Re: Homesite (was RE: DreamWeaver 3.0 vs. DreamWeaver 4.0)

At 01:38 PM 24/01/01 -0600, you wrote:
>I hate to be the pain in the middle of this, but how much does Dreamweaver
>think we need???
>It is already so cost prohibitive and overly engorged with toys that
>anything to be added would make life misery. I will stick with the hand=
 code
>and the FP2000.
>No offense, it is just that my product from Macromedia gives me the shakes
>and willies! They take too long to get to know. And are not all that
>user-friendly!

I'll leave the debate about the merits of each application aside as the=20
original poster didn't want this thread to become a flame war like there=20
was already too many on this list.  User friendliness on the other hand is=
=20
a very subjective issue and any software that might be very easy to grasp=20
for someone will be much hard for another person.  Personally, I find=20
Dreamweaver to be the most user friendly WYSIWYG tool I've ever tried by=20
far.  I did try pretty much all of them and even several versions of some=20
applications but I stick to DW UD because I find it to be the best for me.

One of the main reasons I like Dreamweaver is that it doesn't make many of=
=20
the assumptions that other visual tools like GoLive and FrontPage do when I=
=20
work.  Its default behavior aside from a very few quirks suit the way I=20
work very well and since I have a strong hand coding background I=20
appreciate that it leaves precise control of things up to me.  The=20
properties inspector makes sense and I can have access to the code=20
instantly.  I must say that I am a power user and that I try to dig deep=20
into the software I use and Dreamweaver UltraDev is very rich in useful=20
features.  It's not for everyone of course but I think it's very=20
understandable that is the most used tools amongst professional designers=20
and developers (and has been for a long time) and that the main reason for=
=20
that is that it offers more useful features than many other similar tools=20
out of the box as well as infinite extensibility.  No one will use every=20
feature of every app but Dreamweaver's extensibility is probably what as=20
kept DW ahead since its first release as it's possible to add new=20
functionality as well modify its existing one so that it outputs code the=20
way you want it to.  The fact that it outputs completely non-proprietary=20
code (unless you force it to) is another of its outstanding "features".

But to answer your question about how much Dreamweaver really needs, I=20
think that Dreamweaver is one of the few professional Web design apps that=
=20
has been designed by following the request and feedback of its user=20
base.  Most of the features in it have been requested by the people who use=
=20
it at one point or another so they answers their needs as closely as=20
possible.  Macromedia and Allaire are two of the leading software=20
developers I know in that respect and they should be encouraged to keep=20
doing this.  Users should keep using software they are comfortable with but=
=20
I appreciate companies who constantly push their products and give their=20
users more than they expect.  I think Dreamweaver 4 does just that.

Cheers!

St=E9phane Bergeron

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