Mac Webmaster Necessities

some tools I use on my mac

[goldcougar]

I'm new here and just thought I'd post some tools I use on by Mac regularly as a webmaster / seo. Most are free, but some cost, which I've listed below.

1. Firefox Web Browser: [mozilla.org...]

2. Google PR Bar for Firefox: [tapouillo.com...]

3. Checky Validator for Firefox:
[checky.sourceforge.net...]

4. EditCSS extension for Firefox: [editcss.mozdev.org...]

5. Transmit FTP: ($25)
[panic.com...]

6. BLT Broken Link Checker: [braxtech.com...]

7. Smultron Editor:
[smultron.sourceforge.net...]

8. FUGU:
[rsug.itd.umich.edu...]

9. NetShade Proxie Surfer: ($25)
[raynersoftware.com...]

10. Simple CSS:
[hostm.com...]

11. Taco HTML Editor:
[tacosw.com...]

12. BlueJ Java Editor/Compiler:
[bluej.org...]

[goldcougar]

A few more things for managing servers:

WebMin: Free GUI for managing your servers through a web interface remotely:
[apple.com...]

iTools: More powerful, but expensive, tool for managing your OS X server.
[tenon.com...]

[BwanaZulia]

Another old one that I like is Tyrantula X which does page analysis. I SOOO wish he had not dropped development of this.

[animalaesthetics.com...]

My tools:
- OmniWeb, Safari, Firefox
- BBEdit, Transmit, Photoshop (ImageReady), GraphicConverter
- OmniGraffle Pro (BEST WEB DESIGN APP EVER)
- Mail (of course) with MailTemplate
- MaxBulk Mailer

That is most of them.

BZ

[DerekH]

Don't forget MacOs X's bare FTP client in the Terminal window - that can be a real boon for untangling tangled remote directories!
DerekH

[BwanaZulia]

Oh and OSX's Webdav support in the finder.

BZ

[BjarneDM]

Browser: Mozilla with
- Multizilla and Googlebox [multizilla.mozdev.org...]
- LiveHTTPHeaders [livehttpheaders.mozdev.org...]
- PNH Developer Toolbar [placenamehere.com...]
The javascript console and the DOM inspector in Mozilla are just awesome

BBEdit [barebones.com...]
Captain FTP [captainftp.xdsnet.de...]
GraphicConverter [lemkesoft.de...]

The Serverlogistics Webserver Packages (Apache2, MySQL, PHP) [serverlogistics.com...] but upgraded to the newest versions (see my homepage) to have a test-server locally on my own machines

YourSQL [mludi.net...]
CocoaMySQL [cocoamysql.sourceforge.net...]

Terminal for remote access via SSH and SCP

[Span]

PageSpinner HTML Editor [optima-system.com ]

[Greenman]

Text Wrangler or "BBEdit Jr." Text Wrangler 2.0 contains 90% of the features in BBEdit and it is now FREE! It should satisfy almost anyones needs.

[barebones.com...]

[Liane]

Wow guys, this is great!

I have been using a very, very old iMac (one of the originals) with OS 9.2 for so long that I am completely out of the loop regarding what is available these days. My machine was becoming very, very slow as I have thousands of photo files for my web site. It was really getting ridiculous trying to accomplish anything. Having to store photos on disc ... you get the idea. Cumbersome and time consuming.

Anyway, it started having electrical problems last week and I finally decided it was time to put the old girl to rest before she actually dies on me.

I just ordered a new 2 GHz Dual Processor G5 with Panther 10.3 OS and a 20" Cinema display yesterday. It should be here in a couple of weeks and I am very, very excited! :)

I only use my computer for work so am not really interested in games, etc. Of the items mentioned in the posts above, are there any which I should not bother with?

What would you suggest are the best programmes for photo editing? The machine comes with 512 mb ram and I ordered 2 additional 512 mb ram so that I should have sufficient storage on the machine without having to use discs. I can add a ton more ram if I need to.

Lahwdy, lahwdy .. I can't wait to take this thing for a spin and join the rest of you in the 21st century! I've only ever seen Panther in operation twice and it looks waaaay cool! I just hope I am able to train myself to use the thing!

So, if you were able to get anything you wanted, what would be on your wish list? Just interested for future reference. I pretty much blew the wad on this thing!

[sonjay]

The installer packages for php and MySQL from [entropy.ch...] -- having a full web development environment on my local machine rocks! No more "edit, upload, test.... edit, upload, test, etc., ad nauseum" It's just edit, test, edit, test, edit, test. :) :)

Liane -- Photoshop is sort of "King of the Hill" for photo editing. Nothing else even comes close, but there are plenty of less-expensive image editing programs out there.

[lZakl]

Liane,

So, if you were able to get anything you wanted, what would be on your wish list? Just interested for future reference. I pretty much blew the wad on this thing!

I saved for a year so I could get Maya6. You like to give your photos a touch of fantastical fancy, or even CREATE your own photo? THIS is your program. A little spendy, but very realistic lighting & 3D rendering. What turned me onto it was an image done in Maya of a guitar sitting on a black table, and I couldn't tell (at a glance) that it was constructed, not a photo.

A list of others that I've had my share of enjoyment
3D Max
Bryce
Poser

My wishlist? Next I'd like to get New Tek's Lightwave. That and another 5 Macs to help with the rendering! I've got a Dual 2 ghz with 4 gb ram and the ATI Radeon 9800 and it still takes forever to render those images sometimes. You could even be waiting as long as an hour or two if your image is really complicated and large resolution.

... Just my bit of "dreamy" software

-- Zak

[timster]

Well, I'd have to add TextWrangler 2 (it's now free).

I've got BBEdit on my main Mac, but have installed TextWrangler on the others.

My other indispensible Mac tool is the Terminal and a good book on how to use Unix tools like curl, ftp, shell scripts, etc.

[whoisgregg]

I just ordered a new 2 GHz Dual Processor G5 with Panther 10.3 OS and a 20" Cinema display yesterday. It should be here in a couple of weeks and I am very, very excited! :)

You're gonna love it Liane. I've got the same computer and the older 23" display and it's great. Upgrading RAM is good but you probably would never use more than about 2 GB even for photo editing.

What would you suggest are the best programmes for photo editing?

Photoshop hands down. However, the keynote demo of the new iPhoto [apple.com] should replace Photoshop for 90% of what photo editing I need to do. I'll still need PS for the Extract tool, but that's about it.

[Liane]

whoisgregg ... that iphoto dealy looks absolutely fabulous! My biggest problem right now is organization and "filing" of photos. It drives me wild! I spend ages looking for photos.

I can't wait until it gets here .... weeeeeeee! Ooooh, I am bookmarking this thread and sending an e:mail to Santa! :)

[antarve]

Don't forget about "Summary" an excellent log file analyzer at
[summary.net...]
(antarve)

[mike3k]

My favorite web development app is BBEdit. All of my sites were developed almost completely in BBEdit. TextWrangler has many of BBEdit's features (ecept the HTML editing tools) and it's free.

I also use Interarchy for FTP, and Camino & Firefox as my web browsers.

[bauer77]

Thanks for the tip on TextWrangler, I'll have to check that out.