Zen Coding is a set of plug-ins for text editors that allow for high-speed coding and editing in HTML, XML, XSL, and other structured code formats via content assist. The project was created by Sergey Chikuyonok in 2009 and continues to be actively developed by Chikuyonok and Zen Coding users. The tools have been incorporated into a number of high-profile text editors, some plug-ins developed by the Zen Coding team and others implemented independently. However, Zen Coding is primarily independent from any text editor, as the engine works directly with text rather than with any particular software.[1]
Zen Coding is an open source code distributed under an MIT License.
In recent versions it has been renamed to Emmet.
Functions
Expand abbreviations
Zen Coding uses a specific syntax in order to expand small snippets of code, similar to CSS selectors, into full-fledged HTML code.[2] For example, the sequence
div#page>div.logo+ul#navigation>li*5>a
expands into
<div id="page"> <div class="logo"></div> <ul id="navigation"> <li><a href=""></a></li> <li><a href=""></a></li> <li><a href=""></a></li> <li><a href=""></a></li> <li><a href=""></a></li> </ul></div>
The expand abbreviations function includes several other complex functions, such as wrapping a section of code with expanded code.[3]
Tag balancing
The HTML Pair Matcher allows users to locate the matching open/close tag for the tag at the current cursor position. Unlike other HTML pair matchers, Zen Coding searches from the cursor's current position rather than scanning the document from the beginning.[4]
Text editors
The following text editor plug-ins were developed by the Zen Coding team
The following text-editor plug-ins were developed by third-party groups with the official Zen Coding engine
The following text editor plug-ins were developed independently and with a different Zen Coding engine
References
External links
