I don’t have a problem with the code it generates (because it’s driven by what I give it as templates and I work in code view anyway) but the application itself is the most unstable I’ve ever used on my work machine. I think it’s the only app I use which actually crashes. The error messages are poor at best, the preview screen doesn’t refresh properly and sometimes breaks so badly that you have to restart the entire app! I can honestly say that it’s the most amateur-feeling application of all the professional, commercial software that I currently use.

It’s genuinely unbelievable. I’ve not worked with it for years, but I was at the very least expecting a stable, usable application. Was that too much to ask for? Apparently so.

All I want is Nvu to support Dreamweaver templates and syntax highlighting for source code editing and I will move immediately and wholeheartedly recommend it to every good web developer I know. I just don’t get the point of expensive commercial software that is quite obviously so terrible. Dreamweaver’s feature set may well far outstrip that of the free alternatives, but if I can’t run it for half an hour at a time without needing a restart or becoming incredible frustrated with its interface, then the features are irrelevant.