OK, "heeeeerrr's Jonny....." All who have commented......, I hear you on all levels. In fact 5 months ago when I learned that ColdFusion Studio was to be "merged" (at that time I thought Axed) I was livid, I held that standpoint for ages....but that said..
But some of these 'complaints' are a tad out of bounds. I think especially the fact you have to define a local site as a major flaw is like being given a Ferarri for $1 and complaining that its one of those 'orrible yellow ones ;-) Dreamweaver is a fantastic product for many reasons, and I hope to point some of these out from both a Studio standpoint (my fave) and as die-hard Dreamweaver user. I have used and tested DW since Alpha 1 of version 1 and believe me I have had my fair share of gripes etc... you ask anyone in the Engineering Team. IMHO opening a file via RDS and/or especially via FTP is simply bad practice - it is an accident waiting to happen. You should get into the habit of always having 3 servers (or locations) where you have development / testing / live. It may be annoying but its how major player sites are developed, and its how small ones should also be developed. I worked on a site for Channel 4, a major television station in the UK and since then I have never worked anyother way, even on a small scale. Once a system is worked out, it isnt difficult nor a problem. You have to remember that Dreamweaver is built upon a true, tried and tested development process where 'sites', and these can be any kind of site - even a collection of non-connected files are placed in a location and are defined to Dreamweaver as such. This allows Dreamweaver to be able to open certain functionality to these collections be it ColdFusion, PHP, JSP etc.... it also allows it to recognise paths with images and alike. For me, I use Studio as a true code editor, I NEVER use insert image or any other kind of HTML insertion tool within that environment. In fact I think the only button I click in it, is ColdFusion Basic > ColdFusion Comment :-) That said the modern coding process requires that we use Source Control. As Vern stated you can use Dreamweaver with Visual SourceSafe, but I prefer Component Software's RCS which I have an extension which sits witin DW and you can check in and out files to the workspace. Again in my HO. Dreamweaver is lacking a decent version control system - maybe version 7 huh! You should not need to jump from machine to machine etc.... that�s what network mappings and ethernet is for ;-) Dreamweaver is also far more extensible than CF Studio, I have never needed to extend Studio - it does exactly what it says on the tin. I have seen versions of Dreamweaver which are simply unrecognisable from the Vanilla tool - that�s the beauty of it; if you want something in DW you can build it, or someone else will. Would there be a point in releasing the Studio code as GPL? What could the community add to an already "complete" product? Macromedia does bundle Studio <ahem> Homesite+ with Dreamweaver and it is basically Studio 5.5 or even 6. I can see no reason that Macromedia will drop it anytime soon, they still see that a pure coding environment is needed, it is just that Dreamweaver now crosses the boundary of Code v's Design - but NOT fully, and I don�t think it ever will - there would be no point - Dreamweaver is a great GUI tool, and it is now a great code tool - in many flavours. All in all, it�s a new tool and it�s a new way of working. I sometimes think when these threads start that what if Macromedia and Allaire had not merged and that Macromedia had released this version - what would the CF'ers say - even though Studio was still around? You so have to look back and se that Studio has in 1.5 version's not really had that much added to it; Dreamweaver on the other hand has evolved and grown to be a tour de force of code and design (when we mention design, we do mean visual HTML building yes and not Photoshop work?) It�s a case of use what you see works for you........ if it aint broke don�t try to fix it, sure, but we need to strive forward to stay ahead. Studio is a fantastic tool but it is dated and I can't see much more being added. If you love Studio, then use Studio or Homesite+ depending on your circumstances, if you love Dreamweaver - use that. Either way, suck it and see - you may be surprised what you taste. Neil Clark Team Macromedia http://www.macromedia.com/go/team Announcing Macromedia MX!! http://www.macromedia.com/software/trial/. ______________________________________________________________________ Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
