Development environment

Not really a trick. JCC is very good, but eventually you have to modify the code to make the component do something, so here is my environment (tip) that works very well.
Run a good WAMP (Windows) or MAMP (Apple) local environment. I use both with many browsers and versions of browsers installed as possible.
Use a good IDE for the code, I use PHPStorm and a little BBEdit as I cut my teeth on it and it is familiar. PHPStorm has good code checking as you go, and an excellent code TRACE system.
Get a good book on CSS. SitePoint is a good place to start. Seek help when you are stuck. There is no such thing as a stupid question.
Download from JED similar FREE components to the one you are making, as it does help to see how other approach the same task.

Søren,

Can you possibly explain in more detail the merging process both with and without a source control system?  I've been using Component Creator for a while and just now I'm getting to alter the code that component creator generates and don't want to lose it each time I rebuild the component.  For example, I created a component and then I edited its xml file in administrator\<component>\model\forms directory and I want to make sure it doesn't get overwritten.

It would be great, in general, if you had a page that explained, in detail, how one does incremental development using Component Creator.

Regards,
Rob

Hi Andrés,

That would be fantastic.  I'm a good person to give feedback on these types of things because I follow the directions and I make notes of issues I had along the way.

Do you have an estimate on your timing for this?  For me, the sooner the better.  I would just like to have an idea of how longer I should wait to see something.

Regards,
Rob

Hi Andres,

I think I'm not communication my question/desire well or maybe you're answering it and it's just not what I want to hear.

Let me cite a simple example to try to illustrate my question.  Let's say I have a component with 1 table.  So I go into Component Creator UI and do all the necessary stuff and create my wonderful Admin and UI pages.  In doing so, I manually edit, post-build, several files so that they are now different from the Component Creator gave me.  Now we get to the important part.  Let's say I want to add table #2 to my component.  I go into Component Creator and add the second table and once again create Admin and UI pages.  When I build the component again, should it be my expectation that, if I were to not backup all my files from table #1, that they will all get overwritten?  NOTE:  The same example can be "I have table #1, build, modify files and then add a single column to table #1".

I have to admit that I find that problematic if I have to store my manual changes and merge them into the code each time I rebuild.  I'm not saying that I have any great solution for that, only that's a real pain to do so.

So the bottom line is that, aside from source control, it would be nice to know what the expectation is for a Component Creator user doing incremental changes.  Actually I do see how source control code, in theory, help by being able to refresh from source control into the build directory and copy over the manually changed files that I made post-build, so maybe that's the answer.

Regards,
Rob