quote:

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Dear Macromedia customer,

We are extremely excited to share with you some big news.

On January 16, 2001, Macromedia and Allaire signed a definitive agreement to merge. Together, we will deliver a comprehensive product family of tools and servers that
will enable customers to efficiently author both the look of a Web site and the application logic behind it. The combined company, known as Macromedia, will focus on
delivering world-class software for the Web professional.

By bringing the Allaire family of server and application development products together with Macromedia's strength in visual and multimedia authoring, we will make the
development of dynamic content more efficient, affordable, and accessible to millions of customers like you. As a
merged company, Macromedia remains committed to supporting open standards and leading technologies.

Moving forward, our products will enable authors to create content and applications that work across a variety of platforms and across multiple devices.

Many of you have already experienced the benefits of the companies' existing strategic relationship, which ranges
from:

* The full copy of Allaire HomeSite (included with the Windows version of Macromedia Dreamweaver and Dreamweaver UltraDev), to

* The upcoming Harpoon initiative (linking Macromedia Flash with Allaire's ColdFusion Web application server), to

* The visual authoring for Allaire ColdFusion and JRun Web application servers enabled by Dreamweaver UltraDev.

The customer benefits will only improve with the enhanced product integration that will occur as our product teams begin to work together.

The deal is expected to close (pending shareholder and regulatory approval) within 90 days. Until then, to purchase products or upgrades, or for support or customer
service, please continue to contact each company with the confidence that you will receive the same high-quality products and exceptional level of support you have come to
expect from Macromedia and Allaire.

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So (xelA), maybe I will get ... DreamSite or HomeWeaver.

Ive been using "DreamHome" (DW4) for a while now. I love it. I think that its the best for what it was designed to do: doing HTML.

It's very easy to go in and take advantage of the split screen mode and lots of other stuff. Aspecially if u've used DW before. I like the dictionarry the best. all you have to do is click in the middle of a tag or an attribute and click on the question mark and it'll give you any info you need about that property.

After you install it it opens a window in your browser with a whole lotta affialiation type of links and Allaire is one of them.

Later Diane

Alex

What I would like would be a version of HomeSite where you could choose to view your individual pages within DreamWeaver ... and DW would adhere to the coding specifications you've given to HS (which are not so easy to set in DW).

http://www.bu.edu/htbin/tutorials/register.pl?group=nis

It will be interesting to see a whole generation coming out that is Dreamweaver adept. Are there other schools that are doing this?

The business school at BU is totally wired. Students are required to have a laptop, and can plug into the network in any classroom/at any desk. Likewise, they are networked in their dorms on a T1. They are required to read their emails twice a day, and many assignments are emailed.

Ouch.

Open Letter to Allaire Developers from Jeremy Allaire --

"With rare exception, the world of the designers – those responsible for the end-user experience – and the world of the developer – those responsible for an application's logic and behavior – have never been deeply integrated."

"Another major and legitimate fear probably arises around issues of developer support and the developer community. Will the new Macromedia be as focused on providing the content, programs, and community to its developer community? All I can say to this is that the new, combined company will be the only company in the world whose sole mission in life is to make Web professionals successful. We understand that to be successful we must create heroes with our products, that our customers are our strongest assets, and that to succeed we need an incredibly strong community platform for our developers."

quote:

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We are pleased to announce that on March 20, 2001, the proposed merger between Allaire and Macromedia was finalized. This is an important milestone for the two companies, and we hope, an exciting day for you, our valued customer.

With more than two million developers and a comprehensive line of Web authoring, development, and application server products, Macromedia is now one of the world's largest suppliers of software for the Web professional.

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Should be interesting.

I'm a 20-year-old college student in WA State who is majoring in graphic design with a minor in marketing.

I believe college is pointless in the web design profession.

Here's why:
They make you take media 109, which is a fundamentals class (HTML for morons with an IQ of 2) where you also get to learn what PPP, TCP/IP and DSL are. You also learn that the WWW was introduced the public in 1992 (who cares). Will this help you get a job? Probably not.

Here's the great part: You can't get out of it! It's a required class. It takes you longer to setup the test to "test out" of this class than it does to just go there for a quarter. (Probably because the school loves to get your tuition money from you.)

Then lets say you go into media 110 "programming fundamentals" where you get to learn the cool new language called "Basic". That’s right Basic not even Visual Basic, just Basic. They claim, "It helps you understand the flow of logic associated with programming".
I say its just because they don't have competent professors. Think about it if these guys were good they would be working out in the industry "the real world" not hiding in a school, claiming they know all while teaching a class.

Eventually you work your way through HTML 3.0 (yes 3.0) into C++ four years later. When you take your 500 level classes, will C++ be the programming language of choice 5 years from now when you get a job? Probably not. But that’s what they'll be teaching.

