Just discovered the new Flux 2.0 the other day. Really liked the interface and especially the code window. Hand coding and visualizing at the same time. Another advantage over FW seems the tight integration with CSS.
I noticed some EE integration too!
We don’t filter the topics to be politically correct here, although it
might fit better on Off Topic than the main Freewaytalk. But if you
don’t explore the competition, you don’t realize where you need to
improve, eh?
Walter
On Apr 2, 2010, at 5:59 AM, DeltaDave wrote:
Your original post, if you read it over again, sounds like an ad for
Flux!
No doubt. But I am sure if I dug I could find some other examples of
people who are smitten with something and, full of the zeal of the
recently converted, want to tell Everyone Everything about It.
We went through a lengthy discussion of RapidWeaver a while back, and
one of the take-aways from that (and I believe one of the action steps
taken or being taken) was that a) Freeway’s default templates are a
bit long in the tooth, to put it kindly, and b) We need more, and
better templates.
There’s a serious up-side to any discussion of the competition,
whether we phrase it that way or not, because Softpress Folk are
active on these lists and they Genuinely Care. (I believe that’s in
their mission statement or similar.)
Walter
On Apr 2, 2010, at 10:40 AM, DeltaDave wrote:
…it might fit better on Off Topic than the main Freewaytalk.
Agreed
But I think that the content of the original post could have been
expressed better ie.
liked the interface and especially the code window. Hand coding and
visualizing at the same time. Maybe FW could use something like this?
And
Another advantage over FW seems the tight integration with CSS.
What can be done to improve this in FW?
I’ve been using it since v1 but fairly regularly since v2 was released
last year and I bought it (v1 was a bit of a mess). It has many of the
tools I want implemented in a way that suits the way I like to work
for the most part plus the fact that it integrates with CSSEdit is
great (I like the option to get “hands-on” if/when I want to). Though
I find aspects of the UI somewhat clunky the devs are very quick to
listen and respond and the app is updated frequently. I’m quite
impressed with it especially given how young it is and my enjoyment
keeps growing a little with each release. Still love my Coda but Flux
seems to be holding it’s own nicely. I’m glad I bought a copy
Todd
On Apr 2, 2010, at 4:10 AM, RobP wrote:
I was wondering if any of you had a more in dept experience with Flux?
I have v2 also. I agree with Todd on the interface because it needs a lot of work still. Very clumsy in my opinion. Still, it has many good things going for it. Although it is frequently updated, those updates are mostly bug fixes.
I’ve used it once or twice since Todd mentioned it to me a while back. It’s a different beast, however I do enjoy being able to have the option to edit the code if need be rather than a complete hands-off approach.
Flux 2 is like how Freeway Pro should be and Freeway Pro should be what Freeway Express is, if you were to compare the two and create a larger separation between the two products.
I’ve used it once or twice, I download the betas from time to time to
see if it’s gone anywhere new. I recall one of the developers was a
frequent poster on the Mac OS X Developer mailing list, back when I
used to be a member, and I know that one of his design goals was
Freeway with code.
My feeling is that Flux is trying to sit on the fence between coding
and not-coding design. Like Dreamweaver, it has a way to code layout
by drag and drop, also like Dreamweaver, it has a way to jump into the
code and have changes you make reflect back to the screen in the
design view. However, this approach means that it has to rely on the
current state of the HTML to draw its design view at all times, and
that gets messy pretty quickly.
I’ve gone back and forth on where Freeway should go in this regard in
the past. On the one hand, it would be very nice if you could import
some random HTML and have Freeway convert it in some meaningful way
into a layout object. But on the other hand, the way that Freeway
abstracts the design view away from HTML at all is so very useful in
so many other areas. How else would you set the DOCTYPE of your page,
and have everything Just Work?
Walter
On Apr 2, 2010, at 3:44 PM, jimmy b wrote:
just watched the intro screen cast on the Flux website, it looks
really long winded and clumsy to me.
I have been playing with Flux on and off over the past couple of months.
I have been using Freeway since version 3 and have learnt a lot along the way. The introduction of CSS to Freeway allowed me learn how it worked, especially with the help of tutorials from Big Erns and Dan Jasker. I also used CSS Edit to see how other sites were constructed.
Flux allows me to do things that Freeway doesn’t:
Import any website and allow me to see exactly how it is put together similar to the way CSS Edit does, and then edit that site as I wish.
Use snippets of code or bits of CSS that I find all over the web on sites like Listamatic or cssmenumaker.
Learn even more about how to construct professional sites using HTML and CSS - even HTML5.
Pick up any book on CSS, Javascript or HTML and know that I can use what I learn in Flux.
Hand over a completed site to the client knowing that I have not used some proprietary software, confident that any other web developer can work on the site in the future.
Flux is not perfect, but it is developing fast. Softpress need to take a serious look at the competition. If you want to develop your skills in web design and make them relevant to the wider market I urge you to seriously consider Flux.
Hmm… I am lucky enough have Freeway Pro, dreamweaver,rapidweaver, flux and coda (plus Taco which I use all the time). Have only just started messing with flux. My weapon of choice is always Freeway and later I tweak in Dreamwever or Taco if I need access to code. Because of Freeways huge actions library I can see Flux taking on Dreamweaver’s role in my workflow but not replacing Freeway. If more action type plugins become available for Flux though I think Softpress could have an emerging marketing challenge with some people though again there is more to software than all this-like the stunning Softpress customer support. We don’t live in a static world. I am awaiting Freeway 6 patiently.
