Although a plain-text editor works for editing HTML, PHP, and JavaScript, there have
been some tremendous improvements in dedicated program editors, which now incorporate
very handy features such as colored syntax highlighting. Today’s program
editors are smart and can show you where you have syntax errors before you even run
a program. Once you’ve used a modern editor, you’ll wonder how you ever managed
without one.
There are a number of good programs available, but I have settled on Editra, because
it’s free and available on Mac, Windows, and Linux/Unix. You can download a copy by
visiting http://editra.org and selecting the Download link toward the top left of the page,
where you can also find the documentation for it.
As you can see from Figure 2-20, Editra highlights the syntax appropriately using colors
to help clarify what’s going on. What’s more, you can place the cursor next to brackets
or braces and Editra will highlight the matching pair so that you can check whether you
have too many or too few. In fact, Editra offers a wealth of additional features, which
you will discover and enjoy as you use it.
