Online IDEs (work in a browser)
So as previously mentioned I have a cr48, is it awesome? absolutely, do I use it? not so much. Why don't I use it very much? It is a slightly complicated story. You see I had an HP mini 311 for my netbook, and what I have found out is that the 311 was not a netbook. Sadly it turns out I did many things with the 311 that I can no longer do with an actual netbook. To make it worse, it turns out that the things I do on a netbook are the same things I do on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S - Epic).
So what does that have to do with Online IDEs? Everything. I have to code, I don't know why, but I have this compulsive obsession with coding. It doesn't even matter what, it can be php, java, html, js, actionscript, whatever, as long as it can be thrown together and I can get it to compile, I have inner peace.
So back to the cr48, just because it can't code out of the box doesn't mean you can't code on it. I stumbled onto a few IDEs today that are online and can do some simple compiling. While it's true that they most cannot actual compile and render code for your playback use on the cr48, but they can save projects, upload via ftp, and even open in different IDEs.
CodeRun IDE - This is a great little browser-based IDE. Sign up is free and it will store your projects online for you. It does have a simple debugging tool, and even comes with some code-stubs to get your started (c#, php, and some js libs). Overal the look and feel is good and it fits the screen rather well. My only complaint is the that password on your account is seriously weak-sauce. I mean no special characters? For-the-love-of-whatever-gimped-db-the-backend-is-using why!? But do not let that stop you from trying it out.
Kodingen - This is an interesting little web-mash. You can grab a free account, set it to connect to your own FTP, and even get Shell access to your files. It is in beta so don't expect too much out of the box, that being said, this is a very nice offering. The site is clean and offers editing in multiple other online IDEs (Bespin, Codemirror, Ymacs), it also has a great control panel that lets you see your projects and manage your options. I have not signed up on this one yet, but it looks like a great bet to start getting your code together for when you are on the go, or borrowing someone else's cr48.
Eclipse Orion - This had been announced in 2008, and it is gaining momentum. You can download the source now if you want, but keep in mind that the project is still in the incubator. Check out this post for a little Q&A, and check this post from the "Life at Eclipse" Blog for some screenshots and little more information about the Orion Project.
IBM alphaWorks - I won't lie, I just barely found this so I have not tried it out. However since I use more than my fair share of IBM products are work, I am sure that if you try your hardest for a month and a half, open a PMR, and then fix it yourself using undocumented methods that void your service contract, this will work for you. This looks a bit like the Orion project, only with some added http/jetty translation. Also this may be a firefox only kind of browser IDE, so Chrome users get ready to drop a pass on this one.
PHPanywhere - I have not signed up with this one yet either, but I've heard a little buzz about it. This is another great little editor with syntax highlights, FTP access, project management, and some collaboration features. It is still in beta so expect new features coming and a possible shift in workflow.
shiftEDIT - Another one in the running, support for editing and publishing PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl, Java, HTML, CSS, and JS. Supports FTP and SFTP and has a syntax highlighter. Another bonus is revision history and code snippets. It has a familiar flash/flex style interface which is very clean and has right-click support and plenty of context menus. You will need to set up your domain/FTP account to do the live testing, but overal a very nice and simple IDE.
Hopefully this gets you coding and not thinking that netbooks are just for surfing the internet 
.
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JavaScript Conditional Compilations
I don't think it's any secret amongst Team Awesome or it's affiliates that I hate IE (in fact I'm pretty sure we all do) and more specifically I hate IE6, so everytime we code a new site I'm all for not supporting IE6, my motto...."punish the IE6 losers, I mean users, I mean losers" but I'm far from getting my way. Even though it appeared I might with NT2.2, ultimatley I was defeated. And it's kinda sad to because if we got away from that more than half of those who are still on IE6 would upgrade because they would realize they are behind. Anyhow in an effort to find a polite way to explain to those poor suckers that there are better more advanced browsers out there I found a way to use JavaScript to detect the javascript version of the users browser and if that version matches IE6 display a single alert box to inform them of their folley. Sure there are other ways but I found this one kinda interesting.
<script type="text/javascript"> /*@cc_on /*@if(@_jscript_version < 5.7) alert('We have detected that you are using an older browser, for a better user experience please upgrade your browser to IE7 or something totally better altogether like Firefox or Safari, or even Chrome or the PS3 browser for crying out loud.'); @end @*/ </script> |
for more information on Conditional Compilations go Here
For more informatoin on the PS3 Browser go Here
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