mac was just released. It’s a nice update, my favourite new feature being the new milestone manager. One oversight, however, is that the editor will only open files with a .css extension, which sucks if your CSS file happens to have a .php extension (to work with a CMS, for example).
- Not editor related: MacHeist is now on. I have 6 invites, so if you want one, leave a comment. It’s a fun way to get some free software.
- I’m working on a redesign of this site, which I’m hoping to have up by the end of the year, time permitting.
- Expect these new reviews in the somewhat near future: RapidWeaver (Mac), HyperEdit (Mac), Homesite (Win), and Weaverslave (Win).
Thanks for checking back.
Eric
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 8skEdit 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).