Text Editors

[beng2000]

Hello All. I'm doing a Udemy Bootstrap 4 video now.  I started using Visual Studio Code because the person teaching the course is using it. 

My question is what code editor do you use and which one do you think is the best? I am just curious.  Thank you!

Ben

[osgood_]

In my opinion Visual Studio Code is the best free editor currently available for web-development.

Other free editors that l use and rate in order are:

Sublime Text (nearly as good as Visual Studio Code)

Net Beans

Brackets 

Atom

Komodo Edit

The very best paid for editors are in my opinion:

Web Storm and Php Storm by Jet Brains. Php Storm is the premier editor if you are working with complex php

There are plenty of other paid for editors, such as Nova by Panic and Codelobster, all of which might be suitable, depending on what it is you feel comfortable with. Some developers like editors which are laden with many options whilst good coders may choose something less obtuse.

Of course Dreamweaver, which l used for a good number of years, has good management tools and a visual environment but over the past few years its generally become stagnant in terms of keeping up with developing trends. In my opinion l would expect more from a paid for product.

[beng2000]

Thank you Nancy.  This was very informative and helpful.

[Nancy OShea]

For site management, I haven't found anything nearly as good as Dreamweaver.  So that's my tool of choice most of the time.  But Dreamweaver is not the only tool in my toolbox.

Try everything and use whichever tools work best for you and your project. There is no one-size-fits-all.

[BenPleysier]

As one Ben to another Ben, stay with VS. The integrated Monaco editor and available addons make VS the best free-of-charge IDE.

[beng2000]

Thanks Ben. I will use VS for this class. I feel like using Dreamweaver all these years as a WYSIWIG has kept me away from coding.  I am enjoying coding in VS. 

[osgood_]

If youre a serious web developer then using a semi-automated work flow is never a good idea as you become dependent and never bother to look 'outside a small box' your working within.

Taking the leap of faith and actually learning to code will pay off eventually, the freedom it brings is quite satisfying and will allow you to explore beyond just pointing and clicking or dropping and dragging.

Of course this route is not to the taste of everyone, only those that are seriously involved in web-development in some capacity.

Good luck with the learning.

Whilst its good to learn Bootstrap which you mentioned dont fall into the trap of becoming dependent on that either as its about 2 years behind current web building trends, ie v5 is not even 'stable' at the moment for production work and doesnt support css grid which is now a main stream workflow when producing websites.

Your probably better off learning v5 for any new build website than v4 as that has a lot of significant updates and most likely wont be too long before a 'stable' production release is available.

[BenPleysier]

Bootstrap falls under the definition of Industry Standard

The definition was previously stipulated by a contributor of this forum.

[osgood_]

Which is all the more concerning that Bootstrap is never current but you cant tell those that use Bootstrap because they have become dependent upon it........a drug which is very hard to wean yourself off.

[Nancy OShea]

...you cant tell those that use Bootstrap because they have become dependent upon it........a drug which is very hard to wean yourself off.

================

Sheesh!  Next you'll be telling us Bootstrap leads to global depravity and everyone who uses it is a heroin or opioid addict.  OH, GIVE ME A BREAK!!!  

[osgood_]

Well l think you have just proved my point being a Bootstrap user yourself. Its hard to accept any critic of a workflow which is not quite at the races, especially one that we might be using ourselves.

[Nancy OShea]

The pot calling the kettle black, I think.  I'm not being critical of frameworks, you are!   I say use whatever works for your project.  Be it Bootstrap, Foundation, Skeleton or whatever... 

[osgood_]

I never implied you were being critical of frameworks, l most certainly was, with good reason. Im just telling it how it is, the truth. If you dont want to be ahead of the game thats ok.

Its not always obvious to those with less knowledge of a workflow what it might be lacking in terms of options. Im actually quite suprised how far Bootstrap is behind and it will probably be another 2 years plus before grid is introduced. A workflow which is 96% compatible with all modern browsers right now.

Certainly becoming dependent on any workflow or program for that matter lessens your options should someone be thinking about a long term career in web/app development.