Dreamweaver.. ARGH!!
 

I was editting functions.php while trying to install a hack and dreamweaver autocorrected (and totally fouled up) another line elsewhere in the code. This is the first time I've ever seen it do this - anyone know how to prevent it in the future?

I don't use dreamweaver and other similar programs due to their interface which are mostly designed for newbie coders imho, I feel like the program trys to do to much for me.

If you are looking for a good php editor I recomend editplus, the free trail is unlimited, I bought a copy of it not to long ago because I liked the software so much.

If you decide to keep using dreamweaver im sure someone has the solution for you, but I highly recomend looking at other programs. :)

I totally agree with that. :)

Dreamweaver is an extrmemly powerful tool. It's used by all major professional web builders. However, if all your'e doing is inserting a query or altering a single line or two of code.. use a text editor. Dreamweaver is OUTSTANDING at creating sites. It's not always the best tool to use when editing sites created elsewhere.

And by the rational above.. I guess Photoshop is for new image creators that really don't know how to create the image with code..... open a photoshop file with a text editor.. can you write that? There's no harm in using software designed to make your job easier.

Sorry, but using the word 'Dreamweaver' and 'professional' in the same sentence just sounds like an oxymoron to me. I've never seen a *professional* web developer that used Dreamweaver.

Well, some do use it still as it is a powerful tool :) But I'd pretty much agree with that.

I use Jext for all my programming, it's a basic text editor that colourizes text. All you need :)

I can stand auto correctors, wizards and all that jazz. They never work properly and never let you do what you want.

And I agree with you Tigga, it's a very powerful tool and you can create some very professional pages with it, but not many professional developers use it.

Dreamweaver itself is an awswome tool, as long as you dont do a few things, i never had a problem using it as long as i never setup a virtual test site, thats when it adds funky code. :)

However ive moved away from using DW to notepad++ or just a notepad :D for when im lazy.

Yeah.. at 23 years old Brian (Tigga) you really have a world of experience don't you?

There are many, many, many professionals using Dreamweaver. Obviously you're just not exposed to the high-end coding that takes place at some corporations.

Actually many professional web developers use it. In some firms it is a requirement to have the knowledge (if you is it or not is another case).

wordpad all da way ^.^

There are much better programs than dreamweaver that cost alot less.

I'm sure he's been exposed plenty..writes pretty great codes himself..IMO...maybe you've not been exposed to his? Just curious.

Not as much as some I'm sure, but I have been doing web development, and pretty much nothing but, for quite a few years (since I was a teenager). Never have I seen a *profesional* company that used Dreamweaver or any similar programs to develop their sites. I have seen a few companies that have used programs like that, but I certainly wouldn't call them professional. I've worked for some rather large web development companies in the past and worked with clients for them such as Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Chick-Fil-A, and Tensar Corp (you may not be familiar with them, but they are a huge company around here and I did QUITE a bit of the work on their site). So I think it's safe to say that I've been exposed to some "high-end" coding. ;)
And either way, that's just my opinion about the program and nothing more. I've never had a need for it and always thought it better to just do the code the good ol' fashoned way with a simple text editor and Photoshop. If it helps you out then great, take advantage of the tool. For me though, the few times I've used it, or been given a site to work on that used it, it took me more time to clean up the coding that the program put out than it would have for me just to write everything myself. A site may look good in the end result, but I still consider it crap if the coding is not done well.

All professional coders in the company I work for (Bell.ca), use only Dreamweaver for programming.
Kier, from vB Team, also likes a lot the DW software, beside TextPad. :)
I guess is all related to what you are used to...
I personally like TextPad.

Regards,
Floren.

I've been in the design industry for more than 15 years. And Web development end of that for at least 5, More often than not a professional company will rely on Dreamweaver in conjuction with a good text editor. It's a rare business anymroe that is willing to pay an employee to hand code everything when it can be done in 10 minutes via Dreamweaver.

In fact I just got back from the Digital Design World Conference in Seattle where Dreamweaver is a staple of the conference as it is all major industry gatherings.

IIRC Kier uses Alier(sp?) Homesite. before it became dreamweaver, which is atad differnt.

IMHO Dreamweaver is great, especially for "prototyping".
But as the focus of vB.org is mainly programming and not design I think there are better tools for this: (Simple) Editors with syntax-highlighting.

That is exactly what the key is. You use Dreamweaver and clean up the code by hand. I will say that I do infact use Dreamweaver and have been a developer for more than 7 years now, and using it does not take away from my skill level, and experience.


PhpEDIT is a great program that I am using, it is great for testing for errors while coding.

I think you'll find many people can also code as quickly by hand as they can within dreamweaver ((X)HTML that is) :)

I think many people use Dreamweaver because you get an idea of how its going to look, without having to save the file, then preview it with a browser (which you should always do by the way).

At the end of the day all that matters is getting the job done, if dreamweaver helps you shave a few hours off total development time then defentaly use it. But as far as merly modifying a php file, who needs all that extra overhead?

As far as coding by hand vr. dreamweaver gose, I can see a advanage to begin able to preview on the fly, I just can't stand de-bugging the code that programs like that output. At the end of the day, for me at least, I can code quicker by just doing it by hand, saving to my dev box, then de-bugging my own code.

Interesting. I take it you are saying all these hard code and don't use Dreamweaver or other tool.

