Do you use a WYSIWYG editor!

[leatherback]

Hi,

Out of curiousity, Who are using WYSIWYG editors.. If so.. Which ones?

I personally do not use them. i use a java editor, JEXT (http://www.jext.org) I also have Coffeecup, but use that mainly for picking colors, and making big complicated forms..

J.

[LordShryku]

Not me....
I use vi on linux and notepad on Windows

[planetsim]

EditPlus although i only call it an editor.

[Moonglobe]

PSPad (www.pspad.com) for me :) i can't stand WYSIWYG progs...

[drawmack]

I use front page to make large static tables, it's much easier and faster but other then that it's hand coding and will be until someone makes an xhtml compliant visual editor that does stylesheets correctly and is cross platform friendly.

[jasonmills58]

Unfortunately, I'm kind of stuck, and Dreamweaver IS my best friend right now. This is mainly because I came to web design from a database background, so needing to learn PHP was enough, I decided to let DW do the HTML grunt work for me. But as it turns out, all i really like are the automated ftp functions in it. Most of the other stuff just gets in the way. Can anybody recommend a PHP editor that manages ftp updating fluidly?

cheers!
Jason

[edited after noticing the bar graph] eek! sorry for throwing off the demographic... :rolleyes:

[piersk]

DW definately. Although I have tinkered with Zend studio, too.

[njm]

Another vote for DW (MX). Why? source code formatting
autocomplete/tooltips for function parameters & superglobals
Site map and FTP integration
although for raw HTML I tend to code by hand rather than use the DW tools.

njm

[bubblenut]

vi

[piersk]

Originally posted by njm
although for raw HTML I tend to code by hand rather than use the DW tools.

I completely agree. It's also nice to have a tool that does both ASP and PHP (both of which I use at work)

[njm]

Originally posted by piersk
I completely agree. It's also nice to have a tool that does both ASP and PHP (both of which I use at work) Perhaps if I bothered to actually learn all the DW HTML tools, I might use them more :) It's probably my (bad) coding sytle, but I tend to mix up PHP and HTML a lot in most of my pages, rather than keep them separate, so hand-coding's easier.

njm

[Elizabeth]

Dreamweaver MX 2004/Edit Plus for moi.

[goldbug]

UltraEdit/Quanta/JEdit for me (depends on platform/OS, obviously)

WYS is rarely WYG.

[bad76]

DW and Textpad, please...

DW is not so bad, but I've to tell I look the code each time I insert a visual object... And my rigth-shift is going down by inserting <br> instead of poor <p>.

However just to modify the "look" of the page it's enough "WYG".

...I'm forgivening the table view constantly on "standard view"...

[Elizabeth]

Originally posted by goldbug
WYS is rarely WYG. Heh, kind of like most things in life :)

[jasonmills58]

well this is nice, now I don't feel like THAT much of a poser for using DW... :D

[piersk]

No one can say that you are a bad developer (or a poser) just cos you use a WYSIWYG editor.

[LordShryku]

<blatant attempt to prove piersk wrong>
you are a bad developer (or a poser) just cos you use a WYSIWYG editor.
</blatant attempt to prove piersk wrong>
hehehehehe :D

[stolzyboy]

I use a color coded HTML editor, but it is all done by hand, NO WYSIWYG for me...

Oh, I use HomeSite btw...

[AstroTeg]

Edit+ over here and Pico in emergencies ("VI should stand for Virtually Impossible", my dad would say - I haven't had any huge urge to learn it).

Edit+ has some tools for the novice coder and some flexibility for the advanced coder (and because of both, I've really liked using it). So far I've converted 3 web dev shops over to Edit+ (first one was on Frontpage, 2nd one was using the IDE for Visual C++ to code HTML and ASP, and the third was using VI and Notepad).

So far I've done Java, Assembler, C/C++, PHP, Perl, and ASP from within Edit+. Even had Edit+ compiling Java, assembling Assembler, and bouncing SQL queries against MS SQL and having the results pop back in Edit+).

