If you want to get more serious/playfull, get Zed!

Zed is a code editor based on ACE.
The idea is to get a really strong IDE but with a minimalistic UI. And I really like that. I often work with PHPDesigner as I like the holding-your-hand way of doing things.
But sometimes, it's really too much. And it feels like there is an awful lot of wasted space in that kind of tools. The success of code editors based on ACE or with similar looks (Sublime Text) shows the need for such simplicity.

An open project with the 'Project Picker' in the front

I forgot the other good news, you don't need to install anything because it's a Chrome extension: Give it a try

The 'Cheatsheet' will display on many occasions and it's a good kick-starter. Or you can click on 'Manual' to get to it.

Example

As it can be a little bit disturbing at first, I will show you how to change the theme (syntax highlights).

• Click on 'Configuration'
• Press 'Ctrl-E' to open a file from this project
• Type 'user.json' then press 'Enter'. The skeleton is there but it's empty
• Now 'Ctrl-2' to split the screen in 2 (I like the Ctrl-1-2-3 commands to split the screen as it reminds me of RTS games when you make your teams)
• On the new window, open 'preferences.json'

As the latest is Read-Only, you need to copy the things you want to change in the 'user.json' window. Like this :

To find the one that suits you, you can try them here.

Conclusion

On the GitHub repo, you can find a lot of files explaining ALL you need to know about Zed but it really needs a Wiki to centralize all that!

Anyway, it's really fun to code with it. It can be challenging to a beginner but it's also a cool way to learn.

Next step: I will try to work on a Dropbox folder and set up an automatic sync with a FTP account.