Please use caution when moving about the construction site. I tend to leave things out and about when working on my own projects. Yes, I agree that the organic approach to web development can be a bit messy at times, but things will come around soon. Besides, it’s my new toy and I’ll do with it as I wish.

I’ve whipped out my graphics, php, html and css editors and am in the process of making this site much more like what I want it to look like. Speaking of which, what are your favorite tools to use for editing such things?

First off, my background is programming. I’ve been programming off-and-on for nearly 30 years. I’ve programmed in very many languages, many of which I taught myself simply because I wanted to learn them. Lately, I’ve been doing a fair bit of programming in php and the proprietary language LSL2. For both of these, I’ve become accustomed to using eclipse.

My first few attempts at it were not pretty. I found eclipse to be huge, slow and cumbersome. After using it for a while, I’ve found that the quirks are a reasonable trade off for the versatility it provides. It may still be overkill for most projects, but I like the idea of keeping all my development projects, regardless of language, within one environment. Besides, these days a project is often the amalgamation of parts written in different languages, so such a cohesive environment is a boon.

My development environment currently consists of two Linux-based servers, one HP-UX machine, two desktop workstations, a notebook and two hosting providers. To keep things portable, I duplicate the development environment as best I can (eclipse is written in Java, so portability is pretty good) and transport my workspace on a 160GB 2.5″ drive, mounted in a sturdy, metal, USB housing made by Vantec. I love that thing!

For quick-and-dirty work, I tend to use Notepad++ for most things and LSLEditor my LSL files. I love LSLEditor and would use it for all of my work if only it were integrated into eclipse. To move files about, I rely on FileZilla.

About graphics work. . . .  On my Linux boxes, I’ve used GIMP. I know several people who use it regularly and I’ve tried very hard to like it, but I must admit that I stick with Photoshop on my Windows boxes. Although I like to use open source software whenever possible, I had to break down and get Photoshop and Illustrator. The improvements in work flow over the others I’ve tried is simply worth the cost of the products.

Now it’s your turn. Tell us what you use or tell me why I’m using the wrong products.