Open Source World lacks Good Web Development IDEs

24Jun/075

Open Source World lacks Good Web Development IDEs

Linux is considered the de-facto server based operating system. A typical Linux distribution comes with everything any web developer could have asked for: php, apache, python, perl, ruby etc. However there is one thing that Linux sorely lacks: Web Development IDEs. Sure KDE comes with Quanta, and there is BlueFish, and there used to be Nvu. Each IDE has its own strengths, for example I love coding php in Quanta, BlueFish rocks at HTML authoring, however there is so much more to web development nowadays: XML, CSS3, JavaScript to name a few. And each IDE really sucks in handling these things. Today I was coding in Javascript and Quanta kept crashing!

To just give a flavor what the open source world is up against when it comes to web development IDEs. Just have a look at the latest enhancements to the already powerful Visual Studio (not a web development IDE par se, however VS always has supported web development due to ASP). Then of course, no comparison is complete without the mention of Adobe Dreamweaver, MS Expression Designer although seen as lame in the Windows world is light years ahead of any open source web development IDE unfortunately.

So what is a Linux web developer to do? Put up with crashing, feature deficient web development applications, or get the proprietary ones and run in them in through virtualization (this is the path I'm thinking of adapting)?

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Filed under: FOSS, linux, open source, web Leave a comment

Sanjay Bhangar

Yes, this is a big problem — I currently just use GPHPEdit for the PhP but mostly just Gedit:- ), which is increasingly getting to be unmanageable and a pain to debug. Tried stuff like Amaya, going to try Quanta after this, but a JS / PhP / CSS IDE is the sore need of the hour…
http://jafferhaider.wordpress.com/ Jaffer Haider

Hey, have you tried Aptana (www.aptana.com) for your Javascript related development? IMO it’s the best open source IDE out there for Javascript/AJAX based applications. I’ve used both the Windows and Linux (on Ubuntu) versions, and although the Windows version is a lot better than its Linux counterpart, I believe Aptana on Linux is a big step up from any other open source Javascript IDE on Linux.
You can also install plugins in Aptana to give auto-complete facilities for any other scripting languages, like PHP, ASP etc. Its also got full support for Adobe AIR (formerly Apollo) and iPhone SDK. You have to try it out if you’re looking for a new IDE.

If you’re working on RoR, than look no further than RadRails (sold out to Aptana recently, now they’re moving the project forward instead of its original creators).

Let me know how you liked it!
http://pkexperts.com/forums/ Asad

To be frank, there isn’t any free PHP IDE available that can be used for big projects management.

To manage a project and to speed up development, it’s essential to have features like list of project files, directories. One click class/function location finders, variable/functions auto-complete etc. But most of those available as open-source lack these features just yet.

If you do use PHP, CSS, HTML, then I think your best bet is Zend Studio. I think it runs fine on linux too using since it’s written in Java. It’s something I enjoy using on the daily basis. It’s costly, but it’s worth it until a free solution comes in.

I just wished the Zend guys released a lite version of it for free but it seems like they’ll never be so generous.
http://jafferhaider.wordpress.com/ Jaffer Haider

You should try Aptana (www.aptana.com) for your Javascript related development.

IMO it’s the best open source IDE out there for Javascript/AJAX based applications. I’ve used both the Windows and Linux (on Ubuntu) versions, and although the Windows version is a lot better than its Linux counterpart, I believe Aptana on Linux is a big step up from any other open source Javascript IDE on Linux.

You can also install plugins in Aptana to give auto-complete facilities for any other scripting languages, like PHP, ASP etc.

Its also got full support for Adobe AIR (formerly Apollo) and iPhone SDK. You have to try it out if you’re looking for a new IDE.

If you’re working on RoR, than look no further than RadRails (sold out to Aptana recently, now they’re moving the project forward instead of its original creators).
Midhat

I remember last summer i developed on the Apache OfBiz framework using Windows, Apache, Mysql and Java/XML. Eclipse was our IDE and SVN was our Source control. So as i see it, you can just pull out Gates and put in Stallman and it shall work.

And if you are so crazy abt developing in PHP or Ruby of whatever why dont you (or the Open Src community) extend existing IDEs for those languages.

In my opinion developing code according to available IDEs is as important as creating new IDEs for the ever changing coding requirements.

In my limited Open source developemnt experience, I have used two major app frameworks, Apache Ofbiz (fits neatly into eclipse) and Apache Struts (fits into Websphere, though it is not free).

So how about writing code for IDEs next time, instead of writing IDEs for code. sure when the code just wont fit into existing IDEs, go build a new one.