Using the right tools

I've seen quite a few people and places that devote so much time an money into one particular tool, that when a new, better, tool comes out they are both unwilling to switch and unable to afford it.

In the interactive industry especially, it's incredibly important to be able to move effectively from one application to another. You need to be able to do this quickly and without any interference.

In the interactive industry tools change all the time. For example, in my carreer, as far as HTML/CSS software goes, I've moved in this progression; Front Page > Notepad > AceHTML > Dreamweaver(8-CS4) > Coda.

I've tried several alternatives in between there, but this list includes applications that I used exclusively for any certain period of time. This list can also tell you something else about me, at some period in there I moved from a Windows to a Mac (likely in the Dreamweaver times).

There is a similar timeline for the Flash/Actionscript work I've done; Flash IDE > Flex > Flash Develop 3 > Eclipse (Flex Plugin). This list grew with some other events like the switch to Mac's, my learning of Java, the Actionscript 3 release, as well as the switch from Windows to Mac.

Another timeline, this one being the evolution of Subversion Clients that I have used; Tortoise SVN > SVNX > ZigVersion > Versions. I've also moved FTP Clients quite a bit; Cute FTP > CoreFTP > FileZilla > Fetch > Cyberduck.

If you know anything about the applications that I ended up on, and currently use, you might see a common theme; simplicity. I have used applications that have all the features and more, but the ones that really caught my attention are the ones that do a few things well and have a nice easy-to-use interface. Coda, Versions, and Cyberduck are probably the 3 best examples of times where I have gone from very feature-heavy apps to very simple apps that do everything I need, but not much more. (with the exception of Eclipse -> which is by all means a do-it-all application).

The real lesson that should be learned here, is that it's very important to not get too attatched to any particular application. Because that application will change, and you will have to learn something else. If you're too relient on the specific features of that one application, then you're stuck with it. They have a monopoly over you. If everyone in the industry is stuck using the same thing, then all progress is attributed to the featureset of one piece of software.

I compare this to the early days of photoshop filters. We saw those crazy-annoying bevels and embosses everywhere. Because they were COOL.

On the topic of Photoshop, it happens to be one of the applications that has a nice monopoly over quite a few designers. I love photoshop, and I consider myself monopolized by it, but I am at least aware and have tried the alternatives out there. The Gimp is one nice (free) alternative, but many people won't switcher over because they're too used to the photoshop interface.

We need to be able to move between software quickly and easily, and without regret. This means we simply can't have a one-sided mind or let ourselves believe that any piece of software is the begin-all-end-all. This includes the obsession that many have over their particular operating system. We have to be willing to switch, because someday we will have to.