Those who use only a notepad

[tmax]

I am a fulltime web developer.
I use DreamWeaver 12 hours a day (8 hours at work, 4 hours at home for fun).

What I want to know is... I hear people saying "I only use notepad" a lot
What kind of work do they do with just a notpad?
I manage 30-40 websites.. several websites with shopping carts and programs... many websites have 50~100+ pages interlinking each others.
So... are there people doing all that with just a notepad? I just don't see how that's possible.

I know it sounds cool and impressive to say "I don't need no stinking DreamWeaver" or "I do everything with Vim".
But, anyway, more power to the "notepad only" web developers.

 

[Mr.Haze]

I am a full-time professional web developer, and I do ALL my work in Notepad. And yes, I maintain over 100 sites. What you have to remember is that back when I learned HTML, and everyone was still using Netscape v.1, there were no WYSIWYG editors, and everyone did it by hand. The the first versions of FrontPage came out and it was horrible, and would write the worst code you ever saw! If you wanted to change the font of a whole page, it would wrap FONT tags around every single line making your HTML about 4 times the size, and bear in mind we were all using 28k modems in those days.

So basically, what I'm saying is that if you're from the old school, a) you had to learn to do it by hand, and b) the alternatives were crap. I know there are some great WYSIWYG editor out there nowdays, but you know us old dogs and new tricks don't mix, right?

 

[diddie]

Otherwise, just use pspad. It's a great free text editor for windows with a whole slew of features for coders.

PSPad is a nice tool, i hope ppl give it a try; along that i use Rapid PHP, another free tool.

 

[decepti0n]

I use PHP Designer 2006...and I have Dreamweaver (and Notepad of course)

The only thing i hate is when people who DO use Notepad claim they're better than those who use DW. I've used it before (needed things like the validation tester) and I don't use the WYSIWYG editor, always the code editor.

And I use tools to help me make sites, they're available, they're free, it doesn't make me any crappier.

 

[snapplekid13]

Notepad all the way! Ive always used it! And just last night someone gave me Dreamweaver and i was like WTF? and i looked at it and for hours i didn't know what the heck i was doing.... so i went back to notepad LOL!

 

[sin]

When I first started out, I used notepad because I hadn't head of dreamweaver.. Then I got dw and its so much better. Its possible to do anything in notepad that you can in dw, because dw just enters the code for you when you make something a link or whatever.
you know at the top left CODE/SPLIT/DESIGN
when you make a table while looking at design, it insterts code for the table (which you can see in split/code mode)
So dw just saves a lot of time and energy, testing things to make sure they look right and stuff.

 

[Palyriot]

All I use is notepad + php designer for the files that show up all messed up in notepad. I also use php designer just because I like the way it indents. I don't see the plus in using dreamweaver to make websites. You don't learn the material as well and to tell you the truth, I can type faster than I can find an option to do something for me. I guess it all depends on how comfortable you are with your coding. Especially if you have it all remembered. But...I'll stick with notepad.

 

[RickM]

Personaly i find dreamweaver a newbie tool...not meaning to sound harsh, however i just find it so simple & too "hand holding". I use editplus2 - simply for the auto indenting and color coding. I do have dreamweaver but rarely use it.