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Feature: Web Development
A survey of Linux Web development tools
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CommentsThis is by no means an exhaustive overview of all Web development programs available for Linux. For example, since the original Mozilla Suite has largely been displaced by Firefox and Thunderbird, I've decided not to review Mozilla Composer (or Netscape Composer). I've also kept to programs that are mature, and available under free and open source software licenses.
This is also not an exhaustive overview of all features in each program. I've tried to highlight some of the most interesting features in each program. In particular, I've focused on HTML/XHTML editing and support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
Let's start with a look at two general-purpose editors, Vim and Emacs, that offer some specific features for Web development.
Vim
Vim is one of the most popular text editors for Linux users, and it offers a number of useful features for editing HTML and other languages you might use for Web development.
One of the first features I look for in any editor is syntax highlighting. Vim supports syntax highlighting for HTML, PHP, Python, Perl, CSS, and many other languages. Vim uses syntax files for each markup or programming language, and if it doesn't have a syntax file for your favorite language (unlikely), it's possible to write your own.
Another useful feature in Vim is support for editing files on remote machines. Vim can edit files over FTP, Secure FTP (SFTP), SSH (scp), rsync, and other protocols. This may be a bit slower than editing a local file, but it's otherwise seamless.
Vim is also very extensible. It's not too difficult to add keymaps that insert frequently used tags, and to create scripts or macros to use with Vim. The Vim Web site has quite a few tips on using Vim more effectively, and scripts to extend its functionality.
One script I recommend is the closetag.vim script, which makes it easy to "close" the last tag used. For example, if you've put in a <strong> tag, press Ctrl-_ to insert the </strong> tag. Another useful add-on for Vim is HTML.vim, which provides a set of mappings and menus for working with HTML.
If you're not familiar with Vim, it's not your best choice for doing Web development. If you have experience with Vim, spend a little time checking out Vim's advanced features that make Web development easy.
Emacs
Like Vim, Emacs enjoys a great deal of popularity amongst Linux users -- although usually not the same users. Emacs is particularly popular with users who've been working with Linux or other Unix-type systems for a long time. As with Vim, Emacs has all the features you'd expect in a world-class text editor that make working with text easy. However, if you're looking for WYSIWYG features, Emacs is not for you.
By itself, Emacs is pretty good for Web development. It supports syntax highlighting for a number of languages, and completion of tags and other standard language keywords so that you don't need to type out the entire HTML tag or keyword.
Emacs is also extensible, and there are a number of Emacs modes that make things even easier. The html-helper-mode, for example, provides shortcuts to insert HTML tags and entities, and even an entire HTML document "skeleton" with all the basic tags a document needs. The html-helper-mode also brings support for basic CSS.
The Transparent Remote (file) Access, Multiple Protocol (TRAMP) package makes it easy to edit files on remote servers with Emacs. TRAMP works over Remote Shell (RSH), SFTP, and SSH (scp).
Of course, the other benefit to Emacs is that you can do pretty much anything from the editor. Want to read email from Emacs? No problem. Want to chat in IRC using Emacs? You can do that too. This has little to do with Web development, but if you "live" in Emacs already, you probably want to do your Web development with it as well.
Emacs, like Vim, is fairly complex -- it's very powerful, but it will probably take novice users a while to master.
Next: Dedicated Web development toolsComments
on A survey of Linux Web development toolsNote: Comments are owned by the poster. We are not responsible for their content.
e.g a
<a href="http://www.screem.org/gfx/screenshots/xml.png" title="screem.org">glade</a screem.org> file open in screem.
[URL=http://lowerbackpain.0pi.com/backpain.htm] Back Pain [/URL]
[URL=http://painreliefproduct.guildspace.com] Pain relief [/URL]
[URL=http://painreliefmedic.friendpages.com] Pain relief [/URL]
[URL=http://nervepainrelief.jeeran.com/painrelief<nobr>.<wbr></nobr> htm] Nerve pain relief [/URL]
Like Quanta screem has no problem with Docbook support, or any other XML format so long as the document contains a doctype tag.
Like Quanta screem will auto complete entities, and typing / will result in the correct closing tag being inserted, for any doctype in use.
Like Quanta screem can work directly with remote files.
Like Bluefish it has references. The exact same PHP and Python ones used in Bluefish. It also supports PHP, Perl, Python, C, SQL. Just like Bluefish.
The "few other" protocols supported by screem are infact anything that gnome-vfs supports.
You also mentioned GUI editors for HTML but they all looked pretty heavy.
I would like a really simple GUI text editor such as Notepad that comes with Windows.
Also, I think having the beautiful and clean "fixedsys" font is important, can I have that?
think of cream as gvim on steroids
It's a basic text editor, by Linux standards, which is a bit more than you get from Notepad. It has tabs like FireFox... Though lots of things in Linux seem to have tabs, the whole freak'n desktop has tabs. (If you use Gnome and it doesn't seem to have desktop tabs, right click a taskbar, click "Add to Panel" and then find and add "Workspace Switcher".)
It also has highlighting for a whole bunch of languages, including XHTML, CSS and Perl and PHP and etc.
