Not in any particular order.

• Fully integrated CSS (2.1) with the equivalent of tag completion and the facility to have live ids and (multiple) classes entered into tag class and id attributes referencing linked or embedded stylesheets.

• Split screen in edit view to be able to see two documents side-by-side.

• In split edit/browse view, the browser should follow the position of the cursor in the edit window and update automatically with changes.

• Two 'Browse' tag to allow embedding and internal viewing of IE and Mozilla simultaneously.

• Difference/Comparison utility to be able to compare two files and display the differences side-by-side.

• FTP site synchronisation - the ability to make the remote site duplicate the local project.

• A report feature that lists all orphaned files in a project (any file in a project that isn't referenced by any other project file.

• Fully updated 'insight' for all current language specs (HTML, XHTML, CSS, ECMAScript, PHP, CFML, ASP.NET, etc.

• ECMAScript and PHP debugger.

• CHMod support in FTP.

• Improve and simplify the current FTP interface.

• RegEx wizard to build REs inside Extended Search and Replace.

• Facility to turn on/off Dreamweaver/Contribute lock in/lock out for compatibility with people who use those GUIs.

Probably more to follow.

WOW Roy - great list!

I will agree with everything plus - add that it used to creat a drop down list of used "a name" tags is a document having that back would be great. I am on version 5 - and should upgrade. And will if the program might be around awhile longer.

My biggest wish is simply that it be kept alive and current with css validation elements, maintain the useablity and keep current as Roy said with standards and code requirements of new technology. I don't use WYSIWYG programs and I would not care if had no integration with them.

This would seem to me to be a viable markket as the next best editor (Codewrite by Premia) is no longer supportted and there is not another feature filled real editor out there for people who actually write html, xhtml etc.

Homesite is a wonderful program "as is" for a person wanting to learn how to write clean code - or someone who does and wants to keep it that way..

Nice list Roy.

It is very similar to the list I sent to one of the senior developers at Macromedia a while back. I am disappointed that the list was either ignored or lost. I hope this thread will get some attention.

I use the FTP functionality A LOT! It would be nice for that to be more stable and support SFTP. Just improving the FTP would make me happy but I would certainly enjoy all of the other mentioned features.

Man would I love to see the codesweeper.log files disappear
Also I would like to be able to preset different keyboard layouts. (The default CTRL-R for find & replace always bothered me; why not use the default CTRL-H? But then again, I might want to switch between keyboard layouts..)

quote:

---

Originally posted by: JeffW
Do you mean layouts of the toolbars, etc, saved like Nick uses in TopStyle?

---

It's not a big deal, but it would be a nice extra - nowhere near as important as UTF-8 or some of the other suggestions.

Any ideas about why I can't post via NNTP?

Thanks for presenting this survey.

I am very intently interested in an upgrade to Homesite, and have been waiting patiently, often wondering if Adobe is going to invest money in it, because there seems to be no other editor out there even today (I've done a wide search) that can do the mass editing that I can do quite nicely as Homesite.

The reasons I'd like to upgrade instead of just using 5.5:

It's difficult to deploy to multiple folders or network folders without using an FTP server, which sometimes doesn't exist.
I need SFTP or WebDav.
I need swifter adding and removing of files to projects, (e.g. I need the 'save as' dialogue box to synchronize with the current project folder, not just files1 or files2).
I need syntax highlighting when I'm trying to figure out how many levels of parens or brackets in my PHP code I need or don't need. (highlighting the same level of paren or bracket).
Not sure if it synchs with subversion 1.4 but if not, it would be nice.
I need UTF-8 (already mentioned), Cyrillic and other character encodings
would like to see more stability / less crashing or hanging.
When doing a save as and crawling up a directory tree, it hangs on my main local web repository/directory (with all of my projects old & new -- at least 30 directories here).
Better code-oriented layout-based editing. I never use it because it changes my code radically when I turn it on.

There are PHP editors out there that cost much more, and do more, and have some nicer features. For example, Zend Studio, PHPed, etc., are good for PHP, but not as good for HTML.

I'm looking for the holy grail of editors--something that does JS, PHP, HTML, CSS, UTF-8, etc., without having multiple programs popping up on the taskbar (clutter), or having to spend more money overall on multiple programs.

Maybe you should have several versions, if that doesn't add to the confusion? If Adobe put out a PHP/HTML editor, a separate HTML editor for those that don't do PHP, and a light version then different people might like the different versions.

A fully (and better) integrated HS / Dreamweaver combo would be nice too, instead of having a stripped down HS inside Dreamweaver.

HS doesn't need to be changed particluarly too much for me to stick with it, but some major reworking might help, too.

I'm willing to spend $40 - $80 on an upgrade, unless it was radically improved, and then I'd spend more.

