Eclipse

Matt described the NetBeans IDE in one of his blogs. Now, I would like to present Eclipse, another IDE. I used Eclipse for a java software development project last year and decided to use it for my individual project as well.
Eclipse supports a lot of different languages: Java EE (with JPA), Java, JavaScript, C/C++, PHP, RCP, Pulsar and more. You can download Eclipse for free for different operating systems: Windows, Mac Carbon, Mac Cocoa, Linux. There are thousands of plug-ins to enhance Eclipse with features like connecting and using a version control system (for example subversion), databasis or implementing popular servers to project (like JBoss or Tomcat).


Eclipse features different perspectives on your project, optimized on the task you like to perform. If you like to share your files with your team members on a subversion server, you don't need to see the source code and the document structure of your file. You would prefer to see the files on the server and have the possibility to compare your local files with the remote ones. For working on the project, you don't want this information but your source code with syntax highlighting, auto-complete, and live syntax and error-checks. The different perspectives allow you to be focus on your task.
Eclipse supports project works. So it’s easy to work on HTML, CSS and Script files. For my individual project, it really helped me avoiding annoying errors like forgetting the closing bracket or the semi-colon. I forgot to download the ftp-plug-in, but in the moment, I am integrating it. I will post an update after the integration :)
Here is the link for downloading Eclipse

Adobe Air

The Adobe® AIR™ runtime lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser on multiple operating systems.

Business benefits
Adobe AIR offers an exciting new way to engage customers with innovative, branded applications, without requiring changes to existing technology, people, or processes.

With the Adobe® AIR™ runtime, you can deliver branded rich Internet applications outside the browser that give you a closer connection to your customer.
Adobe AIR uses the same proven, cost-effective technologies used to build web applications, so development and deployment is rapid and low risk. You can use your existing web development resources to create engaging, branded applications that run on all major desktop operating systems.
The benefits are extensive. By using Adobe AIR as part of your RIA strategy, you can boost productivity, extend your market reach, enhance customer satisfaction, improve customer retention, lower costs, and increase profits.
Business benefits
Companies like eBay, AOL, and NASDAQ are already using Adobe AIR to deliver engaging RIAs to their users' desktops. With Adobe AIR, you can:
Establish a more persistent connection with existing customers
Deliver fully branded experiences with desktop functionality
Leverage existing personnel, processes, and infrastructure
Develop and deliver RIAs efficiently using proven Adobe technology
Increase the ROI of your web investments

Commercial considerations
Adobe offers its own commercial development tools for Flex-based AIR development. Adobe's Flex IDE, which we tested briefly, is built on top of the open-source Eclipse IDE and includes robust support for drag-and-drop visual Flex application design. AIR development tools have also been incorporated into Dreamweaver CS3. Adobe has fortunately made its own tools entirely optional, so AIR developers don't have to worry about getting locked into expensive commercial design software.

AIR support is already being integrated into third-party commercial development tools such as Aptana Studio. AIR developers can also use a conventional text editor in conjunction with Adobe's free command-line tools. Flex and AIR development can be done entirely with standard text editors; in fact, most of the programs we created during our tests were written in Vim on Ubuntu Linux and then compiled and tested on Windows in VMware.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of Adobe AIR, it helps to understand a few key terms and break down what it means to be a "cross-operating system runtime" that can run desktop applications.

AIR is, first of all, a runtime engine at its most basic. A runtime engine is simply computer software that other applications need to use in order to run properly; it translates language within a program into machine language, the simple, lowest level language (essentially 0s and 1s) the central processing unit (CPU) can understand. Programs that run on Java, for example, require the Java Virtual Machine runtime engine installed on the computer. Without it, your computer wouldn't be able to make use of the same graphical user interface (GUI) that you're used to using now. A GUI, also known as a human-computer interface, is the combination of windows, icons, text and menus that we can change with a mouse or a keyboard. Even your operating system can be considered the mother of all runtime engines, since every application on your computer depends on the processes of the operating system.
So when Adobe describes AIR as a "cross-operating system runtime," they just mean that AIR is a runtime that can work on any computer, regardless of the operating system. Different operating systems use different languages; a program running on Mac OSX, for instance, won't look the same as the same program running on Windows XP. Applications built with Adobe programs such as Flash or Flex will use the AIR runtime to display -- because AIR comes the with the open-source WebKit HTML renderer, Web-like content can display on the desktop. That's the big difference between something like a Flash player and AIR: While Flash works over the Internet and in your Web browser, applications running off of AIR are based on the desktop and don't necessarily require a browser to work.

Why learn PHP?

After completing chapter two of our book and completing the lab I became more interested in the specifics of PHP; when to use it and what it can do. I've never used it in the past and began to wonder when it would be most advantageous to use versus other scripting languages. First, PHP is a recursive acronym which stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. Originally PHP stood for Personal HomePage. It is defined as a "general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML" (php.net). While PHP is a scripting language it is different from client side Java in that it is executed on the server. It's also a very easy language to learn from what I understand. PHP.net provides a basic tutorial.

What is PHP capable of doing? Well, as we learned from our book and lab, php is capable of server-side scripting. It can take a static web page and make it dynamic. It can also be used for command line scripting for text processing. The best known feature about this language is its compatability with many databases and ODBC.

Why use PHP? Probably one of the best reasons is that it's a simple language to learn compared to other languages such as ASP. This allows for one to quickly enable an interactive web site. This is the second best thing about PHP, it's interactive with website visitors.

I also learned that PHP is commonly used as the online shopping carts. Here is a list of five more useful examples found from a "Top Ten" on php.about.com:

1) Send E-mail From a Form

2) Host a Web Forum

3) Add a Poll

4) Create a Calendar

5) Count Visitors

PHP provides more functionality than I imagined. Now that I'm aware of the many uses, I plan to take advantage of this scripting language on the job.

Express Yourself!

I tried out the Expression Web editor in the CIS lab. Compared to Notepad++ which I was using before, this editor has so many more great features to create web pages.

Expression Web makes creating compliant standards-based Web sites faster and easier.

It has a state-of-the-art design surface that generates clean CSS, and you can make design decisions right away, and you can see the representation of the final browser-rendered page.

It has drag and drop controls to add rich media with support for a broad range of essential Web technologies, such as PHP, JavaScript, XML/XSLT, and ASP.NET you can use the same tool for both visual design and coding.

The great news is that Microsoft offers a free 60 day trial version you can download at home.

Editors and References

It’s been a couple years since I've had to write HTML and CSS from scratch. I currently maintain our company website but that is much easier than starting from scratch. I decided to go looking for a good "free" html editor and found a LONG list. “This page lists free HTML editors, Web editors, WYSIWYG editors, web site builders, as well as specialized editors optimized for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) or even the numerous web scripting languages such as PHP, Perl, Java, JavaScript, ASP, etc.” Not only are there a number of editors but there are, of course, more links to other editors and more free stuff.

After finding this site and looking at all the choices I decided to just stick with Notepad++ rather than trying something new. Notepad++ offers so many good features:

• The text is displayed in different colors depending on what it is
  
• When you select an opening the closing is automatically highlighted.
  
• There are line numbers which come in handy when you get an error that references a particular line number.
  
  
  I am sure there are many other benefits to using Norepad++ but one of the main reasons I like it is because it doesn't add any extra space(s) or code to your project. The code is as neat and clean as you make it.
  
  Also, I stumbled on a few good reference sites while I was looking for an HTML editor. It still amazes me how much good information is on the web! I found quite a few good explanations and references for JavaScript, CSS and XHTML. I also found a nice reference site for php while trying to figure out how to comment out a number of lines of code.