I have to call that statement into question. Also, John shares some observations about CFEclipse, but he makes no mention of the Adobe Extensions for CF. I wanted to address both of those but felt it was too long for a comment in Ben's blog, so here you go.

HomeSite is not dead, and CF Studio became HomeSite+, not HomeSite

First, you want to be clear to distinguish HomeSite from HomeSite+. The former is still sold by Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/products/homesite/).

As for CF Studio, it did morph into HomeSite+, and the CF Studio name was dropped, but my understanding was that this was simply because the MX Studio line came out as a package of things (including Dreamweaver and Flash among many), so they couldn't have 2 things named Studio.

HomeSite continued/continues to exist as its own product, and CF Studio became HomeSite+, which you couldn't purchase but that came on the Studio MX or Dreamweaver CD (and still does). Only as of DW 8 was it finally listed on the installer screen, otherwise you had to look for it on the CD using the file system. HomeSite+ also evolved over where CF Studio had ended (at a 5.0 version), so that on DW2004 is was HS+ 5.1, and on DW8 it was 5.5, if I recall correctly. There were some new features and bug fixes, but nothing radical. Still, it was better than sticking at Studio 4.5 for those who never updated from that while Studio was alive. I've written on this and will share resources in a moment.

About that lawsuit John mentions

Now, at that same time as that transition from CF Studio to HS+ , there were some features of the HomeSite interface over which there was a lawsuit, and when HS+ came out some features (draggable windows, if I recall) were missing. Some complained that it wasn't REALLY the same as CF Studio. I never understood the kvetching. It was otherwise every it CF Studio and more (given the updates).

So HomeSite != HomeSite+

So, that's just to say that you don't want to say HomeSite is dead (it does still live and is sold). And HomeSite+ lives as the reincarnation of CF Studio, though it's not sold but is available only on the DW CD. I know some say it's as good as dead, since there's been no major feature development. That's a separate point, but I'll say I've been a fan all along and I've not missed much from the few features lost due to the lawsuit.

I do use DW sometimes for things it adds for CFML development (CFC and web service browsing, some code generation features, etc.) I think many would be surprised to learn what it has that they never noticed.

Indeed, some will know I've been spreading this news about the transition from CF Studio to HomeSite+ (as well as hints about DW) for some time in blogs and articles. Here they are for those interested in more:

• Using DWMX? Wish you had CF Studio or HomeSite+? You do, for free! (2006)
• Upgrading to HomeSite+ 5.5: For CF Studio and HomeSite+ Fans (2004)
• Browsing Within CF Studio/HomeSite+ (2003)
• Getting into HomeSite+ (2003)
• Installing HomeSite+: The Equivalent to Studio 5, and then some (2003)
• and more

As long as I'm listing resources, I'll also point out that I've done several presentations where I made the case for making sure people knew of the tool and its features:

• Making the Most of Dreamweaver MX/8, CF Studio, and HomeSite+ (2006)
• HomeSite+ for CF Studio Fans (2004)
• Browsing Within CF Studio and HomeSite+ (2003)

Now, I know some will read this as an apologetic for HomeSite+. It's not. I'm offering it more for historical purposes, as well as for those who for whatever reason are still using (or wish they could use) the older editor.

Eclipse, and Adobe's support of Eclipse for CFers

Again, there's no denying the move by many in the community to CFEClipse. I'm not saying people shouldn't. In fact, I've done many entries of my own to promote CFEclipse:

• Resources for Getting Started with CFEclipse (2006)
• Some More Resources for Getting Started with CFEclipse (2006)
• Still more CFEclipse Resources
• Come read over 70 CFEclipse bloggers - parts 1and 2 (2007)
• and finally, Making the move to CFEclipse from HomeSite+/Drewamweaver. Care to join me? (2007)

So as I state in the last entry, I am making the move to CFE myself. I still find some challenges, along with others who report the same, but clearly it's the tool of choice for many.

Eclipse, and Adobe's support of Eclipse for CFers

But I noted at the top that John's comment had not mentioned Adobe's support for Eclipse. I'm not speaking of support for CFEclipse (another subject for another blog entry by other folks), but I do want to make sure people know that Adobe does indeed support Eclipse directly, because they've created the Adobe Eclipse Extensions for ColdFusion.

