OT: Discussions and Rants - etiquette.

pziecina wrote: Actually my current IDE has support for most of those, except the php de-bugger (which can be added as an extension), but it does not have a visual side, it is purely code based. Then again it does cost over £1000+. As I know the average DW user is unlikely to be a professional full time coder, some visual help will I think be required, and I have nothing against that. If you ask around most coders using a purely code based environment for web development do have a few visual tool that they can use when creating sites or projects. To me the £1000 was well spent, as I was reimbursed the costs, but many designers/developers are self employed or freelance, and are not so lucky.

OK heres a rant:

Firstly: Must be some IDE costing over a grand.

Example. I think I'm an average coder, know some html, css, php, jquery etc. enough to be able to put together what I am asked to do by my clients. This typically includes storing info in a database, reteiving it through varied queries, delete out dated content, provide some kind of bespoke cms system to update parts of the website, write all code manually etc etc

I'm not likely to have the requirements for a php or javascript debugger, not found a use for one yet but I would say the sites I produce are probably represenative for 99% of what can be found on the web.

I just looked into 'php storm' IDE this a last week, it's crazy for what I need - its packed to the ceiling with stuff like:

Twig

Typescript

YAML

Gherkin (serioulsy)

Cucumber (seriously)

CoffeeScript

Blade

HAML

Smarty

I havent even heard of any of those apart from 'Smarty'

Renaming files is called Refactor > Rename. Really, why not just 'Rename File' - most know what that means BUT Refactoring?

There dozens of menu options I have no idea what they are for, most are unapplicable unless you are using a particular lanaguage so get in the way.

The really, really funny thing is you would think WOW this is a super shitte-hot bit of kit right, given all that is included by default BUT it cant even lint code properly. Hows this for starters. I can do something like below, use the code inspection tools and its says' Nothing to see here all is good', really.

<?php

$name = "php storm";

echo $name;

?>

<p>Some code here

</div>

I like the look of the IDE but serioulsly all this crap - I don't need. I need 'web storm' a leaner bit of kit which is capable of recognising php syntax/error reporting BUT does it  - know it doesn't - you have to go for a its bloated sister - web storm to write some simple php/html coding which half gets linted correctly.

I might still purchase it because I like the look and feel of it but totally uncomfortable with all this excess requirement going on in the background.

If I try something simpler like Coda for Mac - that's just a toy which is dead, I think. You know its still using a validation tool which checks html 3.2!!! even though the doctype is html5 and it's inbuilt chrome browser doesnt support Flex, its got to be  a piss take right. How can any web developer take that seriously yet until recently Chris Coyler (well respected) of CSS TRICKS was using it

All I really need is an editor or IDE that is lean mean and can check html/php in the same page and error them if a closing or opening tag is missing - that seems to be too much to ask because most of the editors I've tested can't manage it so I have to ask is code linting any real use?

I revisited Sublime and found it to be a very very slick editor after initailly dismissing it but once you need it to do something extra you have to jump through hoops and start installing this and that on your system, which I'm not happy about as I know nothing about using the terminal, I mean your taking your life into your hands to install something in your system and just hoping it doesn't crash it. But if you just want a lighten fast, extendable and cutomisable editor I dont think much cant beat Sublime. I can see why its got 25% of the market share of editors/IDEs

Atom....hummmm, again is not all there, it suffers from the same poor linting as the rest. I can leave numerous tags unclosed and its hit and miss as to if it flags the errors even more so if I have php and html combined on the same page. I don't really know if there is a php/html linter - they all seem to be one or the other.

The best linter I have found is Brackets editor. Its not very subtle though but I guess you dont need it to be subtle. It does at least find most errors and turns your code a different shade so  good marks for that BUT (and there is always a but ) I dont particularly like its appearance, its not a very slick or sophisticated looking UI.

Maybe I need to relook at DW, which is one editor I have overlooked since CS4.