WYSIWYG editor for linux?

[Karl S]

Hi all.
A few years ago I found my dial-in ISP service came with 5Mb of website
space. I decided to play with it, and it was kind of fun.
I started out with Notepad in Windows and the "htmlgoodies" primers,
then went to linux with gVim and Quanta, but then the rules all got
changed and what little I know is pretty well obsolete. The new rules
for even a simple web page are almost too much for a simple text editor
even with a stack of "cheat-sheets". Heck, I can't figure out what I
ought to put in the headers. And CSS? I can't make heads or tails of
that. I was proud when I figured out how to create a table...
Then they told me I had to have both an ALT flag and a TITLE flag for
each image. That's logical, but means a lot more typing.
I've got another ISP now, and 20Mb of space. Dang.

Does anyone know of an easy-to-learn HTML editor for linux?

Karl S.

 

[Nik Coughlin]

Hi all. *snip*
Does anyone know of an easy-to-learn HTML editor for linux?

Nvu

 

[mbstevens]

Does anyone know of an easy-to-learn HTML editor for linux?

Quanta
Bluefish
Screem
Nvu and Composer
O Webwriter
Crossover and Dreamweaver

But a text editor is _still_ better.
If you can't get started
you can find good templates to modify at

http://www.realworldstyle.com/
http://www.glish.com/css/
http://www.bluerobot.com/web/layouts/

 

[David Dorward]

I started out with Notepad in Windows and the "htmlgoodies" primers,

Oh, the amount I had to unlearn after my time thinking that site was
good.

then went to linux with gVim and Quanta, but then the rules all got
changed and what little I know is pretty well obsolete. The new rules

HTML 4.01 (which is most commonly recomended) was last updated in 1999,
and that was just minor changes from the 1997 HTML 4.0. The most
imporant bits of HTML 4.01 also existed in HTML 3.2. Things really
haven't changed much in a long while.

Avoid XHTML. The group archive will explain why.

for even a simple web page are almost too much for a simple text editor
even with a stack of "cheat-sheets". Heck, I can't figure out what I
ought to put in the headers.

If you are working with static files, then your webserver should be
able to figure things out from the file extensions you use.

And CSS? I can't make heads or tails of that.

It really isn't all that complicated. It basically comes down to
writing selectors (which are descriptions of conditions that an element
has to meet in order to match, such as "be a <p>" or "be a <p> inside a
<div> that has class='foo'") and property/value pairs that describe how
it looks ("color: red; background-color: blue.

I don't know a good introductory tutorial, but I find the spec quite
readable. http://w3.org/TR/CSS21/

It only becomes tricky when you start hitting browser bugs, but there
is plenty of information out there, and plenty of people willing to
help with problems.

Then they told me I had to have both an ALT flag and a TITLE flag for
each image.

That's rubbish, someone has been misleading you.

All images need an alt attribute (in case the image cannot be
displayed), and unless the image actually adds new meaning to a
document (rather then, for instance, reinforcing existing meaning or
being purely presentational), its just going to be alt="".

Title attributes, on the other hand, provide advisotry information
about an element. They come into play when the element itself doesns't
give you enough information (which should be fairly rare).

Does anyone know of an easy-to-learn HTML editor for linux?

Define "HTML editor". If you want something graphical that will write
markup for you, I suggest you forget it. AI hasn't yet reached a level
when it can write good HTML for you.

Otherwise, I suggest you stick with vim. Its a decent editor.

 

[freemont]

Nvu

Nvu is fine until you try to open a stylesheet with it. :-\

Quanta's the best bet.

 

[Karl S]

Quanta
Bluefish
Screem
Nvu and Composer
O Webwriter
Crossover and Dreamweaver

But a text editor is _still_ better.
If you can't get started
you can find good templates to modify at

http://www.realworldstyle.com/
http://www.glish.com/css/
http://www.bluerobot.com/web/layouts/

Ah! Why didn't I think of using a template? I've used my own simple
pages as templates for years. That way I can continue to use a text
editor instead of having to learn a whole new editing program.
The old version of Quanta was handy, but the new one keeps trying to
complete what I write before I'm done writing it. Maybe I'm just picky,
but I find Quanta's continual "guessing" irritating.
I'll look into the other editors you've listed, too. I remember reading
good comments about Nvu, though I never liked the code Netscape /
Mozilla Composer produced the few times I tried it.

Thanks all!
Karl S.