Free HTML editor - A shootout for the best one

Linux has a plethora of free editors, most of them are also good HTML editors. So the big question is, which one is the best HTML editor of them all? TuxRadar.com is having a nice shootout of seven free HTML editors in Linux. Those in the fray are - Bluefish, Amaya, OpenOffice.org Writer/Web, Quanta Plus, Screem, Kompozer and Composer (Oh yeah there is no mistake, both are different editors).

If you ask me, I mostly use Gedit to edit HTML code and it does a pretty decent job too. But for large projects, it always helps if you have project support and a few other time saving features as well. So which is the best HTML editor ?

The review says Bluefish is the best there is in coding your website if you are developing it in Linux. Bluefish is no Dreamweaver killer. But it provides the best all-round package owing to its excellent reference material and versatility; and it does so at an unbeatable price as well. Now you know which editor to opt for when building your website in Linux.

Roundup of Vim Articles

Regular readers of this blog may be aware of the numerous Vim related articles that were posted here. Notable among them being a concise tutorial on using Vim, the new features of Vim 7.0, making Vim behave like an ordinary text editor (Cream for Vim), a talk given by Bram Moolenaar on the Seven habits of effective text editing and Increasing your productivity using Vim, just to name a few.

More over, over a year back, 50% of this blog readers polled Vim/Vi as the favourite text editor of their choice.

Now here is another resource for Vim/Vi enthusiasts. Nicola Paolucci has collected 10 classic Vim articles which (he claims) transformed him from a Vim hater to a Vim lover. Check out his collection. Perhaps you as well might experience a mind shift towards Vim - my all time favourite text editor.

Over 10 power user tips for Vim editor

After using Vi or Vim for a couple of days, ever been left wondering what is it that makes Vi enthusiasts sing eulogies of this geeky text editor ? Then here are a number of reasons which will make you wonder why you hadn't embraced Vim sooner.

Swaroop C H has compiled over 10 specific ways to improve your productivity with Vim. These are the same functionality he found in Emacs and for which he provides equivalent commands in Vim.

The tips include :

Swapping caps-lock and Control keys, using incremental search for navigation, Making better use of the buffers in Vim, mastering vim regular expressions and picking up fine grained text manipulation commands in Vim among many others.

Most of the settings he lists can be made permanent by entering them in your .vimrc configuration file which resides in your home directory in Linux. Of course, if you are still putoff then there is another project called Cream for Vim which will save the day for you.

Apart from providing the power user tips, he also lists some additional plugins which further extends the functionality of this wonderful editor. Do read his tips to know more.

online htaccess editor

If you have ever configured the apache web server, then you will realize the important part played by the .htaccess file. This file is especially used by people who make use of a shared web host provider to host their sites.

Some of the uses of .htaccess file that I can think of are :

• Redirecting the visitor automatically to the new location of the web page.
• Providing a 301 redirect [moved permanently] to search engine spiders.
• Setting up a username and password to access a part of or whole of your website.
• Restricting access to your website for all visitors originating from a particular IP address or IP range.
  

... and so on and so forth.

I have always found editing the .htaccess file as bit of a black art. Mainly because mastering the regular expressions involved to accomplish tasks takes a bit of practice and some hits and misses before you get the desired results.

Fig: The online .htaccess editor

Now here is a very nice find. An online .htaccess editor which will hand hold you in creating your own custom made .htaccess file. All you have to do is click on your desired options such as whether to allow or deny access to all files, basic authentication, the redirect directives and so on.