A few years ago Adobe came up with this amazing product designed to make working with dynamic websites a breeze. It was the Adobe Dreamweaver Developer Toolbox. ADDT was introduced in CS3 as a lifeboat in a sea of developers suffering from code-phobia. It was possible to work with the code window to accomplish the task in Dreamweaver, but the designers who were fresh off the Print World Express were less than willing. The Toolbox, formerly owned by InterAKT, an independent developing house, was aquired by Adobe back in the fall of 2006. The software giant then put the product on the market for $299! Then, the announcement came:

“Adobe has decided to discontinue development of Adobe Dreamweaver Developer Toolbox 1.0.1 software effective April 9, 2009 and the sales across all channels will end on May 1, 2009.”

It turns out that Web 2.0 killed it. People wanted better control over the interactive sites they were designing. The CMS (Content Management System) structure was the new vision, and the ADDT had too many restrictions. This meant that eventually, ADDT would become a dead stick.

Sadly there is no refund, no returns office, no nothing. If you bought it, you own it. Now mind you, it still works. The reality is that Adobe has put it outside on the trashpile. Uh oh. Here comes the truck now…

So, use it well, good people, but beware you don’t get addicted to it. The next mandatory $300 plug-in may be just around the corner.