Forum Moderators: coopster
Basically, I got lazy thought I'd use DW to knock up a page, after selecting a PHP document I checked 'Make XHML compliant'.
DW thoughtfully adds the following first line to the document:
<?php echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"iso-8859-1\"?".">";?>I promptly returned on the opening/closing "?>" tags and began coding:
<?php
echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"iso-8859-1\"?".">";
echo 'My code went here';
?>An hour or so later, after knocking out some neat PHP code, and dudiciously saving every few minutes. I closed the document window, and went to test.....
Nothing.
I opened the document that I'd "saved" to discover the sole line of PHP code:
<?php echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"iso-8859-1\"?".">";?>Dreamweaver - oh so thoughtfully had decided that my last hour's works was obviously not worth saving - that I didn't really mean it, and as I'd selected 'Make XHML compliant' it obviously knew better.
Needless to say, I have now fully uninstalled this [ insert unprintable derogatory comment/s here ] application, and learnt my lesson!
asp
The only reason I had to use it was the inept coding DW did to the html and it was faster to decode it using DW itself.
I hate it when programs change things for me, no matter if I am wrong or not. Prompt me saying "you big idiot, look what you did" that's fine but not go ahead and change it for me. DW number one major failing, thinks it's smarter than me, it went out the window after the first offense and I can still beat it hands down hand coding. ;)
Guys!
For crying out loud CHECK THE PREFERENCES!
DW does NOT change code unless told do - done via the preferences.
I have done a few PHP sites all using DW and have had no code changed.
Dreamweaver IS a hand coding environment AS WELL AS a visual design tool!
RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT
jatar_k is right - inform me, don't just assume I'm stupid!
As for the preferences - those would be the preferences where it said:
"Never re-write code with extentions:
asr .asc .asp .ascx .asmx .aspx .cfc .cfm .cfml .config .cs .ihtml .js .jsp .php .php3 .vb .xml .xul"
I can see how Dreamweaver might be confused over something as conceptually complex as that ;)
asp
I'm not assuming you're stupid - far from it, which is why I don't understand why people fail to familiarise themselves with a product before dismissing it as useless.
I know DW is'nt everyones cup of tea but just because someone does'nt use it properly does not mean its a crap piece of software.
As for being warned about the code yeah I agree they should alert you that stuff is being changed but this hardly equals software ejection out of the window. ;)
Dreamweaver 4 IMO was the best thing since sliced bread - it's MX I have a problem with. It gets its CSS box model wrong - can't understand basic CSS - like a remark, it totally doesn't understand the IE CSS box model hack, produces swathes of PHP code much of which has been depreciated - $GET_HTTP_VARS being one of them, crashes like I have never had an application crash before, and loads of other stuff.
That's why I think MX is a waste of space - they took DW4 which saved me time and money and turned it to something that wastes it beacause of the clearing up after it.
It's like looking after a 5 year old child - always has the best intentions but somehow always manages to wee up the wall, and drop that bottle of milk on the floor.
asp
CSS has been fine so far but to be honest I have'nt used 90% of the "new features" like snippets etc.
Actually one thing has been bugging me about DW MX I use cookies to detect user levels and then re-direct with location {} - sometimes if I preview in NN4 it shows a wierd >>? type character and get an error that headers have already been set.
Anyone else experienced this? If I save in notepad using EXACTLY the same code - no probs at all, even works when i re-open same doc in DW.
if this character is spit out before the location call it will cause the header already sent error. If you can lock down where it is coming from you can either stop it or try putting a @ before the offending function to suppress errors (I think it is the @ symbol).
As for DW, I'm a hand coder, I have no interest in being anything else, so you can imagine the stretch it would take for me to use DW. The times I have used it have been on "pro" long time DW users/coders cpu's because they couldn't fix something because DW wouldn't let them.
This has been with the don't change my code on my pain of death settings going. DW, in these instances, still made some small changes that were causing problems. It was confused. These were setup properly and the people using them were very familiar with their settings.
So at any rate, to DW's credit it was the last wysiwyg to go out the window but out it went all the same. ;)
