Developers Poll

I consider the LAN option an "on my local machine" option, since, I have a home-business LAN, where I have an Apache desktop machine, a vqServer desktop machine, a Linux box (okay, I'll call it a desktop machine too), an IIS server, an IIS desktop machine, and a PWS desktop machine, all as nodes on my LAN. Hence; same as "on my local desktop."

Sorry for the confusion -- perfect example of what happens when you A.S.S|U|M.E ..lol

I have a lan server, this system has apache,etc. But I only keep one system fully up to date and that is the WebServer, so majority of my testing is done on www. However I picked depends on the project, because I have worked on projects where in-house mimiced the server set-up, so it was almost like doing it live via www, but it was on a local LAN (a missing option I guess). I also don't like testing my stuff locally alone because you are often limited to an uncommon set-up. I mean be honest everyone tweaks their development machines

LAN here too.

Missing option: On a local server on my LAN.

As Mark pointed out, I consider my 'desktop' although it's a laptop to be a production system. Development happens on development servers on the LAN, then moved to production-replica machines of the final host on the LAN and then moved to the final production box, wherever on the Net that will be.

Then, more testing ...

I use BBEdit and Transmit on OSX. I open the files in BBEdit through Transmit (though you can open them through BBEdit as well, I find this a bit slower), and when I save them in BBEdit, they automatically save to the server as well through Transmit.

The best part is when I make the final save, I can save to my hard drive and it saves to the server as well, automatic backup.

Ah, technology.

I generally make a local copy and test before uploading, but my server settings don't always mimic the client's server (heh, almost an oxymoron) settings. So often I develop live and save a local copy. I prefer the former option because I'm on a 56k, so things can get a little slow.

When testing browser/OS compatibility, usability and such, I stick a copy on the live server and use different (non-locally networked) computers to test it on.

While I'll code on my local machine (the one to post this), I do not run/debug anything on this box (too valuable to risk downtime).

If I need to develop off of the (clients) live server (rare), I'll use my own live server and develop in a protected sub-directory.

My live server is on my LAN, which I find a *big* plus. I have samba setup so that windows can access files without using FTP, which makes for a much faster developement.

I work locally, then I transfer to web server. On occation (when I can't be bothered fireing up the software) I work live

it depends... generally i work on the server in a subfolder noone knows about, but I have abyss webserver running locally which I use sometimes, then othertimes its the clients first site so i just wack up an index page with minimal content, get the rest of the site done then replace the index page.

oh... for those of you who don't know cookies are:

"A small, usually flat and crisp cake made from sweetened dough"

I have a number of clients who have their own development servers, so I work on their servers. They are established and trustworthy clients.

I have other clients were I work live (password protection) on my own development servers on the web, because they need to review the progress in real time.

Still other clients, I just do everything testing it locally, then move the files to the server.

Sometimes I just work on the server live and the changes are live (living on the Edge!).

Clearly, I chose: "Depends on the job".