Review: Aptana [4.5/5]

I know I promised a Compiz review... that's coming. This is what's on my mind, here and now, however... beggars can't be choosers or whatever cliche fits here, take your pick. :] This is what you're getting.

Aptana, an Open Source IDE for web developers.

With the use of plug-ins, you can set Aptana up for virtually any web based project you can fathom. Out of the box, Aptana has a robust offering of languages to work in:

• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
• Ajax
• PHP
• XML

and several other various file types that I honestly have never seen before.

If you want something more specific... for instance Adobe Air, the recently released runtime for developing desktop widgets with web development languages/techniques, you can download a plug-in for it. There is even a plug-in for developing for the iPhone.



For people who come from a software background, an IDE is not an unusual work environment. Aptana is reminiscent of the various IDE's I've used for Java and C++, such as Eclipse and Microsoft Development Studio. Many of the basic features of an IDE exist: support for creating "projects" to organize your work, a debugger, and a built in "run" for kicking your pages out to the browser of your choice. You can even set Aptana up to have tabs on the bottom of an HTML (or other web development language) file's window so you can flip through what your code will look like in the end without even saving the file.

If anyone has used the Dreamweaver code editor, you will feel at home in Aptana's environment. Similarities include a drop-down box for completing tags and recognizing matching tags, parenthesis and quotes with highlighting. However, while Dreamweaver has a few features that I wish Aptana would have, such as automatically updating links when I move a file, it does a good number of things that Dreamweaver doesn't.

Beyond the browser support, Aptana has the ability to split your workspace by dragging coding windows around the environment: as many windows as your monitor's resolution will allow you to position! This makes for easy CSS editing while you work on any given page. Also, if you use Server Side Includes for your site, which I do, being able to display the header you're using for that page is particularly useful so you don't duplicate tags by accident.

Another feature I enjoy is the code explorer.



This is particularly useful when I'm editing a large CSS file. I can navigate via the outline window, and find every tag much quicker than if I were to poke through my file unassisted.

While I find many positives with Aptana, the program is not without it's shortcomings, however few they are. One of the primary things I notice while using the program I expect to overcome with becoming more familiar with the program. In the program's current incarnation, if I type out a tag quickly, I'll often end up typing some of what the auto-complete is trying to place as well. This will result in a few backspaces and slight interruption of my thought process. If the program would realize that I'm duplicating what has been auto-completed, and overwrite instead of insert the characters, this would not be an issue.

A few features that are included, which I don't use, are a built in FTP and SFTP program, and a decent repository of example files for different techniques. Both seem useful, but I haven't found the need to try them out just yet.

That's the basics of this excellent program. Check it out, and see what it can do for you. I personally won't turn down an opportunity to make my work easier. I'm still torn between using Dreamweaver 8 (no I'm not rich enough to invest in CS3.) and Aptana. They both do some excellent unique things with their code editors. I don't use Dreamweaver's WYSIWYG editor ever, so I'm less inclined to pay for a program that I'll only use a portion of. Aptana is free. That's always a huge plus in that direction.

Bottom Line: 4.5/5