HTML, XHTML and CSS All-In-One for Dummies - Andy Harris [27]
Figure 3-2:
VI isn’t pretty, but after you know it, it’s very powerful.
VI is a modal editor, which means that the same key sometimes has more than one job, depending on the editor’s current mode. For example, the I key is used to indicate where you want to insert text. The D key is used to delete text, and so on. Of course, when you’re inserting text, the keys have their normal meanings. This multimode behavior is baffling to modern users, but it can be amazingly efficient after you get used to it. Skilled VI users swear by it and often use nothing else.
VI is a little too obscure for some users, so a number of variants are floating around, such as VIM, or VI Improved. (Yeah, it should be VII but maybe they were afraid people would call it the Roman numeral seven.) VIM is a little friendlier than VI. It tells you which mode it’s in and includes such modern features as mouse support, menus, and icons. Even with these features, VIM is not intuitive for most people.
Versions of VI are available for nearly any operating system being used. If you already know VI, you might enjoy using it for Web page development because it has all the features you might need. If you don’t already know VI, it’s probably more efficient for you to start with a more standard text editor, such as Notepad++.
Emacs
The other popular editor from the UNIX world is Emacs. Like VI, you probably don’t need this tool if you never use Linux or UNIX. Also like VI, if you know it already, you probably don’t need anything else. Emacs has been a programmer’s editor for a very long time (it has been in continuous development since 1976) and has nearly every feature you can think of.
Emacs also has a lot of features you haven’t thought of, including a built-in text adventure game and even a psychotherapist simulator. I really couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried.
Emacs has very powerful customization and macro features and allows you to view and edit more than one file at a time. Emacs also has the ability to view and manipulate the local file system, manage remote files, access the local operating system (OS) shell, and even browse the Web or check e-mail without leaving the program. If you’re willing to invest in a program that takes some effort to understand, you’ll have an incredibly powerful tool in your kit. Versions of Emacs are available for most major operating systems. Emacs is one of the first programs I install on any new computer because it’s so powerful. A version of Emacs is shown in Figure 3-3.
Figure 3-3: Emacs is powerful but somewhat eccentric.
An enhanced version — XEmacs — uses standard menus and icons like modern programs, so it’s reasonably easy to get started with.
Emacs has an astonishing number of options and a nonstandard interface, so it can be challenging for beginners.
Other text editors
Many other text editors are used in Web development. The most important thing is to find one that matches the way you work. If you don’t like any of the editors I’ve suggested so far, here are a few more you might want to try:
♦ SynEdit: Much like Notepad++ and very popular with Web developers
♦ Scintilla: Primarily a programming editor, but has nice support for XHTML coding
♦ jEdit: A popular text editor written in Java with nice features, but some developers consider it slower than the other choices
The Web Developer’s Browser
Web pages are meant to display in a browser; so, of course, you need browsers for testing. Not all browsers are the same, though, so you need more than one. As of this writing, there are two major browsers and a number of other significant players in the browser world. It’s important to know a little about the major browsers, which I discuss later in this section.
A little ancient history
You’ve probably already noticed that