What Tools to Use?

Since JavaScript is just plain text, you could use almost any kind of text editor. You could even use a word processor like Microsoft Word, though you would always have to make sure that Word saved the file as Text Only, instead of in its native file format. HTML, JavaScript, and CSS files must always be in plain text format so Web servers can understand them.

You're better off using a program that has plain text as its standard format. On Windows, many people get away with using Notepad ( Figure 1.8 ). On the Mac, you can use TextEdit, though a favorite of professionals is BBEdit, by Bare Bones Software ( Figure 1.9 ). On Unix machines, Emacs is one of the best text editors available. No matter what program you use, don't forget to save your plain text files with the extension .html or .htm so that things will go smoothly when you upload the file to a Web server.

Figure 1.8. Notepad on Windows XP.

Figure 1.9. BBEdit on Mac OS X.

You can also use some of the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editors available, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive, or Microsoft FrontPage (on the PC; there's no Mac version of FrontPage). Just switch to their HTML Source modes, and script away.

Tip

• If you're a Mac user , try TextWrangler, also from the Bare Bones folks (www. barebones .com). It's not as full-featured as BBEdit, but it has a big point in its favor: it's free.