This isn't in competition with CFEclipse but rather a set of tools that supplement it (whether one uses CFE or not, when using Eclipse to work with CF sites). The tools include the RDS Dataview and Fileview tools (replicating what we had in CF Studio/HomeSite+), the services browser (replicating what's in DW), as well as tools to build CFCs from a database table, flex and ajax code building wizards, a log viewer (some things neither tool had), and still more.

You can learn about these in the CF8 docs as well as a CF8 features page on the subject. The eclipse extensions came out for 7.02 and have been updated for 8.

I'll be writing and presenting more about the Eclipse extensions soon.

Adobe has also offered help files for Eclipse for CF8, at that same link for the extensions above.

That leads to a common question: what's the difference between CFEclipse and the Adobe CF extensions for Eclipse? Andy Jarrett has done a nice blog entry on that very subject.

Conclusion

So I'm not denying the claims by John, the folks in Italy (which Ben was writing about), and others that a new dedicated CFML IDE might be useful. And I'm not trying to keep people still using HomeSite+. Not at all. To each his own.

I just wanted to set the record straight about these assertions regarding HomeSite, as well as add the points about Adobe's Eclipse CF extensions. Hope that was helpful.

One thing I've not seen mentioned often is that it supports Javascript Debugging (at least in Firefox, and soon in IE). For more info, see:

http://aptana.com/docs/index.php/About_the_JavaScript_debugger

For those still relatively new to Aptana, this is one of many topics discussed in a "Getting to Know Aptana" guide on the site:

http://aptana.com/docs/index.php/Getting_to_know_the_Aptana_IDE_%28General_IDE_Concepts%29

Some of you know me as one of the old-line "dinosaurs" who have been long-time fans of CF Studio and its "son" HomeSite+. I've been using them for 10 years, and have in fact continued to be an ardent supporter of helping folks move from CF Studio to HomeSite+ the past few years.

I've also used Dreamweaver on occasion, because it offers some useful features that HS+ does not have (especially for web service and CFC exploring, to name just a couple).

Welcome to the revolution

But there's so much goodness in CFE and Eclipse in general (including most of the things in the other common CFML editors) that I think it's time we old-line folks faced the music and "got with the program".

Of course, no one will force you, and I do understand the challenges you may face (or the concerns you may have). I just want to do what I can to help, including sharing here over time various discoveries and tips (and traps) as I make the transition. But we're not alone--and I'm clearly not being any sort of a pioneer. Plenty have already made the journey.

Indeed, that's one of the main reasons I created the recent list of bloggers who have already written (and most who continue to write) about CFEclipse. I want to help folks learn from those who've travelled the road before us, as well as to hear both the arguments for and against it.

But I don't like CFEclipse because of "x"

There are certainly many who are still holding out, arguing for why they don't care for it. In fact, to address that, Brian Kotek just last week did an entry on "CFEclipse: Pros, Cons, and Misconceptions".

Join me on the journey

I've had to use Eclipse and CFEclipse for the past few months as I have been working with FusionDebug and the new CF8 debugger, both interactive step debuggers for CFML, and both based on Eclipse.

I've only learned the bare minimum I needed about Eclipse (and those I didn't *need* CFEclipse to work with the debuggers, I did install it). I still edited my code in HS+ and just used Eclipse/CFeclipse to do debugging, and I have reminded people of that whenever I showed off or wrote about the debuggers. There are plenty of people still preferring either HS+ or DW (or some other editor).

But Adobe is clearly behind Eclipse as a platform for code editing (witness FlexBuilder, and the new Eclipse-based debugger in CF8). They're not turning their back on DW, but clearly CF developers are getting more and more built-into Eclipse, both from them and from others.

And many in the CFML community are clearly behind CFE. I think we'll only see things get better and better, and I plan to do my part to help folks like us make the transition. So while I won't claim to be a pioneer, I do offer my services as a guide. Care to join me?

I think most developers will find that it does what they want (tag insight, tag help, code snippets, and more), and it will do still more than they may expect. Still, it may trip some up at first as they make a transition. Changing editors is always a challenging proposition, just because we become so used to our current editor. Still, more and more developers are making the switch, and you may want to learn more about it.

