John Gruber has released a clever Perl script that transforms selected text into title case (without simply capitalizing the first letter of each word as many so-called title case functions do).
The script uses a list of “small words” which are not capitalized based on guidelines from the New York Times Manual of Style.
It’s a Perl script, so save it as a text file and you can use it anywhere where Perl works. I use it as a system-wide service (with the shortcut Command-Shift-T) via Jesper’s excellent (and free) ThisService utility.
Thanks for a very useful addition to the writer’s toolbox!
The open source Web development environment formerly known as the Aptana IDE has been re-christened as “Aptana Studio” and released as Version 1.0.
As of v1.0, the Eclipse-based product has been split into two different “editions”. The Community Edition remains free, and a new Professional Edition has been introduced for commercial use with “priority” support and a few extra features such as FTPS and SFTP.
For details on the new release, see the Aptana blog.
A new version of the Aptana Web IDE is now available with PHP support that includes Code Assist on PHP functions and parameters, improved PHP syntax colorization, and a PHP outliner. The JavaScript outliner and Ajax libraries have also been updated.
Details on changes are available in the Release Notes.
Tom Armitage of Infovore has built a CSS Redundancy Checker that will scan a CSS file for selectors that are not used by any HTML files in a specified directory or URI.
The tool can come in handy when you’re maintaining legacy sites with countless selectors whose purpose is long forgotten.
The Ruby source files are hosted at Google Code and Mike Malone has put together an online version based on Tom’s code so you can run the tool without installing it locally.
It’s not often mainstream media carries a story like this: Jeffrey Zeldman: King of Web Standards.
If enough people in upper management read this article and begin to understand the importance of interoperability and separating content from presentation, it might make designers’ lives much easier.
As the “King” himself says:
It might even help designers who aren’t named Jeffrey Zeldman as they struggle to explain the benefits of web standards to their bosses or clients. At the least, its publication in Business Week will command some business people’s attention, and perhaps their respect.
“Yet Another Multicolumn Layout” (YAML) is an XHTML/CSS framework for creating CSS-based float layouts.
YAML 3 offers a greatly simplified file structure, even more resilience and accessibility in the CSS components, speed-optimized versions of the components for the live server, as well as numerous new layout examples.
A framework like this can be a godsend to anyone who’s ever spent days debugging browser-specific CSS code, and the new version now sports extensive bilingual documentation in both German and English—including downright exhaustive CSS comments according to CSSDOC.
The CSSDOC project is essentially a concept for storing Javadoc comments in CSS, and applies common coding conventions to CSS, such as commenting your code and grouping your CSS rules.
For those who find Eclipse a bit intimidating to install, configure and maintain (or just appreciate a simpler approach), there’s now an easier way—EasyEclipse bills itself as ” …easy to download and install, and
simple to maintain, without version and dependency issues”.
By packaging together Eclipse, the open-source software development platform, and selected open source plugins, EasyEclipse strives to improve the way Eclipse is distributed by doing away with the many of the annoyances associated with setting up the IDE, such as “large downloads with many components or plugins you don’t need, too many similar plugins to choose from, version incompatibility between plugins and the Eclipse platform or other plugins…”
[via Todd]
A new version of the Aptana IDE is available with a new colorization engine, Eclipse Monkey support and “tons of enhancements”.
One very special treat supported by the new build (#15637) is an iPhone Development Plugin that adds preview support for iPhone applications, so you can see how your app will look on the iPhone.
So while it’s not exactly the SDK so many were expecting June 11, it might prove useful nonetheless—and I promise, that’s all I have to say about the iPhone today—honest! 
While test-driving Aptana recently, I found the absence of a Tile command for editor tabs absolutely vexing!
While this is probably old hat for Eclipse veterans, I was pleased to discover that there is a way—albeit somewhat elusive for those new to the Eclipse platform.
As is often the case when you’ve been using Windows for far too long, there are much easier ways to do things—so simple that you sometimes don’t even think to try them. This is one of those cases, and the answer is as simple as drag-and-drop.
You just select an editor tab and drag it to an edge of the editor area to dock the editor to that side. To restore it, drag the tab back to the top.
Tired of paying hundreds of dollars every year or so to upgrade your Web development environment? Has the manufacturer discontinued support of your tool of choice? Upset with nasty activation procedures that treat you like a criminal when you pay for software and then have the gall to switch machines or update your hardware? Sick of the platform lock-in? Me too!
There are several free alternatives out there for Web developers who need solid cross-platform support. One of the most ambitious and promising candidates is Aptana, an Eclipse-based environment geared toward Web development. I’ll definitely be taking a closer look at this over the next few days.
Continue reading ‘Aptana — The Web IDE’