Hope this helps,

Bryce

quote:

---

Originally posted by: JeffW
Thanks Roy, great list. some of that looks familiar from Topstyle ;-)
2 notes/questions

* built in diff is a good idea. FYI, for now there is a great script to call any external diff tool from homesite, even on remote files opened via HS ftp. See "File Compare Utility Call Script"
http://www.wilk4.com/asp4hs/list5.htm#filecompare

* You obviously use the built-in ftp more than I do. Would webDAV support be important on your list? It's been mentioned here before.

---

This tool doesn't work for me with Beyond Compare, it just pulls up a file open dialog as mentioned but nothing is available from the pulldowns aside from the standard "new folder" or "New document". :(

I'd pay a smooth 100.00 for someone to code a homesite style program that also did comparisons and kept all of Homesite's functionality (like extended search and replace!)

It's somewhat encouraging to find this thread discussing a future for HS.
I keep coming back to old HS as it is such a competent web code editor; file system savvy and many-web-languages savvy, so many things in one package. But it's getting a bit dated in ways others have mentioned - PHP5?
Away from it, I really miss my snippets, keyboard shortcuts and macros - a trial with Dreamweaver disappointed me with its code handling features (but 1 month trial is not long enough unless one can use it every day).

Recurring problem I've had with HS on different PCs is crashing on exit, with WinXP nagging to send error report to M$. (Any help on how to avoid this exit problem appreciated).
Getting the FTP wrong is difficult to undo; brilliant once it's set up for right-click single file deployment - for my humble needs.

Yes, some updating and stabilising would be most appreciated - simpler FTP setup transparency - latest web standards.
I'd pay a reasonable amount for that - use it for development, learning, and old site maintenance rather than to churn out expensive web sites as DW gurus might, so I'd only pay a smallish fraction of DW price for HS upgrade.

So JeffW, I hope you've got better connections at Adobe than you let on...

Best wishes and thanks for starting this thread.
Les

Not really a program update but id like to be able to purchase a boxed copy of the next homesite has im not a fan of digital downloads.....

I'd really like to see the tag defs & help updated. This *is*, after all, an "official" product and ought to have accurate information. It's one of the biggest strengths vs CFEclipse - something that's gaining a lot of following.

The RegEx find/replace needs to be brought up to speed.

As for diff'ing things, folks working against an svn repository don't really feel the need.

I think a lot of the suggested features sum up what I look for in future versions. When I consider programs like PHP Designer, which was previously giving full insights into PHP functions and such as a free program, never having HomeSite upgraded to have similar ideas was to some degree surprising. I do like HomeSite, I still use it for my editing needs all the time, which is a great tribute to the program considering how little it has been updated these last few years. I'd love to see some major updates to homesite with insights into other languages, but still keeping in line with being a fairly clear and simple interface which isn't too cluttered, and remains fast to start.

I would like to see Homesite available for OS X. I have been using PCs and Homesite for years, but recently switched to OS X because of the overall toolset and Unix foundation. I do miss Homesite though.

Some ideas that come to mind:

• Improved CSS support.
• Ability to browse with multiple browsers (for example IE, FireFox and Opera).
• Project contains multiple diff comparison/deployment targets. These can be ftp/sftp/WebDav/FPSE. Can deploy using a directory based diffing interface, file by file or whole project. Diffing tool.
• Tool to create a SiteMap, a la the new standard. From project with exclusions etc, dates from filing system OR from embedded last edited date in file.
• Tools to write RSS/Atom etc. feeds.
• Insight and completion for code entered, including things that can be checked by reflection.
• Code tools like debuggers, compilers... can be used for languages. Possibly with freely available tools like the .NET compilers, debuggers etc.
• RegEx support to include, snippets, library, assembler from bits, conversion of text sample to "RegEx recogniser".
• At one time utf-8 worked please re-instate. It would also be a great drawcard to natively support other forms of unicode encoded files.
• Improved code sweeper.
• Microformat capable.
• Extensions can be .NET assemblies (in addition to existing scripts) and other interfaces.
• XAML editing.

If the work is going ahead I for one will contribute more details of the wish list.

I've been thinking about these suggested improvements.

If I were doing it for my own project I'd use some techniques I've been developing for about a decade and a half. Quite similar to what Alan Cooper talks about in his book "The Lunatics are running the Asylum", which I read, for the first time, this week.

That involves describing a single challenging Persona as the user, being sure you know her goals then focusing on that picture for design decisions. (I imagine Nick might have had some such idea in his head with the original work.)

Does a description like that exist for the archetypal HomeSite user? If not would there be any point in doing this properly? (Is the work worth doing? or is there 90% chance it's wasted?)

On the sitemap issue. Thanks I've had a look at the code. I've done essentially that in Powershell already. (It also checks for exclusions (like robot exclusions, excluded directories...) and reads dates...)

Is there a way to use a Powershell script as a Homesite extension?

I've not thought about it, has anyone else?