Code Editors and FTP Tools are most important part of any web developer’s toolkit. Most beginner developers use simple text editor’s like Notepad to write code but as you should start using a Code Editor as soon as possible.
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Code Editors makes your coding workflow much faster, simple and easy. Code editors offer so many features to make developers coding workflow better. You save a lot of time, Code Editors offers syntax highlighting, Code completion, line highlighting and a lot of basic and advanced features. Finding and fixing errors is very easy with code editors.
For popular Code Editors, additional plugins/add-ons are also available. These add-ons add additional features to your code editors. For example, I am a big fan of Emmet a very popular and powerful plugin for popular code editors.
With Emmet, you can write HTML and CSS code very quickly and easily. You can even create HTML markup for whole HTML page with one simple Emmet abbreviation. You can learn more about Emmet at Emmet.io
I have written an in-depth series about Emmet. If you really want to make your coding workflow much simple and faster. Read Faster Workflow: Mastering Emmet Series at SitePoint.
There are many free and premium Code Editor are available. Normally you don’t need to buy a premium code editor. Free code editors offer enough features and functionality to make your coding workflow much better.
Here is a list of some very popular and free code editors. I personally use SublimeText and Brackets. In the past, I have used NotePad++ as well but now I prefer SublimeText which offers the unlimited free trial.
Top 5 Best Code Editors
1: SublimeText (Linux, Mac, Windows – 0 -$70)
SublimeText is one of the most popular and best code editors. It is not free but offers unlimited free trail. Dozens of free themes, plugins, and additional add-ons are available for this popular code editor.
You can find a lot of SublimeText add-ons online. Even Google Developers are using this powerful code editors with their favorite add-ons. Here are some best add-ons for WordPress developers.
- Sublime 2 WordPress Package,
- Search WordPress Codex
- WordPress New Project Config
- Sublime WordPress Codex
- SublimeText Genesis Extension
2. Brackets (Free: Linux, Mac, Windows)
Brackets is a free text editor from Adobe. A collection of Brackets themes is available at GitHub. It has an inline editor, live preview, and Preprocessor (SCSS, LESS) Support.
Emmet, Beautify, File Icons, Git, AuthoPrefixer are some of the most popular extensions for Brackets. WordPress user can install WordPress Hint to adds hinting and auto-completion for WordPress theme and plugin development, and also includes hints for Woo Commerce development.
3. Atom Free – Cross Platform
Atom is another free text editor, created by GitHub. With Atom’s Built-in package manager, you can search for and install new packages or start creating your own—all from within Atom.
There are many free themes and add-ons/packages are available for Atom editor. Here are few WordPress packages for Atom.
- WordPress autocomplete
- autocomplete WordPress hooks
- WordPress API
- Collection of all wordpress functions for atom
- Snippets of all WordPress functions, filter hooks and action hooks
4. Coda 2 MAC Only – Price $99
It is a popular premium Code Editor. You can use WP Syntax plugin, Auto-completion for WordPress 4.7 functions/constants, for WordPress Development.
Tom Mcfalin is famous WordPress developer has listed his 3 favorite WordPress Plugins for Coda. You can view a complete list of Coda Plugin and Themes at Coda website.
5. NotePad++(Free, Windows)
Notepad++ is one of the most popular free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Some of the features are Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding, auto-completion: Word completion, Function completion and Function parameters hint, Multi-Document (Tab interface). You can find a list of Notepad++ plugins at Wiki.
More Code Editors
Here is a list of other free and premium code editors.
- Aptana tudio 3 (Free, Linux, Mac, Windows)
- PHP Storm (Free -$199 – Linux, Mac, Windows)
- TextWrangler (Free, MAC)
- NetBeans (Free, Linux, Mac, Windows)
- Vim (Free, Linux, Mac, Windows)
- TextMate for MAC users
- NetBeans (Free, Linux, Mac, Windows)
9 FTP, Back Up and Migration Tools for Web Developers
WordPress has a lot of free and premium migration plugins, with plugins, you can migrate WordPress installation from local to live to live to the local server. But here are some other tools, not only specific to WordPress developers.
1. FileZilla is the most popular and widely used Free FTP Client for Windows user. If you prefer to install/move WordPress manually to the live server, this is a must have tool.
2. CyberDuck is another free FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, S3, Backblaze B2, Azure & OpenStack Swift browser for Mac and Windows.
3. Transmit is a MAC only FTP software costs $34.
4. WinSCP secure file transfer, folders sync, remote editing, backup
5. Cobian Backup local files backup
6. HeidiSQL MySQL client: If you are using popular MySQL server, Microsoft SQL databases and PostgreSQL. HeidiSQL will allow you to browse and edit data, create and edit tables, views, procedures, triggers and scheduled events testing.
7. Navicat for MySQL Commercial MySQL client
8. VirtualHostX Manages Apache Virtual Hosts Locally. VirtualHostX is the easiest way to host and share multiple websites on your Mac. Free trial is available.
9. Forklift FTP with local/remote sync capability. It is a dual pane file manager and FTP/SFTP client for OS X.
File Difference Checker
Difference checkers can help you compare differences between files and then merge the changes.
Diffchecker: Online diff tool to compare text differences between two text files. Great if you are on the go and quickly need to compare something.
Beyond Compare: A program to compare files and folders using simple, powerful commands that focus on the differences you’re interested in and ignore those you’re not.
That’s all
I have listed 20+ Text editors, FTP tools, and file difference checker software. I have been using SublimeText for a long time and I believe it is the best code editor. Emmet is my favorite add-on to write code quickly and easily.
What text editor and other tools you prefer for web development, Add your comments below and share your favorite web development tools.
Note: This article was originally published at createwptheme.com/, We have republished it here with permission.