What are the most useful web development tools, tips, etc. that you've found? I hope this topic will prove useful.

I'll start off with this:

The Web Developer extension to firefox is an incredibly useful tool.

http://chrispederick.com/work/webdeveloper/
firefox download link for the Web Developer extension

From the toolbar or Tools menu item, you have immediate access to info on the CSS, DOM, elements, class & id details, javascript, page structure, objects, forms, cookies, color info, etc etc. You can validate the HTML, CSS, links, etc using the w3.org validators.

Incredibly useful, comprehensive set of tools.

The attached image is just one view out of it's many features.

vim edits stuff good.

but if you're a gui person, people tend to rave about bluefish.

James

I was just about to mention the developers plugin for Firefox... and then I read your post

I also use vim on my pages all the time. It's handy to get used to as you can ssh into web servers and make quick changes online (bad says protocol, but good says SoulSe).

Bluefish, as iphitus mentioned, is probably the best editor I found in Linux, although... Quanta (if I remember correctly) was also pretty good. I liked Bluefish more for its CSS support.

Running IE in Wine is also handy for testing pages if you're doing any commercial development.

For noobs, there is Nvu and Screem.

Thanks, all. I have used most of the others mentioned, but was not familiar with bluefish. I found an rpm on Seer of Souls and installed it on Mandriva 2006. Very nice! Thanks for the tip.

Last time i used mandrake, there was an official rpm in contrib.

My last web page I started off in NVU designing the basic layout
I then moved it into bluefish for all the php writing and generally cleaning up (Joomla template)
Being able to cut/paste Joomla standard code for various skeletons from other templates was a lot easier using a GUI... and then I use vim to make any tweaks....

I admit it - I'm a Link Cataloger Freak! For web development topics, here's what I think is the best single-page of resource links I've ever come across:

Web Developer's Handbook of Useful Links

Now that's what I call a useful resource reference page!

EDIT: The above web page was offline for a while yesterday. It's back now. Similar information is available at this other page of his (though I think the original one above is much better):

http://www.alvit.de/web-dev/

gimp (esp. with layers) is priceless for web design. the truth is that for logos and such there are even scripts to make really pro looking logos. if you can get past the difficulty.

i'm a fan of quanta, but i admit i still prefer the emacs because if i know what i'm writing the speed the keyboard commands give me is priceless.

Screem isn't really for "noobs", it's not a WYSIWYG editor like Nvu. It's much more like bluefish, and IMHO is better than bluefish.

btw, I think this thread is better fit for the Art and Design forum. Just my suggestion

Currently, I am using Firebug on my Mozilla Firefox 2, it's great: includes JavaScript debugging and DOM inspecting, it's great .

For the PHP development I'm using Quanta 3.5, its quite good but if someone knows something better I'd like to hear it.

Firebug is a great tool for troubleshooting, but not really intended for development.

Web Developer extension to firefox, of course, but also:
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/fangs/ (project seems halted; https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/addon/5809 may be a replacement…),
- Geany editor,
- IEs4Linux: http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

Yves.

somone mentioned NVU for "noobs"

I've used it for most of my busines and personal pages, and other than getting into some things that I cant get out of (my fault) I havent seen anything that I need to do that it cant.

now admittedly I went to Kompozer (the last NVU update) last year.

Please realize that the sites I do are not huge glossy whiz bang graphic laden sites.

they are mostly just informational with information,software,photo,music downloads.

I havent tried bluefish, but from whats said here, it looks like I might need to!

j

huh?

How do you develop your DOM apps then?
Or develop complex javascript?

or do you have a different meaning to development than I do