Targetting Dreamweaver

Okay here's the rub..

Online Dreamweaver

The task I am going to undertake is to mimic Dreamweaver/UltraDev, online. Essentially the proposed system will provide a WYSIWYG editor of Dreamweaver standard, and code editor, that runs within the web browser. This will include full Drag 'n' Drop capability of template design and other such features such as plug in utilities and javascript libraries.

What I am asking is that people here help to form a Requirements Specification that can be worked to. So fire away!

BTW, this is not some just dreamt up idea, well it is.. but anyway. This will take approx. 8 months to complete (though I'm hoping will be an ongoing concern) and the idea is that it will result in a free, cross-platform Dreamweaver standard system.

Over-to-you!

Wow. You do realize this is quite an ambitious project?

Before I can guess on the requirements....

What kind of client-side technologies will you be using first of all? Flash? Lots of DHTML stuff like Layers?

Let me know. I find this idea very interesting.

binky, I knew you were crazy but this is toooo crazy even for you What was the name that java editor yahoo got... it took them about as long, but they had team and money. Look how ****ty it is, and you hope to do better by yourself? Erm - best of luck, you'll need it. You told me you had lots of spare time, but this....

No Flash, cos I hate it... really hate it. Well okay, for some things it's okay...

Hell yeah I realize it's ambitious, and at times I've been thinking it's not possible, but I believe it is.

Essentially it'll be PHP/Perl running the back end. XHTML output... As I had no feedback for ages I've worked out much of the plan for now...

Ahh, Mr Capone, crazy isn't the word for it. But, get this, a cross-platform Dreamweaver for free... could you resist? Even if it's limited functionality, with a working plug-in system for tools, then it's got potential.

Spare time... loads and loads of it. Except for a few web site projects, but I'll fit them in somewhere

.

BTW, the forum I tried in XML, I've passed over to someone else to redo using MySQL back end. The XML just couldn't handle updates quick enough, darn!

I could resist, because I really don't care for Dreamweaver

aight aight binky, you go ahead cook something up and we'll see you in one year when you'll be interviewed on onlamp.com as next 'famous dude of open source'.

Would I use it? I really don't know... I mean tools we have already got all I want - syntax highlighting (although quanta sux at it) and line numbering. What else can there possibly be added that makes developing easier? I have never ever used Dreamweaver for production - just played around with it in spare time and didn't find any outstanding features.

Maybe that's where Binky's on to something, though? I mean, Dreamweaver is a really swift little package overall, but really, it's best at just throwing down a skeleton that you can build around by hand. I mean, gimme a break, I got big fingers! It's hard to type HTML tags for an extended period of time. And if I'm just ploppin' down an image or two in a formatted table, I can slap the thing out in DW in minutes.

So... if it goes and plays on that strength, and lets users plug in extra functionality as they see fit, maybe it's not such a crazy idea (well, yea, it is... but maybe it'll work too )

Why not build it around, or rebuild composer from the ground up?

That can be packaged as a standalone and it is cross platform...

I have the composer XUL interface source if you need it...

/me thinks jpenn is crazy just like binky
/me looks at ctb with that ah-you-damn-designer-why-cant-you-do-anything-right-you-slacker look

C'mon guys, editor is not the most important thing in developing - food and coffeeeee is

I'm not a freakin' designer! I'm a programmer! Why can't you people accept me for what I am? BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! *sniff sniff*

Well I'm not the best one for expressing the virtues of Dreamweaver, I don't use it either... I write all the scripts in EditPlus, except when I'm not on a PC with that, then it's trusty Notepad.

But Dreamweaver is used by a helluva lot of people... people who don't want to go into the code except for adding JavaScript they borrowed off DynamicDrive. It's these people I'm aiming at.

Oh, and I should say I've got a bloody huge pile of notes that suggest this can be done, that Mozilla can do what is required of it.

Mozilla would be an excellent platform, I would think, and you could learn a huge amount from Komodo by Activestate. . .

I am starting to use Dreamweaver more and more to create frameworks that I then hack/slash/mutate by hand into perl HTML::Templates and what not- 4 (I don't know 'bout MX) does an excellent job of NOT screwing with your hand coding. It's saving me a HUGE amount of time. Dreamweaver is no longer an app for a hand-coder to diss. . . It can make your job MUCH easier.

PLEASE make sure your app doesn't mess with hand coding, and I'll most definitely check it out. And if you want some external perl stuff written- conditional HTML tag strippers, web page grabbers, blahditty blah, call on me when you get there. I might be willing to pitch in a little, depending on my time constraints. . .

Cheers,

Yeah, that's about how I envisage it working. A quick drag 'n' drop template designer, then a free reign to code around it.

As my first post says, using composer is an excellent starting point......