You can change the font. I don't see "Fixedsys" here, but I do see a "Fixed"... If you have a copy of "Fixedsys" laying around in a TTF file, copy it to this directory:<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/
If it's one of those retro<nobr> <wbr></nobr>.fon files from retro Windows, I have no idea what to do with it then<nobr> <wbr></nobr>:S
-Amazing Blair
[URL=http://lowerbackpain.0pi.com/backpain.htm] Back Pain [/URL]
[URL=http://painreliefproduct.guildspace.com] Pain relief [/URL]
[URL=http://painreliefmedic.friendpages.c<nobr>o<wbr></nobr> m] Pain relief [/URL]
[URL=http://nervepainrelief.jeeran.com/pa<nobr>i<wbr></nobr> nrelief.htm] Nerve pain relief [/URL]</tt>
<a href="chrono.apinc.org?numero=129" title="linux.com">HERE</a linux.com>
tags. Nvu seems to have fixed this problem.
Like the other dude said, it's split off and called Nvu now.
We also used kdevelopt for PHP developpement. Not bad at all. Eclipse is a good choice too.
The most important thing for us is auto-completion.
1) <a href="http://www.winehq.org/site/download" title="winehq.org">http://www.winehq.org/site/download</a winehq.org>
Install that.
2) <a href="http://www.kyz.uklinux.net/cabextract.php" title="uklinux.net">http://www.kyz.uklinux.net/cabextract.php</a uklinux.net>
Install that.
3) <a href="http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/" title="tatanka.com.br">http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/</a tatanka.com.br>
Download and run this program.
Now, you can run IE, the program will automagically install Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0 for you. It's specially built for this purpose, so that web designers can test stuff in multiple IE versions.
I use it for my work.
A few things to note:
*I've used it at my office and at home, and in both cases, IE runs brainshaggingly fast. Faster than FireFox, and more interestingly, faster than IE does in Windows.
*It does NOT run very stable. The main thing I've noticed that will crash it is Flash, which is ubiquitous. So if you're using Flash on your site, this isn't gonna work very well, unless someone else knows a way around this.
I don't use Flash on my sites, so it does it's job pretty stable. Just don't use it for general browsing and it should be fine.
My email address is frapaquad at hotmail.com if you have any problems or need any help with that.
<a href="http://www.w3.org/Amaya/" title="w3.org">http://www.w3.org/Amaya/</a w3.org>
Regards,
*** Xanni ***
Actually, quite immediately I made it crash by closing a tab, and when I made a new file, the default directory to save it in the<nobr> <wbr></nobr>/usr/share area and it'd spit errors at me unless I did that in root.
Of course, most people at this site know that's a duh issue, you can't save stuff there as a normal user, but any Linux newbie is gonna spend hours baffling over that; it's not exactly intuitive.
Quanta doesn't render images... yes it does.
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on October 13, 2005 11:26 AMThat is not accurate. In both the VPL Editor and the VPL & Source Editors mode, images will display, but first the file has to be saved if you are working on a new file. Even the internal preview won't show a picture if the file isn't saved first.
Just my 2c (dwy geiniog) worth
Peter
For example, the usage of SQL-based databases (especially PostgresQL and MySQL in Linux) as a site "back end" is becoming more and more popular. Tools such as "DBDesigner" from fabforce.net and "MySQLcc", et cetera, are incredibly useful during development.
As far as text editors go, I'm a vim fan personally, but KDE's "Kate" is amazingly powerful for creating web content (especially PHP!).
Good article, but there are many more options available, and these really should have been included.
Developers took down forums because of DDoS attacks
MySQL Workbench is similar official product to be released
<a href="http://www.ephox.com/" title="ephox.com">http://www.ephox.com/</a ephox.com>
<a href="http://www.ektron.com/ewebwp.aspx" title="ektron.com">http://www.ektron.com/ewebwp.aspx</a ektron.com>
<a href="http://www.codeverve.com/products/verveJEdit/index.cfm" title="codeverve.com">http://www.codeverve.com/products/verveJEdit/inde<nobr>x<wbr></nobr> .cfm</a codeverve.com>
They're all commercial, but so is the thing you're using now, and I'd say you're asking too much if you expect people to make multiple different web editors (these are NOT simple programs to make) for you for free so you can host it on a webhost that gives you a free website.
On that note, is this a business? Can I see the website? I'm just curious...
This is by no means an exhaustive overview of all Web development programs available for Linux. For example, since the original Mozilla Suite has largely been displaced by Firefox and Thunderbird, I've decided not to review Mozilla Composer (or Netscape Composer). I've also kept to programs that are mature, and available under free and open source software licenses.
This is also not an exhaustive overview of all features in each program. I've tried to highlight some of the most interesting features in each program. In particular, I've focused on HTML/XHTML editing and support for Cascading Style Sheets (
Where are the full WYSIWYG web-site development apps? I use NetObjects Fusion on Windows which I got for free when I bought my digital camera. I sure would like to be able to develop my website of static-html pages using an editor on Linux, but from the review I just read, the possibility of having my ideal environment is dismal unless I develop the app myself.
My other option would be to use a wiki or blog-based site instead of static-html, but does any one know of a web-site hosting service out there that offers $0/month hosting with scripting?
Expandability
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on October 12, 2005 11:37 PM#