Development Tools
Netbeans – http://www.netbeans.org
Dreamweaver for UI http://www.adobe.com
Flux is good too and much cheaper (OSX Only) http://www.theescapers.com/flux/
TextWrangler for just simple text stuff (OSX Only) http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/
or if you’re a PC person go with Notepad++ http://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Filezilla FTP for uploading and downloading to servers http://filezilla-project.org
Google Chrome‘s built in developer tools rock http://chrome.google.com
or Firefox with Web Developer and Firebug Addons installed
Frameworks
The most important thing is, use a framework. Not only does it allow you to work faster, but it also gives you access to a community, as well as forces you to use best coding practices.
Kohana – http://kohanaframework.org (Unofficial Wiki for Samples)
optionally CakePHP is excellent http://www.cakephp.org
optionally CodeIgniter is good – http://codeigniter.com
as is the Zend Framework – http://framework.zend.com/download/current/
JQuery – http://jquery.com
JQuery UI – http://jqueryui.com
Key thing with JQuery is the ThemeRoller!!! – http://jqueryui.com/themeroller/
Also, check out the Hosted JQuery with Google CDN or Microsoft CDN
JQuery plugins
Forms http://jquery.malsup.com/form/
Validation http://bassistance.de/jquery-plugins/jquery-plugin-validation/
Datatables http://www.datatables.net/
qTips2 http://craigsworks.com/projects/qtip2/
Other Misc Javascript
TinyMCE – http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/
Google Closure Compiler for Shrinking Javascript files – http://closure-compiler.appspot.com/home
Source Control
SVN (free) http://www.xp-dev.com
SVN (free) http://www.projectlocker.com
Other Stuff
I also use VirtualBox.org to test with Linux – Here’s a guide to setting it up:
http://ajb.bz/2010/02/installing-a-virtual-lampp-server-with-virtualbox-and-ubuntu/
ConvertIcon for making favicons – http://converticon.com/
Kuler – for making great color choices for your layouts – http://kuler.adobe.com/
W3C Markup Validator – make sure your code is correct http://validator.w3.org/
JSON Parser http://json.parser.online.fr/
What do use as a developer that is missing from this list??? Post a comment below.
