Resources for Website/page development

The world of resources for those who craft websites just keeps getting better and better. Here’s some of the very best. Virtually all are cross-platform.

Website design

One’s conceptual overview of a website project is critical. “Do it right or do it over” – this advice applies to websites just as well as it does to anything else. Here are some places to learn about how to develop an overview of a website project which will work for all concerned:

Language technology

This is the conceptual basis of the Internet. It specifies the organization and low-level presentation rules for information management in web pages.

HTML / XHTML

The best idea is to use XHTML for everything, from the beginning. You’ll still need knowledge of basic HTML, however.

Tutorials

XHTML

References – tags, attributes, & character codes

  • Non-usual characters and their representation in X/HTML

Javascript

CSS

There are many wonderful resources on CSS on the WWW. Some of the most essential:

  • Starting points
  • Cascading Style Sheets – (Wikipedia) Good overview. Assumes a fair degree of computer literacy. Some references to MS IE browser refer to ver. 6 but not to the current ver. 7.
  • CSS specifications – The home website for the keepers of the CSS specifications. Provides immediate access to the full set of specifications for the various CSS versions, and much more.
  • CSS2 Reference – Excellent, readable encyclopedia of CSS information.
  • CSS-discuss Wiki – A discussion forum set up by CSS guru Eric Meyer. Contains some very valuable tips on solving a host of common challenges in CSS.
  • WebReference.com’s resource list – good stuff.

Cross-browser robustness

Code Validation

Accessibility

A website’s accessibility is the degree to which people with differing sensory and motor and mental capabilities can get to its information. Accessibility doesn’t happen by accident. It must be design into a website.

NOTE that the World Wide Web Consortium has its standards, and individual federal governments often have theirs as well.

Editors

Basic toolsets for creation/manipulation of the text and image elements of a web page. Please note that many are marked as to the platforms on which it will run – refer to the linked notes appearing after each description.

Text/HTML/Code

  • Amaya - a cross-platform freeware web page editor/browser whose great virtue is its WYSIWYG editor interface. Quirky and not yet finished, but with loads of solid functionality in place. It takes some learning, but then it’s a wonderful tool for writing directly into a web page – the best I’ve yet seen. Easily generates table of contents for a web page. From which run the Internet (the people who write the rules for the Internet (Tidy not included5.)
  • jEdit – a very powerful professional source code editor. Cross-platform (Java), open-source freeware. Rock-solid, with a large number of handy add-ons (including CSS editing, and Tidy5).

CSS

  • jEdit – Powerful text editor with a very good CSS editing addon. With a manual reference source at hand, could fairly easily replace TopStyle editor5.
  • TopStyle for Windows – A CSS editor that simply has no equal. Costs about $80, and worth every penny. (Tidy included1.)
  • StyleMaster – Competition for TopStyle, but not as powerful or versatile. Considerably better than no editor at all, however. About $60, with a 30-day free try-out first1 (and2).

Text / CSS (and more!) combined

  • Aptana – A wondrous editor built on the Java Eclipse platform. Full of functionality, and beautifully designed. Open source freeware, it’s still under development. Addition of Tidy functionality is expected, and by about the summer or fall of 2007, the award winning RadRails development environment should be merged into Aptana (along with the Ruby Development Tools), allowing work on Ruby-on-Rail sites, and their HTML, CSS, and Ajax components – all in one editor. A dazzling prospect! (A good beta of this new editor is now available, as of 2007.05.05 – I’m using it with much pleasure. Has HTML/CSS editing, Javascript and Ruby debugging, and more5.)
  • jEdit – a very powerful professional source code editor. Cross-platform (Java), open-source freeware. Rock-solid, with a large number of handy add-ons (including CSS editing, and Tidy5).
  • TopStyle for Windows – A CSS editor that simply has no equal. Costs about $80, and worth every penny. Also a fine HTML editor, but CSS is where it really shines. (Tidy included1)
  • tsWebEditor & see also Tigris.org project page – a freeware open source professional editor specializing in web page code – HTML, CSS, scripting, etc.. Highly evolved for all things relating to web pages (Tidy included1)
  • TSW WebCoder – an affordable commercial product with a rich range of features1 (may also work with other OSs).

Images

  • Photo images
    • Gimp - the open source, free, and powerful alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
    • Opanda PhotoFilter – freeware which ”...allows you to apply the effect of various Kodak, Hoya, and Cokin photo filters to your digital images…”
    • Picasa - freeware from Google, this catalogs sets of images, making their management rather easy. It also offers modest but often useful image editing functionality.
  • Vector graphics illustration: Inkscape – open source vector graphics editor; powerful, standards compliant, well-reviewed.

Audio

  • Audacity - a multi-track audio recorder/editor - ”...free, open source cross-platform5 software for recording and editing sounds…” Has analog to digital capabilities and much more. For additional disk burning capability, consider InfraRecorder1
  • see also: Free audio software (Wikipedia)

Video

  • Jahshaka – ”...a free program with the video and audio editing capabilities of professional-level software…” Still under development, but already very useful.

