Dreamweaver Vs Coda

• Posted: March 25, 2008
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• Author: Paul Rowe
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• Filed under: Packages, usability
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• Tags: Packages

Like any budding web developer I got myself a copy of Dreamweaver and set about learning how to use all its various features. However I found myself using the program less and less when developing websites. It just seems too intrusive than it needs to be, combined with the fact that you have to wait half a decade for it to load when you just want to make a minor adjustment. I recently got a copy of Coda, which is the best text editor I have used. It handles the syntax well, has a nice view of the file system and lets you get on with writing web pages. Dreamweaver just confuses me, over-complicates things and seems counter-intuitive. Nowadays i swear by Coda and hardly ever use Dreamweaver. Why do i need a design view if i have a browser? Particularly when working with PHP or client side scripting. This seems to sum DW up for me, lots of features that are obsolete once you have a grasp of how file management works over servers. However thats not to say I am ready to delete Dreamweaver from my computer for good. If I’m ever making a site wide change Dreamweaver really comes into its own. There are also some redeeming features such as the optimizing graphics feature. The text editor is also second to none and I would probably find myself using it if i ever had to edit something like XML. However I have an aversion to vast arrays of buttons with symbols on them. Why would i learn how to use them all when i could spend that time learning a language thereby negating the need to learn Dreamweaver at all not to mention its subsequent ever changing versions. Adobe should have done what it did with its graphics packages, and make multiple specialist programs. That said If Adobe can integrate Dreamweaver with its next generation of programs like Flex then I will no doubt be back on side watching in awe as it loads the vast array of features I will never have the pleasure of using. I know that DW has some advanced features that Ive yet to fully appreciate or understand, If anyone out there uses DW regularly let me know where I’m going wrong…. Post a comment below.

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