What is the ideal environment to code a website in for you?

I know PHP, MySQL, CSS, HTML. I probably need to learn Javascript, and a little bit of Ajax just probably for forms or something.





What is the ideal environment to work in?





Just for you specifically I guess.





On a Windows PC, Linux PC, or Mac (I have heard they have nice programs over there, CSStabs I heard of)





What programs do you use? Dreamweaver? PHP Professional? And please I don't want to hear any 1337 programs saying they just use regular notepad. I have heard some people code on Firefox using it's extensions





Do you have Apace with others set up, or do you just have an all in one server like Xampp set up?





And finally, when you code, I'm assuming you don't do it with just your mind, do you have any references (books, printed pages, websites) you use while you code it?





I am an aspiring coder, and I don't wish to pay money to learn this. I'm getting there. I just want to know some of you guys setups.

What is the ideal environment to code a website in for you?
I do all my web design on Windows, since one of the requirements is to have a copy of all the popular browsers in use, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc. so you can check for problems in how your page displays.





Being that Internet Explorer is on that list, and it's only for Windows, you are not really going to be able to check it, if you don't have access to that browser.





Also, for accessibility reasons, get a copy of Lynx or use a Lynx viewer. If your site looks ok in that, it will usually work well with screen readers.





If you want to build a page quickly, Dreamweaver is OK, but it does create bloated code which loads slower in browsers.





I am not 1337, but I do prefer hand coding my pages in something notepad-like (Notepad2 has great syntax highlighting). It's easier for me than fighting with Dreamweaver or wasting a lot of time cleaning up the bloated mess later. Dreamweaver is still great for complicated tables, though.





One of the ways you can design a page before you actually create it, is to do it in Paintshop Pro, Photoshop, or the Gimp. (Gimp is free)





Build your page from images you will be using, in layers, so you can move the objects around. Experiment with colors. Add some sample text. Once you have the layout the way you want, save it as a .png or .jpg. Create a few of them and then pick the best one. Use it temporarily as your page background and build your page on top of it. Once it is complete, replace that image with the real background.





My main reference when I get stuck is W3Schools.





I have Xerver set up on my pc with Perl and PHP. It's a small, simple, lightweight, free web server and works well on my old slow computer.





Also, if you have a dynamic IP and are working on your home computer, some type of DNS service like No-IP will come in handy. That way you have a URL to your web server that you can use with various services like the Lynx viewer and page validation services. It's much easier than using your IP all the time.





My inspiration for website designs? They usually come from my own head, and I have been known to make some rather unusual looking sites. I also get ideas from other people's websites.





Just for the sake of learning, I would go find a few well known popular sites and pretend that they have just hired me to redesign their site. Pick sites of a variety of types. If you plan on doing this professionally at some point, the practice will be good, and you would be building a collection of templates you could use later on.





When you see a site you like, take a screenshot of it. Study it. Find out what it is about that site that makes it something you like looking at and using. Take screenshots of bad sites too. Screenshot Captor is a great application for this. (donationware)





Build your own Do's %26amp; Don't list based on your user experiences. When you are designing, refer to it often.





My setup when working is usually a browser window and a text editor.





Code, save, refresh browser, repeat.





And I use ColorCop for picking colors. (freeware)





All my tools, with the exception of Paintshop Pro, are very simple, easy to use, and best of all...free.
Reply:I used to code in windows with dreamweaver. A very nice and very expensive IDE.





I bought a mac. PHP comes installed when you open the box with Apapche. I have also seen perl and python inside the machine but have not used them. only had to install mysql.





Looked all around for editors.. free ones.





Aptana is good for JS and HTML.. eclipse PDT is very good for PHP yet it is there for projects.





I wanted one that can edit arbitrary pages. Now I am settled with KomodoEdit. Surprisingly functional and helpful with PHP, for a free editor, Komodo is unbeatabe. it does other languages as well, but php is what I use.





And when you code, google is your friend to dig through millions of forums, mailing lists etc. www.php.net is very very useful, especially the user contributed notes. Some brilliant functions are there.





One piece of advice, code for a problem, when you need a solution you need to use your mind. However, manuals, forums, internet in general AND editors that have syntax highlighting and function references are there to speed you up, so you can focus more on the problem, rather than the tool, in this case the language.
Reply:1. I use a WIndows PC


2. I do strait htmlcoding, no visual editors.


3. I use the free html editor from coffeuop.com (it is under free stuff) and clear out all preset code


4. I like to use webmonkey, W3schools, and code punk, the last link in references is the hex color guide I like to use.
Reply:if you want to learn stop crying and learn to do it right first. use notepad, honestly its worth learning to do first (and employers like it too). I use a pc, the only thing to watch out for is client side scripting. Ie does not always do what you want it to like firefox will. Check your codes in different browsers as you go.