He's saying that HE hardcodes and that the developers he's seen in action also do so.

I've been developing only a few years (maybe 5) and I can see a use for Dreamweaver (just don't mention the "f" word!) - but I also find that I can code up a site in about half the time by hand than it would take to gen up a layout in DW then tidy it up so it validates ...

This war has been fought before ... let's let it be said - NEVER try to modify vB code files in DW unless you are very good at debugging screwups.

In the interest of getting my thread back from being a debate about the merits of Dreamweaver I'll reiterate my question - HOW DO I TURN OFF THE AUTOCORRECTOR??

I didn't mean to touch off a merits of Dreamweaver and other editors. :(

Somebody's using it for Macromedia to be able to charge $150 / copy for it.

In terms of design, if I owned a web development firm I would never hire somebody who's never (or rarely) coded out of a WYSIWYG editor. I work currently at a programming job for a company, with 3 others, and deal with MySQL/PHP/design stuff. I've been web designing for about 4 years now, and have always used a text editor of somesort (last 2 years in textpad). Two of my coworkers, who are master students in Computer Science, have always used dreamweaver, and while their code in terms of functionality is ok, in terms of complying with standards or readability, it isn't. I've never known a good web designer who makes extremely code-clean, standard-complying, and visually appealing web pages in a WYSIWYG editors.

As far as doing server side programming, it's not bad with all the tag and function references, but seems too cluttered for my taste. Textpad is simple, extremely effective, and makes the work flow fast.

Dreamweaver seems most popular among older web developers, perhaps because it's of a well known and accomplished company. There are other lesser known companies though that make good editors. ;)

Is textpad just a markup editor with syntax coloring or is it a WYSIWYG editor?

IIRC its the first

I'm a Mac person who has authored and kept up my own minor league web site since January 1996. I'm not a 'professional'.

Originally I 'hard' (hand) coded the entire site. Currently I use Dreamweaver a lot and use BBEdit for cleanup and for files where I 'can't afford a mistake' such as server config files which aren't in my Dreamweaver site files anyway. Dreamweaver has not, however, ever caused me a problem with a web site edit whether php file or simple html or xhtml files were concerned. My powerbook is also my testbed. When it's OK here it's an upload to my site.

Yes - this 'battle' has been fought many times and I am sure will continue to attract controversy. If one doesn't understand what a program like Dreamweaver can and does do, I'm not convinced that a straight ASCI editor will profit them. They have some learning to do. I agree that an asci editor is the best way for someone to really 'get in there' and understand every space, every line, in a file and understand what it is doing.

None the less - Dreamweaver and other 'User Friendly' editors have their place. In fact, using Dreamweaver has taught me a lot.

Have several tools at ready and use the one that best suits the job at hand. But remember - If you have a tool but don't know how to use it or the concepts involved it is useless...

"My balls better than your ball"

I hate these arguements, When will people realise that the basketball good for basketball but not that great for football.

Dreamweaver has it's place in the design side of thing and I use it for that along with Photoshop but when it comes to php coding I use Homesites because I prefer it.

Each to their own but don't slate a product because some people can't use it or don't know how to turn off the auto correct features ;)

I'd still prefer doing Ctrl + S -> Alt + Tab -> F5 and using TextPad than Dreamweaver.:)

I agree 100%. It's a combination of knowledge and comfort.

You are right, Zach... my mistake. :)

All of this discussion makes me wanna check out Allaire Homesite - I use EmEditor as a weopon of choice, mainly cos I like climbing mountains with toothpicks and kitchen string :D

You're all amatuers

*chips zeros and ones into a big stone tablet*

:p

OMG!!! I can understand that people can become attached to their software preference (I am a BBEdit man myself, and nothing beats it :smoke: ), but steady on there.

Also, I would be a little cautious with the whole age bashing thing. I believe that if you are good enough you are old enough.

All major corporates have their own philosophy and "way" of doing things. Two equally successful companies may have radically different approaches and nether are wrong. It is just a case of finding what works best for you.

However I would add that I love aspects of dreamweaver, it has saved me a lot of time, and programs like contribute allow me to focus on important things rather than being bogged down with minor text updates. But beware of the WYSIWYG auto correct facilities. Just like the grammar check in a lot of typing programs like Microsoft Word? just because the computer tells you it is so doesn?t mean it is. Think with your head and not your software.

Do you have any idea how much easier it is to have DW automatically convert my <br>'s to <br /> if I set the doctype to XHTML 1.0 Strict?
On a Norwegian keyboard, the / key is either Shift+7 or above the NumPad 8, and < and > are one key just above the Windows key.
So its tons easier to just type '<br>' and then see them automatically converted to '<br />'.
Also I use the 'XHTML convert' function to make sure I remembered to end all <input>'s correctly, etc.

If this IYO makes me a shide coder, then I quite frankly don't give a furret's anus :p


Edit -> Preferences -> Code Rewriting
Either uncheck it all, or exclude .php and .php3 files from such rewriting
:)

No much more difficult than using notepad or any other text editor's replace feature ;)

Hah well see thats work to be done in the aftermath of the coding, ye?
And <br> to <br /> is just one of many examples. Dya think Notepad saves you time if you have to convert:
* <br> to <br />
* <input> to <input />
* <img> to <img alt="" />
et cetera
;)