Web Design and Developer List: Text Editors

For website and app developers, marking up code is tedious work. It can also influence web analytics tasks, assume features requires modification to the analytics code.

More and more text editor options are appearing online, thanks to new applications that operate in the cloud and increased demand for coding experience across a number of programming languages.  But what software is available to help die-hard developers and business owners who occassionally need to modify code? The following list are a few options worthy of consideration, no matter your website development perspective or app creation needs.

Most editors will typically cost $50 - $100, with a few that are open source (i.e. free).  However, users should compare feature sets on each editor, and even consider a trial run comparison between a few before reaching a purchase decision.  Each editor has a different feel to their user interface, as well as a different take on which programming languages they support, so a "test drive" can reveal the value one gets for paying for an editor.

Read below to see which one is best for your needs, be it a developer or a novice looking to make minor updates to your site.

BB Edit - Created by Bare Bones, BB Edit is an affordable platform for Mac users. Users can easily highly changes to their code, open and save files from the host server, and compare elements from two separate page side by side. This permits a faster quality assurance on a  HTML page. This tool is geared more for website development than outright creation such as that in Adobe Dreamweaver, but it is a serviceable editor that can update codes effectively.

BB Edit provides a basic text editor features to compare code from one document to another.

Sublime - This editor has similar editing features to BB Edit, such as side-by-side comparison and multiple edit selections. But unlike BB Edit, this also has a Windows version as well as Linux. Plugins provide additional supper, making this editor well suited for Python developers. There is a built in Python real-time console to interactively experiment with coed on the fly. Menus are also customizable.

Webstorm - Offered by Jetbrains, this editing tool is really an IDE - Integrated Development Environment.  IDEs are designed to provide a full environment for developing apps or software. Webstorm was designed with Javascript libraries in mind. A plugin tool for Node.js eases the installation of Node programs. Webstorm permits ease in Javascript debugging, yet it also can handle HTML functions as well as others.  Available online, Webstorm is tailored for developers who are looking to create single page applications.

Espresso - Espresso is also a Mac dedicated text editor. It has a number of CSS live-edit features that lets the user view how an element changes on a HTML file impacts a design before uploading to a site. It also has language support for Ruby, Phython, and Apache as well as PHP and Javascript.  It is perfect for those who typically find themselves updating in the cascading style sheet frequently.

Coda - Coda provides Git access, live code hints, and a GUI for MySQL, among other features. There is also a preview version that lets you view changes on an iPad while editing. This permits a side by side view of changes with using two screens rather than a split screen.