Misc. software tools

Application software

  • PrimoPDF – free open source PDF creator with all the features you’re likely to need, including optional password protection for output PDF.
  • Foxit PDF Reader – free, lightweight, completely capable PDF file reader.
  • Mozilla Firefox has a number of web developer addons that are extraordinary. I recommend particularly Web Developer and Firebug. In a word: essential. First, install the Firefox browser, then these addons.
  • W3C Linkchecker – checks and entire website (output can therefore be lengthy!), if given the right URL. Available as a web service and as a PERL download module (see installation instructions. If run as a web service, it’s best to set these options (are on the service web page): “summary only”, recursion depth = 3.
  • Xenu – freeware linkchecker for web pages/sites (Windows only”> Works well and fast. (There are very few such programs available. This one has been around for a number of years, and is actively maintained.)

Webpage widgets & services

  • Google analytics – Provided specifically for sites employing Google ads, but available to all others as well. Free, and comprehensive.
  • Webstat web analytics – Basic Edition is free, which includes access to 10 useful web statistic reports.
  • Yahoo Babelfish translation service – By far the best such service I’ve encountered. Once accessed by a user, the translation continues with each subsequent page visited at a website, so that one doesn’t have to keep accessing the service to get a translation. Bear in mind that computer translation from one language to another usually produces at least some unclear or even nonsensical results on any given page. Still, it can be considerable better than having no access to the page at all.

Software sources

When I need a software tool of some sort, here are the places I go to find it.

  • General sources. These offer a wide range of types, both as to cost of acquisition and program function
    • Cnet Download.com – Very mainstream, with emphasis on the Windows OS. it may be the best starting point for novice users as well. Well organized – broad topical coverage.
    • Freshmeat.net - ”...Maintains the Web’s largest index of Unix and cross-platform software, themes and related “eye-candy”, and Palm OS software….Is the first stop for Linux users hunting for the software they need for work or play.”
    • Tucows.com - Well-established, diverse site, with user ratings of software.
    • Wikipedia’s ” Software portal – Excellent for its diversity as well as its descriptions of function. A gateway to a large world of tools and information..
  • Open-source and/or free-ware. Be aware that these terms have a variety of definitions, in practice.
    • Useful article: ” How to find Free Software and Open Source software”.
    • Sourceforge.net – ”...the world’s largest Open Source software development web site, hosting more than 100,000 projects and over 1,000,000 registered users with a centralized resource for managing projects, issues, communications, and code. ...Has the largest repository of Open Source code and applications available on the Internet, and hosts more Open Source development products than any other site or network worldwide.” (http://sourceforge.net/docs/about) Since this is a project registry, it contain many incomplete and abandoned projects, while also containing some exceptional software. Expect to have to seriously filter your searches, here.
    • Wikipedia’s Free software portal – a rather amazing resource. Think of it as a filtering device – stuff doesn’t get into this portal without arousing someone’s genuine interest. Very thorough in its coverage, covering everything from operating systems to all sorts of application programs, compilers, programming languages, etc.

Community website services

These services provide technology for creation of websites easily accessible by groups of users. This sidesteps questions of site design, etc., and allows immediate work on site content.

  • Wetpaint.com - A community of wikis, with access to individual wikis controlled by each wiki developer. Technology is proprietary – uses WYSIWYG interface. Google ad revenue goes to Wetpaint.
  • Wikia – A community of wikis, accessible by all. Technology derives from that used for Wikipedia. Access to wikis appears to be entirely open. Non-WYSIWYG interface. Google ad revenue goes to wiki owner/managers.

General information sources

  • Web Design References – An incredible resource assembled and kept maintained for a number of years by the University of Minnesota at Duluth. Covers the whole topic, with historically important as well as current links. Excellent for getting right into specific topics.
  • Wikipedia.org – Excellent starting point for learning about all things having to do with computers, the Internet, computer programming, etc. Virtually always provides quality links to further resources.
  • Web Developer’s Virtual Library – Portal for a broad range of information, reviews, tutorials, etc.
  • Web developer documentation (Mozilla.org) - “This page provides links to documentation for web developers (people who write web pages) who are interested in the languages used to write web pages for Mozilla and other browsers that support the same standards.”
  • Gizmo Richard’s Support Alert Newsletter – A useful periodic newsletter concerning computer management issues. Has a free and an inexpensive paid subscription version. Provides plenty of practical information about a wide range of sources – one good way to extend one’s coverage of development in computing and Internet usage.

Notes

1 Available for Windows platform.

2 Available for Mac platform.

3 Available for Linux platform (see site for specifics”>

4 Available for Unix platform (see site for specifics”>

5 Cross-platform (Java version and/or multiple platform executables available”>

6 TIDY is an HTML source code cleaner and problem-fixer. Optionally, it can output its input page with all proposed fixes and source code reformatting in place. Very nice – essential, in fact. Has been integrated into a number of text editors – most notably jEdit.

published: 2007.04.01  ♦  last update: 2008.06.22:0620  ♦  pid: 7