Friday, December 30, 2005
Dreamweaver 8 vs Nvu 1.0
Briefly, Dreamweaver 8 wins hands down. This is a follow-up to my earlier post about tools from PortableApps.com.
I really wanted to like and use Nvu, since I've come to love Firefox and Thunderbird. Nvu has the right pedigree, extensibility, speed, rendering and more. Nvu just isn't as fully featured as it need to be and requires too many compromises and inconveniences for daily work. Currently, there aren't enough extensions to patch those issues either. For me the key issues were:
- No "round-tripping" of code; Nvu messes with your indents and line breaks.
- No ASP/CFM/JSP/PHP/XML editing; I want code highlighting and hints for more than just HTML. And if I wanted to use Eclipse for that, I would have started in Eclipse tools.
- No local/remote sync; you can work with either local files OR a remote/FTP location
- No "offset" when editing a remote site; My web site is NOT at the root level of my server. Unlike Dreamweaver Nvu doesn't have a convenient, way of indicating that "http://mobilemind.net/" is equivalent to "ftp://ftp.mobilemind.net/www-root". In such cases Nvu gets confused and sees any tags with relative references to the root like "/images/logo.gif" as broken links.
- HandCoder- Adds advanced source editing tools including code formatting (which requires HTML Tidy), a Dw-like tag structure status line, and tools to link to external editors (for text file formats).
- Nvu Site Manager ConText- Adds context menus to the Nvu site manager to launch external editor (for ANY file type found in your site). Similar to Launchy extension for Firefox/Thunderbird.
- URL Cleaner- Nvu extension to transform local URLs (file:///) into relative URLs.
- HTMLHeader- (Note: Links to XPI file, DON'T click and accidentally install into your copy of Firefox.)- an extension for editing the header of your HTML files
Comments:
I totally agree with your remarks about Nvu.
This is exactly what motivates my work on these extensions. I'll keep on working on them, and I hope to get a decent ASP/JSP/PHP support soon!
This is exactly what motivates my work on these extensions. I'll keep on working on them, and I hope to get a decent ASP/JSP/PHP support soon!
Fantastic. I'll watch for them and if you can, I would appreciate a notification as they become available.
Though I've written a few Dreamweaver extensions in Javascript & HTML, I think these Nvu extensions are complex enough to be out of my technical reach. Thus I can only offer enthusiasm and encouragement.
Though I've written a few Dreamweaver extensions in Javascript & HTML, I think these Nvu extensions are complex enough to be out of my technical reach. Thus I can only offer enthusiasm and encouragement.
I've set up a weblog so you can see my progress.
I'm working on HandCoder, another release should be available soon.
I'm working on HandCoder, another release should be available soon.
Enjoying your blog. I agree with some of your gripes. I've had a play with Nvu on my portable drive and it is something to be considered for emergency/unplanned editing.
However, support for working with more dynamic stuff would be rather compelling!
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However, support for working with more dynamic stuff would be rather compelling!
# posted by 
: 8:05 AM
: 8:05 AMExternal links to this post:
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