9 Great Web Development Applications and Frameworks

After a short while, developers will find that they prefer some tools more than others. Similarly, I have a group of tools and frameworks which I have found to be suited to my personal development environment which I use on a daily basis. Read on to see what they are and be sure to outline any tools that you have found to be helpful in your Web development projects in the comments.

Applications

IDE: Komodo Edit

For at least the last year I have been using Komodo Edit as my IDE of choice. It doesn’t force any features on me that I don’t want to use, and at the same time, offers extras like code suggestion and clever syntax highlighting to make coding a more smooth and enjoyable experience.

The interface isn’t too bulky like Eclipse’s and Aptana’s, and it isn’t buggy like other text editors I’ve used. If there’s one negative I can mention, its that it takes a tremendous amount of time to start up (30 seconds+ sometimes) and can crash unexpectedly on program close. Regardless, I’ve yet to find another IDE I can use as fluently as Komodo Edit.

Development Environment: Wamp Server

As a Windows user, Wamp has been my saviour when it comes to development environments. It has a great little interface accessible through a little icon on the taskbar, and it comes packed with nearly everything you could possibly need to make a comprehensive Website extensions-wise.

I have used it since I started Web development, and I have a feeling I will still be using it for a good while more (at least, until I move over to Linux permanently). For a Web development newbie, it is definitely the easiest to get up and running.

Email: Mozilla Thunderbird

Though this doesn’t relate to development, I do find it greatly helpful at work, and when I was in desperate need of an email client that didn’t want to erase all my emails (Outlook, you villain), Thunderbird was there to fly me to safety. Since I moved to Thunderbird, I have not had a single problem (aside from issues upgrading to version 3 which I don’t feel count as I was somewhat overeager in transitioning), and can highly recommend it reliability-wise. Those looking for a better client than Outlook, that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, I can almost guarantee that Thunderbird will serve you as perfectly as it has me.

FTP Client: Filezilla

Filezilla is a great FTP client for its price ($0), though it does have a few frustrating navigation issues. Aside from that its been a great application and I have yet to find a worthy rival at the same price point.

Web Browser: Firefox

I doubt anyone is surprised to see Firefox here. It has the best development tools available in any browser, and just feels “right” to use. Yes, it lacks the interface touch ups that Opera and Chrome can boast, but at the end of the day, usability trumps good looks, and Firefox has usability in spades. If I was to choose a close second, Chrome would be it, but without more usable, less buggy developer tools, it cannot overtake Firefox any time soon.

Frameworks

PHP Framework: CakePHP

Currently Flint Studio’s PHP framework of choice, CakePHP is great for cooking up simple database-centric Websites fast, as well as for supplying a solid foundation to build larger-scale Websites on. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for something to make development easier, as well as to find a good enforcer of the MVC standard.

CSS Framework: YUI Grids

I started using Yahoo’s YUI Grids CSS framework nearly a year ago, and I’ve continued to do so as it has been a reliable performer across all browsers and has saved me much time laying out my Websites. It is slightly less flexible than other CSS frameworks like 960 and Blueprint, but because of this, it is also more enjoyable to use as there is less to learn. I find the markup to be more semantic with YUI than the other CSS frameworks as well, so thats a large plus in my book.

If there is a downside to using YUI, its that, because it uses percentage-based widths, the widths of elements are often not rounded, even becoming decimal in nature, and this makes it hard to use set widths for images and child elements in your layouts. I recently had to create a very complex multi-template Website and I started finding that the further in I got (the more I nested grids within grids), more problems would crop up with widths and width-related IE bugs. I also had to overwrite a couple of classes belonging to the framework due to some nesting bugs.

So if you are a beginner at CSS who likes to keep his layout markup simple, I’d recommend YUI for its shallow learning curve, and effective minimizing of having to perform clearing and floating. However, if markup complexity is more of a necessity, I would look elsewhere, such as to Blueprint or 960.

CSS Framework: 960 Grids

Because of the problems I outlined above with using YUI, I decided to look elsewhere, namely at Blueprint and most especially, 960. I have yet to make a complex layout in either of them, but I already know that, because they both use fixed widths and more versatile grid structures, I won’t have the same problems I did with YUI.

After doing a little investigating of the differences between Blueprint and 960, I ascertained that Blueprint is subtractive and 960 is additive. This means that Blueprint will supply lots of default styles for well spaced out layouts and nice looking typography from the start which you will simply have to override where necessary, and 960 will keep it as minimalistic as possible so that you have to specify all of your own styles (apart from those for the layout of course).

I preferred the latter, so I decided to have a go with 960. In a future blog article I will be sure to outline my findings.

Javascript Framework: JQuery

JQuery enabled me to make the large jump into Javascript animation and interface development much quicker than I believe any of the other Javascript frameworks would have. It is very intuitive to use, and it allows you to get things moving along with very little code. Some say that it’s not as well suited to large scale Javascript development because of this, however, but its highly unlikely any of us normal developers will be pushing the framework that far anyway, so its not really that big a moot point.

Conclusion

These are the tools I use the most in my daily developing. Be sure to leave a comment below if you feel strongly about any other similar applications or frameworks!

Related Posts

• Great Side Project Ideas For Web Developers
• 5 Great CSS 3 Generators to Speed up Web Development!
• PHP Framework Roundup

Leave a comment