[TriLUG] web authoring packages

[Kevin Hunter]

At 10:16a -0700 on Mon, 04 Aug 2008, Neil Little wrote:
> Amaya - This is the most recent and hottest project I have found so far. 
> It is been sponsered by W3C.org but I havent seen a whole lot on this 
> editor.
> Can anyone comment on Amaya? Have they used it?

If you don't understand what's going on behind the scenes, you'll likely
have a difficult time with Amaya.  At least that was my impression a
year ago when I last tried it.  It claims it writes 100% strict *TML,
and it did for the set of tests I put it through, but the interface was
not as intuitive as I think it should have been, especially for noob
users.  It still suffers from the fact that to use it, you need to
understand what it's doing under the hood.

> I have been playing around with firebug and some of the web developer 
> tools on firefox but its a little quirky and doesnt seem to be ready for 
> prime time to me.

Hmm, I use Firefox and Firebug a lot.  I cannot claim the same reaction.
 It works as I expect it, and is damned helpful.  If you suspect it's
buggy, I suggest that you make sure you have the latest versions of
each.  I also suggest you spend more time with them on certain projects.
 As with a lot of tools, you don't learn the powers of what they offer
until you need them.  Firebug took some getting used to, but after that,
it's become of my *favorite* tools for working/debugging/writing
HTML/Javascript/CSS.  I think it is *totally* ready for prime time as I
use it for a large portion of my day job.  It, like Amaya though, still
requires you to understand what's going on under-the-hood.

I'm afraid that for serious web-developers, there's no getting around
understanding the core concepts of HTML, Javascript, AJAX, CSS,
Browsers, compliance, links, user interfaces in general, and your users
in particular.

> Are there any other solutions out there I have missed

Likely.  Aren't there always?  :-)

Kevin