Of course, it all boils down to using the right tool for the right job. I've played with DW before (version 3) and it completely and totally turned me off to WYSIWYG editors. But if you're able to produce with the tool, then by all means, keep using it!

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by goldbug
UltraEdit/Quanta/JEdit for me (depends on platform/OS, obviously)

WYS is rarely WYG.

WYSISLWYGIYAL

[stolzyboy]

WYSISLWYGIYAL

what you see ??? what you get if you are lazy

am i close?

[piersk]

what you see is sometimes like what you get if you are lazy

[stolzyboy]

Originally posted by piersk
what you see is what you get if you are lazy

there's a lone L in there

[leatherback]

Should not be doing this, but eh..

have a look at what frontpage can do for you (http://www.dow.wau.nl/natcons/NP/Start.htm)

I was asked for feedback by the builder.. he replied he could start over if he wanted to implement my suggestions..

J.

[piersk]

Another (http://www.seasense.org.uk) good reason why not to use FP. Thank god we don't use that anymore...

[stolzyboy]

boy, those are some good looking sites!!

[pyro]

I use Dreamweaver MX 2k4, though not the WYSIWYG aspect of it... Probably overkill for some simple syntax highlighting and intelliText, but I like it.

[Merve]

FrontPage is a stupid piece of crap that messes up my code and puts dirty HTML all over the place.

I do not use wysiwyg. I use Crimson Editor, sometimes Notepad (I'm on windows). Crimson Editor has highlighting and bracket underlining and that's all I need.

[goldbug]

Originally posted by Merve
Crimson Editor has highlighting and bracket underlining and that's all I need.

Just wondering, am I the only one that is addicted to block/column-mode editing? :)

Imho, that's what makes or breaks a good editor for me. :)

[piersk]

Originally posted by goldbug
block/column-mode editing? :)


:confused: What do you mean by this?

[bubblenut]

All characters are the same width so when you have indenting it's easy to see where all your conditions and loops begin and end; I think?

[jasonmills58]

oh yeah,
if ( i didn't have a monospace font for coding, ) {
I would not be happy.
I'm kind of neurotic about {
having everything lined up
and indented just right.
}
}

But I would bet that most coders are this way too... Isn't it just easier that way?

[Elizabeth]

Personally, I prefer the Broken Source Method (http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10234388&highlight=broken+source) but that's just me :)

And I definitely agree with goldbug- block editing rules. Great for debugging as you can easily comment out a whole block of code with one click.

[Merve]

Crimson Editor uses monospace text, but it's not in the teletype style, it's a different font.

[mogster]

No.

Used to, though. Then it was Dreamweaver, a very good prog for all other purposes than resizing tables ;)

My first page were coded (?) in Netscape composer, consisting of two pictures of 3 megs each.
Or 4 megs, I don't remember.

Now it's all Homesite on win and vi on Linux (mostly for config-files).

knutm :-)

[goldbug]

Re: block editing:

Originally posted by piersk
:confused: What do you mean by this?

Block editing, in essence, is being able to select a rectangular block of text as opposed to just characters/lines in the traditional linear fashion.

For example, take this code:

$foo[0] = 'bar';
$foo[1] = 'bar';
$foo[2] = 'bar';
$foo[3] = 'bar';
$foo[4] = 'bar';

Using block editing, you could select the 'foo' in all five lines, and delete/edit those without changing the surrounding areas.

Many good editors support this already, like UltraEdit, Jedit, etc...

The big problem I personally have with many implementations, is the lack of the ability to select a block/vertical line of 0-width, then start typing (say, to add comments '//' before a small chunk of text). Some allow this, some don't.

Make sense? :D

[bubblenut]

WOW!! That sounds cool, can you do it vi or vim?

[goldbug]

Originally posted by bubblenut
WOW!! That sounds cool, can you do it vi or vim?

Dunno, I only really touch vi/vim/emacs/ee/nano when I'm editing config files and such, never had the need to find out in those editors.

IIRC, emacs can, dunno bout vi/vim

EDIT: vim possibility? http://www.gnuenterprise.org/doc/vim/html/visual.html

[jstarkey]

Zend Studio for sites supporting FTP and vi for the others. I use Dreamweaver on my Windows box, but I'm not a big Windows fan, so I'm far from a DW guru.

