Geeks Bearing Gifs Revisited: |
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by Al Massey |
[HomeSite 2.0] [InContext Spider] [Claris Home Page] [HotDog Professional 3.0]
Everybody's doing it. I suspect, if you look close, even the birds and the bees are doing it. Putting up Home Pages on the World Wide Web, that is. I have seen pages designed by folks of all ages from eight to eighty, devoted to everything from a pet earthworm to quantum physics.
When we last visited this topic HTML 2.0 was in its infancy and there were a handful of HTML editors you could use to design your pages. Most of them, especially the stand-alone editors, required a bit of a learning curve, and on the whole didn't perform as well as the ever popular Notepad built into Windows.
But, as the saying goes, stuff happens and things change. The new non-standard HTML 3.0 is in full swing, frames are where it's at, Java is upon us, ActiveX has us in its death grip and plug-ins - well, the less said about plug-ins the better. It is almost, correction it IS impossible for one to pick a single standard and stick to it, when designing a Web page.
The arena is getting crowded with HTML 3.0 being the step-child of the W3 (World Wide Web) Consortium and loosely supported by Netscape and Microsoft, both of whom seem hell-bent on destroying if not each other, then civilization, as we have come to know it.
When I sent out the word that time was drawing near to revisit the world of HTML editors I was swamped with everything from the usual Word 6/7 plug-in to stand-alone full-featured web publishing suites, over seventy-five packages in all. Sifting through them to find a handful worthy of your consideration has been a task worthy of Solomon. Rest assured that I installed every one of the packages and put them through their paces in an attempt to bring to your attention the ones I feel have the most merit.
I quickly ruled out the packages that taxed my geek factor on installation or didn't live up to stated claims where it came to features. I also passed on several "free" editors. There are some cases where "free" just cost too much. Also on the hit list were a number that were, for lack of a better word, overpriced. I don't mind paying dearly for products that do the job but paying a high price for something that fails to perform as well as a low cost product is asking too much.
After spending over five hundred hours evaluating these packages I would be hard pressed to pick just one and proclaim it king of the crop but, if pushed, will say that at the top you would see HotDog Pro, FrontPage, WebEdit Pro and HomeSite.
The rating system applied is simple and is outlined below.
***** Highest
**** Good
*** Acceptable
** Poor
*
Not worth the trouble
NOTE: The software in this two-part series is listed in no special order. Part 2 will be "Web Authoring" software.
Perhaps it's just the devil in me but I find comfort in the fact that this great piece of programming was produced by cartoonist Nick Bradbury, creator of the cartoon "Dexter." Nick tells me that he became disgruntled after trying out a couple of dozen editors and finding that none of them met his needs. He found features in just about all of them that he liked, but not one of them had all the features he desired, so he set about designing one for his ownself and came up with HomeSite.
Trying to come up with a program that includes just about all the features you could want in an HTML authoring tool is akin to explaining cold-fusion to an unfriendly banker, "you see I need about twelve billion dollars to develop something that only six people will ever be able to use." Well, I'm here to tell you that Nick Bradbury has done just that and it only cost twenty-five dollars to give it a try. Actually you can try it for free but lets not quibble.
HomeSite is the most user friendly HTML tool I have ever used. I knew I was in for something special when it took advantage of OLE to bring up Microsoft IE 3.0 so I could preview my work from within the application. Unless you have done a great deal of work in this area you might not appreciate this nice little hook but I can assure you it makes all the difference when you are working on a deadline. You can also view your work in the external browser of your choice or use the built in HTML 2.0 compliant viewer. Other immediate niceties were the ability to have HomeSite "prompt to save," "automatically save," or use a "temporary file" to view unsaved changes.
If you are like me you enjoy "tweaking" an environment to make it behave the way you want it to and in this regard HomeSite fills the bill nicely. It presents a completely customizable interface with multi-level color coding and even places a red marker on a document tag to indicate unsaved changes. HomeSite brings new meaning to right mouse button functionality as well. Right click just about anywhere and you will be presented with a wide array of choices.
Couple this with context sensitive help, cascading menus, configurable toolbars and multiple search and replace and you have industrial strength HTM authoring capabilities at deep Dollar store prices. That Dexter, he sure is a cut-up.
Final Verdict:
Usability *****
Technology ****
HomeSite v2.0 (reviewed), HS2SETUP.EXE (1,140K), registration: $39.95. HomeSite v1.2, HS12SET.EXE (504K), freeware. By Bradbury Software, LLC, 800/599-8856 (registrations only), http://www.dexnet.com/homesite.html.
The folks at InContext have been hard at work on this product and have greatly improved it since that last time I had an opportunity to evaluate it. Although the package still suffers from a less than brilliant interface, the work shows and in some cases shines as in the case of its incredibly well-implemented online ability. Through the clever use of its supplied Spider Mosaic, the program can capture pages, graphics and links without forcing you to leave the editor.
Other nice features of Spider are its full-featured word processor complete with an HTML tag editor and a cadre of some fourteen well-designed templates, 171 clip art images, an HTML version of the user's guide, Spider Mosaic and Win32s and OLE 2.0 support files.
