Invisible Window’s Top 10 Mac Applications for building standards compliant web sites.

TextMate (macromates.com) The opening sentence on TextMate’s site puts it pretty perfectly “TextMate brings Apple’s approach to operating systems into the world of text editors.” One of the hardest things about Switching to a Mac was finding a good editor for writing (X)HTML and PHP code. TextMate has all of the features I was looking for, including custom color coding and a project viewer. At $39 (~$50) it’s not the cheapest editor out there, but In my opinion is one of the best.

Photoshop (adobe.com/products/photoshop/) From creating designs to cutting up design comps to optimizing and editing images – I am really un-aware of any application that competes with Photoshop. It is the industry standard, has been for years, and doesn’t have a real competitor. At $650 it is not cheap, but most developers will agree, bite the bullet – this is one application you’re going to use.

CSSEdit (macrabbit.com/cssedit/) This application inspired this post. Traditionally the job of editing CSS (or most any file type) fell to the text editor – developers have successfully edited CSS with text editors like TextMate for years. CSSEdit takes a different approach in that it was designed with one thing in mind – to edit CSS. CSSEdit does this perfectly and has many features that make building standards driven web sites much easier. One of the most helpful features is the ability to preview the page you are editing and see which declarations affect a highlighted area. Go buy CSSEdit, it will be one of the best $29.00 you’ve ever spent.

Transmit (panic.com/transmit/) The nature of building web sites is that eventually, you’ll have to move files to a server (otherwise it’s really hard for the world to view your work). In order to do that, you’ll have to have a FTP application. Transmit has a slick user interface and works flawlessly. You can buy Transmit for $29.95.

Firefox (mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/) Truth be told, in order to build a proper site, you’re going to have to look at your work in quite a few browsers (on at least 2 OSs). Through use and surfing, you’ll pick a favorite to use for your “normal” browsing, for me, that browser is Firefox, although I also have Camino, Flock, and Safari loaded on the Mac – and have a PC so that I can view sites in IE. One of the nicest things about browsers (other than bringing us the web) is that they can be downloaded for free!

Adium (adiumx.com/) Web developers tends to be a collaborative lot – email works – but IM works faster. The problem with IM is that every different service has a different application and everyone I need to stay in contact with tends to be on a different service from everyone else. In the past, this meant many different clients all open – all taking up valuable desktop space. By supporting all major IM services (aside from Skype) in one handy application, Adium simply rules. Oh yeah, and it’s free.

Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) I am old-school, I’ve been developing websites since Vi was standard. Sometimes it’s just quicker to do something on the server rather than mess with FTP, edit, re-FTP etc. Terminal is built right into the Mac framework (and rumor has it that Leopard’s terminal will feature tabbed sessions).

Flash (adobe.com/products/flash/flashpro/) Being a fan of standards compliant web development, full on flash sites are not my cup of tea, but often times using flash as a supplement really enhances a site. Originally developed by Macromedia, Adobe now distributes Flash. Adobe is synonymous with two things, excellent quality and big price tags – Flash will set you back nearly $700 – yikes!

HyperEdit (tumultco.com/HyperEdit/) HyperEdit is a great text editor and could easily satisfy all the needs of a savy web developer. I stumbled upon HyperEdit after using TextMate for quite a while and was un-willing to switch. So what puts this ap on the list? HyperEdit has a PHP compiler which allows testing and de-bugging of PHP code without the need to transfer a file to the server. HyperEdit is a great time saver. You’ll quickly recover the $19.95 it sets ya back.

iTunes (apple.com/itunes/) So strictly speaking iTunes won’t help you build a website. But who wants to develop in silence? iTunes is a great ap, and we all know that.

1. Mac runs on a BSD kernnel
2. Most of the things a sysadmin/web developer needs are already on a Mac “out of the box”
3. The things that aren’t are easily downloadable (most for free)

So what follows is another what you need when you switch – list. “Wonderful” you say…but wait this one is coming from a perspective that I was unable to find when I did my “should I switch” googleing – from the perspective of a web/sysadmin.

First off, don’t do what I did and load Parallels with Windows “just in case you need it” – just put on your swim trunks, step the the edge, hold you nose or do whatever it is that you do, and step off into the great unknown. After a bit, you’ll want Parallels and Windows removed anyway (it’s gone off mine) – so save yourself the time, effort, and the 80 bucks.

Secondly, I am not going to blow smoke and tell you that “switching is seamless”, it’s not. When you get a new TV or a new cell phone, it’s different than the one you’re used to – so it seems odd at first. Same with a PC -> Mac switch. They are different machines you have to change a few things about yourself when going from one to the other, and if there is one thing that our little opposable thumb having group hates more than anything, it’s change (especially when we’re the thing that needs to change). Accept that there will be bumps, and deal with it – you’ll be happy you did.

Now moving on to the real issue here what do you need? I had four basic questions that I had to have answered before switching:

1. How could the Mac sync with my Treo
2. How could I remote desktop to a Windows machine
3. How could I ssh to my Linux machines
4. What application would i use for HTML authoring

The answer to the Treo Mac Sync was pretty easy. One of the guys at the Mac store knew of an application called Missing Sync. This slick little application will set ya back 40 bucks, but syncs seamlessly with the iLife suite that comes on the mac (including iTunes (although it obviously won’t play iTunes purchased encrypted music)) and it does it all over Bluetooth so you, like me, can loose your Treo Sync Cable.

The second question was fairly easy to answer too. Remember that friend of mine who is the windows sys admin? Well not so surprisingly, he knew how to Remote Desktop to a Windows box from a Mac. There is a dirty little secret that Microsoft is keeping…they have a site just for mac users called MacTopia. On that site you can buy office for the Mac (which you’ll likely need) but the real gem is a free, yes Microsoft and free, odd i know, little application you can download called RDC. Download, install and before you know it – you’re remote desktopping from a mac to a pc and you’d never know the difference.

Number three, although it should have been the easiest, took a little while to figure out. The ONE “gripe” I have with the Apple Store is that their “Mac Specialist” (the fine folks who answer your questions on the sales floor) are just that – specialists in using the Mac and iLife products – not specialists in how to use a mac for what YOU want to do with it. So when it came to answering “how do I SSH”…what i got was a lot of blank stares. Googling didn’t help much either and truth be told, I don’t remember where I found the very simple answer. It should have been obvious, as I mentioned earlier Mac OSX is basically Linux, albeit a very sexy Linux – Linux lives and dies by the command line – it would stand to reason that the Mac would too. Sure enough, just go to your Applications Folder -> Utilities Folder -> Terminal. It’s all built in. Pretty cool eh?

Now all I was left to figure out was a good HTML authoring program. This one was tough, not because there aren’t 100 great aps out there, but because I was used to using Homesite and I was comfortable with how Homesite worked and wanted a program that pretty much duplicated its features. I played around with a few; Text Wrangler, Taco HTML Edit and a few others. I ended up landing on TextMate – it’s similar to Homesite, is customizable in it’s look and has many different “themes” so you can control how you like your code to look. Recently I have also started using HyperEdit because it will show me PHP errors without putting the file up on a server (another benefit of the Mac – PHP compiler…included) – but I only use HyperEdit for debugging.

So after 5 months or so using the Mac, what do I think? Well, Parallels is gone, my windows laptop is sitting to my right and it’s turned off, and I am in the Market for a MacBook Pro. That should tell you more than any commercial right there…(paypal donations to MacBook Pro fund are being accepted )

Helpful Links
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