Dreamweaver - PHP: I'm loving it!

I feel like a giddy fan boy.

I resisted using Dreamweaver for some reason.  The only help I really need is an editor which will color code some components of the language.  Make the comments chartreuse, key words blue, character strings purple, etc. and I'm satisfied.

It only took a brief exposure to Dreamweaver whining that I hadn't closed an open quote - Hey!  I'm not finished typing - that I realized the real power of the application.

Just that nagging is enough to get me to do what I usually do, but more consistently.  In my configuration Dreamweaver puts a red bar in the margin when there it detects an error on a line.  This means that if I start to type a quoted string, I will see the red bar within a few seconds of typing a quoted string unless I have already typed the closing string.  Good practice is to start writing the quoted string by typing the opening quote, then the closing quote, and then filling in the actual text.

Is is so affirming to not see the red bar that I've found myself coding more carefully.  And of course the predictive features where potential variables are listed in a popup makes it even easier.

And PHP?  Ask and the documentation returns clear explanations and easily understood examples.  What's not to love?

Contrast that with Python's documentation.  Language boosters hurl invectives at any perceived slight of their one true language.  I do not want to do anything like that here.  If I spent the time to study Python I'm sure it would take less than a week for me to speak rapturously of Python's glories, but I would still whine about the official documentation.

For years I've told students how much better their technology is than the stuff we learned on.  Unfortunately it now means that instructors can demand more from their students  (Students rarely win.  Just recently I saw a student turning in a hand drawn graph.  When I asked him why he didn't - I didn't get a chance to finished the sentence before the student answered that that the instructor wanted it hand drawn.  I can understand that.  Hand plotting gave me a feel for data.  But after doing several, why not give the kids a break?)

I on the other hand am just enjoying writing in PHP because the documentation has clear examples and, because I haven't yet run up against the limitations of the language, loving it.

Coding is fun once again.