[piersk]

Originally posted by jstarkey
so I'm far from a DW guru.

:rolleyes: Amateur!

[jstarkey]

Originally posted by piersk
:rolleyes: Amateur!

lol. Maybe, one day, when I have enough spare time to play dodge with viruses, spybots, malware, etc, etc, then I'll become a pro, just like you ;)

[piersk]

Originally posted by jstarkey
lol. Maybe, one day, when I have enough spare time to play dodge with viruses, spybots, malware, etc, etc, then I'll become a pro, just like you ;)

Excuses excuses ;) I know you're just trying to avoid reading your PM's right?

hint hint

[jstarkey]

Originally posted by piersk
Excuses excuses ;) I know you're just trying to avoid reading your PM's right?

hint hint

Nah, I see it. I'm actually working on another site at the moment, on someone else's dime. I'll be on PHPB in a few hours and will reply.

[piersk]

Originally posted by jstarkey
Nah, I see it. I'm actually working on another site at the moment, on someone else's dime. I'll be on PHPB in a few hours and will reply.

Spose I'll have to let you off then...

[jstarkey]

Originally posted by piersk
Spose I'll have to let you off then...

No way pal, you're not letting me off that easily. I'M FIRED!!

:D

[jstarkey]

Waiting on a phone call from said client posessing said dime. I just replied.

:)

[piersk]

It it possible to fire oneself?

[jstarkey]

Originally posted by piersk
It it possible to fire oneself?

I can do anything -- I have root.

:D

[piersk]

Just because that gives you almost omnipitant power over a server, theres no need to boast ;)

[pyro]

Originally posted by jstarkey
I can do anything -- I have root.I sense that you are wearing this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/frustrations/58f5/ :p

[SKiTZo]

two months ago, I was all about FrontPage, but then as I went along I realized that I didn't need it, then eventually as I started learning PHP and how to do stylesheets, I completely stopped using it. I use winsyntax to highlight my code for me to make it easier, and topstyle lite to do my CSS files, but those are hardly WYSIWYG editors.

[mogster]

I started out with DW, but now I'm using Homesite only.

For design I use Photoshop, then cut the design.psd and adapt it to html in HS.

Works fine :)

But if it wasn't for DW and graph. editors I never would have started with HTML - it seemed much too complicated and boring using code only.

knutm :-)

[csousley]

BBEdit for OS X (texteditor)

[Barb54]

I'm a real newby and started out with the HTML WYSIWYG in MSN Groups LOL. It pushed me in the direction of searching out a tool that I could use on my puter. I tried Stones WebWriter but it was just syntax highlighting and I still use it for PHP coding and debugging. I tried Netscape's built in one but it did wacky things to my tables, lol.

So I went on a search and found PHP and MySQL programs was the direction I needed to head in. I found Open Office.org which is an open source program found on SourceForge. I really like it because you can connect to your MySQL database in your dev environment. You can also use the FTP option for your online files. It is very similar to MS Office, which is what I learned on, with many of the same features and capabilities. It's free and I have NO problem using it when it will do the "grunt" work for me, lol.

I'm too old to be learning all these languages at once lol. It's burning me OUT FAST, lol.

Barb

[coditoergosum]

Edit Plus! Oh yeah baby. It has every feature I can think I'd ever want in a text editor... if they only made a fully integrated PHP IDE with all of the cool stuff Edit Plus has, with debugging built into it, I'd be in heaven.

[piersk]

Bask in my glory, for I use VIM

[Weedpacket]

From: elided@athena.mit.edu (Patrick J. LoPresti)
Message-ID: <1991Jul11.031731.9260@aa.mit.edu>
Sender: news@aa.mit.edu (News system)
Subject: The True Path (long)
Date: 11 Jul 91 03:17:31 GMT
Path: ai-lab!mintaka!oliv &hellip; cayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!patl
Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs,alt.slack
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 95
Xref: ai-lab alt.religion.emacs:244 alt.slack:1935

When I log into my Xenix system with my 110 baud teletype, both vi
*and* Emacs are just too damn slow. They print useless messages like,
'C-h for help' and '"foo" File is read only'. So I use the editor
that doesn't waste my VALUABLE time.

