G
Garrett
Well, now I'm pee'ved off at myself for ever bringing up Nvu here. I
finally decided to give the update a whirl to see how it did...
Unfortunately, I think my expectations of WYSIWYG editors is still far
too high.
So here's a review/rant/nag/whin on a few Wysiwyg editors that have
been mentioned here recently. But please keep in mind, I am a bit
extreme in my expectations of these types of editors. I'm not sure if
any single Wysiwyg editor will ever fully please me. But I do try to
be unbias about them.
(Please note that I only consider an editor WYSIWYG if you are allowed
to visually interact with the design directly, and you do not have to
view and edit any html code. Such programs as 1st page 2000 are *NOT*
WYSIWYG editors. A code editor with a preview window is *NOT* a
WYSIWYG editor. Of course, others may disagree. I will not argue with
anyone on this because I'm pretty much set solid in my definition of
this and wish not to get into any major discussion or flame wars over
it. This is of course all based on my own perceptions, opinions and
experience.)
[Nvu]
Nvu suffers from an old Composer bug that still seems to be floating
around. And that is, if you open the source code in say NoteTab after
you've saved from Nvu, you'll find a ton of blank lines between a
single line of actual code. So you end up with 200 lines, but only 50
of those lines are actual code, the rest are blank lines. This may be
due to it's cross platform code and how line feeds and carriage returns
are handled differently amongst different operating
systems/environments. Whatever it is, the issue has been in the
Composer engine for many years now.
[Selida]
Selida places some tag values in quote marks and others not in quote
marks. I understand that browsers are capable of getting around this,
but all it takes is one stray quote mark to screw up your site and you
can spend hours trying to debug the code to find out why. It's so much
better (IMO) to keep with the norm and place the tags within quotes.
Makes it much easier on the eye to see what the tag is and what it's
value is.
The next annoying thing in Selida was the fact that I set it to make
tags in lower case in the settings, but yet, after making a new brief
design to test it out, I found that some of the tags were in upper case
and some tags in lower case. Not a major issue really unless your a
picky SOB like me.
[Web Builder]
Not your typical WYSIWYG editor. It does not allow you to open and
edit existing html documents. It's engine uses it's own internal
coding syntax which you do not see nor do you access. It's strictly
visual editing only. When you're done, you can export it to html, but
again, you will not be able to reopen that html document in the editor,
nor import it back in. If you want to save it to edit again later, you
must save it to it's proprietary format, which is not editable in any
text editor as the format is a binary format.
The visual editing will be familiar to anyone who's had any experience
with application programming languages. It's a spin off of a visual
designer for window or dialog applications.
It may be a bit unusual to some, but non the less, for the average joe,
it's effective and relatively easy to use. Not a full featured editor,
but does a good job.
After thoughts:
Of course, for the average user, these issues probably mean nothing as
they will most likely never concern themselves with the source codes.
And to this point, Nvu is still the choice in my opinion. Nvu is easy
to use and doesn't give the user a complicated interface to deal with.
Selida on the other hand is a bit lacking in the interface. Some
(maybe all) of the buttons do not even have hints. But Selida would be
good for the above average user who already has a healthy knowledge of
how WYSIWYG editors work. Web Builder is ummmm... Unique and might
cater to those who seek ummmmm.... Uniqueness. It seems like a solid
program and the author has many solild freeware apps on his site. It's
just an unusual editor that kind of stands out on it's own branch of
the tree.
All three are very good at what they do, but I do believe they each
cater to a different level or type of user.
And that's it from me on this subject for now. I do apologize if the
way I say things comes across wrong to anyone.. It's not intentional at
all. None of the above is meant to be a challenge to a flame fest or
anything. I'm not trying to slap anyone in the face or kick'em in the
wrong spot. I'm just a bit strong in my feelings about this subject.
After all, I'm not a Diplomat or anything.. So tact may not be my
forte. So if something above comes across wrong, please just ask me to
clarify and I will be happy to, and if I make a mistake, I'll gladly
correct it.
Hehehehe.... Do I dare ask if there's another WYSIWYG Editor out there
that someone wants me to review??? ;-)
Thanks,
-Garrett
finally decided to give the update a whirl to see how it did...
