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Updating my Web Design Toolbelt

I’ve just embarked on a new project and I thought it was time to update the tools I use, just to streamline things a bit and make sure development is as easy as it could be.

First up is the editor.  As a recent Mac convert I needed something to take the place of Notepad++, my Windows editor of choice.  Well that was fairly easy, I had a look round and kept coming across Text Wrangler, BBedit’s little brother, and its fantastic.  In fact it easily surpasses the usability ot Notepad++.  Could I find a replacement for my favourite FTP client, SmartFTP as well?  Again its a resounding yes!  Initially I started using Transmit, the award winning Mac FTP client, and yes, I can see why its award winning.  In fact it’s as easy to use as finder and shares much of the functionality.  Eventually though (read 30 days trial ran out) I moved over to Cyberduck ftp which actually comes close to matching the functionality of Transmit, and only falls slightly short in terms of stability and usability.  But its free and unlimited, which suits the tightwad in me.  There is also the integration with Text Wrangler, which means that if you open a file in Text Wrangler, through Cyberduck, saving the file will save it on the server, which really streamlines the ediitng process.  Text Wrangler itself offers saving over FTP but you will always need a fully featured FTP client at some point.

The next items I added to my toolbelt were FireFox extensions.  I already had the Web Developer Toolbar, which, if you don’t use it, is simply astonishing.  It just makes everything you could ever want to do so simple.  I simply could not live without it.  Iw as dissapointed to learn that the eyedropper mode of color zilla does not work on Mac, which means I’ve had to drop that from my toolbelt, which is unfortunate as it was really usefull.  I thought it would be worth seeing what else was out there, and boy am I glad I did.

The first extension I came across is called Fangs.  Fangs does a great job of visually interpreting the output of screen readers.  This is a must have if you care about accessibility, of course to be used in conjunction with this article on accessibility.  Next I came across an extension called View Source Chart, which visually formats source code by grouping block elements and their children together and highlighting them in colour.  It may sound fairly trivial but it really helps you find errors quickly.  You simply would not believe how much of a difference using this entension, in conjunction with the highlight block level elements feature of the Web Developer Toolbar, makes debugging your HTML.  Especially if you use dynamically generated code from a CMS, Forum of Blog.

In addition to these tools, I use the Gimp for images, Safari for testing and IE on a seperate Windows Machine for testing.  I also tend to use the superb script.aculo.us scripting library and a set of key PHP classes that I wrote a good while ago and have been serving me well.  Theres also a whole host of bookmarks that I’ve got that help me out with colour schemes and commonly used layout techniques, including my own.
Whats your development environment like?  Any tips for a recent Mac convert?  What can’t you do without?  One thing I will say, however, is that I simply cannot get a working PHP/MySQL/Apache environment working on my machine, and I’ve tried everything.  Anyone with a familiar experience?

This post was written on Sunday, July 30th 2006 by Simon T and has been categorised under AJAX , Accessibility , Development , Tips , Web 2.0. The trackback URL is here or you could add a response. If you really want to you can Digg Story or add it to del.icio.us, Technorati Cosmos, Blinklist, furl or Reddit.

3 Responses to “Updating my Web Design Toolbelt”

  1. Brian Says:

    July 31st, 2006 at 4:30 pm

    I’m a Linux user, personally but I also have a Mac (and Windows, for that matter). I use the amazing Bluefish editor (bluefish.openoffice.nl) for all my HTML and CSS editing needs (as well as when I have a Java program I need to make a quick edit to or anything else small, but it’s great for HTML and CSS, there’s a Mac version, too, but no Windows version).

    For FTP, I can’t use any of the Mac stuff, obviously, so I simply either use the command line or gFTP.

    I used some of those Firefox extensions, but thanks for pointing out the others.

    And, obviously, I use the GIMP and am in love with it. It’s one of my favorite applications of any kind, such a great free alternative to Photoshop, and I could never see myself using anything else. I can’t wait for GIMP 2.4, some of the new tools look pretty sweet.

    On Mac converting in general, I can no longer do without Quicksilver (http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/). That is an amazing program, with so many features. See the recent MacBreak videocast episode for a demonstration of some of what it can do. On that thought, you might want to subscribe to MacBreak. It’s a great videocast for any Mac user, new or old.

    Besides that, good luck with everything.

  2. Si Says:

    August 3rd, 2006 at 10:56 pm

    Its funny you should mention MacBreak, I just subscribed a couple of weeks ago and it is a great resource, especially for users like me. Its a bit off putting coming from being an advanced Windows user to being able to just get by on a Mac. Oh and quicksilver is great. One of the reasons for me originally getting a Mac was Quicksilver and the fact I had colibri on Windows which is an attempt at offering the same. I found myself looking for Windows apps that did what Mac apps did, it was a strange situation. I’m getting there though!

  3. Brian Says:

    August 9th, 2006 at 12:46 am

    Yeah, coming from Linux, I have the same problem. The good thing about using Windows as a Linux user is that most Linux apps are open-source, so there is a good chance that someone has already ported the app to Windows (or Mac). I’ve found that, since using Linux for so long, I have developed a problem with paying for software (besides games). Instead of going to the store, I just hop on Sourceforge.net and look for what I want, and chances are, it’s almost as good as te paid equivalent.

    That’s the problem I have with Windows, is that it just feels like a commercial OS. From the look and feel of the windows to the applications included and for the system, everything just has this weird feel to it, especially after using Mac or Linux. It’s hard to explain, but try going back to IE7 after using Firefox since it was called Phoenix and tell me it feels good.

    I have this feeling that open-source is the way to go. As it becomes more cost-effective and easy to use, it’ll gain ppularity. It is even becoming profitable, just look at Red Hat.

    Kinda got off topic there, but good luck with your Mac experience.

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