Overly Aware Apps?

When I installed software on my laptop, I installed DreamweaverMX rather than Homesite + (the CF Studio successor), and Photoshop 7 rather than photoshop 6, the two latter apps having been cornerstones for me for some while now. Since then, I’d been having a series of really frustrating network problems, and just in these 2 apps. Using just a wireless connection at work, I’d quite frequently get disk read/write errors, or access/sharing errors when opening or saving files. In the meanwhile, my streamed audio would continue uninterupted, so I was pretty sure I wasn’t simply getting a lot of static.

I tested things out with a wired connection for a while, and my Photoshop 7 problems went away, but my DreamweaverMX issues did not. So then I installed photoshop 6 and Homesite +, and tried these apps out over the wireless connection. And I’ve yet to have any problems. And the difference? Both Photoshop 7 and DreamweaverMX seem to be ‘aware’ that I’m saving a file across a network, even with a mapped drive, frequently ‘refreshing remote directory’, or something similar. Meanwhile, Homesite + and photoshop 6 appear to be completely ignorant of these facts, and work, for my purposes, just as well. So I think I may revert to using these. Especially as this means I can import all my lovingly crafted rules for Homesite + that I was really dreading having to re-create in Dreamweaver.

There are lots of things I like in Dreamweaver, but if I can’t develop safely using a network file server, I just can’t use it. It was working fairly well with the check-in/check-out local/network thing, but that required me to have a local copy of the database as well, which, for some reason, irked me. But when I have some time, I may try this route again. Use my localhost as the dev server, my current dev server as the staging server and from there go to the live site. Which really, sounds like a smooth system. Maybe when I start a new project, rather than importing existing things.

On another, vaguely connected note: I’m having a devil of a time getting Cold Fusion MX Server to talk to SQL 2000 databases. Oddly, I can connect to remote ones just fine, but locally, not a one. So I figure there’s a problem with my local SQL install, but it’s identical to virtually every other install I’ve done, and this is the first time I’va had troubles. Again, I suspect this will be a ‘when I’ve got some time’ thing, which is an eternal dream. Of course, when I do have time, I generally prefer to spend it with Leah than playing with SQL Server. Which is one of those dramatic differences between being in love with someone and being alone — all that free time you used to have to geek out alone is now spent doing something with another human. Far more healthy, but much less productive.

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