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General Discussion

Posted by Daniel Kang
Daniel Kang
103 Points

Downloading Coding Programs

Hi sorry, I'm VERY new to programming, and I'm learning all the basics but I still don't know where to actually apply and input them. I've tried downloading Javascript but there really is no text area where I can actually put in the code and use it. One video said something about textmate but I still am very confused. Would like input on a variety of coding languages-- or I'm getting this whole thing wrong. Thank you!

3 Answers

Lush Sleutsky
Lush Sleutsky
14,044 Points
Lush Sleutsky
Lush Sleutsky
14,044 Points

You can code in anything as simple as Notepad on your computer. Textmate is just a text editor, like Sublime Text, Adobe Dreamweaver, etc. You can write all your code in a text editor, and just save the file name to the corresponding language you're coding. HTML files will be saved with a ".html" at the end, CSS files with have ".css" at the end, and JavaScript files will have the ".js" extension. If your main HTML page is called index, you save it as "index.html" and if your CSS stylesheet is called styles, you save it as "styles.css" and if your JavaScript page is called script, you save it as "script.js." Does not really matter where you write the code, as long as you save the files with the proper file extensions, so the browser knows what's what. Hope that answers your question...

Binary Soul
Binary Soul
4,592 Points
Binary Soul
Binary Soul
4,592 Points

You have to know:

Every Texteditor (Sublime is one of them ;D ) is usefull to write code. Some more, some less. It depends on the implemented functions. Like text-highlighting, autocomplete, customize appearance (background colors, text-colors and so on).

  • on linux i recomment: gEdit
  • on Windows i recomment: EditPlus 3 (not free but a shareware)
  • on OSx i recomment: TextMate (no clue if free or not, i dont even use Mac´s)

Much more important is to knwo what is NOT an Text-Editor! Programms like:

  • Microsoft Word
  • Lotus Notes
  • Open/Libre-Office Writer

place lots of useless information into the Document. They are NOT for writing Code!

Also there are somthing called IDE´s: This is a full featured software for programmers of all kind. They serve you every coder dream. Most of them are not free. But Eclipse (Win/Lin (maybe also Mac)) is a very powerfull one, and it is free. Others in that row:

  • RubyMine (can do everything but its scoped in Ruby programming)
  • Dreamweaver: Very Powerfull, cost a LOT, and only for Windows/Mac (Focus on Web-Developement)
  • Microsoft Visual Studio (non-commercial licence as far as i know) i dont know how good it is, but i think it can handle javascript.

Now to the issue: Your code must be placed inside a html document. So make sure you learn HTM FIRSTL, and then Javascript. To see what youve been done, just doubleclick the HTML document.

Daniel Kang
Daniel Kang
103 Points
Daniel Kang
Daniel Kang
103 Points

This helps a bunch! Thank you very much!