Intro to HTML editors, page 2
The Quanta Plus rundown
Quanta Plus is a KDE based application, and is associated with the kwebdev package. Quanta Plus is actually a completely different application, at this point, than Quanta Gold. There is a bit of shared history between them, but Quanta Plus is released under the GPL and is developed and maintained by a different team with different goals.
Naturally, Quanta Plus is not limited to HTML/XHTML editing. It can handle PHP, CSS, and just about any sort of tagging or coding that can be defined with XML. It also has a variety of more advanced features, such as debugging for PHP and XSL, and XML validation tools.
In the normal course of the day here, we don't ever use every last feature that Quanta Plus is capable of delivering. That's okay because Quanta Plus is designed well enough that extraneous features generally stay out of our way (and is customizable so that we can get oft-used tools where we want them). It's even better because when we do need an odd tool or function, it's there at the ready.
There are a few features of Quanta Plus that we adore. For reasons we can't explain, we have always loved editors that allow us to switch between (and display simultaneously) code view and "design" view. Maybe it's an instant gratification thing. Maybe if we're screwing up something really basic we like to know right away. Regardless of the reason, Quanta Plus implements this feature very well.
The other nice feature is the ability to upload the entire project (or selected parts thereof) to your webhost without leaving Quanta Plus. The uploader transport methods may vary depending on what you've got installed in a particular version of KDE (you might want to install extra KIO slaves if the transfer method you need isn't available). It may not be the loveliest uploader, but it's handy and fast.
Quanta Plus also features code folding, tag editing, a find and replace function that allows for easy searching throughout a project, special character insert functions, and pre-fab form elements and lists. There is the ability to run code from the command line within the Quanta Plus coding window. There are multiple external browser pre-view options. There's also syntax checking, and (yes) spell checking. The HTML/PHP/CSS reference materials are complete enough to be pretty helpful.
More than we need, most days, but still very nice. There were also a few little pet peeves.
More than we need, most days, but still very nice. There were also a few little pet peeves.
Our main issue involved the CSS editor features. It is possible to edit and work with external cascading style sheets. Creating a separate CSS file from within Quanta is a bit tricky. There was no readily apparent way to just fire up a CSS template file or choose to create a new document with the .css extension from the start. We had to start a new document, and then physically save the empty document with a .css extension.
Not terribly intuitive, but it worked.
Not terribly intuitive, but it worked.
Entering and editing style sheet properties is a bit clearer, but still not as intuitive as adding a tag to a document. It's done mainly through a collection of pull down menus, and clicking on property fields to call up and alter attributes.
The CSS feature was horribly confused by the space in one of our directory names. This was particularly puzzling because some of the effects applied to our index.html file, and not others. We tried a few ways to "compensate" for the space, but nothing seemed to work except for removing it entirely.
Despite a few quirks, Quanta Plus is a strong HTML editor with a whole lot of built in features, and a number of plug-ins available for specialized tasks. It's definitely not a bad place to start (and possibly end) your quest for your ideal Linux XHTML editor.
Despite a few quirks, Quanta Plus is a strong HTML editor with a whole lot of built in features, and a number of plug-ins available for specialized tasks. It's definitely not a bad place to start (and possibly end) your quest for your ideal Linux XHTML editor.