Re: Better than Dreamweaver

by =?iso-8859-1?Q?St=E9phane?= Bergeron <stephberg(at)videotron.ca>

 Date:  Wed, 10 Jan 2001 17:13:34 -0500
 To:  hwg-software(at)hwg.org
 References:  amenco amenco2
  todo: View Thread, Original
At 10:14 AM 10/01/01 -0800, you wrote:
>I have used earlier versions of GoLive and prefer Dreamweaver. But --=20
>there are many, many who prefer GoLive and really, both are excellent=20
>choices. Your question implies that you don't regard Dreamweaver as=20
>high-end or professional and I think that's a mistaken notion. Both these=
=20
>products are on a par in that respect and both are used by plenty of=20
>high-end sites.

Actually, from my own informal survey and from many articles I read,=20
Dreamweaver is used a lot more than GoLive by professional Web developers=20
and designers for mainly two reasons.  First is the quality of the code it=
=20
writes which is far better and less bloated than GoLive's code.  The=20
earlier versions of GoLive were especially bad at creating useless junk and=
=20
non-existent and invalid tag & attributes which made it almost worse than=20
Front Page in that respect but the latest GoLive version has gotten much=20
better about this. Dreamweaver still has the edge there though and the=20
latest version of DW has added many code centric features that make it an=20
even more compelling choice for those designers who can code HTML and crave=
=20
real control over their pages.  In my book, intimate knowledge of HTML is=20
an absolute must to be a professional in this business.  I myself have been=
=20
using HomeSite a lot less since I got Dreamweaver UltraDev 4 because of=20
those new code centric features.

The second reason I consider DW superior to GoLive and why I think it is=20
more widely used is that the Dreamweaver interface is much better suited to=
=20
Web work than GoLive's who's interface may feel natural to the PageMaker=20
crowd but not to Web designers who know and are comfortable with the quirks=
=20
and limitations of the Web as a medium (as they should be) where pixel=20
perfect accuracy is impossible across users systems.  As an example to=20
illustrate this, something as simple as moving an image a few pixels in any=
=20
direction is impossible in Dreamweaver unless you first put that image in=20
an absolutely positioned CSS layer.  Using CSS layers has to be a conscious=
=20
choice on the designer's part because it limits the site's audience to 4.0=
=20
browsers and above and might even be problematic in NN 4.  GoLive basically=
=20
shields designers from all that happens in the background and makes many=20
assumptions such as the example above so the impression of "control" that=20
the GoLive interface gives them is somewhat illusory.

Other reasons professional developers use it more are its better Site=20
management tools and its endless extensibility.  Dreamweaver 4 also adds=20
asset management in a central panel, the ability to create Flash buttons=20
right with DW's environment (without needing to have Flash installed),  a=20
JavaScript debugger, split code and design view, site reporting (reports=20
broken links, orphaned files, missing ALT attributes, untitled documents=20
and much more),  WebDav AND Visual SourceSafe integration, tighter than=20
ever integration with Fireworks 4 and more.  By all means try all the=20
editors you want but Dreamweaver truly is the high end of WYSIWYG tools and=
=20
is used the most by professionals and with good reason.

HTH!

St=E9phane Bergeron


>You already have Dreamweaver so by all means try GoLive's 30-day trial=20
>using the link Lynn gave:
>
>>30 days free:
>><http://www.adobe.com/products/golive/tryreg.html>
>
>And for the benefit of lurkers, try both! Here is the Dreamweaver 30-day=20
>trial:
>
>   http://www.macromedia.com/software/dreamweaver/trial/

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