Ed, man! !man ed

ED(1) UNIX Programmer's Manual ED(1)

NAME
ed - text editor

SYNOPSIS
ed [ - ] [ -x ] [ name ]
DESCRIPTION
Ed is the standard text editor.
---

Computer Scientists love ed, not just because it comes first
alphabetically, but because it's the standard. Everyone else loves ed
because it's ED!

"Ed is the standard text editor."

And ed doesn't waste space on my Timex Sinclair. Just look:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 24 Oct 29 1929 /bin/ed
-rwxr-xr-t 4 root 1310720 Jan 1 1970 /usr/ucb/vi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root 5.89824e37 Oct 22 1990 /usr/bin/emacs

Of course, on the system *I* administrate, vi is symlinked to ed.
Emacs has been replaced by a shell script which 1) Generates a syslog
message at level LOG_EMERG; 2) reduces the user's disk quota by 100K;
and 3) RUNS ED!!!!!!

"Ed is the standard text editor."

Let's look at a typical novice's session with the mighty ed:

golem> ed

?
help
?
?
?
quit
?
exit
?
bye
?
hello?
?
eat flaming death
?
^C
?
^C
?
^D
?

---
Note the consistent user interface and error reportage. Ed is
generous enough to flag errors, yet prudent enough not to overwhelm
the novice with verbosity.

"Ed is the standard text editor."

Ed, the greatest WYGIWYG editor of all.

ED IS THE TRUE PATH TO NIRVANA! ED HAS BEEN THE CHOICE OF EDUCATED
AND IGNORANT ALIKE FOR CENTURIES! ED WILL NOT CORRUPT YOUR PRECIOUS
BODILY FLUIDS!! ED IS THE STANDARD TEXT EDITOR! ED MAKES THE SUN
SHINE AND THE BIRDS SING AND THE GRASS GREEN!!

When I use an editor, I don't want eight extra KILOBYTES of worthless
help screens and cursor positioning code! I just want an EDitor!!
Not a "viitor". Not a "emacsitor". Those aren't even WORDS!!!! ED!
ED! ED IS THE STANDARD!!!

TEXT EDITOR.

When IBM, in its ever-present omnipotence, needed to base their
"edlin" on a UNIX standard, did they mimic vi? No. Emacs? Surely
you jest. They chose the most karmic editor of all. The standard.

Ed is for those who can *remember* what they are working on. If you
are an idiot, you should use Emacs. If you are an Emacs, you should
not be vi. If you use ED, you are on THE PATH TO REDEMPTION. THE
SO-CALLED "VISUAL" EDITORS HAVE BEEN PLACED HERE BY ED TO TEMPT THE
FAITHLESS. DO NOT GIVE IN!!! THE MIGHTY ED HAS SPOKEN!!!

?

[bubblenut]

Weed : ROLF :D
Piersk : I've been using VIM for about 6-7 months now and I've only just started making my own .vimrc, but it's soo handy.

map <F10> : %s/\t/ g<CR> #convert all tabs to four spaces with F10
map <C-a> <C-w>w #Flick between splits on a screen with Control a rather than Control ww

Anyone else got any handy recipies?
Anyone know why these two don't seem to work?

#To increase the size of a split with keypad plus
map <kPlus> <C-w>+
#For this I've also tried
nmap <kPlus> <C-w>+
map <kPlus> <C-w><S-=>
#To decrease the size of a split with keypad minus
map <kMinus> <C-w>-

Cheers
Bubble

[adavis]

If I have a complicated page to layout, I use FrontPage to get it laied out the way I want, then go to either HomeSite, PHPEdit, or NoteTab Pro for the rest.

I have always wanted to try Dreamweaver, but don't have time to get over the learning curve and I already know FrontPage.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I used NetObjects Fusion. It adds tons of unnessary code and I thought they folded or something. Maybe someone bought them out though.

