Web Design with Eclipse

[pod]

I spend a lot of time working on websites and I have considering buying a second monitor as I don't have enough desktop to edit code in one window and view the result in a browser in another window without having to open/close windows.

 

I decided to look for a software solution first and was surprised having a code editor and browser preview in the same space wasn't easy to find. I work with php/mysql and Dreamweaver 8, so the standard html preview approach Dreamweaver uses (don't know about the new version) doesn't work for me and it's php testing server launches in a new window. I tried Microsoft Expression and had no joy with that either.

 

I am pleased to say I have been running Eclipse from eclipse.org for the last few days and it does exactly what I was looking for. Jumping between code and a browser preview is a tab away. I know it may not seem like a big deal, jumping between windows, but when you have done it for the 1000th time it saves on the rsi :-) I can tell as well that I am only scratching the surface with eclipse at the moment and I'm sure it will prove even more helpful in the future.

 

I don't see it as a teaching tool to frighten students with but I am sure there are many here who already use it or may find it useful.

 

Chris

[mrwITch]

Eclipse (and it's many plugins) is a favorite of many developers / designers in the Java world

 

Plugins

Eclipse Plugin Central :: Eclipse plugins resource center and marketplace for Eclipse and Plugin Ecosystem

 

You can do almost everything you need directly within Eclipse

Setup / mange your Subversion source-code repository

Configure Maven and / or Apache Ant to continuously build your project

Invoke your JMeter/Junit Test scripts & log bug reports

Control your App/web servers

Configure your DB Data sources

 

Plugins are available for most things DB, LDAP, UML/BPMN, craft XSDs / XSLTs / WebServices etc etc