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I use Dreamweaver for development, mostly PHP, html, css, javascript. Is there anyway to break up JavaScript files? or maybe a better IDE that makes it easier to work with? It just becomes quickly difficult to read and find what I'm looking for.

Thank you!

dzm
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3 Answers3

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Intellij and/or Webstorm by Jetbrains has the best JS tools I have found. It has very good (as good as it gets, for JS) intellisense (autocomplete for variables and methods) as well as refactoring for variables and methods. You can cmd+click into method definitions from anywhere, as well. Unfortunately you need to pay for them, but if you are using Dreamweaver you had to pay for that. If you are only doing html/css/javascript Webstorm is the way to go.

hvgotcodes
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  • "very good intellisense" does not exist for JavaScript. "mediocre" is the best you get – Raynos Aug 03 '11 at 15:54
  • @raynos, yeah, i should have said 'the best intellisense for js i have seen' – hvgotcodes Aug 03 '11 at 16:00
  • @hvgotcodes You may also want to recommend a solid text editor like vim or sublime text – Raynos Aug 03 '11 at 16:07
  • @Raynos: i am sceptical. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/209126/good-javascript-ide-with-jquery-support – naveen Aug 03 '11 at 16:11
  • @raynos, do they support the Webstorm features, and is the support easy to invoke? I used Vim once upon a time, before IDEs, and have never used sublime text. – hvgotcodes Aug 03 '11 at 16:12
  • @hvgotcodes text editors and IDEs are different games. Personally I use a text editor and a range of _specific_ command line tools. Alternatively you can use an IDE to act as a jack of all trades. – Raynos Aug 03 '11 at 16:18
  • @raynos, sublime looks beautiful. Im not sure the feature set is there, but it looks great. – hvgotcodes Aug 03 '11 at 16:19
  • @naveen that's dated 2008. this question is dated 2011. Move with the times – Raynos Aug 03 '11 at 16:21
  • @raynos: who am i to question you? this is beautiful http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4846846/how-come-jquery-doesnt-pass-jslint/4846855#4846855 thanks for that. +1 :) – naveen Aug 03 '11 at 16:24
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Yes, you should break up your javascript files into relevant parts just like you break up your php files into relevant parts. The one key factor here is they should be combined and minified before being served up to the browser so the user does not have to make several network calls to your server for each .js file.

Check out Google Minify for an easy solution to that issue.

Take a look at the JQuery source to see how they divvy up their files. Now look at their combined framework, and of course their minified framework. What is actually served up to the user looks nothing like the source.

Maverick
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Uh, Dreamweaver?
Definitely use a different IDE. Aptana won the poll here :)

Community
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naveen
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