my new Javascript editor _ Visual Web Studio Express 2008
It is now official: today I’ve dumped Aptana Studio, with a sore heart, frustration and a bad taste in the mouth for not knowing why it suddenly gave up on me and didn’t want to show me anything beyond its splashscreen after two years of good service.
So i had to rely on another editor for my javascript needs, and god that was paintful when you’re an old fart that has its habits, like me. Nothing beats Waterproof ’s PHPEdit 3.0 for PHP, but it doesn’t quite cut it for anything else, particularly not for javascript. Komodo Edit 4.4 is nice (and free) too, but i can’t actually get it to look or do code formatting the way aptana did.
So, the search for the new ideal javascript editor was on again. Notepad++, PSPad, etc. No, no, no. None have that holy grail code formatting i can’t do without anymore.
Believe me or not, as I was about to revert to notepad thinking “Microsoft, ah, bah… After all, why not”, I remembered they had that Visual Web Studio suite a while ago. A quick google lead me to the Visual Web Studio Express 2008 website. The features listed “code formatting”, the price tag = null, so i stopped reading and went on downloading the sucker.
200 Mo and 30 minute-long installation later, i’m now a happy javascripter again. Ok, it’s a free tool so it has limitations (the main one being it tries to get you to do ASP stuff), but it’s snappy, code looks great and readable, code formatting works perfectly and… you get an awesome javascript debugger for Internet explorer (provided you follow this setup guide, as it’s not available in the free version).
Still, i remain interested in reading about your IDE of choice _ for javascript, that is.
Author: pixeline
Date: October 8th, 2008
filed in: Development
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Sorry something went wrong with Aptana. Could you file a ticket to let us know, even if you are moving on. It will help others out.
Hello,
I work on Komodo and we’re currently putting in some code formatting features — integrating 3rd party formatters for a number of languages. I’d be interested to know more what exactly you expect out of “code formatting” from your editor.
Cheers,
Trent
@nicolas nierenberg: very sorry too, honestly. I did file a ticket and was sent to the “rename jre to jre.old” then relaunch trick. Didn’t work. Even reinstalled the JRE, no avail. Desinstalled aptana, then reinstalled it, no more luck. The issue i filed is here: http://support.aptana.com/asap/browse/STU-2053
@trent mick: well, i have phpedit’s code beautifier in mind. it allows for example, to set if a return should be performed after each { for functions, if… else, switch case, etc) and the amount of padding for each tab. also, you can reformat using a shortcut, so i have now the habit to type code, then hit that ctrl+F shortcut. Note that reformatting should not make the viewpane scrollback to the top of the document but keep the viewpane scrolled on the same line, so as not to disturb user focus. Aptana had this issue, was supposed to be fixed with v1.2.
Trent, if you write php code i suggest you try out phpedit (free trial available) for that code beautifier functionality. really handsome.