New to coding, should I buy BBEdit?
Janec3
all by hand, tried Dreamweaver, its OK, but much prefer just using my
TextEdit and doing it myself. Also I use a couple of templates which a
classmate has helped me with.
My question is, should I buy BBEdit and learn it? Will it be any
better than hand coding for speed?
Many questions, I love learning new software, but with coding, Im not
sure about tackling something complex, as I didnt do well with DW.
Thank you,
Jane
Bucky Junior
You _do_ realize that you are asking about BBEdit on a list where we're nearly ALL BBEdit fanatics? It's like going to a Superbowl game and asking if anyone likes being a football fan.
Since you say you are just starting out and doing your coding by hand, you might want to try out BBEdit's free Text Wrangler<http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/>. It doesn't do everything that BBEdit does now but does most of what BBEdit did 5-1/2 versions ago.
You can use BBEdit with a 30-day trial but I think it would be difficult for someone just starting out to really get deep into the power of BBEdit in 30 days. Then too, with the new pricing, the full BBEdit is very affordable.
Should you buy it? That would be up to you.
Would it be better? Definitely though there are other editors out there. (Don't ask me what they are--remember the football fan?)
There is a learning curve. Just released is "Take Control" book for BBEdit <http://www.barebones.com/support/resources/bookshelf.html#TCoBB> which seem like it would help.
Best wishes in your writing.
Bucky
> --
Fritz Anderson
Could you clarify what you mean by "coding?" Is your concern HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or some other language? Is your target a web application, or some other means of deployment?
The first thing you should know is that Bare Bones's website (http://www.barebones.com/) offers a full version of BBEdit for a time-limited free trial. The best way to know if it's for you is to use it.
You'll be typing your code (whatever it is) directly into a text-editing window, but that's not all. BBEdit provides ways to immediately run or display the results of your work, including a constantly-updated preview of the web pages you write. BBEdit gives you tools to organize a web site, and it has a huge toolkit to make it easy to build what you need.
Bucky is right that there is a lot to BBEdit, and it may take time for you to experience everything it can do for you. You might want to download the manual (http://pine.barebones.com/manual/BBEdit_10_User_Manual.pdf). Read the introductory chapters closely, skim the rest, and then download the free trial. (Don't download it first — you'll be tempted to run it right away, and start the 30-day clock too soon!)
This list will be delighted to answer your questions.
— F
Nello Lucchesi
Here are some reasons to use BBEdit instead of TextEdit:
• Formatting your code to show tag hierarchy.
• Learning new tags and attribute through the "auto complete" feature.
You can use as much or as little of BBEdit as you want.
- nello
Nello Lucchesi
The October Group, Ltd.
David Kelly
On Mar 12, 2012, at 7:51 AM, Janec3 wrote:
> I am new to coding, and can do HTML well, and am learning CSS. I do it
> all by hand, tried Dreamweaver, its OK, but much prefer just using my
> TextEdit and doing it myself. Also I use a couple of templates which a
> classmate has helped me with.
I used BBEdit for many years before my first use on HTML. My primary use is still plain old C.
> My question is, should I buy BBEdit and learn it? Will it be any
> better than hand coding for speed?
Perhaps not for writing faster code, but for writing code faster.
--
David Kelly N4HHE, dke...@HiWAAY.net
============================================================
Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.
Bucky Junior
>
> Perhaps not for writing faster code, but for writing code faster.
This is a great line. I'm going to have to remember it.
As great as the line is, I find that I do write what I think is faster
code with BBEdit because it is so much easier to write standards
compliant code. It's so easy to check the code and _see_ the code. So
much of what I see out there on the intertubes is put together in such
a slush of cruft. Browsers do just a little less work to display more
efficient markup that is easy with BBEdit.
Fletcher Sandbeck
> My question is, should I buy BBEdit and learn it? Will it be any
> better than hand coding for speed?
I can't imagine hand coding HTML in anything other than BBEdit. It has features like syntax coloring, parentheses balancing, support for remote editing, show differences, and powerful search/replace which are really useful. BBEdit exposes details like what character set and line endings a file uses, details that many "friendlier" editors would hide as unimportant for the end user but can be essential when working on websites. And then the user interface is minimalist enough that it doesn't get in the way with lots of toolbars and wizards.
