Website Idea?

[Participant]

People are a bit too evangelical about Dreamweaver and how bad it is. It organises your sites brilliantly and with the design window in conjunction with the coding window, it allows instant previews of the design.

Like any tool there will be people that use it properly and people that don't. Doesn't mean it should be written off as a package.

 

[fez]

People are a bit too evangelical about Dreamweaver and how bad it is. It organises your sites brilliantly and with the design window in conjunction with the coding window, it allows instant previews of the design.

Like any tool there will be people that use it properly and people that don't. Doesn't mean it should be written off as a package.

I think what we are trying to get at is that all the thing people are saying dreamweaver does well, can be achieved just as easily in a more lightweight package with other editors.

Some of it stems from people being introduced to web development through dreamweaver which leads to bad habits and laziness. I personally don't like to rely on an editor which "completes" or "adds" without me typing it. If I can't use my editor of choice, I don't want to be left floundering because I can't remember that bit of code that dreamweaver always did for me.

 

[gord]

You don't use auto completion in other packages?

I use Notepad++ for some tasks, quick edits mainly, but it's as described, and nowhere near efficient enough like DW as an IDE.

 

[Tripnologist]

I'm another one who uses DW in code view.
I've tried switching to notepad++, Aptana Studio and Sublime Text2, but none of them allowed me to work as fast as I currently do.

When I'm templating, it's really nice to only have to open one file and then have all linked resources (css and scripts) open in tabs automatically. In fact, this is pretty much the only reason I haven't switched over to Aptana or Sublime.

 

[fez]

I'm another one who uses DW in code view.
I've tried switching to notepad++, Aptana Studio and Sublime Text2, but none of them allowed me to work as fast as I currently do.

When I'm templating, it's really nice to only have to open one file and then have all linked resources (css and scripts) open in tabs automatically. In fact, this is pretty much the only reason I haven't switched over to Aptana or Sublime.

I think that we all work in slightly different ways and we also develop our own work flow as we get better. You have to acknowledge that once you are used to a very controlled environment it is hard to switch without a productivity drop. Its not that the new tools are better or worse, simply that you don't know how to get the most from them.

Most of the stuff I work on is large scale projects with php, html, css, js and mysql so dreamweaver wouldn't be that useful.

Sublime text 2 is a fantastic editor and I love it right now. When I have 4-5 websites open at once its still crazy quick and I would wager that I am a lot faster than anyone with dreamweaver when it comes to opening project files. I don't want it to open css and js files for the project automatically as there may be 10 or more and what happens when I have 10 other files open. Even for templating, I would wager that sublime text would be much quicker. The time dreamweaver takes to open and get itself sorted would have allowed me to open sublime text, cmd + t to open all the files I needed and be working already. The file preview that it gives you is invaluable sometimes as well.

Just out of interest, how often do you edit files on live servers? The functionality in coda meant that when you used the ftp you would be editing the actual file on the server rather than a local version that is then pushed live.

 

[Tripnologist]

Just out of interest, how often do you edit files on live servers? The functionality in code meant that when you used the ftp you would be editing the actual file on the server rather than a local version that is then pushed live.

Never actually. Most of our stuff is on the scale where every little change needs to be tested, tested and tested again on staging before being upped to live.

I actually quite liked SublimeText, but its lack of auto formatting is a major point that keeps me from giving it a real chance. Our CMS doesn't autoformat so I have to do it before dropping code in, which is fine if I've written it from scratch, but not so nice if I haven't and it's not pre formated.

 

[fez]

I hope that sublime text 2 will mature and not die a death like so many other editors that become popular. Textmate 2 is coming out soon but I gave up on textmate when I found sublime text as it was so much better.

I have spent a fair bit of time looking at editors and seeing people view and requirements and usually there are a few people like yourself that have a single feature that is a deal breaker if missing.

I would definitely keep an eye on sublime text 2 though. I love the way it works and hopefully they will add auto formatting soon!

 

[Tripnologist]

I hope that sublime text 2 will mature and not die a death like so many other editors that become popular.

I'm with you there. I love the features and plugins I've added to it already and if it weren't for the lack of formating, I would have switched already.

there are a few people like yourself that have a single feature that is a deal breaker if missing.

That's exactly it. I don't use DW because I really want to, I use it because it has all the individual features I need within a single package.

The fact that it's not exactly lightweight doesn't really matter either because with my SSD, it only takes 3 seconds to open. It's also configurable enough that all I see is a giant text editor. No sidecols or anything like that.

 

[cats_five]

A good start would be to create a spider diagram of everything you've learnt so far, and then for each point write down ideas for content.

Sounds a very good idea to me. It also doesn't sound like they want an original website in terms of content, but one that demonstrates that you have learnt what you are meant to have learnt. Standards compliant, SEO, accessiblity, cookies (maybe), and so on. Don't worry too much about original content 'cos there ain't any these days, any more than there is a new original joke.