Unfortunately, I think my expectations of WYSIWYG editors is still far
too high.
So here's a review/rant/nag/whin on a few Wysiwyg editors that have
been mentioned here recently. But please keep in mind, I am a bit
extreme in my expectations of these types of editors. I'm not sure if
any single Wysiwyg editor will ever fully please me. But I do try to
be unbias about them.
(Please note that I only consider an editor WYSIWYG if you are allowed
to visually interact with the design directly, and you do not have to
view and edit any html code. Such programs as 1st page 2000 are *NOT*
WYSIWYG editors. A code editor with a preview window is *NOT* a
WYSIWYG editor. Of course, others may disagree. I will not argue with
anyone on this because I'm pretty much set solid in my definition of
this and wish not to get into any major discussion or flame wars over
it. This is of course all based on my own perceptions, opinions and
experience.)
[Nvu]
Nvu suffers from an old Composer bug that still seems to be floating
around. And that is, if you open the source code in say NoteTab after
you've saved from Nvu, you'll find a ton of blank lines between a
single line of actual code. So you end up with 200 lines, but only 50
of those lines are actual code, the rest are blank lines. This may be
due to it's cross platform code and how line feeds and carriage returns
are handled differently amongst different operating
systems/environments. Whatever it is, the issue has been in the
Composer engine for many years now.
[Selida]
Selida places some tag values in quote marks and others not in quote
marks. I understand that browsers are capable of getting around this,
but all it takes is one stray quote mark to screw up your site and you
can spend hours trying to debug the code to find out why. It's so much
better (IMO) to keep with the norm and place the tags within quotes.
Makes it much easier on the eye to see what the tag is and what it's
value is.
The next annoying thing in Selida was the fact that I set it to make
tags in lower case in the settings, but yet, after making a new brief
design to test it out, I found that some of the tags were in upper case
and some tags in lower case. Not a major issue really unless your a
picky SOB like me.
[Web Builder]
Not your typical WYSIWYG editor. It does not allow you to open and
edit existing html documents. It's engine uses it's own internal
coding syntax which you do not see nor do you access. It's strictly
visual editing only. When you're done, you can export it to html, but
again, you will not be able to reopen that html document in the editor,
nor import it back in. If you want to save it to edit again later, you
must save it to it's proprietary format, which is not editable in any
text editor as the format is a binary format.
The visual editing will be familiar to anyone who's had any experience
with application programming languages. It's a spin off of a visual
designer for window or dialog applications.
It may be a bit unusual to some, but non the less, for the average joe,
it's effective and relatively easy to use. Not a full featured editor,
but does a good job.
After thoughts:
Of course, for the average user, these issues probably mean nothing as
they will most likely never concern themselves with the source codes.
And to this point, Nvu is still the choice in my opinion. Nvu is easy
to use and doesn't give the user a complicated interface to deal with.
Selida on the other hand is a bit lacking in the interface. Some
(maybe all) of the buttons do not even have hints. But Selida would be
good for the above average user who already has a healthy knowledge of
how WYSIWYG editors work. Web Builder is ummmm... Unique and might
cater to those who seek ummmmm.... Uniqueness. It seems like a solid
program and the author has many solild freeware apps on his site. It's
just an unusual editor that kind of stands out on it's own branch of
the tree.
All three are very good at what they do, but I do believe they each
cater to a different level or type of user.
And that's it from me on this subject for now. I do apologize if the
way I say things comes across wrong to anyone.. It's not intentional at
all. None of the above is meant to be a challenge to a flame fest or
anything. I'm not trying to slap anyone in the face or kick'em in the
wrong spot. I'm just a bit strong in my feelings about this subject.
After all, I'm not a Diplomat or anything.. So tact may not be my
forte. So if something above comes across wrong, please just ask me to
clarify and I will be happy to, and if I make a mistake, I'll gladly
correct it.
Hehehehe.... Do I dare ask if there's another WYSIWYG Editor out there
that someone wants me to review??? ;-)
Thanks,
-Garrett
