JC Web Concepts - Custom Web Developments

Well as a PHP, HTML, CSS, and jQuery designer one of the things I have been looking for is a good lightweight text editor. I have used many different types of editors and not found the right one. When I programmed in Windows I loved Notepad++, but there is no Mac/Linux equivalent. The editors that I have used in the past are as follows:

• NVU
• Dreamweaver
• VIM
• Eclipse
• Bluefish

The last editor I was and still will use is VIM. There is times I just want to click somewhere to move my cursor, I.E. Being lazy. I really like bluefish cause it is very lightweight and fast. Eclipse and Dreamweaver just are too slow for me. Bluefish will work in Mac, Linux, and Windows. The best thing I like about it, is it is free. So take a look at them, post some comments about what you think is the best. Maybe you have one that I just have not seen.

So with me the past few days learning jQuery, I thought I would redesign my site again. This time I have used jQuery in a few places to showcase some of my new things that I have learned. My twitter feed on the right sidebar is being loaded by jQuery. On the bottom of the page you see the link that says back to top, that link when click will slowly slide you back to the top of the page instead of just reloading the whole page. Even after this post I will still be adding more to it.

In the next few days I am hoping to write a tutorial on the basics of jQuery. So keep an eye out for that.

For the next few weeks I will be working on a new WordPress theme. I will post when it is complete so please do not judge my themes till I get it at 100% I was thinking that I might setup a test environment to test on since WordPress really does not have a tool to check your theme before you make it live.

I guess if anyone has an opinion on how to test a theme before making it live then post a comment or hit me up on twitter @jrock2004

One of the things I have never been strong in is layout design. If you look at most of the sites I have done, there blah. Colors are limited and there is just no iCandy to the site. So my question is, is this fixable? Is there something out there that I can learn to help me develop more iCandy websites? If so could you please share?

Today an employee at my job requested that I install an application called FreeMind. FreeMind is an application that you can take your ideas and organize them. I use it for time and project management.

What is cool is you can export your map to an image, PDF or HTML. This tool can be used for other things but this is my first day using this. So I will keep using this and see if I can find some cons.

Etherpad is an application that is based off java that allows multiple people at the same time to update multiple documents. Now I realize you might be thinking google docs does something like this. It is close but it is not the same. There is a delay in time that it updates on other persons screen. Also there is no support for syntax highlighting for web development.

It is a free service and they offer a paid solution if you want to host it on your internal network. My company I work for just bought some user licenses for it. So bookmark that link cause if you need to show someone else a document and be able to edit it at the same time, then etherpad is your solution.

At work today a colleague and I were talking about software for web development. He then asked me about an application called Aptana. I have heard about and tried it in the past. In the past I did not like it. I felt that it was too heavy for me at the time. I should explain back when I tried this I just did HTML work and nothing else. Now I do things like XHTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, BASH, and Flash. So now this IDE suite is something that I could really use.

Basically if you are a type that hits many programming languages this app is for you. If you have multiple websites that you manage then this app would be for you. They make many plugins for this suite that it is well worth it. Now before I started to use this I was a hugh fan of Adobe Dreamweaver. If anyone would try to tell me different I would tell them that they are nuts.

Now an app like Dreamweaver costs around $350.00 USD. Aptana is free but you can buy the professional version which gives you some more advance features. That would cost you $99.99 USD. I will give Aptana credit cause they do not cripple the free version like some others do. This app will run in Mac, Linux, and Windows. In the next day or two I am planning on making a tutorial on this app to give you a tour of it.