Komposer?

[philinnewmexico]

Hi all--

I was able to download and run NVU without any problems, but in four attempts to download Komposer, off four different sites, I've gotten nothing but unsable stuff.

We all know how nightmarish it is, dealing with bugs, so I figured I needed Komposer.

Is NVU, all by itself, working just fine for everyone? If you think I do need Komposer, would anyone know where one can reliably download it? Thanks a lot for your responses.

Phil in New Mexico

[Lori G.]

Hi Phil,

I have been using NVU for about 2 years now and have not had any problems. I have no idea what Komposer is so I cannot comment on it.

Lori

[cindi]

Phil,

I tried Komposer and it is no different than NVU. If you are familiar with NVU then you will do well with Kompozer. The only difference is that NVU will no longer be upgraded, so the version we all use will never change.

Cindi

[Nancy]

I have had no problems with NVU in the year I have been using it.

Nancy ;D

[troyzone]

lori said:

Hi Phil,

I have been using NVU for about 2 years now and have not had any problems. I have no idea what Komposer is so I cannot comment on it.

Lori

Hi Lori,

For more info on KompoZer you might like to take a look at this past thread:

erichw33.proboards53.com/index.cgi?board=web&action=display&thread=1192382926&page=1#1192396203

Based on myself and a few others mentioning the existence of KompoZer (essentially a slightly newer version of NVU), Tom has since taken a look at it and added it to the Phase 1 instructions maybe 2-3 months ago. I just looked and you can currently find it in Phase 1 just under the big, bold heading "IMPORTANT FOR WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT".


Phil,

Have you tried downloading KompoZer via the download link provided right in the Phase 1 instructions? Here is the Phase 1 download link for KompoZer:

prdownloads.sourceforge.net/kompozer/kompozer-077-win32.exe?download

I just tried downloading and installing it from that link and it worked without a problem.

If you've tried several sources including the above link and none of them downloaded successfully, then it is possible that spyware or adware, a virus, some form of security software, or something else on your own computer is blocking or corrupting the download.

Troy

[Lori G.]

Thanks Troy,

I'll have to take a look. I haven't been into my Phase 1 instructions for some time now.

Lori

[Skyrocket]

I'm downloading Kompozer now to test out and I'll probably update my TOPS Web Design tutorials, removing instructions on NVU and replacing with Kompozer.

If it is a bug-fixed version of NVU and it sounds like the reviews so far say it is, then this is fantastic, it'll save everyone a lot of time sorting out odd HTML changes that NVU seemed to make.

Regards,

Jim

[Tom "CloudHand"]

NVU 1.0, released in June 2005, is the last official release of this software. Since then there has been “unofficial” bugfix releases of NVU called KompoZer.

KompoZer is mainly a Linux development project but it is also ported to windoze (I mean windows) and MacOSX.

According to the NVU home page, KompoZer is not a cure-all for all the bugs in NVU 1.0, but it does fix some of the major annoyances.

Just to let everyone know, the link to the KompoZer download inside the Phase 1 instructions is not the most recent version of KompoZer. I have linked to the KompoZer version 0.7.7 windows binary, which was released on 2006-07-23, because it is packaged as a self-installing utility.

The latest version of KompoZer is version 0.7.10, which was released on 2007-08-30. The only available windows download for this version is in a zip file that gets extracted into a folder… meaning that it is not automatically installed when it is unzipped.

I don’t see this as a big deal because all the installation does is extract the executable along with the associated runtime files into a specified folder and then sets up links to the program in your start menu and desktop. Anyone familiar with how this works can create the links manually if they choose to use the latest version.

The reason why the older version is in the Phase 1 instructions is because I did not want to add additional confusion to Phase 1 for those not familiar with how to run windows programs that are not automatically installed.

I have tested both versions on windows and Linux and they both run equally well. I have not researched what the differences are between the two versions, but there is over a year between their releases so I would recommend the newest version for anyone willing to set it up without the auto-install feature.

Tom

[Skyrocket]

Thanks for the info Tom, I actually downloaded the latest version from the site directly and as you say, it's a zip file. I had no issues installing it as all I did was "extract" the zip contents to My Documents and then set up a shortcut on my desktop to the .exe file: kompozer.exe.

Works absolutely fine on testing, however I'm yet to do a proper test and actually design something in it, which I'll do soon to update my TOPS help files pages.

Regards,

Jim

[tkyles1009]

KompoZer is not a cure-all for all the bugs in NVU , but it does fix some of the major annoyances. For example, KompoZer does not clutter your html source with extra blank lines as NVU does. And CSS functionality is vastly improved.

If you use NVU and it works for you, stick with it. But if you run into problems, give KompoZer a try and see if it helps. It can't hurt