13 Most Used Speedy Tools To Write CSS and HTML Code

from: http://technotab.com/13-most-used-speedy-tools-to-write-css-and-html-code/

HTML which stands for Hypertext mark-up language is supposed to be the main language for web pages. Hence the purpose of a web browser is to read the HTML documents and then compose them into either audible or visible websites.

CSS (Cascading style sheets) which is used to describe the looks and the formatting of the document more popularly known as presentation semantics. It is therefore used to design a webpage. In order to minimize the time needed to design a website or optimize a web page we need to increase the speed of the coding of HTML and CSS.

Some of these tools can work on both sides that are the client and the server. HTML is very useful because it helps in adding images and also objects to be embedded. Coming to CSS another use it has is that it can be used to view the web page differently depending on various factors like the size of the screen or also the device or gadget on which it is being viewed.

Here we have listed best tools which can be used to speed up your HTML and CSS coding time. Please share your thoughts in our comment section below.

1)  CleverCSS

CleverCSS is a small markup language for CSS inspired by Python that can be used to build a style sheet in a clean and structured way. In many ways it’s cleaner and more powerful than CSS2 is.

The most obvious difference to CSS is the syntax: it is indentation based and not flat. While this is obviously against the Python Zen, it’s nonetheless a good idea for structural styles.

2)  Sass

Sass makes CSS fun again. Sass is an extension of CSS3, adding nested rules, variables, mixins, selector inheritance, and more. It’s translated to well-formatted, standard CSS using the command line tool or a web-framework plugin.

Sass has two syntaxes. The new main syntax (as of Sass 3) is known as “SCSS” (for “Sassy CSS”), and is a superset of CSS3’s syntax. This means that every valid CSS3 stylesheet is valid SCSS as well. SCSS files use the extension .scss.

The second, older syntax is known as the indented syntax (or just “Sass”). Inspired by Haml’s terseness, it’s intended for people who prefer conciseness over similarity to CSS. Instead of brackets and semicolons, it uses the indentation of lines to specify blocks. Although no longer the primary syntax, the indented syntax will continue to be supported. Files in the indented syntax use the extension .sass.

3)  Sajax

Sajax is an open source tool to make programming websites using the Ajax framework — also known as XMLHTTP Request or remote scripting — as easy as possible. Sajax makes it easy to call PHP, Perl or Python functions from your webpages via JavaScript without performing a browser refresh. The toolkit does 99% of the work for you so you have no excuse to not use it.

4)  Komodo Edit for Perl, Python, Tcl, PHP, Ruby, Javascript

Komodo Edit is a fast, smart, free and open-source code editor. Switching your trusty code editor is hard, but give Komodo Edit (or its big brother Komodo IDE) a try: it’ll be worth your while.

Windows, Mac, Linux? Yes. PHP, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Perl, Tcl, XML, HTML 5, CSS 3? Yes, with (customizable) syntax coloring, folding, background syntax checking, and excellent auto-complete and calltips (we call it “code intelligence”). What else? Fast open (no more slow poking around for files); remote file editing; Vi keybindings (good ones); and a toolboxwith shell command integration, macros and code snippets… all wrapped around a tricked-out editor and an extension mechanism the same as Firefox’s.

5)  CSSTidy

CSSTidy is an open source CSS parser and optimiser. It is available as executable file (available for Windows, Linux and OSX) which can be controlled per command line and as PHP script (both with almost the same functionality).
In opposite to most other CSS parsers, no regular expressions are used and thus CSSTidy has full CSS2 support and a higher reliability.

6)  Less

The dynamic style sheet language. LESS extends CSS with dynamic behavior such as variables, mixins, operations and functions. LESS runs on both the client-side (IE 6+, Webkit, Firefox) and server-side, with Node.js and Rhino.

7)  Vim

Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems. Vim is distributed free as charityware.

8)  HSS

HSS is tool that extends the CSS syntax with powerful features such as variables and nested blocks. HSS is a CSS compiler which supports valid CSS syntax, so for every error that occurs during the parsing of the HSS file, it will display and error indicating at which file and which line the error occurred.

9)  Zen Coding — a new way of writing HTML and CSS code

Zen Coding is an editor plugin for high-speed HTML, XML, XSL (or any other structured code format) coding and editing. The core of this plugin is a powerful abbreviation engine which allows you to expand expressions—similar to CSS selectors—into HTML code.

 10)  XCSS

First CSS framework that allows you to work object oriented and keeps your workflow as dry as possible. xCSS bases on CSS and empowers a straightforward and object-oriented workflow when developing complex style cascades. Using xCSS means a dramatic cut down to your development time by: having a intuitive overview of the overall CSS structure, using variables, re-using existing style cascades and many other handy features. But, most frameworks are bulky and inflexible, aren’t they? Not xCSS! It’s lightweight and seamlessly integrates into any existing workflow. Aside from that the CSS overhead is getting reduced while your (X)HTML attributes remain semantic.

11)  Haml

Haml is a markup language that’s used to cleanly and simply describe the HTML of any web document without the use of inline code. Haml functions as a replacement for inline page templating systems such as PHP, ASP, and ERB, the templating language used in most Ruby on Rails applications. However, Haml avoids the need for explicitly coding HTML into the template, because it itself is a description of the HTML, with some code to generate dynamic content.

12)  About Markup Generator

Markup Generator is a simple tool created for xhtml/css coders that are tired of writing boring frame code at the very beginning of slicing work. It’s main purpose is to speed up your work by generating xhtml markup and a css frame out of very intuitive, shortened syntax so you can jump directly to the elements styling.

13)  BluePrint

Blueprint is a CSS framework, which aims to cut down on your development time. It gives you a solid foundation to build your project on top of, with an easy-to-use grid, sensible typography, useful plugins, and even a style sheet for printing.