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Is DW CS6 worth the buy?


khanahk

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I like Coda but I use a PC, not a Mac.

 

I currently have Dreamweaver 8, which is ancient.

 

Questions:

 

1. Is Coda available for PC?

 

2. Does DW CS6 offer the same functionality as I see in Ben's videos (i.e. does the preview option WORK with php and other programming langugages, instead of previewing it in my browser all the time? I don't even use the DW8 preview)

 

3. Any other recommendations for a PC IDE? I've done some research but I want to hear the praise/disgust from people, not the companies selling them.

 

Thanks

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Honestly I think Dreamweaver is always worth the buy, unless you are but one or two versions back then it may not be enough bang for the buck, DW 8, yea probably worth it.

 

Than said there are some great IDEs for free out there, here at work we use Eclipse which has plugins for every language under the sun. There are also PHP specific editors. I never used Dreamweaver for PHP and you are always better off viewing in the browsers as that is what you are building for.

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1 - No, Coda is unfortunately not available for PC. Actually, ever since version 2 of Coda came out, I haven't been all that happy with it, and have switched to Espresso (again, Mac only sadly).

 

2 - At least for me, Dreamweaver isn't worth it. It's just too large/heavy of a program, and it includes too many features that I don't need. All I personally need for a majority of my work is a lightweight text editor with syntax highlighting and code completion. But... I think Dreamweaver is one of the few PC options if you are looking for something with live preview functionality. You can always download the demo and see if it will work for you?

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Hmmm, Ben does have a point. I have not really done HTML since CS1, my history is with Macromedia Dreamweaver, so Adobe had not done a lot to it yet, it could very well be over done now. That is worth considering.

 

Also why you need it? Freelance work or industry work. If you want and industry job, they will likely use it and knowing it will be good. Freelance work, then free editors are just fine. It is not the editor but the designer.

 

Have a look at my posting Alternative editors for web development, however it is quite out of date now, I just keep forgetting top research today's options.

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You know Khanahk, if I had the money, which I do, I still will not be buying it. Okay, maybe I'll give in to my inner desires later, but hopefully it will be after I can re-learn all this gobble-de-gook. Actually, I do have dw cs3, but for what they want, money-wise, and for what I need to get learned, it just don't make sense.

 

Of course, I would love to be able to play around with all of its new features, but at the end of a long day it's the learning of markup, css and all the rest of it that should concern me most, not having to learn bucket-loads of ways to do what can be done with a simple text editor.

 

That said, I believe there are professional reasons why some peeps should be looking into learning all of its ways. This is mostly down to groups of peeps working on the same project.

 

 

Ben, what have Panic done to Coda to make it so unbearable? Yours' and others' opinions have turned me away from buying this entirely new version.

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Ben, what have Panic done to Coda to make it so unbearable? Yours' and others' opinions have turned me away from buying this entirely new version.

I'm just not a fan of the new interface, mostly. The way it shows multiple files (in a thumbnail view across the top of the app, or even as text based tabs is awkward IMO, especially if you have a large number of files open. Version 1 just had an ease of use that V2 doesn't seem to have. It seems like there are a lot of bugs still to be worked out (based on comments that I keep seeing on Twitter), and that just doesn't look good either. All things considered... I just wasn't blown away by the new release. Maybe it's just one of those things where I would get used to the changes over time if I just stuck with it... but I'm pretty happy with Espresso and don't see a huge need to switch at the moment.

 

One of these days I'm going to probably switch over to a pure text editor -- possibly Sublime or Chocolat... but that would require a significant change in my workflow.

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Funnily enough, I too have Espresso, but have found no need (as yet) to go looking for something with a little more, "wake up and smell the coffee" variety. Perhaps Coda 2 is looking for a different sort of hand-coder? Let's hope its newest version doesn't turn all of its Coda products into a... has bean. Er, sorry 'bout that. :P

 

I will have a look at Espresso. Maybe I already have, and have just forgotten all about it. That's understandable, as I haven't been looking at web page building for a while now.

 

The only other text editor that I do have eyes for is Sublime Text, before it became Sublime Text 2, I think?

 

Something I mentioned a while back...

 

I’m not so impressed with Chocolat. It looks okay, but it doesn’t look to have any of the potential of Sublime Text.

 

In fact, the one thing this article has impressed upon me is to have a 2nd look at Espresso, and I am impressed — but only up to a point.

 

It would be nice if you could have the power of Xyle Scope with a split-screen feature on an Espresso-type editor. Or, is there something like that already?

 

Btw, in-order to get a split-screen to work with Sublime Text, you choose any 2 files and then go to the View Menu > Layout >> Columns 2, and just drag one of the tagged files over to the empty 2nd column. :)

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LSW - Freelance is all I do at this point; online applications and websites for family and friends, and people connected to me by that route. I'm not 'pro' enough for the big-shots.

 

I checked out Eclipse and my general feeling is... I don't have any idea how to use this. It's made for Java and I haven't even touched that realm yet -- although I would like to and plan to. I guess getting the PHP plugin for Eclipse would help but I feel the interface is too advanced for me at this point. There are many terms I don't know and such. Dreamweaver seems a bit simpler altogether.

 

All the same I am still kind of stuck in the decision making; I figure I'll just keep learning code and not waste time learning some software. The former is more valuable to me (and truly ought to be to the professionals). Meanwhile I finish a degree in Environmental Sciences...arg.

 

Thanks for the comments

Edited by khanahk
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Just my own personal opinion, I have DR4 and do not use it at all anymore. I bought it for Collage because I needed it for class. I find that as I learned to code that I can actually type out the code faster then I can use my mouse and click through DW.

 

For a code editor I like notepad++ it is free. If you like the DW set up of things like root folders and such the free version of Komodo Edit works that way. Stuff like opening a php or html file like DW does.

 

Again just my opinion.

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