How Do You Like To Do It?

[AgentPhoenix]

How Do You Like To Do It?

Okay, so the title's a little suggestive, but that's what you get when I have to spend all day doing advertising work with a honeymoon resort. Heh. So I'm curious how everyone does their web development. What programs do you use for coding? Do you use different programs for different langues? Spare no dirty details.

Right now, I'm using Coda to do all my coding in. Amazing program. If there's a situation where I don't have Coda handy, I use TextWrangler as a text editor and Transmit for all my FTP stuff. Of course, I also use Photoshop CS2 for graphics, but I've been eyeing CS3 lately. Not sure if I'll make the leap just yet though.

Right I use a combo of dreamweaver, frontpage and notepad... and for uploading I use FireFTP cause smartFTP crashed on me... For images I used photoshop, not sure which version. I know these are mostly trashy programs but what do you expect from that does this stuff for fun

Photoshop, Illustrator (sometimes), and Dreamweaver. For bulk uploads CuteFTP. My workflow isn't the greatest, but I'm gonna be upgrading to CS3 in the next couple months so hopefully that'll help.

[Cybershark]

Recently redid my development environment.

Mac OS X 10.4.6

MAMP 1.6.1 running
... Apache 1.3.37 & 2.2.4
... PHP 5.2.3 & 4.4.7
... MySQL 5.0.41

Parallels running
... Windows XP SP2
... Redhat Fedora 7

Web Dev Tools:
... TextMate 1.5
... Cyberduck
... Adobe Photoshop 7
... Dreamweaver MX

Test Browsers:
... Firefox 2 (primary!)
... Safari
... Internet Explorer 7
... Opera 9.2

[AgentPhoenix]

Aha, another Mac convert! How do you like Parallels? I've heard good things about it, but I'm wondering if it's worth it when I end up buying my new MacBook Pro in a few months.

Dreamweaver and Photoshop CS3 for the bulk of my work. HTML Kit when Dream makes me all mad by screwing simple XHTML. Filezilla for uploading cause SmartFTP crashed on me as well.

And of course everything runs off Vista so that means constant blue screens of death and me getting all mad because "Sorry Your Adobe Products have stop working but have recovered" messages, GRRRR.

My former boss always pushed me to use Zend, I didnt like it, but did try it.

[Cybershark]

Aha, another Mac convert! How do you like Parallels? I've heard good things about it, but I'm wondering if it's worth it when I end up buying my new MacBook Pro in a few months.

Parallels is great. Very slick. However, if you are gonna wait a few months, I'd wait for the OS X Leopard Boot Camp integration. The Tiger beta is already out (click here).

Apple just beats Windows hands down for development. Terminal gives you control over the backend. MAMP, MacPorts, etc. allow you to run virtual servers. The only bummer is 3D Studio Max. It was the main reason I kept development on one of my PCs instead of a Mac.

Btw, the new Macbook Pros are really slick. They didn't conform to sRGB as much as I'd hope they did but I just got one of the new 2.4 gHz 15in Macbook Pros. And if you are wondering, the glossy screen definitely beats the matte. Battery life is def longer that older generations as well and the screen seems a little more inset to prevent keyboard imprints on it.

[AgentPhoenix]

You like the glossy screen? I've heard mixed reviews about it.

If the display is good, the glossy surface just makes it better. That applies to PC laptops as well. When I got mine I was wary of the glossy screen, but now I can't go back. Every time I see a matte screen I scrutinize it, but it never seems as vivid or as clear as my glossy screen.

[AgentPhoenix]

My concern would be (at least with a laptop) different lights and the angle of light hitting the screen. With a monitor, it stays in the same place, but with a laptop, you're all over the place. I'd be worried that I'd get to a place that caused problems with reflections and the like.

Yeah the reflections can be slightly disconcerting at first, but you quickly get used to it. I'm not sure why, but I think the sharpness and colour depth of the glossy screens - even with a bit of reflection - produces a better experience than a matte screen with lower colour depth and (comparatively) poor viewing angle. At least that's my opinion.

[AgentPhoenix]

Well, I have a few months before I have to make a decision, so I'll just have to get into an Apple store and play a few times before then.

Well I may add to this later down the line, like within the next few days or weeks, but at the moment I'm using:

Web development:
Dreamweaver 8
NotePad (for quick edits)

Graphics:
Photoshop CS2

FTP:
Ipswitch WSFTP

Testing:
Firefox 2
IE7
with access to IE6 should I need it

[AgentPhoenix]

Man, people need to get away from Dreamweaver. It's bad news all around.

[Cybershark]

Man, people need to get away from Dreamweaver. It's bad news all around.

It does pretty good markup formatting and function/tag suggesting.