Spider's editing screen is split down the middle with a content editor on the right that functions as a point of entry for text, tags and graphics while the left side is devoted to a hierarchicallogical editor that displays the structure of your document. While Spider's button bars won't offer up any tool tips, there is some context sensitive help on the lower left of your screen. This help is at a minimum, however, and I just about wore out the F1 key during my evaluation of this product.
Being a descendant of SGML Spider seems to associate two actions with every tag, insisting on defining the tag and then modifying its attributes. Spider does pop up a handy little attribute dialogue with a right click of the old mouse button, which I found helpful, but restricts your activities to the field you are currently editing which I found distracting if not annoying.
The only way to import documents into Spider is to download a program from InContext Web site and use Windows Clipboard, which proved doubly annoying but, on the plus side, I found Spider's ability to copy a set of links from a Web site and, download entire pages and cut and paste their code was a rich feature. I was able to duplicate work performed in other programs using this method in record time.
Spider burped when it came to creating forms and performed in much the same way as word processor plug-ins. Spider is headed in the right direction, but in its eagerness to get to the Net, InContext may have
ported its SGML editor a little too quickly. While the integration of HTML editing with live browsing
is brilliant, more thought needs to be put into Spider's interface.
Final Verdict:
Usability **
Technology ***
InContext Spider 1.2 (reviewed) $99, ($49 available on-line at time of review in Dec. 1996). InContext Corporation, phone: 800/263-0127 or 416/922-0087, FAX 416/922-6489
Despite not having a built-in spell checker, a feature every editor I have ever submitted work to claims is a Massey necessity, I found this little hummer well worth the attention. I also found a few other minor problems, namely with the interface and the fact that some traditional Windows shortcut keys didn't work, but on the whole this is a very impressive product offering a good mix of functionality, flexibility and simplicity.
With the possible exception of FrontPage, Home Page was the only product evaluated that can directly create and manipulate HTML frames effortlessly. The program lets you edit HTML code directly within the program, supports HTML tables and forms and throws in an image-map editor to boot. If that weren't enough you will find over 500 clip art images included and, when fully installed, it occupies less than 5MB of disk space. This last feature was enough for me to keep it around.
I found the interface had a number of things going for it, not the least of which is something called a MDI (multiple document interface) window that lets you create and edit the documents that correspond to the individual pages on your Web site. Home Page lets you arrange graphics and text in any order you like and move them at will until you get the arrangement you desire. Drag and drop, import text, drag images or links from Windows Explorer and automatically convert .BMP images to .GIF format in one fell swoop. It even interlaces your images to make downloading faster.
Topping off a list of features worthy of a front line editor are a frames editor and forms editor that only require you to drop text boxes, radio buttons and command buttons into the HTML editor window. If all this weren't enough Claris tossed in an image-map editor that lets you define hot spots within a graphic and make a particular color transparent. Way to go, Claris. Where have you been so long?
Final Verdict:
Usability ***
Technology ***
Claris Home Page 1.0 (reviewed), $95. Claris Corp., 800/325-2747, http://www.claris.com.
Those friendly folks at Sausage Software, Inc. have gone and done it again. After sifting through dozens of packages and filling up the hard drive with notes I find myself comparing every HTML editor and authoring tool with HotDog Pro. This tells me more than I want to know on the subject and speaks volumes when it comes to features.
From the very first I have been impressed with HotDog and nothing in this version changes my mind. It is, at its core, the best there is, bar none. I can't imagine a Web developer not having this product in their toolbox. The very name HotDog conjures up images of developers that love their work. Couple HotDog with Sniffer for drag and drop and Rover for real-time event viewing and the howling sound effects and you start to get the idea you might actually enjoy developing a Web site.
Sniffer is a drag and drop feature that makes it simple to add new pieces to your Web page. When you combine Sniffer with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) similar to that provided by Visual Basic and ActiveX support you quickly realize that this is probably going to be all the Web page design tools you will need.
It is a mark of a true leader when others try to mimic your products. But the Sausage developers are constantly out front with new tricks and version 3.0 is no exception. In addition to IDE a so-called bandwidth-busting module is included that changes your .GIF files to .JPG thereby reducing compression and adjusting images for better performance. You can fine tune the bandwidth buster to make your specific application perform better. As a true Geek would say (way) COOL.
Version 3.0 also includes a download feature allowing you to pull down a complete site and load it into HotDog for editing. A new remote editing feature allows you to view a list of sites in the IDE and then edit the application remotely or download it into HotDog and make the necessary changes. You can also use the included page builder to quickly put together components and arrange them the way you want or edit them to your heart's content. Other features I enjoyed were the Wizard engine and support for style sheets.
If you are like me you find yourself having to use several programs to develop graphics but with HotDog you can easily create animated graphics, convert .GIF files into .JPG and link them to your project with ease. Toss in support for JavaScript and the latest flavors of HTML, a syntax checker and on-the-fly color setting and you begin to wonder when the ride will end.
Final Verdict:
Usability ****
Technology ****
WOW
HotDog Professional 3.0 (reviewed), $99.95. Exclusive North American distributors: Anawave Software, Inc., 800-711-6030 phone, http://www.anawave.com/hotdog.html.
Al Massey is a HAL-PC member who may be contacted at almas@hal-pc.org.