Trial and Error: Battle of the Text Editors
Part of my coding adventure yesterday led me to try a few different text editors that are optimized for writing web pages.
These three made the cut: HomeSite 5.5, TopStyle 3 (for Windows systems), and my personal favorite, BlueFish (for Linux).
HomeSite was originally published by Macromedia which was acquired by Adobe a while back. When you load the program you will be presented with a fairly simple interface consisting of a file browser on the left and an editor pane on the right. Across the top are buttons representing the hundreds of options you can use to help with writing your code. The three most important features I found were auto-completion of tags, WC3 validation, and link validation. My biggest problem with the program was that it wasn’t laid out in a way that made most of the inner workings of the program obvious. I didn’t want to read a manual to learn to use it, I just wanted it to work. HomeSite has so many options it was tough to wade through them all without feeling overwhelmed. Because of this, and the fact that it cost $100, I only gave the program about an hours worth of my time before I moved on to Top Style, by NewsGator.
The first thing I noticed about TopStyle was that it had a greater visual appeal when compared to HomeSite. The buttons were bright and had icons that made their functions obvious. TopStyle, like HomeSite, offered tag, WC3, and link validation. The two programs are similar in function but Top Style featured something that HomeSite did not – a visually appealing layout and menu bars that were much more descriptive and useful. Using the program for the first time, I felt comfortable and able to use all the functions without consulting a manual. I really like Top Style. The only real problem I had with it was the fact that you had to pay for it ($79.95). You shouldn’t and don’t have to pay for good software. Enter BlueFish for Linux.
It’s on Linux. This may be a big downfall for most users but for me, it was a big plus. I use my Linux box 85% of the time when I work on my website. The program is lean, offers all the features of HomeSite and TopStyle and adds a few the others do not have. That said, it is my top choice. The feature that put this program at the top of my list was its ability to deal with so many different programming syntaxes. You can code in Python, JSP, SQL, XML, Perl, CSS, ColdFusion, Pascal, R, and Octave/MATLAB. It offers customizable syntax highlighting which makes keeping your code in order a piece of cake. Because of this can automatically demarcate multiple styles of code within the same document. BlueFish gets my vote hands-down over HomeSite and TopStyle. It’s free, infinitely extendable, it works just like I envisioned a text editor should work and it doesn’t cost a penny.
