Recommended Software for Web Development

This list of recommended software covers applications that I use to do my web development work. I have listed the names of the programs, but not linked to them since a web search will bring up their homepages.

Vim (text editor, free)

I use Vim to edit files when I SSH to the Linux webserver at work. It is a very powerful editor with loads of commands, though not as intuitive as it could be. The version I use over SSH is a command line version, but there is also a Windows port with a GUI. I also use Vim for editing configuration files on my Linux PC at home.

Firefox (web browser, free)

I use Firefox whenever I can to surf the net. It seems to be a bit faster and more responsive than MS Internet Explorer, and also seems to have fewer security holes. Tabbed browsing available (well before Internet Explorer offered it). A good plugin called Firebug is available to help developers examine and debug their web pages.

FileZilla (FTP client, free)

A no-frills FTP client. Does everything I need it to.

TextPad (text editor, commercial)

TextPad is a good alternative to Notepad on Windows. You can open several documents in their own tabs. Syntax highlighting is supported and you can use tools such as javac (to compile Java) from within the application. You can use the full featured trial edition until you want to purchase a licence (you'll get a reminder every now and then asking if you want to do this).

SVN (revision control, free)

I use SVN to manage updating the local & remote versions of the project I'm working on. The command line interface will be mostly familiar to CVS users, and is not difficult to learn for new users.

Ubuntu Linux (operating system, free)

I have started developing locally on an Ubuntu Linux system which I have set up to mirror the server at work in certain aspects. That aside, standard desktop usage is impressive and a viable alternative to Microsoft Windows.

I am currently trying out PHP Designer 2007 - Professional 5.3.1, which is an IDE for PHP. In fact, I'm writing this text in it... and if I like it I'll be listing it above.