Hi James,
Although not part of your list I thought I’d add my views on the subject. 
I’ve been using Freeway since version 2 (1999) and have watched RapidWeaver grow from a simple iWeb alternative into a big eco system. The application itself is now quite mature and can do pretty much most of what users expect of it but still some of the features you’d find in Freeway are only supported in third party stacks. In Freeway, for example, you can create an image map simply by dragging a linked area over an image. Admittedly RealMac have concentrated on the features that people now use so many of the legacy features of Freeway (image maps, frames, legacy HTML and CSS levels) that have been there since the start just don’t exist in the app.
For me personally the thing that holds me back from RapidWeaver is not the missing features or the third party additions (stacks, themes etc) market that seems to be driving the product (rather than the other way around) but it is the general state of code output. Isaiah at YourHead who originally created the Stacks plug-in has done a fantastic job of pushing RapidWeaver from a hobbyist app that essentially relied on themes into something that the user could define the layout and break that reliance on the theme structure. Part of this mastery is how Stacks isolates and ring fences each stack’s code into their own sections which stops one stck from stepping all over others on the same page. The downside is that it creates a lot, A LOT, of code for the page. Take a look at a RapidWeaver Stacks page and you’ll find a stylesheet and often a JavaScript file or two for each stack plus a whole load of structural code. I suspect 99% of users don’t care too much about this as, like Freeway in the past, “it just works” and who looks at the source code any way? For me it matters and although Freeway’s code output is far from ideal it isn’t abstracted to the point of not being able to follow the flow of execution while reading through the source code.
RapidWeaver fans here shouldn’t feel I’m singling them out as I feel pretty much the same way about WordPress. Both RapidWeaver and WordPress are ‘go to’ solutions in web development and share a lot of the same benefits but, sadly, a lot of the same issues I’ve mentioned above.
Personally I’m in no hurry to look for a Freeway replacement as the application still runs and I can’t recall the last time I contacted their support staff. I run my business, in part, on the strengths of Freeway and often use the application to prototype or create page templates that I then go on and adjust by hand or with an Action if needed. Each Freeway user will need to weigh up what Softpress shutting down means to them and move on, or not, as they feel most comfortable. I’d like to think that this, or another, forum would provide peer to peer support and a friendly ear to users who want to stick around. This has been such a great community over the years and, for me, it is worth a lot more that than the application that brought us all here. A huge tip of the hat goes to Walter for my feelings about this forum as over the years he has been the one to selflessly give again and again to the users here. Without Walter and that ‘do good’ ethos this place would be just like a lot of other forums.
If I did ever move away from Freeway then I’d consider Responsive Site Designer from Coffee Cup as it seems the closest I’ve seen to the sort of workflow I’d be happy with. Failing that I’m happy to open up my text editor and Photoshop or Sketch and code the thing I want from the outset.
These are exiting times and I’m keen to see every Freeway user supported in whatever journey they want to make.
Regards,
Tim.
On 9 Jul 2016, at 03:40, JDW email@hidden wrote:
I would now like to ask for the opinions of Freeway veteran Responsive site designers, including but not limited to Ernie Simpson and Thomas, what your specific thoughts are regarding RW+Stacks+Foundation. There’s clearly a reason you have stuck with Freeway all this time, and Ernie, you spent considerable time creating an amazingly helpful blog on the subject too. Surely you knew of the existence of RW+Stacks and perhaps even about Foundation. So what specifically kept you locked to Freeway? Habit alone, or missing features?
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