I have officially ended the use of Dreamweaver for all of my web development. I got so tired of the slow bloated performance of Dreamweaver and constantly having to pour more money into new versions. So I went looking for a better way and found this…
On Mac OS X I use CyberDuck for FTP and TextMate as an editor.
In case you are on Windows, though not as good, you can use FileZilla and Notepad++ and accomplish a similar setup and functionality.
This is the perfect combination and the price is much better than Dreamweaver. CyberDuck is free and a license to TextMate is only $56. The windows combination is completely free.
The syntax highlighting on TextMate is great and when you start using the bundles and snippet functionality of TextMate, you’ll quickly realize what you’ve been missing.
If you have any stories about using this setup, feel free to share. Or if you have used a different combination of tools (other than Dreamweaver) lets hear it.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I totally agree. I began developing using Dreamweaver, but about 2 months ago started using Cyberduck and TextMate. Between those two and Firebug I have had no wants for any of the “features” in Dreamweaver.
You have, in my opinion, found the best combination. With TextMate and Cyberduck open simultaneously, you don’t even have to go back to the Finder to drag files into Cyberduck for uploading. All you need to do is drag files directly from the side drawer in TextMate directly into Cyberduck. Voilá, upload starts immediately.
I realise I just said directly twice in the same sentence, directly.
I too have been looking for an alternative to Dreamweaver for a linux or windows platform..
So far I’m yet to find something that has:
As good a syntax highlighting and code complete as Dreamweaver.
And a built in ftp that I can setup for each site, and use keyboard shortcuts to upload.
I have never actually used Dreamweaver in the design mode, as I’ve never seen the point… but as a fully integrated web dev text editing platform… it is still unbeatable… until I find it’s replacement.
Norm,
You might look at Notepad++ to use on Windows. I just discovered this week that it has an FTP client built right in and it brings a lot of the basic functionality from Dreamweaver with it.
I’ve been using the TextMate demo and it’s an incredible piece of software. I’ve been trying to get used to the shortcuts but it’s definitely hard after using DW for about 10 years. I think the primary feature of DW that I’m really having trouble doing without in TextMate is the tag completion for HTML. I’ve grown so reliant on the ability to finish typing the > of any HTML tag and DW automatically putting the closing tag in for me that it really sticks out in my mind every time I use TextMate. Does anyone know if there’s a way to get TextMate to do the same thing?