After two days of using Aptana for the HTML+CSS+JavaScript on my current project, I really can’t help but sing its praises. For anyone who knows their way around any of those initialed technologies above, Aptana is a 100% Dreamweaver replacement. No contest.

Just case you were wondering, I can think ten things of off hand that make Aptana the best front-end code editor around. in no particular order:

1. It does real-time Javascript syntax checking.
   Does any other editor on the planet do this?
2. Code hinting is insanely thorough.
   Whether in HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, Aptana was on it. In JavaScript, hitting the “.” property accessor popped open a code hint for whatever object type I was working with, incuding my own JS classes. In HTML and CSS, the space key revealed everything under the sun that could go into the declaration or element.
3. It has clear HTML DOM tree demarcation.
   Unlike a lot of HTML editors I’ve used, Aptana does an amazing job of letting me know where the opening and closing of the tag my cursor is currently inside. It’s such a simple thing, but when it doesn’t work well, it really blows.
4. Aptana does FTP.
   Eclipse, seriously, no integrated FTP? After installing Aptana, it took all of a few mouse clicks and one trip to the help documents to get an FTP site linked to my project folder. Uploading can be triggered from hot keys.
5. Aptana’s shortcuts make sense.
   For people who don’t use NuSphere, I’ll fill you in–NuSphere has some really strange default keyboard shortcuts. Most people would expect Ctrl+Shift+S to execute a “Save As…” type function. Not NuSphere though, that means upload the file you’re currently working on (by default anyway, this can be changed in the settings).
6. Aptana knows what is supported by what browsers.
   I’m not sure it’s natural for me to be so excited about this, but, seriously, how awesome is it to know from your editor whether or not the attribute you’re setting has any relevance in IE or Firefox. The little FF and IE icons in the code hinting are super quick to process and can save you tons of time hitting online documentation trying to figure out why you’re having some problem.
7. Aptana does JS document outlining.
   When you’re doing AJAX intensive stuff or dealing with any sort of lengthy JavaScript, this is an awesome timesaver both in terms of navigating your document and remembering all your method and property names.
8. Aptana auto-tabs when you wrap stuff in if-else blocks.
   So, you’re writing so logic and you realize you need to do an if-else. Normally, you go up above your code block, add the “if (…” part, then go underneath and add the “} else …” stuff, then select your lines of code in between and tab it over to make your code nice and easy to read. Well, with Aptana, adding the ending curly brace will automatically add a tab (if it’s needed) to the code block. Score!
9. It’s got a full-fledged snippets panel.
   How is it that so many editors still don’t have these?
10. It’s free.
    I should probably feel sad that I shelled out bucks for Adobe CS3 Web Premium’s included HTML Editor, Dreamweaver, when there was something like Aptana out there. But really, who wants to be bitter about it. Besides, Dreamweaver does have some stuff Aptana doesn’t. Overall, even it had cost me $100, Aptana would be worth it. Dreamweaver, be prepared to have a lot of free time.