High hopes for Dreamweaver 8
Macromedia announced Studio 8 on 8/8 at 8:00 am (thanks Ben Forta for pointing that out), and I am looking forward to its release. I have seen some negativity toward the release, particularly on the CF-TALK list, so I figured I would give my take on it.
Many have said that this release looks insignificant, particularly in terms of new features that Dreamweaver 8 has to offer. I liken this to the upgrade from Dreamweaver MX to Dreamweaver MX 2004. I didn’t see a whole lot of difference. I slowly caught on to the new features just from using it, particularly those relating to CSS (especially with the code hints). I didn’t even notice the significance of those features until I watched my boss use Dreamweaver MX, and she couldn’t do some of the things I could do. It actually frustrated me to watch.
In all fairness, from the ColdFusion side of things, I have yet to try CFEclipse to compare it to Dreamweaver. But the strength of a developer should relate to his tools only to a certain extent. I suspect that a wise developer would have both tools in his toolbox.
Of course, I don’t want to evangelize the product until I give it a try, but I look to Studio 8 with high hopes. And I haven’t even mentioned the new features coming in Fireworks 8 and the higher visibility of Flashpaper and Contribute.