IIS web server and a decent (free) htlml editor

[unrealdave]

My little boy has decided daddy can have an IP address on one of his servers running IIS. I think it’s a virtual machine but anyway it’s been a looooong time since I set up any web servers and anyway back then it was apache and using mysql on unix.

I am going to play with this but back in the day we did html with notepad, and eventually trusted dreamweaver, coding the sql stuff with vb.

I guess it’s all changed now but my question is – what is the best html editor that is free? I have looked at dreamweaver but its pricey, also these packages load up a simple page with lots of strange stuff.

cheers for now

[Amrad]

You might care to give HTML Kit a try.

Regards,

Dave.

[Terry]

My little boy ...

Little ...?

If he takes after his father, little is one thing he won't  be ...! 

[Mark Hennessy]

I used to use Dreamweaver back in the day, but as you suggest, WYSIWYG editors produce awful code. That's got worse in recent times with the move to CSS.

For editing code by hand, I use either ConTEXT or Komodo Edit. Both of these are free.

ConTEXT is more of a programming editor, and sadly isn't really updated any more, but I've spent thousands of hours writing PIC assembly with it, and I know it really, really well. It's a Windows program. It's very lightweight, and it doesn't try to be too clever - that suits me

Komodo Edit is a bit more sophisticated. It's available for Windows and Linux, which is an advantage for me. It supports project-based working, but doesn't force you into that. It is "cleverer" than a basic editor, in that it automatically puts in closing brackets when you open one, etc. Some editors are a real pain for this - it can really get in the way - but Komodo is a reasonable compromise, and I'm getting used to it. It's got lots of neat features and is very customisable. Highly recommended.

A lot of people recommend Notepad++, but whenever I try it, I end up going back to ConTEXT. It's fine, it's just that I'm used to ConTEXT and Notepad++ offers me no compelling reason to move. Text editors are surprisingly personal though... Starting afresh, Notepad++ is probably a better bet because it is at least being actively developed still.

A lot of people recommend Netbeans for web dev, but I hate it with a passion. It's far too "clever", and really interferes with the coding process.

When doing web dev, I simply alt-tab between the editor and browser, hitting ctrl+S to save and F5 to refresh the browser.

There are lots of tools to help. If you use Firefox (and if not, why not?), then Firebug is worth adding, as is HTML Validator. There are many more.

Do not do web dev with Internet Explorer. Even today, it is still quite uncompliant with web standards. Stick with FF and it'll look reasonable on all other browsers (obviously you'll need to check).

The hardest thing about web coding today is CSS. Expect a steep learning curve if you haven't already been there. Basic stuff, like fonts and styles are easy enough, but using it for layout - instead of HTML tables - is mind-bending stuff

If you're doing SQL-based sites, you'd usually use PHP. But not on IIS, I assume? I've never tried VB or ASP or any of the Microsoft web apps. Nothing against MS, just that PHP is more widely used, so that's the one I decided to learn. An advantage of PHP is that most web apps are written for it - things like forums, blog engines, galleries, etc tend to be PHP only - but don't quote me on that Of course, you can run Apache and PHP on Windows - at home I have those on both Windows and Linux machines - though whether that's feasible or allowed on your IIS hosting I can't say.

Sadly, the modern way to build a website is to get Wordpress or similar, choose a template you like the look of, and then you're done. But this approach teaches you nothing about web technologies, and you end up with a really inefficient way to display information. I have tried examining the code behind Wordpress, and I gave up. Thousands of lines of code and dozens of database queries just to display a simple page that could have been written in HTML and served up with no load on the server. It's crazy! But then, I'm old-school!

Another problem with using a well-known CMS is that you could be a target for hackers, who will share details of the vulnerabilities as they discover them (and before they get patched by the developers, and before you roll out the updated software, if indeed you actually get around to it). If you roll your own CMS, it might be simple and basic, but providing you avoid all the obvious traps, it'll be pretty secure because no-one will bother to find problems (effort-vs-reward).

Cheers,

Mark

[unrealdave]

You might care to give HTML Kit a try.

Thanks - i will look at it a bit later

[unrealdave]

My little boy ...

Little ...?

If he takes after his father, little is one thing he won't  be ...! 

Fair point.  However in these parts I was always big Dave and he was little Dave - but they grow up so fast

[ppppenguin]

For those of you who haven't met unrealdave he's definitely a big bloke.

Some of us, especially those of us who've wandered across from elsewhere, have met him at several informal get togethers. At some point one of us will have to start a thread about what will probably now be called GVR regional meetings. But let's not drift too far from Dave's original problem.

I've not done web development myself though I have played with an old version of Dreamweaver that a friend gave me. I'm told the true diehards use Notepad Or the Linux equivalent. I use Context as a general purpose text editor, if only becaue it works on W98 as well as more modern versions of windows. It's quick and easy to use. Couple of quirks such as using CTRL-R for replace rather than the usual CTRL-H.

[Mark Hennessy]

I'm told the true diehards use Notepad Or the Linux equivalent. I use Context as a general purpose text editor, if only becaue it works on W98 as well as more modern versions of windows. It's quick and easy to use. Couple of quirks such as using CTRL-R for replace rather than the usual CTRL-H.

The default editor on Ubuntu (and many others) is Gedit, and that is quite good. It has syntax highlighting and a few other niceties, and it's fine for most things where you don't need project management as part of the deal...

I started PIC programming with Notepad, but on Windows 9x, it only works reliably while your code is less than 32kB. At that point, I tried about a dozen of the popular text editors at the time (~2001), settling on ConTEXT.

I like ctrl+L to put it into block select mode.

I use search/replace a lot, usually across multiple files. A good example is the date at the bottom of the pages of my website - every new year, I load up all of the HTML files (215 at last count, astonishingly!) and do a search/replace. It takes a while to deal with that many files, but hasn't failed yet.

That's a good reason to move to a PHP solution - such things can be held in a template, and updated once for the whole site. Or, if you're feeling clever, the date can come from the system clock (a good reason to choose a UK host).

Against all that, you can't beat the simplicity of raw HTML for reliability. PHP is a separate module hooking into the web server (usually Apache), so that needs to not fall over. As soon as a database engine is involved, then that's another whole load of complexity. It's not just the risk of random failure, but also what happens if your server is heavily loaded - either through popularity or a DoS attack - there's a lot more CPU loading involved in serving up a page on a database-driven website, and with most hosting deals there is usually a limit on CPU usage as your web server is on shared hardware. A rogue script can max out the CPU and your site gets taken down so that the many other customers on the same machine can continue to work... In short, deciding between the various ways to implement a website is surprisingly complicated