I've been using the coding part of Dreamweaver for a while now, never using the WYSIWYG part of it. I find it really useful to be able to change code and then see the effects immediatly rather than having to reopen browser, clear caches etc. When you guys bash Dreamweaver, are you only bashing the WYSIWYG part or the coding part of it aswell?
I was using it long time ago and now i use http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ much faster (is free) and don't eat a lot of resources.
Mostly WYSIWYG part is hated. I've been using DW as well, mostly for links, I find it easier to handle links than to type them manually. I don't use WYSIWYG either. And everyone is hating on that part because people that use DW like that don't actually learn the code as they should. Without DW they wouldn't manage to make anything
definitely correct. When I started to learn how to code I used Dreamweaver first but wasn't able to create a website at all. I switched to using text-only editors like phase5 or Coda for Mac as you will get to know which comment or phrase will do a certain thing, which is require on the website.
DW is really easier and faster for the beginners, But i feel comfort on textpad, notepad++ and even notepad
My dreamweaver trial just ran out, are there any good alternatives where I can code and then see what I'm doing asap or should I just try to do it in notepad++ or something similar?
Lately I've been using Notepad++ with Stylizer. It's a non-cheesy way to edit CSS and see the effects immediately. I'm a fan but it's not for everyone.
Dreamweaver is a handy tool to have and as life has it nothing is perfect and not everyone will love it.
Well, you're doing it 'right' by not using the WYSIWYG -- but you also can't use the templating system since it's use of comments can crap all over the page rendering in legacy IE and some versions of FF should they end up between floats, you cannot use ANY of the automated wizards since they code they make is as bad as anything the WYSIWYG does, NONE of their stock templates have code worth a flying purple fish -- all adding up to ... well, it's in my siggy. Everything it can 'do for you', is either over a decade out of date, or worse, just plain malfing stupid. (see the mm_ javascript asshattery doing CSS' job). Much less the preview box doesn't work like any real browser (even the one's it's based on) and as such you still have to test in the real browsers. At which point it's a fat bloated slow memory hogging overpriced prairie pie when compared to a decent programmers editor (notepad2, notepad++, editplus, gedit, text wrangler, etc) combined with a passable FTP client and testing in the *SHOCK* actual browsers!!! So don't close THEM (all of them since you should be testing ALL OF THEM), and alt-tab F5... if it's not taking changes on a F5, you're probably doing something wrong/stupid/broken anyways. Particularly if you're testing local code. I also dislike it because it's paying money for something that shouldn't cost a blasted thing, gets in the way of me actually just writing code... but then there's a LOT of crap it does that feels like going back to 1994 in terms of development, and other things that just make it harder to develop... but to be fair, I find tabs and restricting editors to a single window to be a step backwards in functionality, I spend more time correcting code errors made by autocomplete than it would take for me to just type the blasted words in the first place, and color syntax highlighting to be an illegible acid trip of stupidity. YMMV. Of course, that's before we talk about how adobe software ever since they added the "CS" letters to the name (what's that stand for, "Crapware Standard?") seems to hijack the host OS you install it on. The full suite is worse for this, but loading a bunch of crapplets making the machine take forever to start up, slowing down other software even when it's not in use, all to make their programs ALLEGEDLY load faster? 100% unadulterated BS... Which is why I refuse to install Adobe products on my systems anymore... It's like driving with the parking brake on. ... and why 99% of the time someone brings me a Windblows machine that's BSOD'ing or a Quackintosh that's got the beach ball of death, the solution is to rip out any software by Adobe. (and Symantec, McAffee, etc -- I swear these companies have been coasting on their reputations for a decade and a half) To be brutally frank, I've never seen ANY site developed using Dreamweaver, even just 'code view' that didn't have niggling little issues all over from a lack of proper testing, broken development methods, and DW basically screwing with the code written in code view. HELL, I can remember several years ago I had a page that worked just fine -- until some dumbass loaded it and DW and hit save. Literally, load it, hit save, broken... That told me all I ever needed to know about it. Much like a great number of other technologies (HTML 5, Grids, OOCSS, jQUERY for example) I cannot fathom how anyone is DUMB ENOUGH to see merit in, much less want to use! As our dearly departed friend Dan was fond of saying, the only thing about Dreamweaver that can be considered professional grade tools are the people promoting it's use... most of whom couldn't code their way out of a piss soaked paper bag with hole in the bottom, and wouldn't know a positive work ethic from the hole in their Adobe DVD's... which just so happens to match another hole.
The reason of hatred on Dreamweaver may be for some disadvantages: [h=2]Hefty Price Tag Lack of Code Hard Drive Space[/h]
I don't use it because it's not particularly productive. Lack of syntax highlighting and multi-tabs for one (deathshadow can say what he want on this point, but syntax highlighting makes things distinguishable and we aren't all blessed with huge multi-monitor setups for separate windows). I've also had issues (on older Notepad versions) with encoding. I'm not particularly adventurous with text editors, I use Notepad++ and have been for a few years, though I did use gEdit for a bit when I had the inevitable linux fad and it is as good as any editor gets.
Old versions have a 64k limit, it lacks proper block indent/de-indent, has no auto-indent, the word-wrap is a bit primitive, it makes a right mess of character encodings... ... and there are tons of free 'replacements' that work far, far better. http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html (my current favorite) http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ http://www.editplus.com/ http://www.crimsoneditor.com/ I could go on for several pages...
I dnt think people hate it, i love to work with it , i started coding with it and today itself i m using it