PHP, MySQL, & JavaScript All-in-One For Dummies

Chapter 3

Building a Development Environment

IN THIS CHAPTER

Identifying which tools to avoid

Finding the right tools for the job

When you’re ready to start coding your web application, you’ll need some tools to help you out. Just as a carpenter needs a set of tools to do her job, web developers need tools as well. And just as the carpenter has a wide selection of tools to choose from, so do web developers. A carpenter can build an entire house using a hammer and hand saw (and possibly a tape measure), but most likely, she has a few more advanced tools to make her job easier. Likewise, you can build an entire web application using a standard text editor, but there are plenty of other tools around to make your job easier. The trick to becoming comfortable with web programming is to find the right tool, or combination of tools, for the task at hand. This chapter walks you through some of the tools that you can use to help make your programming job easier. But first, I start by telling you what not to use.

Knowing Which Tools to Avoid

Before I get too far into the tool discussion, I need to tell you what tools not to use for serious web-programming jobs. These days, plenty of tools are available to help novice web designers create their own web pages without doing any coding at ...