When programmers build Web pages, they have special needs. Most of the programs for Web-page construction currently available are geared toward either seasoned designers (best choice: NetObjects Fusion) or HTML beginners (best choice: Microsoft FrontPage), but relatively few are geared toward programmers. Silicon Prairie evaluated a dozen or so page-building programs that cater to programmers, and following are summary reports of the three best:
Bare bones for the Mac
With no exceptions, every Webmaster running a Macintosh-based system to whom I spoke uses BBEdit. They love everything about version 4.0.4: a small virtual footprint (less than 1M in memory), a customizable interface that lets you add nonstandard tags, good validation, including a spellchecker (although you’re onyour own with JavaScript and CGI validation), an integrated FTP client that eases staging and publishing and seemingly endless extensibility.
BBEdit helps order HTML generated by other programs: it cleans Adobe PageMill code, for example. But most useful to Mac programmers is BBEdit’s tremendous usability with other languages, among them C, C++, Perl, Pascal, Rez, Fortran, Tcl, ScriptX, and TeX.
BBEdit is available in both lite and professional versions, so you can test the water before diving into the program. Bare Bones, the company that makes BBEdit, uses the slogan “software that doesn’t suck.” BBEdit certainly lives up to that.
Bare bones for the PC
TextPad, a replacement for the Windows Notepad, is a slightly less lauded text editor for the PC. It has few HTML-specific features, although it integrates with pop!site and other high-end programs, and it works well in back-and-forth testing with a browser and local server.
The key to TextPad 3.0 is that it’s a small, uncluttered text-editing Environment and just as extensible as BBEdit. It may be even more customizable. As with BBEdit, TextPad is available in free and paid (only $27) versions.
Bigger, maybe better
Those looking for something more than a text editor, something closer to an HTML debugger, might be interested in HoTMetaL Pro, which is available for both Mac and PC. Somewhere between a text editor and a WYSIWYG program, HoTMetaL Pro is especially useful to those whose page-building needs include many macros.
Its extensibility is excellent, letting you insert any tag you wish-even nonstandard ones not included in the program. It supports high-end features like style sheets and includes a spellchecker, which is useful, and a thesaurus, which is not.
The only glaring drawbacks are its rudimentary publishing tools and its sometimes confusing interface. But HoTMetaL Pro, equipped with good site-management and scripting tools, might meet the needs of programmers who want advanced editing features while retaining code-level control.
A HoTMetaL Lite version is available if you want to try before you buy.
Hey, programmers!
What do you use to build HTML pages? We want to know.
