Tools for faster, better web development [closed]

Solution 1:

LAMP stack development

IDE: Zend Studio / PDT for Eclipse
PHP Framework: Zend Framework
Javascript library: jQuery
Source code versioning: SubVersion with Tortoise client
HTML filtering library: HTML Purifier
Image manipulation library: php image
Op-code cache: APC
Javascript / CSS deployment: Minify
Markup / javascript inspection debugging: Firebug
Database administration: phpMyAdmin
Page load analyzer: YSlow
Markup validation: HTML validator
Shell client: PuTTY
FTP Client: FlashFXP
The PHP manual
Experience and skill :)

(I focused on LAMP since that is what I use for web development)

Solution 2:

Firefox plugins for development

ColorZilla

This has proved to be very useful to me. You can eyedrop any colour (I'm going with my native spelling here) on any web page, and also on the chrome if you're inclined!

Web Developer Toolbar

The ruler is very useful! Not to mention everything else :)

Solution 3:

VirtualBox makes development pretty easy since you can have a virtual machine be the "server" and browse the pages from your main OS. This is especially true if the OS you're targeting isn't the one you're developing for.

Solution 4:

Aptana Studio

Solution 5:

These are some of my basic essentials:

OS X:

text editor: Textmate
CSS editor: CSSEdit
FTP tool: Transmit

Windows:

text and CSS editor: Aptana

Cross-Platform:

Source Code Management: Git
Browser plugin: Firebug
Framework: Ruby on Rails
Javascript library: Prototype and Scriptaculous
Navigating multiple computers: Synergy

Also, here's a write up I did a while back: Essentials of a web-developer's toolbox