[Barb54]

OMG I remember ED lmbo. Is he still alive?? He's an OLD fart, lol. I am DYING over here after reading your post. I DARE anyone to say anything about the use of a WYSIWYG if they have never "had" to use ED !!!!! OMG, lol.

You really should not expose your age that way, LOL. But then, neither should I. HAHAHAHA! I'm crackin up!

Barb

[Moonglobe]

ok...



who voted for frontpage :p

[piersk]

Originally posted by adavis
If I have a complicated page to layout, I use FrontPage to get it laied out the way I want, then go to either HomeSite, PHPEdit, or NoteTab Pro for the rest.

[planetsim]

Originally posted by Moonglobe
ok...



who voted for frontpage :p

I did :( but someone else has too..

[Moonglobe]

i think you meant to post this in New Projects??

[drag0n]

yea, oiops i thought thats what it was, my bad

[Shrike]

Originally posted by planetsim
I did :( but someone else has too..
My company insists on us using Frontpage to make webpages because:
a: They then don't have to pay for Dreamweaver
b: The server admins don't have to install the Macromedia server extensions
c: Frontpage is the bestest besty thing in the history of best things.

I was quite stunned that Microsoft managed to make Frontpage 2002 even worse than 2000.

What's even worse is that I use it at home too....*sob*

p.s. I just voted for Frontpage *snicker*

[sneakyimp]

it doesn't have ftp, but NOTEPAD2 (http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html) rocks. colorizes code for easy readibility, is highly customizable, and has wildcard search. i dig it. it also happens to be FREEWARE!

i do wish it had multi-file search capability...i don't think it does that.

[pohopo]

i have yet to see an organization standardize on frontpage. usually, just having it on your resume as a skill results in the resume visiting the trash can.

since php creates dynamic web pages i do not see how someone could really use any WYSIWYG editor. what you want is an editor that can debug and provide help with PHP functions.

[bubblenut]

Originally posted by pohopo
what you want is an editor that can debug and provide help with PHP functions.

Like PHPBuilderEd :D

[sneakyimp]

got a link, bubblenut?

[bubblenut]

Yup (www.phpbuilder.com) :p

[shaneH]

Evrsoft 1st Page 2000.

I think it has a WYSIWYG side but I have never used it, so I don't know for sure.

I find it helps with readablility by using colored code tags and it helps with error correction by having the lines numbered. Plus for those tags that you use only once in a great while and don't recall exactly how that tag is coded you can just select to insert the tag and it will bring up a screen that will let you change the particulars. It also has some nice shortcut keys, if you wanted to add something like bolding you just select the text you wish to bold and hit CTRL + B and it adds the bold tag and if you wish to move a line of code you just highlight it and drag it to were you want it.

And the best thing is it's FREE!!!

I have tryed using Dream Weaver, Front Page, and a few others but they are all absolute junk. Once they expire (when a new version of PHP, HTML, ASP, or whatever code is released) you have to wait for a new version to be released and then pay multiple hundreds of dollars to get it and untill you get the new release the old software will insist that your code is wrong or in some cases it is helpful enough to change it for you. :mad:

Also a very good progam that I use when using a Linux computer is Quanta.

[Weedpacket]

I think the thread is drifting towards this one (http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10209798). "Do you use a WYSIWYG editor"? "Yes" "No" "There's an editor I don't know if it's WYSIWYG or not".

[Megahertza]

i use dreamweaver mainly because I can switch between the code and the WYSIWYG part easilly so I can do all my coding and the then swicth over over for huge forms or colour picking. I think more pll should use Dreamweaver more becuase you can code away and not even touch the WYSIWYG part. Just because it has a WYSIWYG doesn't mean that your anyless of a coder. If you don't use the WYSIWYG then it doesn't have WYSIWYG does it

[Weedpacket]

Originally posted by Megahertza
I think more pll should use Dreamweaver more becuase you can code away and not even touch the WYSIWYG part. Wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to not buy Dreamweaver in the first place and not touch the WYSIWYG part for free? Some mistake, surely?

