Re: [DUG-OFFTOPIC]: Choosing a web design tool

[Mike Osborne]

Title: Message

A useful compromise between WYSIWG and handcrafted is NoteTab Light www.notetab.com. A useful FREE tool. The tabbed editor supersedes NotePad completely - can be editing multiple files (pages) similar to Delphi IDE.    Has "wizard" style dialogs to fill in HTML tags and CSS properties - so if you are HTML conversant but not fluent it's a great little tool.   Press F8 and you see your HTML/CSS rendered in your browser - not exactly WSIWG in design but you can hack and view repeatedly (as I do <g>).   ----- Original Message ----- From: Wes Edwards To: Multiple recipients of list offtopic Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 9:13 AM Subject: RE: [DUG-OFFTOPIC]: Choosing a web design tool I'd agree with James - if you are getting started, start with something basic and spend the money on a couple of good books.  You can always upgrade to something bigger later once you know what you really need.   A very good reference site is  http://www.sitepoint.com   As for an editor there are basically two camps - those that prefer WYSIWYG editors like FrontPage or more expensive alternatives, and those that prefer "hand-crafting" xhtm/html by hand.  I prefer the latter and I like a bit more help than a basic text editor provides so I use a tool like 1stPage from Evrsoft http://www.evrsoft.com (It is free).  You'll also want a good image editor.  If you can afford it get Photoshop or something similar.  If you can't get the free GIMP for Linux or Windows. http://www.gimp.org   If you want a good web scripting language PHP is gaining a lot of popularity and can be used with a lot of databases including MySQL and Firebird (Interbase open source).  If you want to get into PHP a good starting point is the phpdev environment which sets up a PHP/ MySQL / Apache windows environment on your PC.  http://www.firepages.com.au.  It's free too. A reasonable PHP editor is the free version of Maguma Studio at http://www.maguma.com   As for hosting you can do it yourself but you telecom don't like you doing it on a JetStart account.  As you can't have a fixed IP address you will need to use a dynamic IP address resolution system such as that from http://www.dyndns.org (there are others too).  Disadvantage - ADSL has a slower upload speed than download so your server will appear slow to other people.  There are also firewall, security, and backup issues etc.  Probably easier to just use a commercial hosting account.  You can get a Linux hosting account with PHP and MySQL support for not a lot of money, or an NT Server account for a little more.  Check your ISP's offerings or I can give you some options if you want them.   Wes Edwards     -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of James Sugrue Sent: Friday, 15 August 2003 8:18 a.m. To: Multiple recipients of list offtopic Subject: RE: [DUG-OFFTOPIC]: Choosing a web design tool I, like Jeremy, have tried most of the products out there at one time or another. My advice would be to spend the money on a couple of good books on HTML and either ASP, ASP.NET or PHP and do things by hand in a good text editor, like UltraEdit.   I actually wrote a fully WYSIWYG editor a while back in Delphi, and found I use almost exclusively the editor side, rather than the layout/design side.   I have never used WebSnap in Delphi, but I have heard good things, and would be interested to hear what someone who has thinks of it.   -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 15 August 2003 7:18 am To: Multiple recipients of list offtopic Subject: [DUG-OFFTOPIC]: Choosing a web design tool   Hi all   I'm brand new to web design and want to hit the ground running with an advanced toolset. I would like to use a product that enables a complete novice like myself, to put together a basic web site easily, yet has the power & flexibility that an experienced web developer would want. The idea is, once I get familiar with things and then want to get more fancy and dig deeper, the toolset I'm using needs to already have all the advanced features - so that I can grow into it. So the toolset needs to cover the A to Z of website design (with nothing left out).   At the moment, I just want to create a personal website, but then I want to move on to creating a commercial website for a business I want to create.   I understand Delphi 7 has some good web stuff? And I've just been reading a little about Delphi Web Scripting. Ideally I'd like to use something within Delphi, but I'm not opposed to something completely different. A colleague uses Dream Weaver, but I don't know much about it. If I could find a product that is seamless that would be great - i.e. where I don't need to learn a bit of html, _javascript_, some other script, asp syntax, etc. to tie it all together (maybe that's a pipe dream?)   I'm happy if the product is open source, or costs up to $400. I can't afford to spend 1000's!   Any suggestions of products to check out or things I should know?   P.S. I also want to look at whether I get my ISP to host, or use my own PC as the Web server, as I have Jet Start. What are the pros & cons of each?   Thanks for your thoughts. Dave Jollie Developer, TOWER NZ IT (: 09 368 4259 Ê: 09 306 6801 *: [EMAIL PROTECTED] .: 46 Parnell Rd, Parnell, Auckland   --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.488 / Virus Database: 287 - Release Date: 5/06/2003 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.488 / Virus Database: 287 - Release Date: 5/06/2003