In my opinion, the best web dev experience you can have is "on the job". Where you work with bleeding edge technology and make the rules up as you go along. While your working for a real company go to school and get a degree.

Just my 2 cents

I'd prefer a physician who was current with
the latest in research.

I'd prefer the physiician that came recommended by others.

My point, of course, is that there isn’t a profession in the world that learns more than the very basics during their educational phase. And, yea, those basics often lag several years behind what’s happening in the real world. But I personally don’t believe that necessarily makes a college education “pointless,” not for doctors and lawyers, and not for web professionals. College adds a breadth almost impossible to find in OJT, not to mention a discipline at least difficult to find. I’ve hired a lot of IT people in the past twenty years, and I learned to look for those who knew more than the narrow focus of their last few companies. There’s an old saw that if your only tool is a hammer, all your problems start to look like nails. Those who are limited to OJT often know only one way to solve a problem, the way their last company did it, and it’s not always the best solution. Those who have mastered the “useless” basics are usually more flexible.

That’s not to say, however, that all college educations are created equal. Frankly, if Alex is that unhappy with his curriculum I think he should look for a different university. Four years of your life are too important to waste (especially THOSE four years). But of the examples cited, the only one I would have a problem with would be the HTML 3.0 class. Media 109 sounds like a typical fundamentals class. And yea, knowing the Internet was introduced to the public in 1992 (the first US server at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California was actually in late 1991) is about as important as knowing your country began its existence in 1776. Will it get you a job? No, but not knowing it could sure as heck lose you a job. Breadth is important.

Media 110 is okay, too, depending on the emphasis in the class. BASIC is as good a language as any to start programming, as long as they emphasize design structure (which BASIC rarely enforces). Doesn’t matter if it’s vanilla BASIC or VB, any more than it matters whether your English class is taught by an American or a Britain; you learn one, the other naturally follows. I personally don’t think too highly of BASIC, but it’s a useful language to know and will continue to be useful as long as Microsoft dominates. As for C++ being the programming language of choice five years from now, well obviously no one really knows for sure. But I’d bet that whatever language you use will probably follow the same syntactical structures as C – just as JavaScript and Perl do. (Both JS and Perl, in fact, are more like dialects of C than they are like different languages – sort of like English with a southern drawl.)

In other words, Alex, I think you’re probably learning more than you think. And probably about more than you think (communication is something no longer taught in high school, and is far more important in the business world than any dumb programming language or networking protocol – remember that the next time you’re forced to write a report ).

[Warning If I advocated using a web site I owned, I’d tell you about it, so it’s only fair I also admit to biases on this subject. As some already know, when I sold my business three years ago and “retired,” I grew bored and started teaching part-time – and I’ve taught every single one of the classes Alex mentioned. So, yea, I’m prejudiced and think an education is important. But I thought it was important before I started teaching, too. In the past thirty years, there has never been a span of more than three years when I wasn’t taking at least one college course, usually something completely useless in my field. Breadth is important, and we ALL need to carry more than a hammer. ]

[This message has been edited by Ron C (edited 04-12-2001).]

When my doctor asked what was bothering me, I told him it was a mixture of getting ready for the wedding and studying for finals.

Do you know what he told me?

He said that grades don't mean a thing and I shouldn't be worrying about it. Most employers might look to see if I have a degree, but most won't bother to check my GPA.

He was right. Aside from the "experience" of college, my degree is worthless. It might help me on later in life, but that's only combined with work experience.

I know people who choose to put off college to make the most of some knowlege they have now that they can currently market. But all the people skipping college to get into the job market will eventually hit a celing and need education to move forward.

I got out of the computer industry to get back into the classroom. Sure, I could be out 'doing' instead of teaching, but teaching gives me back a lot more than programming or web development ever did.

And, btw: Imo, only people who went to college say, "My degree is meaningless." You'll never hear someone who didnt have the chance to go to college say that.

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Frankly, if Alex is that unhappy with his curriculum I think he should look for a different university.

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Is my degree worth anything? In practical purposes, no. I apply little if any of the knowlegde I gained in my day to day work life. However, many employers won't even consider you for better positions if you don't have a degree...any degree, even if its not directly related to the job (that's where experience plays its part). Even if you have years and years of experience, some doors will be closed to you without a degree. So if you can get one, get one.

MLZA, I'm not really familiar with how international students get accepted into US colleges and universities. At 17, your acedemic performance will be paramount (your grades and scores on whatever standardized tests are used in the UK). 9 months work experience isn't relevant to college admissions. Work experience is more for people returning to college or going for the first time later in life.

Contact the colleges and universities you may be interested in, find out their admission requirements for foreign students, and ask them to send you an application package.