If you’re an old-school developer or coder, you’ll stay away from any kind of WYSIWYG editing tool. The code generated is bloated and doesn’t always result in a professional website. Indeed, the code doesn’t go through professional validation is often contains all sorts of references to the application you used to generate the code.

In addition to bloated code, you learn nothing by relying on a design tool to create your code (and web sites). If you look at the Mac market, there is a demand from ‘professional’ web developers for Rapidweaver (www.realmacsoftware.com) and Sandbox (www.karelia.com). These are WYSIWYG design tools that ship with pre-developed web themes. Your professional web developer – who you are paying to design your web site – is using a design tool to code your site. Are they really in control over the contents?

Aptana is an old-school coding IDE, designed for developers who want to program their web code using HTML, CSS or Javascript. You’re not completely help-free, however, as Aptana ships with a code assist tool and, when you need to verify your finished work, there is built-in support error and warning notification.

Note that the download here is for Windows users. A version for Linux and Mac OS X is available from the Aptana website.