The reasons for this are as follows:

1. Slow code completion

While CFEclipse is top notch, it’s code completion is not. It takes a good second or so to popup with tag attributes whereas DW is lighting past the second you press the key of the first letter. I don’t think this is an Eclipse limitation as Aptana has very fast code completion.

2. No CSS completion

I really find the CSS tag completion a godsend in DW when working with inline styles. Obviously working in a seperate style sheet (thus open to Aptana control) would solve this, but I still use inline styles for quick padding etc. Sometimes inline styling is unavoidable.

Ok, so only two reasons there and compared to the feature set CFEclipse / Eclipse / Aptana provide they are pretty small, but they do make me want to jump back to DW at certain times of frustration.

I think if these were fixed or some of the featureset of Aptana was merged into .cfm editing some how, we’d have the ultimate IDE for CF.

My point is first that it takes more than one part time programmer to give us something that competes with other solutions that are out for other server solutions. Integrated source control, and more. We have come a long way… but to integrate with Aptana would only be too cool IMO.

Again, CFE has come a long way. It would be great to see the ability to integrate help files, tag editors the way we have them in DW and HS. Yet, Aptana hasn’t added this feature yet either. DW is not first a server IDE so it will never do things like building a debugger for CF into the IDE, or adding a plugin. Thus it seems that pragmatically even Adobe has walked the path that tells us Eclipse is a better IDE solution.

Sooo… what’s next with CFE? Will we see more work done in that any time soon? Perhaps we will hear something at MAX?

P.S.
I use CFEclipse installed in an Aptana editor currently.

The the real crux of the issue is developers (java) who are willing and, moreso, excited, to contribute to a quality CF IDE.

I doubt that just by merging with another project- (there’s also Web Tools Platform- anyone thought about how cool a ‘real’ eclipse project that supported CF, and worked with the rest of the eclipse stuff, like TPTP, etc., would be?)- as I was saying, I doubt that merging is enough. We need people who want to contribute.

I think, just by people seeing that it’s not impossible to add things they want, that we’ll get more people who want to contribute. If we do it right.

But the real important bit that I’m trying to get to, is that it’s the community, as much as anything else, that keeps these projects alive. Open Source Fuel, ya know- People.

Frankly, with the ties to Java, I’m pretty surprised there aren’t more CF/JAVA folks rolling up their sleeves and getting involved, no matter what happens with the project itself.

It would be cool if we could just hook into the java editor, in some manner- probably not impossible, I’d think.

Eh. Just some thoughts I’ve been thinking about as well…

Best part is I can open files simply by double clicking them in Finder / Windows Explorer which is something I was never able to figure out with Eclipse.

That said it isn’t really my place to make demands. Mark does a great job with cfeclipse and I really appreciate everything thus far. Regarding Adobe… would be interesting… but it should remain free.