While resarching different web editors, I decided I wanted something that was easy to use and clean. I wasn't looking for a lot of bells and whistles. I prefer simplicity and doing things the "long way". After I installed the programs, I went through and toggled some of the settings and researched some features of each. I created different file types to see what kind of highlighting was available. I also made sure to see how each program works with uploading to a server.
I was already familiar with a few editors before now (Sublime, Notepad++, Dreamweaver) but with so many options out there, I wanted to give others a try to see what they had to offer. I also wanted to see if I would find one that worked better for me now that I'm working with MacOS rather than Windows.
Atom is simple to use, easy to learn, and open source. Even though it is an editor, you can download and install packages to add features that make it similar to an IDE. Some might see it as a downside that you have to manually add features and packages for different languages, but I like it. It makes the program customizable. I was not famililar with Atom before so there will be a bit of a learning curve, but so far it has been easy to navigate. I have also been able to find a lot of support online. This is the program I will most likely use for this class.
Eclispse is an IDE. When I first installed it it gave me a list of installations for different languages. I think that is kind of tedious. From what I can gather, you have to install a version for each language that you want to use. I might play around with it sometimes, just to expand my knowledge of different editing programs, but I don't think I'll use it religiously.
Dreamweaver is amazing. It is a very powerful tool with many features. I'm familiar with it from a previous class and I really enjoyed using it. It is a bit intimidating however, because of all the different features. There is a lot to learn and remember.I will probably be using a Macbook for most of the work I am doing, so I don't think it's a good choice for me right now. It has too much going on for a smaller screen! I will defintely use it whenever I can get access to a desktop though.