Challenges Getting Started

A challenge is that there's not too much in the way of getting started docs at the CFEclipse site, http://www.cfeclipse.org/. But there are ample other resources out there to help with that.

Another challenge is that one has to get into using Eclipse itself. That can be a little daunting, but it need not be a show-stopper for you. The truth is that you really can ignore a lot of what other developers (like Java developers) would do with Eclipse, and you can focus on it just being a CFML editor. There are some quirks and differences.

Finally, the tool itself has evolved, so some of the things that may have annoyed early adopters have indeed been fixed, and more and more features have been added, thanks to Mark Drew, the project lead.

So with that introduction, I want to point out that there have been various resources (articles, resource pages, and more) put together on getting into CFEclipse, and I'd like to point to some of them here, as I've found no single page yet that does that.

CFEclipse Articles in the CFDJ

First, there have been some articles in the ColdFusion Developer's Journal:

CFEclipse: The Developer's IDE, Eclipse For ColdFusion, Aug 2005, by Simeon Bateman and Spike Milligan
http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/read/48235.htm

CFEclipse for ColdFusion Developers, Jan 2006, Rob Rohan
http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/read/167971.htm

Making the Switch to CFEclipse to Write ColdFusion Code, April 2006, by Jeff Houser
http://coldfusion.sys-con.com/read/206261.htm

Robert Blackburn's CFEclipse Article Series at FusionAuthority

Next, Robert Blackburn has done a series of articles on the FusionAuthority site:

Introducing: CFEclipse Features
http://www.fusionauthority.com/News/4610-Introducing-CFEclipse-Features.htm

CFEclipse CFExplained Part I
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Techniques/4599-CFEclipse-CFExplained-Part-I.htm

CFEclipse CFExplained Part II
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Techniques/4607-CFEclipse-CFExplained-Part-II.htm

Introducing: CFEclipse Features
http://www.fusionauthority.com/News/4610-Introducing-CFEclipse-Features.htm

CFEclipse Features: Task List
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Reviews/4619-CFEclipse-Features-Task-List.htm

CFEclipse Features: Code Folding
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Reviews/4631-CFEclipse-Features-Code-Folding.htm

CFEclipse Features: Tag Insight
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Reviews/4633-CFEclipse-Features-Tag-Insight.htm

CFEclipse Features: Local History
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Reviews/4648-CFEclipse-Features-Local-History.htm

I couldn't find any one page on the FA site (or on the web) with a link to all of Robert's articles, though some of them do show a progressively building list of links at the bottom pointing to the previous articles. I do think the list above is all that there have been so far, but I welcome hearing from anyone who knows otherwise.

I'll also point out some other CFEclipse articles that are on the FA site (thanks, Judith, for pointing them out in comments below):

CFEclipse: A Community Affair: An Interview with Simeon Bateman, Project Manager by Judith Dinowitz
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Community/4534-CFEclipse-A-Community-Affair.htm

Test-Driven Development with ColdFusion Part III: Integrate Your Tests into CFEclipse Using CFUnit-Ant by Robert Blackburn
http://www.fusionauthority.com/Techniques/4583-Test-Driven-Development-with-ColdFusion-Part-III.htm

Nathan Strutz CFEclipse Resource Page

Nathan Strutz has also created a CFEclipse Intro and Resource page (FAQ) at:

http://www.dopefly.com/projects/cfeclipse.cfm

Mark Drew's CFEclipse Videos

Finally, Mark Drew, who is leading the CFEclipse project now, has done a set of videos available as podcasts:

http://www.markdrew.co.uk/blog/index.cfm/2006/8/12/CFEclipse-Podcasts

Still more?

I'm sure there are still more resources, and perhaps some are better suited to helping folks get started with just understanding CFEclipse and Eclipse from the perspective of a CFML developer making the move from, say, Dreamweaver, CF Studio, HomeSite/HomeSite+, or something else.

I really look forward to hearing from others with more/better resources.

PS I should also point out that another motivation for getting into Eclipse as a CFML developer, if not also CFElipse itself, is that the FusionDebug CFML Interactive Debugger is built atop Eclipse. I've done a series of entries on the topic:

http://carehart.org/blog/client/index.cfm/fusiondebug/