RE: FN-FORUM: Dreamweaver MX

date posted 4th August 2003 00:24

> Saturday 2nd August 2003 18:03:09
> FN-FORUM: Dreamweaver MX.. - The Chridmeister
> [EMAIL REMOVED]
>
> .. is a bug ridden toilet. I use very few features of Dreamweaver, I
> only ever work in the code window (with occasional live
> preview window
> open too) and I am totally sick of it crashing and doing
> stupid stuff. I
> will spend no more money on this product and I want to find
> something new.
>
> What I'm looking for a is a nice web editor that:

Believe it or not, I use Visual Studio .NET. I'm not expecting anyone
else to, but it does have its advantages. I even use it for PHP and
other platforms that it doesn't really support (just sees them as text
files).

>
> A) runs on windows
Natch

> B) has built in tag and code reference for HTML, CSS, DOM etc., and
> optionally PHP
Nice reference for all the MS stuff - fully integrated help. On your own
with PHP sadly.
Also the Intellisense stuff in HTML, etc.

> C) Has very nice CSS support, with a built in stylesheet
> editor rather
> like Dreamweaver's
I like the MS stylesheet editor. It shows you the source, but lets you
use a GUI to browse up the definitions, so you don't have to be a memory
wizard..

> D) Does not crash or do something crazy every five minutes
It crashes on me about every 6 months, and usually due to the debugger,
which I'd consider forgivable given how hard that sort of thing must be
to get right.

> E) Has code highlighting and code hinting for HTML, CSS, PHP,
> and Javascript
All but PHP.

> F) Has a live preview window (but I can live without it)
Yup.

> G) Does not BLOW GOATS
Depends on your view.

> H) Can synchronise local files to those on a remote server without
> having to upload the entire site.
Only for MS stuff. I tend to test against a local server and upload at
production time, then have a short crisis over different server
conventions, places where I've miscased filenames, etc. (anyone know if
can I make Apache on Windows become case sensitive?)

> This is basically the entire feature list that I require. I will pay
> money for such a product. Does it exist?
Quite a lot of money though!

The WYSIWYG editor sucks a bit - I avoid using it except for tests in
.NET. It wants to reformat code (or worse) - not as evil as DW 4.0
though.

Unfortunately, the API to add new filetypes is closed and expensive
(e.g. not in MSDN) I thought MS were banned from doing that! Otherwise
I'd look at making it PHP compatible. Also there is no proper "utility"
project that doesn't create unused directories for .NET assemblies. VC7
was better in this regard.

I've not seen VS.NET 2003 - not sure if it gets better in terms of
extensibility.

Just my NZD0.0025

Cheers,
Richard