Ok, this will be my last comment on this thread since Michael asked that it be moved. I don't subscribe to community, so I'll say my last piece.
HomeSite+ is NOT an upgrade to Studio nor is it a new version. Saying that we still get it cheaper than Studio ticks me off because it's actually more of a downgrade - it should be cheaper. UI customization features removed, Query Builder removed and CFMX syntax didn't ship with the product - you have to download and install that yourself. It's not an upgrade, it's a sidegrade to comply with a lost lawsuit. Ok, it IS a new version in that it was released after CF Studio 5 and that the features aren't identical, but it has fewer features - that's not something I typically pay money for. I'm not the purchasing person, so I don't know if we got a Subscription or if we bought a copy of Studio 5 so close to the release date that we got DWMX for free, but if we got a subscription I think we've been somewhat cheated. DWMX is by almost everyone's definition not a complete or totally useful product as even the DWMX proponents say they still use Studio half the time, and HomeSite is a downgrade. I don't see why people keep pushing HomeSite+ as an upgrade insisting that everyone should be happy because it's cheaper than Studio. It does less than Studio and has no new features. It has features new to HomeSite - but HomeSite was $99 standalone before DWMX. Thanks, Joshua Miller [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Dave Watts [mailto:dwatts@;figleaf.com] Sent: Friday, October 18, 2002 3:13 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: RE: Anybody want to start a petition for CF Studio! > Most developers I know don't use half the features of > ColdFusion Studio (I can't remember the last time I > click something in the tabs). So a move to DW is totally > nonsensical. Most developers, at least the good ones, > don't need or want designer tools. These seem to be pretty broad statements. I'd have a hard time saying that I know what most developers want or need. > I do not feel like I'm in the minority by saying, skip > the upgrade to DW and just get the tag updater for > Studio 5. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, if you prefer CF Studio to Dreamweaver MX. You'd be a fool to do otherwise, just because MM wants you to buy their latest shiny new toy. On the other hand, you'd also be a fool if you just listened to everyone complain about how bad DWMX is, without evaluating it for yourself. > So the question becomes: what point is there to upgrading? > There is none. There are certainly some people who prefer Dreamweaver MX to CF Studio. They may not be especially vocal on this list, they may be a minority, but there are some out there. > And perhaps, I'm being a bit critical, but I cannot figure > out why developers are defending DWMX. Well, from my perspective, I can't figure out why developers here are attacking DWMX. It's not like MM is coming to your house and forcing you to buy it at gunpoint. No one's going to pry your copy of CF Studio 5 from your hard drive. What I've objected to, on this list, is the rabid "the sky is falling" reaction that many people seem to have about the very existence of Dreamweaver MX. To summarize, here's what people are saying: 1. Dreamweaver MX sucks. I'll leave this open to debate. I certainly have my own complaints about it, but frankly, the more I use it, the more comfortable I become with it, and I find myself using Studio less and less. There are a number of things that I think Dreamweaver MX does for me better than Studio. Is it perfect? No, far from it. Do I think that, two or three revisions down the road, it'll be a really good editor? Yes, I do - and I don't think the same is true for CF Studio, which really hasn't changed that significantly over its last two versions. 2. MM is abandoning CF Studio and Homesite. This doesn't seem to actually be the case, since there's a new version of CF Studio, relabeled "Homesite+". MM might not be marketing it, but it's there. MM might abandon it in the future, but who knows what will happen in the future anyway? I think that the long-term goal for MM is to replace CF Studio with Dreamweaver MX, but they won't be able to do that successfully until they make it good enough for everyone to want to use, and at that point, well, everyone will want to use it. This reminds me very much of the history of Visual Studio, as I've commented here more than once. It started out being, well, not very good, and no one liked it. Now, everyone who uses it generally likes it a lot. Does that mean that those people should have embraced the first, not-so-good version? No, but it does indicate that we could do with a bit less pessimism about the future. 3. You can't buy Homesite+ without buying DWMX. Big deal. You pay the same price (or less) buying the two together as you paid last year for CF Studio by itself. 4. Dammit Jim, I'm a programmer, not a designer! Just because DWMX has functionality that's useful for designers doesn't mean that it can't be made into a good editor for coders. That should be a lot easier to accomplish than making CF Studio into a good environment for designers. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ voice: (202) 797-5496 fax: (202) 797-5444 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists&body=lists/cf_talk FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm
