Re: [MLUG] web development tools

[Michael <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> I'd be very surprised if using emacs doesn't pay off in the long run.  
> It may be harder to get started with emacs than with nano, but it 
> emacs has a lot more to offer.  Much of the basic functionality is 
> similar (i.e., nano uses many emacs keystrokes).
Functionality in the editor is the enemy when coding. It adds bloat and 
slows you down as you make quick, to the point, edits and move on. It's 
very rare when code would be long enough, especially in a single file, 
to need anything fancy. Usually if your code is that complex then you're 
doing something wrong. Probably the longest single file I have on web 
projects is my main stylesheet and even that is being sloppy as it's 
much better to break it down by the page components it's meant to apply 
to. Learning to make the file system work for you will make your job as 
a programmer much easier.

For example, I abstract application logic into another layer, usually 
written in Python, which makes use of Python's nice way of treating 
files in an OOP way.  Between the output layer and application layer, 
and between any other systems, all communication is by XML-RPC. I have a 
single short PHP file that acts as my bootstrap process for the entire 
website. No matter what page you try to load it goes through that 
process. Any attempt to open a HTML page runs PHP which in turn loads 
the correct config file, page template, file to supply page specific 
variables, file to guide page behavior, and file to provide page 
content. My system lets you easily layer content so for example I can 
have a default for any of the above mentioned files for all websites 
stored on my host. Then you can define site-specific modifications as 
needed just by creating the correct files. It's easy enough to layer one 
site on another if for example you want site A to make modifications to 
the default site and want site B to make modifications to site A. For 
example, during development, I can create several variants of each site 
- as different or alike as I choose - and let my client pick the one 
they like best. Doing so is as easy as changing a couple files. Usually 
it's no more work than making changes to the template file, main 
stylesheet, and supplying any different image files the new stylesheet 
needs. All done with a couple short files - I can modify PHP to behave 
the way it'd behave if it's developers had a sane idea of how websites 
should be designed. I still like PHP for this use though as it is very 
quick and easy to make modifications in. I use this system from every 
thing from simple brochure sites that need no back-end logic to full 
web-based applications.

I literally have no use whatsoever for fancy features. A simple text 
editor and normal Unix commands (w/ rpl added to let me easily replace 
text) gives me everything I need. As powerful as Emacs is, it still 
isn't as powerful or flexible as Unix itself and anyway I seldom need 
much power.

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