What do Professional web developers use Dreamweaver or they hand craft?

Question

I am a software engineer... well Im on the road to become the latter but I see that in one of my classes and perhaps the one that I care most about it's called "Web Development" pretty self explanatory, I love web development, I like web apps, and such, but we use DREAMWEAVER???, Now.. granted I don't know how a professional does it, but I have been auto learning it for the last 4 years using notepad++...

And now I find out that apparently this tool made by this corp... is what they are going to teach me with... but I don't know what do the real pros use?

Answer 1

Professionals DO NOT use Dreamweaver: it has way too many limitation, writes a very crappy code, unmaintainable, and incompatible with ALL browsers. (Try to make a fully interactive site!)

Some MAY use DW to start the design, but they still have to review the code afterwards, by hand.

Those who use DW only are "Flee-Market Designers" who do NOT develop "applications": they develop semi-static sites for clients who do not understand theweb either...

This allows them to "produce" a lot of crappy websites on-the-cheap, and fast.

But do you really think that ANY successful site could have been developed in DW? Do you see something like this very Y!A developed in DW??? Come on!

Developing ANY serious website requires:

Understand the Web

Analyse the market (competition)

Plan your advertising strategy (AND BUDGET)

Choose an appropriate domain name.

Rent an appropriate server

Define your specifications (what does what)

Graphist to design the pages (NO coding!)

Approve graphics

Programmer to Code

Beta test

Advertise and launch

Monitor results and change according to USER's requests.



You think you could do that with DW? In a few days?

It takes MONTHS to develop any kind of serious website.

Not days.

And not with DW...But with Excel (market analysis), Photoshop (designs), and Notepad++!



The designers you are talking about are not web developers: they are the scum of the market, abusing clients with promises of results that are never kept...

Answer 2

Do Web Developers Use Dreamweaver

Answer 3

I'm not really sure what JR is talking about, or what kind of axe he has to grind, but real web companies and professional designers and programmers DO use Dreamweaver.



JR's little rant about market strategy and beta testing and such is, well, at best, unfocused, and not really relevant to the question. What JR is going off about is the PROCESS of project planning for a web design project. Of course you have do all those things, duh! But any large shop, that makes large, substantial sites is going to break all that down into a number of different steps (completed by a number of different people). Where Dreamweaver comes in is at the programming and development phase; everywhere else it's not really relevant.



Imagine for a second that the question was about auto makers and whether or not professional manufacturers used wrenches. JR's answer (extrapolated to this new question) would seem to indicate that professional automakers could not use wrenches because auto design involved steps such as market research, concept creation, design drawings, prototype creation, real-world driving and safety tests, advertising and distribution to the dealer. Since a wench can't do all of that, professionals would never use a wrench! For shame!



I'm not saying Dreamweaver is the best tool for the job, but it certainly is adequate, and has nice synergy with the rest of the Adobe suite. And many professional shops do use it (some quite large). So why spend additional money on another IDE when a good one is already packaged with CS (or CC now)?



I used to work at the largest Marketing / Design firm here in the Central Valley and we were an Adobe shop, and used Dreamweaver. We designed and coded many very large sites for major utility companies, hospitals and governments, all on Dreamweaver.



And as a real professional, I can tell you that using any sort of IDE (Dreamweaver or otherwise) will speed up your development cycle. Notepad ++, while a nice text editor, is not an IDE. If you're a freelancer using Notepad ++, and billing hourly, STOP! You're doing a major disservice to your clients.



Dreamweaver's got a lot going for it:

Code hinting

Code completion

Built in references / KB

Balance Braces / Brackets / Parentheses

Tabbed files

Tabbed subfiles

Dynamically located subfiles

Customizable Snippets

Save directly to server via FTP

Integrate with version control

Great site management



Like any tool, you gotta learn how to use it. Many people hate Dreamweaver because they don't understand how to get the most from it. It has a lot of moving parts that can do many powerful things that do have the potential for abuse and misuse. It's very much like the novice photographer with new high tech camera wondering why their pictures suck, or a untrained carpenter with a new power saw wondering why his cuts don't line up.



Is Dreamweaver my favorite IDE? No, there are many choices out there with more features, but Dreamweaver it still quite good. If it's what you like, or what you got, use it! Don't let the haters deter you.

Answer 4

Dreamweaver is just a fancier version of Frontpage. Personally I write my codes manually; usually just in notepad, but if you aren't a big fan of coding, Dreamweaver is a pretty good option and no its not looked down upon. I have worked with it in the past and its pretty easy to use, also things like image maps take about a minute instead of a half and hour.

Answer 5

I was exactly the same, learnt using notepad++. Went to work for a web development company, and they use Dreamweaver. Guess it depends on where you end up.