DHTML Software

[mab464]

Hi everybody,
Whats the best softwrare to create DHTML pages. commercial and non
commercial (freeware). Also is there any good 'free' ebook on DHTML?
searched the google but haven't found any yet.

Thanks

 

[Travis Newbury]

Hi everybody,
        Whats the best softwrare to create DHTML pages. commercial and non
commercial (freeware). Also is there any good 'free' ebook on DHTML?
searched the google but haven't found any yet.

Thanks

Notepad?

 

[David Segall]

Notepad++ is free and a lot better than notepad, which is the basic text
editor that comes with Windows.
<http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm>

Travis was arguing in favour of an editor that provides _no_ help in
writing [D]HTML except that it results in machine readable text if the
user has a version of Windows. I'm sure he would have advocated the
superior, cross-platform, pencil and paper if he thought the OP had
hardware that could read it. You are proposing an editor that has
syntax highlighting and, consequently, provides more assistance than
Notepad but not as much as, say, Komposer. I think that means that you
need to justify your choice whereas Travis' position is clear.

 

[Travis Newbury]

Notepad++ is free and a lot better than notepad, which is the basic text
editor that comes with Windows.
<http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm>

Actually I use notepad+ all the time for XML and quick fixes to HTML/
css Great Program. But for heavy duty, I still prefer Dreamweaver
CS3. I use the wysiwyg for basic layout then text mode for making it
right.

 

[Travis Newbury]

I will point you at some online references, but you have to promise
to do something in return.

Please don't ask for sex... Please don't ask for sex...

 I want you to set up a audio-only
browser (as used by the blind), and test your Dynamic HTML pages
to make sure that you are not descriminating against blind people

Phew....

Just f'ck'ing with you Guy. Lighten up and have a great day.

 

[Bergamot]

If you are using Windows, the best softwrare to create DHTML
pages is NotePad.

Notepad sucks.

There are far, far better tools out there, many of which are free. Lists
of good editors come up in these groups often enough it should only take
a few seconds to find them in the group archives.

 

[Bergamot]

It's still around. <http://www.adobe.com/products/homesite/>

In looking at the Adobe site, I find that I have an older version (5) versus
5.5, so apparently they're still supporting it.

I heard a rumor this was going to be the last release of Homesite, but
who knows? It would be a shame if Adobe dropped it, coz it's a great editor.

 

[Chris F.A. Johnson]

Meaning (in most cases) "You get what you pay for."

I find that: "The best things in life are free."

 

[Bergamot]

And, well, what's with the whole "free" thing, anyway?

The only reason to recommend Notepad as a development tool is because
it's free. If you're looking for a free tool, there are much better
choices. If you're not that cheap, then there are even more choices.

 

[Travis Newbury]

And, well, what's with the whole "free" thing, anyway?  Is everyone here
so freaking poor that they can't afford $19 or $29 or $49 for a good
tool that they will use for years?  Good Lord!
Edit Pad Pro.  http://www.just-great-software.com/

Someone needs to get them to change their screen shots. If you read
about the features it sounds like the bee's knees. But the screen
shots make the application look cluttered and very user unfriendly.

 

[Andy Dingley]

Whats the best softwrare to create DHTML pages.

The editor isn't the big question here. Use a sharpened stick, or use
Eclipse, it's your call.
Note though that you _will_ need to work at the code level, not
WYSIWYG.

The main issue is what you use as a framework to support your DHTML,
and whether this is a set of client-side JS libraries (like the
popular prototype.js) or if it's a full-blown server-side framework
that allows you to work with with simple "tags" in your server-side
page description code that give rise to huge great structures on the
client, without you needing to touch the code (ICEfaces is the best
around, for server-side Java, but you'll probably find yourself using
Ruby on Rails or something instead).

 

[Travis Newbury]

And, thank you, Travis!  You really had me terribly worried there for a
few seconds.  Geez, thank heavens for that speed reading course back in
the 60s.

I have a huge void starting in 1970 when someone passed me a blunt. I
woke up 11 years later standing at the alter getting married. (and in
case my wife reads this, it has been bliss ever since...)

 

[Tim Streater]

So that I can make a good recomendation for the mac next time,
what is the simplest text editor with the fewest features on
the newer models?

TextWrangler (most of BBEdit's features) is free for the Mac. I've never
seen any need to use anything else.

 

[Travis Newbury]

Even Notepad is slightly more full featured than I like.
I would prefer that the user be forced to format his
time/date entries by hand.

What a retarded statement. Why not just make them use charred stick
and a piece of animal hide.

 

[Bergamot]

Those tools are far better *after* you learn the basics of creating
a page by hand.

That's a matter of opinion, and I think yours is wrong.

If you use a better tool from the start, it hurts
the learning process.

Seems to be an editor that provides syntax highlighting would help the
learning process, not hinder it. It certainly helps you find typos easier.

Once the new user knows how to close his tags, create
his tables, forms, and links, etc. by hand, *then* he
should look into tools that automate those tasks.

Who said anything about automating tag completion, or even an editor
that was html-centric?

There are plenty of general purpose plain text editors that have nothing
to do with web stuff specifically, but have tools that do make you more
productive, like syntax highlighting, macros, extended search/replace,
project or folder management, etc.

Why make the learning process painful (using Notepad) if you don't have
to (using something like Crimson Editor)?

Not before.

Certainly, before.

 

[Travis Newbury]

'Cause the font-size would tend to be non-uniform.

Damn those font sizes!!! They always get me into trouble!

 

[David Segall]

For someone just starting out in creating web pages, I always
advise the simplest possible plain text editor.
You don't learn how to
design and build cas by buying and driving a Subaru or Honda.

I think examining a real car provides far superior training in
designing and building cars than a drafting table, a sheet of paper
and a copy of "Teach Yourself Car Design in 21 Days".

I would advise a beginner to "buy and drive" a web site (that uses
CSS) from Open Source Web Design <http://www.oswd.org/>. I would also
advise them to examine and alter it with the most high level
development environment available. The best of them include a context
sensitive reference book and can make navigating the DOM
understandable. The latter is particularly important for beginners.

I did not offer the above advice to the OP because he asked about
DHTML rather than [X]HTML. I would still advocate a high level
development environment but it is impossible to choose that without
knowing the server-side processing, if any, he might favour.

 

[Travis Newbury]

This is one of those pages where
passing validation is not enough.
I would suggest free, simpler, and more
robust templates fromhttp://realworldstyle.com/
or one of the similar free sites.

Bookmarked. Thnaks

 

[David Segall]

I browsed there in FFox3.0, and the text of
the opening page was writing
all over itself in the upper right hand corner.
I had to reduce text size before it was readable.

This is one of those pages where
passing validation is not enough.
I would suggest free, simpler, and more
robust templates from
http://realworldstyle.com/
or one of the similar free sites.

I was not suggesting the use of the OSWD site but one of the
contributed open source sites. In fact, the OSWD site itself is not
open source. Of course it is possible, even likely, that a contributed
site has design flaws. I'm sure our putative car designer will find
flaws in their Subaru or Honda. The virtue of OSWD, unlike Real World
Style, is that it provides hundreds of designs.

I confess that my advocacy of OSWD is biased and that I chose a design
from there because I'm a programmer, not a designer. I was confident
that I could fix problems with the XHTML/CSS but I did not want my
site to look like a computer geek's site. For someone who's skill is
in design, rather than technical, your recommendation is likely to be
a better starting point.