Tuesday, 30 April 2002
Installed the Dreamweaver MX preview, but both the setup app (“VSetupT”, what a wonderfully nice name) and Dreamweaver itself just crash on startup. So much for that.
Turns out VSetupT is incompatible with OS X (it has to do with copy protection, judging by looking at the version info). Choose “Open in the Classic Environment”, double-click it, then double-click Dreamweaver and it should work.
First impressions: Macromedia still hasn't cleaned up their act on GUI polish. I always found FreeHand and Dreamweaver much more annoying to use than their often feature-poorer Adobe counterparts for this reason.
The “License Manager” app blocks access the first time you run it, but it's unclear what's happening if you click on Dreamweaver; you have to discover that the License Manager app is waiting for you to answer a question. Clicking tabs on the toolbar causes it to flash annoyingly, and double-clicking the “Insert” triangle causes the toolbar to expand to the height of the screen (what's the point?) The windows dock together, but in a way that doesn't respect the shadows OS X includes, so the document window overlaps the shadow of the palette above it. “Preferences – Validator” shows Windows style checkboxes. Drag and drop in the source view shows inadequate feedback. Switching a palette from horizontal to vertical takes 3 seconds on my G4/533. Toolbar buttons stay highlighted when you move off them, even though they shouldn't.
Perhaps I'm being too hard on Macromedia for these issues, but they don't exactly inspire confidence for the core of the program being solid. I'll take a longer look at some point in the future, when I can give it (and GoLive 7) more than a cursory look.
12:53 AM
