4 ms·

Web Development on Windows 7: Essential Applications

33 points by mdolon 16y ago

motvbi 16y ago
In case you are interested in developing on the Microsoft platform instead of Apache and MySQL, Web Platform installer is the way to go. Makes it a lot easier to install Visual Studio Express, ASP.Net MVC which otherwise is a real pain sometimes.
- luffy 16y ago
  Not sure about that. The Web Platform installer has introduced a lot of pain to what used to be fairly simple proceedings. It probably my least favorite application to use. I set up an Windows 2008 R2 instance on EC2 the other day that did not have IIS7 installed. Even launching the WPI on that instance was painful. IE8 is the default browser, and the default settings in IE wouldn't let you launch the application, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out where the security restrictions were. So then I went and download Chrome which didn't have the security restrictions, and then I was able to download the WPI and run it. From within the WPI, I selected IIS7 and .NET 4.0. Ninety minutes later + a reboot or two later IIS7 was installed.
- ghurlman 16y ago
  I also don't agree. If you're just screwing around with something, fine. If you're installing something upon which you intend to develop a professional piece of software, you should go through the true install process. Too many Windows developers are far too ignorant of the platforms upon which they develop their code (in general, not pointed at parent at all).
skbohra123 16y ago
any suggestion for a firebug equivalent and a way to install all versions of IE simultaneously ? I am really struggling with that big time.
- steverb 16y ago
  I presume you mean an equivalent to Firebug for IE. There's Fiddler and Visual Studio, or you can try Firebug Lite. As far as multiple versions, the only solution I've found is multiple VMs which sucks, but that's what happens when the browser is tightly integrated with the OS.
  - d2viant 16y ago
    IE9 also has it's own debug tools built-in which are similar to Firebug. Press F12.
    - sosuke 16y ago
      IE6-8 also have a developer toolbar but it is no where near as powerful as Firebug. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_Developer_Toolbar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_Developer_Too...
      - mdolon 16y ago
        This is what I've been using but I've found it to be incredibly glitchy, at least on IE8. At times it will recognize an element, sometimes it won't. Sometimes the document fails to load completely in the editor, even though the page has loaded fine in IE.
    - skbohra123 16y ago
      Yeah, doesn't match the power of firebug. Wondering what if MS packages some modified version of Firefox as their default browser for Windows? This way everyone would be happy. Quite unrealistic but if they can do some kind of modifications to suit them, I would not mind getting anything which isn't IE.
    - contextfree 16y ago
      The main thing I miss with the IE developer tools, at least in 8, is that unlike Chrome their JS console doesn't let you expand the results of evaluating JS expressions that return complex objects. It just spits out "<Object>" or something of that sort.
zushiba 16y ago
Not specific for windows but I do like Adobe's Browser labs. https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html# https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html#
retlehs 16y ago
Tunnelier (http://www.bitvise.com/tunnelier http://www.bitvise.com/tunnelier) is a great tool to use with Notepad++ for SSH tunneling
varunsrin 16y ago
The only thing I do different is using FileZilla for my FTP client. Oh and Dropbox for working on HTML/CSS front-end stuff so team members can see changes in almost real time.
urza 16y ago
I suggest to also check out WebMatrix http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/ http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/ http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/06/introducing-webmatrix.aspx http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/06/introducin...

33 points by mdolon 16y ago

In case you are interested in developing on the Microsoft platform instead of Apache and MySQL, Web Platform installer is the way to go. Makes it a lot easier to install Visual Studio Express, ASP.Net MVC which otherwise is a real pain sometimes.

luffy 16y ago
Not sure about that. The Web Platform installer has introduced a lot of pain to what used to be fairly simple proceedings. It probably my least favorite application to use. I set up an Windows 2008 R2 instance on EC2 the other day that did not have IIS7 installed. Even launching the WPI on that instance was painful. IE8 is the default browser, and the default settings in IE wouldn't let you launch the application, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out where the security restrictions were. So then I went and download Chrome which didn't have the security restrictions, and then I was able to download the WPI and run it. From within the WPI, I selected IIS7 and .NET 4.0. Ninety minutes later + a reboot or two later IIS7 was installed.
ghurlman 16y ago
I also don't agree. If you're just screwing around with something, fine. If you're installing something upon which you intend to develop a professional piece of software, you should go through the true install process. Too many Windows developers are far too ignorant of the platforms upon which they develop their code (in general, not pointed at parent at all).

skbohra123 16y ago

any suggestion for a firebug equivalent and a way to install all versions of IE simultaneously ? I am really struggling with that big time.

steverb 16y ago
I presume you mean an equivalent to Firebug for IE. There's Fiddler and Visual Studio, or you can try Firebug Lite. As far as multiple versions, the only solution I've found is multiple VMs which sucks, but that's what happens when the browser is tightly integrated with the OS.
- d2viant 16y ago
  IE9 also has it's own debug tools built-in which are similar to Firebug. Press F12.
  - sosuke 16y ago
    IE6-8 also have a developer toolbar but it is no where near as powerful as Firebug. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_Developer_Toolbar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_Developer_Too...
    - mdolon 16y ago
      This is what I've been using but I've found it to be incredibly glitchy, at least on IE8. At times it will recognize an element, sometimes it won't. Sometimes the document fails to load completely in the editor, even though the page has loaded fine in IE.
  - skbohra123 16y ago
    Yeah, doesn't match the power of firebug. Wondering what if MS packages some modified version of Firefox as their default browser for Windows? This way everyone would be happy. Quite unrealistic but if they can do some kind of modifications to suit them, I would not mind getting anything which isn't IE.
  - contextfree 16y ago
    The main thing I miss with the IE developer tools, at least in 8, is that unlike Chrome their JS console doesn't let you expand the results of evaluating JS expressions that return complex objects. It just spits out "<Object>" or something of that sort.

zushiba 16y ago

Not specific for windows but I do like Adobe's Browser labs. https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html# https://browserlab.adobe.com/en-us/index.html#

retlehs 16y ago

Tunnelier (http://www.bitvise.com/tunnelier http://www.bitvise.com/tunnelier) is a great tool to use with Notepad++ for SSH tunneling

varunsrin 16y ago

The only thing I do different is using FileZilla for my FTP client. Oh and Dropbox for working on HTML/CSS front-end stuff so team members can see changes in almost real time.

urza 16y ago

I suggest to also check out WebMatrix http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/ http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/ http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/06/introducing-webmatrix.aspx http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/07/06/introducin...