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

At 01:38 PM 01/24/2001 -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!
>Lisa


To each his/her own. And therein lies the source of competition.

That aside, and completely forgetting the original poster's request that 
this not turn into a "DW vs. The Rest" flameware. Lisa and I have already 
exchanged words over Frontpage on this list before. :)

I used Frontpage when it was in Beta to build some of my first sites. It 
always had problems that were antithesis to my goals. I gave up on 
Frontpage during the FP98 product cycle, when I was getting into heavy back 
end work and really trying to lay out my code a certain way, and moved to 
other products. I was using FP98 to write PHP code. Try and do that in FP98 
and youll rip your hair out. It doesn't like the server side code 
delimiters at all. After I learned those products, I never saw a need to go 
back, even if I could use it for the same purposes. That's just the way the 
cookie crumbles.  I don't use FP 2000 now. Not because I don't think it 
works, but because I already have the tools that work just as well.

Your reasons are similar to why I never switched to fireworks. I can do 
everything I need to do in Photoshop and ImageReady with an interface I 
have known since Photoshop 3.0. What I lose in some of the advances in 
Fireworks I make up for in experience and familiarity with the 
applications.  However, I believe through anecdotal evidence that Fireworks 
is a quality product, if you know how to use it.

I would have to say though. To make the statment that "(Dreamweaver) is 
already so cost prohibitive and overly engorged with toys that anything to 
be added would make life misery." coupled with your own admission you do 
not use the program, makes the statement a touch questionable.  It could be 
said (and I am not trying to make this some axiom of life) that Whiz Bang 
toys are what makes products marketable, real work enhancing features it 
what makes a product successful.

As an interesting (maybe) side note, I am also Frontpage 98 Certified. 
However, when interviewing for jobs I find that when I am interviewing for 
high level positions, where they want people who really know the code, they 
often give me a suspicious line of questions relating to my Frontpage 
certification.  Like they worry that what I really know is WYSIWYG and I am 
trying to pass myself off as knowledgeable of HTML.  I like having the Cert 
on my resume, but I often wonder if it hurts as many times as it helps.

I am feeling long-winded this week. I must need to find more work. :)

-Stephen

p.s. I always want more toys, bring on the toys!!!!!!! Which is why I love 
the extensions for Dreamweaver. I mean having a drop down menu that sends 
the page out to be verified for accessibility is awesome, and Macromedia 
just had to create an extension interface and let the developers come up 
with extensions.

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