For my part, I've yet to see a WYSIWYG editor that does a decent job of handling a layout's semantics - and all too many that make a dog's breakfast of the syntax while they're at it.

[planetsim]

Ah Dreamweaver, I cant believe people still use WYSIWYG Editors like weedpacket said none control the semantics of layout. Text Editors with Syntax Highlighting are the best things for development however I wont go into Editors theres already a huge topic on it.

[sysera]

I use VI. If I'm in Windows I use WinVI or SSH into a box that has it installed. :)
-Sys

[planetsim]

I only use VI when SSH'ing or if i need like 1 thing changed other than that I cannot stand VI. Anyway this should be in the Editors Thread.

[GilesGuthrie]

I use Dreamweaver. I'm in the middle of coding by hand and using the WYSIWYG functions. Basically, I design the page graphically, then add all the active code, then tidy the whole thing up by hand. It's laborious, but it works for me.

[vaaaska]

I can't even remember if I've actually ever responded to this thread, but if I had I'm sure I would have said that I was just using a text editor.

However, recently I switched to TextMate (http://www.macromates.com) and find it to be absolutely the greatest editor. I've even stopped drafting documents in Word...using this instead.

I've barely scraped the surface on what this thing can do, but oh well. It is still a beta but has a very active group of people cranking away on this every day.

Mac only...sorry...

[davidjam]

Looks nifty. Unfortunately I am still using OS 10.2 (it requires 10.3). :(

Someone on these forums said that new php'rs would eventually outgrow embedding php in html and just write completely in php. Well not only did I start doing that but now I am getting irritated with Go Live (which I used to think was the best thing ever). I think the script should handle everything now, including layout!

So what does anyone think of Zend Studio. Worth it? :bemused:

[cretaceous]

I'm a newbie here pretty much

DW for html based sites - but 95% hand coded -
at least I get a rough preview of what I'm doing, though I'm forever hitting F12 to see it in IE
I would probably save a lot of time if I could learn to use DW properly - like is there any point using templates?

then my php based work I do all in PHP Expert Editor which someone recommended - I'd like to find a better text editor - its find and change sucks - though otherwise it colours things up ok (!)

I usually switch to DW for a hefty bit of f&c

and I'd really like a tool with some debugging built in - no idea where to start on that though - just something simple to show me variable values to save echo $this echo $that

mark c

[Jasp182]

I use VI. If I'm in Windows I use WinVI or SSH into a box that has it installed. :)
-Sys
same here...SSH into my server and create/edit in VI

[scrupul0us]

im partial to dreamweaver just b/c it isnt frontpage and b/c of how it handles "sites"... but ultraedit32 is my "mobile" coding environment or if im PuTTY'd into my slax box I use pico

[thepeccavi]

I use Dreamweaver 8 for my HTML coding... then I take that code, copy+paste it into a database and do the rest either in DW code mode (I like the colour-coding!!!) or in notepad (it opens fast)... However, with DW, I find that WYS is nearly always WYG (amazingly)

I definitely like DW 8 :P

[adavis]

Sounds like there are a bunch of Dreamweaver fans. I don't know, maybe I'm to cheap or to poor to spring for the big bucks, but I would really love to have the entire suite. Even on eBay, the commercial version is pretty pricey. My son is a college student and I could get him to buy me the Education Version, but I kind of feel like that's cheating. I probably really qualify to use the Ed version though since in the past 5 years, I have not worked on 1 commercial project from my home computer. They have all been for schools or missions or church.

At work, money is way to tight in my group. Everyone here uses either notepad or NoteTab Pro, except me. I use HomeSite or PHP Designer. That's only because my previous group (had more money) bought me HomeSite 4.5. I would love to upgrade to HomeSite 5 and I guess I could spring for the $25 myself, but it's the principal of the thing.

[JPnyc]

Notepad. I'm a primitive.