[fletcher]
David Kelly
On Mar 12, 2012, at 9:54 AM, Bucky Junior wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 8:17 AM, David Kelly <dke...@hiwaay.net> wrote:
>>
>> Perhaps not for writing faster code, but for writing code faster.
>
> This is a great line. I'm going to have to remember it.
>
> As great as the line is, I find that I do write what I think is faster
> code with BBEdit because it is so much easier to write standards
> compliant code.
My key point is that doesn't really know how to create code structures, that you have to know what you are doing. Its not a GUI website builder although it has a GUI and can be used to build websites.
Eric Ridgley
I'd start with TextWrangler and see how you like it. I've looked at TextMate & Coda but never felt like forking over the $$$ and have always been pleased with BBEdit.
Incidentally, most of the work I used to do with BBEdit had to deal with quark xpress's own markup language - xpress tags. But now I'm working more with PHP/MySQL/Apache websites.
Also, (kind of off topic of BBEdit, but relates to Databases) I was recently turned on to http://www.adminer.org/ as a great alternative to phpMyAdmin.
-E
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LuKreme
> My question is, should I buy BBEdit and learn it?
Since most everyone on his list not only bought BBEdit, but bought it back int he old days when the price was $125 (and has probably paid for several updates), we're probably biased.
> Will it be any better than hand coding for speed?
I can't answer for you, but for me the speed of coding is vastly greater with BBEdit.
> Many questions, I love learning new software, but with coding, Im not
> sure about tackling something complex, as I didnt do well with DW.
There's a brand new Take Control of BBEdit ebook for $5. You can gt the BBEditdemo for $30, buy the ebook, and I think you will have a very good idea of if BBedit is something you want.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/bbedit/>
You can also try out TextWrangler, though it lacks the extensive HTML stuff. Text Wrangler is free and has many of the advantages of BBEdit. For me, even the only occasional HTML that I do now is easily worth the price of BBEdit.
--
Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you
put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying
"End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH," the paint wouldn't even
have time to dry.
David Miers
Mark Learst
Your best bet is to download other editors and test for yourself, as
BBEdit is pretty awesome, I use another editor (still attached to
TextMate 1.x) along side BBEdit to get the job done. BBEdit does
certain things that I couldn't live without, that other editors either
don't do natively or are a pain to create your own plugin (or find
one) to do something that's built into BBedit. I'd highly suggest you
head over to:
http://maceditors.com/
And test out each of the editors in that list to get a feel of what
will fix your bill. Coda is a nice editor that's far less bloated then
DW and is very popular amongst designers and non super tech savvy
people (same with Espresso). BBEdit, TextMate and SublimeText 2 are
the heavy lifters of the pack (Vim if you like playing twister with
your keyboard and all the key commands), all are great.
As always use what works best for you!
GL
Phil Dobbin
Hash: SHA1
On 15/03/2012 19:59, Mark Learst wrote:
[snip]
> And test out each of the editors in that list to get a feel of what
> will fix your bill. Coda is a nice editor that's far less bloated then
> DW and is very popular amongst designers and non super tech savvy
> people (same with Espresso). BBEdit, TextMate and SublimeText 2 are
> the heavy lifters of the pack (Vim if you like playing twister with
> your keyboard and all the key commands), all are great.
I think you're confusing Vim with Escape Meta Alt Control Shift...
Off topic, I'll get my coat ;-)
Cheers,
Phil...
- --
But masters, remember that I am an ass.
Though it be not written down,
yet forget not that I am an ass.
Wm. Shakespeare - Much Ado About Nothing
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Peter Mount
I see you're already coding by hand which is good. Coding by hand in a
simple text editor is the best way to start out when you're learning.
It's best to do this for a few months before looking at software like
BBEdit as you really need to concentrate on learning how to code
first.
Assuming you have a Mac then if you've already been hand coding for a
couple of months or so then by all means download a the BBEdit trial
version. The real test of an editor like BBEdit is whether or not it
feels right to you and this has as much to do with how you work as
much as anything else.
I personally haven't had as much coding work as most other people on
this list but with the work I've done I do find BBEdit is comfortable
to work with. One thing I like is how when you drag an image onto the
code it automatically inserts the anchor tag for it. I've tried doing
this with other software like Textmate and Eclipse but that didn't
work (there might have been a setting I didn't select in the options
but that's another story).
But yes the ultimate test is how it feels to you with your own way of
working. So downloading the trial is a good idea.