[Elizabeth]

Sounds like there are a bunch of Dreamweaver fans. I don't know, maybe I'm to cheap or to poor to spring for the big bucks, but I would really love to have the entire suite. Even on eBay, the commercial version is pretty pricey. My son is a college student and I could get him to buy me the Education Version, but I kind of feel like that's cheating. I probably really qualify to use the Ed version though since in the past 5 years, I have not worked on 1 commercial project from my home computer. They have all been for schools or missions or church.

At work, money is way to tight in my group. Everyone here uses either notepad or NoteTab Pro, except me. I use HomeSite or PHP Designer. That's only because my previous group (had more money) bought me HomeSite 4.5. I would love to upgrade to HomeSite 5 and I guess I could spring for the $25 myself, but it's the principal of the thing.

I use Dreamweaver a lot, partially because it's what I'm used to. I've been using it since Dreamweaver 3 came out way back when, and it just does what I need it to do, for most projects. I'm sure I've saved enough time over the course of my work that it's paid for itself. So yes, it seems price-y but even a few minutes here and there really add up. I don't use many of the features that come with it, so I'm sure if I took the time to mess around with other things, it'd be even better. The things that save me the most time are the auto FTP on save, the find/replace and the shortcuts like inserting images and tables and such.

However, I do use Notepad, TextPad and PhpEd as well - depending on what I'm doing. For simple HTML stuff I'll use DW or Notepad/TextPad. For more complex PHP stuff, I'm starting to use PhpED because of all the nice debugging, reference and advanced search functions built in. I'm finding PhpED is nice for deciphering and sorting out Other People's Code as well, because you can quickly locate files and the origins of classes and functions and such. Very nice, and it has a TON of other time savers too. I just did a review on PhpED and I'll have to admit I was pretty impressed with all the stuff it can do. And again, I've only scratched the surface so I'm sure it will pay for itself.

[bubblenut]

I became an avid fan of Eclipse for a while, and I really love it but came across a problem I haven't been able to solve with any graphical IDE yet. I want my IDE to be version control aware so I can graphically browse and compare different versions of files, merge, branch, tag and generally do everything I can with my version control system. However, I also want to be able to save directly to a remote server so that I can view changes to a file live on the dev site without having to go through the version control system. If I have to commit and then update my test area every time I want to view a change on the test site I get loads of tiny meaningless commits in the version history. I can achieve the save to remote server excellently with any KDE editor (kate for example) using the fish kio slave. I thought I could achieve both with Eclipse a few weeks ago using the sshfs filesytem client (like nfs or Windows SMB/CIFS but over ssh) and mounting a remote path locally then checking out the cvs repository into that path. However, I quickly discovered that Eclipse goes mental with filesystem access when dealing with larger projects and eventually dies. I never traced where the problem was starting but sshfs never crashed so I can only imagine it was in Eclipse somewhere. Kate, I can do the save directly to the server but I can't integrate with version control (as far as I know). I can use the built in console to log in to the server and interact with version control but this isn't really what I'd call integration and certainly doesn't give me a graphical interface or diff capability.

So, I come finally to the humbe VIM. Now, I hope, you can see that I'm not just stuck to the terminal because I think it's somehow cooler to strain my eyes staring at green on black all day, or that I can't be bothered to spend a little time learning a new interface. I would dearly like to use a graphical IDE and have tried hard to do so but I just haven't found a way yet. On the other hand, with VIM I can save directly to a remote file (although I wouldn't ever need to as it's on every *nix server I've ever come accross). With the help of a few plugins I can integrate directly with version control from within the editor (no graphical merging or branching but diffs and commits are the important bits). There's an awesome community around it, an active IRC channel and an excellent site which give you access to literally thousands of syntax files, hints and scripts. Everything from sourcecode browsing (http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=273) (like a graphical IDE) to advanced tag matching (http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=39) (very cool for messy html code) to the slightly less usefull but absolutely necesarry 100% VIM tetris (http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=172).

I'm sorry but, for the moment at least, VIM RULZ!!

[pohopo]

Right now I use Eclipse for everything (not just PHP). I did try the new Zend PHP plugin for Eclipse, but I got too many errors so switched back to PHP Eclipse which does the job fine.